Nora's 5-yr-old "Chocolate Purple Ducky Flower Dessert Love Party"

That's what she wanted for her 5th Birthday.  A "Chocolate Purple Ducky Flower Dessert Love" Party.  Note that Chocolate and Dessert are two separate features (i.e. I don't want chocolate desserts, I want Chocolates AND Desserts).  For a while Nora's only activity using the play kitchen is to set up "Dessert Parties" for us and whoever may be visiting, or even for all her little animals (or even Elsa's lizards, basically anyone who will come!)  I finally realized that when we first moved to Birmingham, we were invited to several dessert parties by various seminary groups.  It's an after-dinner potluck where everyone brings a dessert and mingles into the evening.  The girls LOVED getting to go to these events - even though they were often the only kids, they enjoyed all the attention, getting to stay up late, and eating grown-up desserts!  It must have made an impression on Nora, our sweets-lover.  Funny enough, the night before Nora's party, we went to the first dessert party of the new school year.  So she got two dessert parties in a row!

Back to Nora's birthday party request - it is basically a list of all of Nora's favorite things, and I did my best to reasonably oblige. 

We made a variety desserts that would thrill any 5-year-old:  chocolate covered marshmallows,

Chocolate covered strawberries,

and chocolate pudding.

Nora (literally) got all her ducks in a row for the big event, all 26 of them:

My awesome friend let us use her house since our apartment space was just too tight for all this.  Here's the spread for the "Chocolate Purple Ducky Flower Dessert Love Party."

She LOVED it.  Nora is not as outwardly expressive as Elsa, but I could tell in the days leading up to her party that she was SO happy and SO excited by the way she would randomly give me hugs or shout "I love you so much mommy."  She smiled for about two days straight.

First we made colorful pinwheels (I thought they were close enough to flowers):

Then we played a Ducky Relay game where the kids had to waddle like ducks to the Duck Pond and find a ducky with their team's color stuck to the bottom and then waddle back for the next player.  Both kids and adults thought it was SO funny.  

Then we played "Pin the Chocolate to Nora's Mouth."  Nora drew a picture of herself and we put sticky tack on a Hershey Kiss.

Then it was time for "Happy Birthday!"

The kids quickly overdosed on sweets.  Soon they drifted away to play in other rooms.  All except Nora, who was still trying to satisfy her huge sweet tooth.  My mom asked her, "Where did everyone go?"  "I don't know" she said - she didn't care where everyone went.  She still had desserts on her plate!  And she was very happy sitting right there enjoying them.

That's my girl!  Happy Birthday sweet Nora!