Well, I’d just like to begin this post by mentioning that the other parents didn’t seem to get the memo about dressing up for ye olde class party. Near the end of the day a mom showed up dressed like something that I think was supposed to be an elf, but for the majority of the day, your Amy Beth was the only person above the age of seven dressed like a storybook character.

Now, I know some of you must be thinking I was extremely embarrassed as I walked into the classroom wearing a full-on Hawaiian princess outfit AND ACTUALLY, YOU WOULD BE CORRECT. On the flip side, there was a collective gasp from all the little girls when they saw a “grown-up princess” enter the room so I’d say the embarrassment was worth it. The other kids know that M. doesn’t have a mom, so they knew I wasn’t her mom, so they genuinely believed (and remember, they’re just 1st graders) that I really was a princess who had flown in for the party. Talk about being a hit with the elementary school set.

And now we turn to our friendly little photographs to share the day:

Here’s part of my cast of characters, especially the things I was using to create treat bags for the kids in her classroom.

Check out these amazing little erasers I found that were Hawaiian-themed!

And pinwheels! I used them at the top of the bags, sticking out! The kids loved them!

The book we were using is called High Tide from Hawaii, so I did a little play on the title for the little “cards” that I tied to each treat bag. Here’s the version the boys got:

Look at the amazing base paper I found for the girl’s cards!

And these little things! You take a big flower, a smaller one and a brad and……..

Ta-da! Cute “girly” cards for the treat bags!

One of the things I did to make MacKenzie’s costume extra special was buy some white and orange Gerber daisies from a local grocery store. I took some floral wire, wrapped it around the base of the stems and…

Created some Hawaiian flip flops for her with REAL flowers attached!

I used the wire to also create a headdress for her and a couple clusters for my hair, too! The lighting in this picture makes it look like they were already turning brown, but as you’ll see below, they actually stayed fairly fresh throughout the day! I didn’t create them until early that morning and then I flash froze them before the 1.5 hour drive.

I also took plenty of leis so each kid in the class could wear one as I read our story!

I even put together a little “end of the school” gift for M. to give to her teacher. I love this bag!

M. wasn’t expecting me at the school until the party started at noon, but I surprised her by arriving an hour early with a little something to replace that sack lunch her dad had packed that morning.

After lunch we went to the bathroom to get MacKenzie “dressed.” I tried to take a couple of pictures for you and, as expected, they are less than stellar. But, for the record, here’s what the back of my hair looked like:

Don’t worry — I fixed that one hair pin after I saw it in this photo.  Too bad everyone else saw it like that up until then.

And here’s the front side, with a little peak at the sarong. Right as I took this picture, a little boy ran into the girl’s bathroom, hence the look in my eyes.

Here’s what M.’s “headdress” looked like. I’m not going to lie; I was pretty proud of myself for wiring and pinning the whole thing together seeing as I’m not typically that crafty.

Here’s a view from the back, too. I basically wired flowers around a circular base (that I made out of floral wire) and then pinned in the middle flowers by taking hairpins straight through the flower bases (these flowers were strong enough to handle it). I then secured the whole thing with plenty of hair pins and added the ribbon in big knots to the back of the circular base.

All in all, I think our afternoon together was a big hit! The kids loved their treat bags (I have NO CLUE why I didn’t take a picture of the final project for you!) and their leis and M. seemed to really like her little outfit, especially the headdress and flip flops. After school let out I took her to a nearby mall for a little “end of 1st grade celebration” before returning her to her dad and starting on the drive home, arriving back in Cleveland around 8:15 p.m. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I was in bed by 8:32 p.m., just in case you were wondering.

After all, a Hawaiian princess has to get her beauty rest.