A Tulip Tenth Birthday

Our stalks are very straight & tall,
Our colours clear & bright;

Sunshine turned ten this Sunday. The day began with Mass at the monastery and a birthday blessing from the Abbot. Since she is still very much enamored with flower fairies, she wanted a repeat of last year's party only with the tulip fairy (one of her favorites) as it's central focus.

Too many-hued to name them all --
Red, yellow, pink, or white.
And some are splashed, & some, maybe,
As dark as any plum.

The decorations looked similar to last year with the addition of lots and lots of pretty tulips (real and artificial). Husband even made streamer tulips float above the entrance to the playroom which you can see in the top right corner of the picture above.

Grammie gave her a bouquet of tulips along with a gorgeous vase decorated with frosted tulips to put hold them. Thank goodness these delicate beauties were still in season!

A mini-mani for the birthday girl and her sister was a special surprise outing since our plans to visit the botanical gardens were hampered by the weather. We had tulip decals that one of the ladies was able to secure to Shortcake's thumbs, but Sunshine's wouldn't cooperate so she was treated to a painted flower instead.

From tulip-fields across the sea
To England did we come.
We were a peaceful country's pride,
And Holland is its name.

We painted shirts with tulips designs. I cut out the tulip shapes using clear contact paper. The girls blocked off squares with masking tape and placed the tulip stickers in the middle then painted over them with a sponge brush. A dabbing technique works best! When the paint was dry, we removed the stickers and the tape and voila...

My mom's is in the middle with Sunshine's on the left and Shortcake's on the right. This was so much fun. They are already making plans to paint shirts for every season; leaves in the fall, fruit in the summer, snowflakes in the winter, etc....

Now in your gardens we abide --
And aren't you glad we came?

She originally wanted a round cake with frosting tulips on top, but in a fit of birthday excitement, decided to let Mommy get creative. I made a giant cupcake and decorated it with flower fairy figurines. Tulip at the top, of course, along with Willow and Forget-me-not. She loved it! And we love her!

Next up... Bigboy turns 5!

(I am back dating these for my own scrapbooking purposes. Sorry if that confuses anyone.)