The Great Birthday Bash-Smash

It was the most lovely October morning. A morning like none other, I was sure.

I had slept like a princess that entire night, and when the sun’s rays shone through the clouds and came to greet me through the window, I was refreshed and ready to meet them.

Letting out a yawn, I stretched my arms and noticed it was a particularly wonderful, cloudy October morning.

But why?

That’s when I spotted the date on the calendar. I smiled. It was my birthday, of course. No wonder it felt so great!

My smile grew bigger when I looked to the others’ beds. Everyone else was already up, which wasn’t normal. I had a feeling this had something to do with my birthday.

My eye caught a beautiful birthday outfit waiting for me with a note attached.

Excitedly I threw my blanket back, quickly smoothed it out, and scurried down the bunk bed ladder.

I walked over to the note, wondering what had been written on it.

Get dressed and meet us in the dining room! :) The note read.

Practically beaming by now, I hurriedly got dressed and was more than excited to see whatever birthday surprise awaited.

I stepped over to the vanity mirror and began to fix my bed head hair into the perfect birthday style.

“Fabulous,” I told myself, then turned around to the accessory station to add final touches.

“Hmm…”

Earrings? Check.

Necklace? Check.

Bracelet? Check.

“Perfect,” I sighed aloud and happily to myself. “Today is going to be an amazing day.”

*

“OUT YOUR BED AND ON YOUR FEET, TIME TO GET SOMETHING TO EAT!”

“HOLY TACO!” I shouted, bolting upright in alarm. My heart sledge-hammered against my chest in panic, but I relaxed when I saw Jocelyn’s amused face.

“Good morning,” my best friend gave me an innocent smile, her bright blue eyes shining with the mischief so often found in my own. I laughed, and then I saw my other friends standing behind her.

“Uhh…” I blinked. It was just any regular October morning – October the eighth. So why was everyone in nice dresses? “What’s up?”

“You don’t know?” Celina chuckled. “It’s your birthday party today, silly!”

“Oh yeah!” I laughed. Jasmine and I had birthdays only two days apart, so we usually celebrated with a big birthday bash-smash. That meant we had our parties on the same day, but not necessarily together. Though my actual birthday wasn’t until Monday tenth, we were celebrating today. “Happy birthday to me!” I cheered. Whoops. That sounded selfish. “I mean, uhh… do I get cake or something?”

My friends laughed. “Duh!” Celina grinned. “We’ve planned out a party and everything.”

“Then let’s get started!” I beamed, excited my friends had remembered my birthday and even planned a whole birthday party for me.

“Get dressed in your birthday best!” Jessa reminded, handing me a super pretty dress I had never seen before.

“Thank you!” I exclaimed.

“Wow, Molly-Anne, you look great!” Jessa gasped when I revealed my final look.

“The dress goes perfectly with your beautiful eyes,” Emma complimented sweetly.

“Aw, thanks so much, guys!” I beamed, happy to be the center of attention.

“Let’s head to the party room, shall we?” Jocelyn suggested, and the others nodded their agreement while I squealed mine in excitement. I could see it now… birthday cake.

*

Wondering just what awaited me in the dining room, I quickened my steps out of our bedroom door. Maybe Josefina had made those delicious cupcakes again!

At the thought of cupcakes, my pace quickened even more. Not even Grace Thomas could top Josie’s Birthday Bunch of cupcakes!

Once I had stepped into the dining room, my jaw dropped with happy and surprised gasp.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JASMINE!” Came the chorus of all my friends surrounded by an extravaganza of birthday decorations, food, and awesomeness. The room was pink, purple, and blue-themed, which I loved. It’s only fitting that pink is my favorite color – my birthstone, after all, is pink tourmaline! ?

“And now,” Molly began with a dramatic flair. “We crown the birthday queen.” A pink birthday crown was promptly placed atop my head.

I laughed. “Thanks, Molls.”

My best friend, Cécile, cleared her throat. “And now,” Cécile began like Molly had. “We sing the birthday song.”

“Happy birthday to you!

“Happy birthday to you!

“Happy birthday dear Jasmine, happy birthday to you!”

“Aw! Thanks, guys!” I exclaimed.

“And now,” Josefina repeated with a fanciful flourish toward a platter of cupcakes.

“We eat the birthday goodies.”

Since Madison still hadn’t made these doll chairs even though she had gotten the materials for it, we simply stood up and had the most delicious birthday cupcakes I had ever tasted.

Probably because it was my birthday. ?

I got the biggest cupcake, since it was, after all, my birthday. ?

“Mmm…” I took one bit of the delectable treat. It was everything I had imagined my birthday cupcakes to taste like and more.

“Wow, Josie, these are awesome,” I told Josefina while devouring my third one.

“Oh dear,” Josefina laughed a little nervously. “I hope I haven’t created another addict.”

I reached for my fourth one. “Your hopes are in vain! These are a thousand times better than last year.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” Josefina giggled. “We have a lot of birthdays. That means a lot of cupcakes.”

“Thanks for working so hard to make our birthdays special, sis,” Cécile told Josie sweetly, to which she looked overjoyed at hearing.

“Yes, thanks!” I nodded.

“Save some for the rest of us, birthday girl!” Cécile laughed as I prepared to grab my fifth cupcake.

“Hold up!” Madison suddenly appeared on scene (which she has a tendency to do at the worst moments), preventing my fingers from wrapping around the fifth, fluffy chunk of heaven. “You’re going to make yourself sick. How many cupcakes have you had?”

I turned to look at her. “Um… four?”

“Okay, you’ve definitely had enough!” Madi laughed.

Darn it. ;)

“May I have everyones’ attention, please?” Chloe announced, and we all gathered around.

“And now…” I was noticing a pattern. ;) “We open the birthday gifts.”

Birthday gifts? My expression immediately perked up. Oh, yeah! I had been in such a cupcake utopia I had forgotten all about the possibility of presents.

*

“Woah!” I breathed as we stepped over to a fantastically decorated party room. There was a beautiful birthday throne (which Jocelyn squeezed on as well :P ) for me, a brightly colored couch, and a long table of delectable birthday deliciousness. “You guys did all this?”

“Yep!” Jocelyn grinned. “Happy birthday, Molly-Anne.”

I felt a smile spread across my face. “Thanks, guys. I couldn’t ask for better friends!”

“Aw, shucks,” Celina chuckled. “Let’s go ahead and eat.”

That’s when my eyes feasted upon the most glorious food ever created in the entire world.

CAKE.

I nearly exploded.

“CAKE!” I screeched, making a mad dash over to the table. “COME TO MAMA!”

But my BFF knew me all too well.

“Hold up!” She darted faster than I did and stood between me and my beautiful cake. “Don’t destroy it, please.”

I giggled nervously. “That’s a smart suggestion.”

Jocelyn quickly sliced a hefty piece of cake for me, and so the entire thing was spared from being demolished by my face slamming into it. :P

I wasn’t the only one who devoured my slice quickly!

Food, glorious food!

Hey! Where’d that picture come from?! ?

“That was amazing!” I finally found the words after licking the last bit of pink icing off my face. Turning to the rest of my friends, I asked, “Who baked it?”

“Well, that’s just it…” Celina began slowly as thoughtful Jocelyn took our licked-clean dishes for us. “None of us know.”

Huh?

 “What do you mean y’all don’t know?”

“It just kind of showed up,” Celina finished with a shrug.

Quiet Emma finally spoke up. “Actually,” the sound her soft, sweet voice surprised us all. “The cake did come with a note. I forgot to mention it. I have it right here.”

Jocelyn rushed over after placing the dirty dishes on the table. “Note? What note? May I see it, please?”

Emma nodded and handed over the small piece of paper.

“Hmm,” Jocelyn scanned the note, then read it out loud. “The note says…”

*


“These are all of your birthday gifts,” Emilie explained once I had been led to a beautiful birthday seat next to a pile of presents.

I looked over at the gathered gifts and grinned excitedly. “Wow, thank you all SO much!” I gushed. “Y’all are so sweet!”

“Open the funny-shaped one first,” Ellie urged. “It’s from Chloe and I!”

“What? No way,” Molly shook her head. “She should open the one from Emilie and I first.”

Cécile chimed in, “Y’all are both wrong. She’s going to open me and Josefina’s present.”

“It’s fine, guys!” I laughed quickly. “I’m so excited right now, I’ll get to all of y’all’s quicker than you’d think!”

With that, I picked up the funny-shaped one simply because I was dying of curiosity as to what it was.

It was speedily untied by my nimble fingers.

“A cupcake jar!” I exclaimed, holding the glossy pottery item. “That’s so cool! Thanks, guys!”

“If you look inside,” Chloe piped up excitedly. “You’ll find it’s more than just a cupcake jar!”

I removed the icing lid and saw a little fairy figure. “The fairy was Chloe’s awesome idea,” Ellie added. “She tried her hand at painting the fairy while I did the cupcake, and I think she did a pretty great job.”

Chloe beamed as I gushed, “She’s so pretty! Is this a little fairy home for her?”

“It is now,” Ellie sighed. “The pottery place we made it at glued her to the bottom without asking us when they baked and glossed the pieces. We wanted it to be separate, but…”

“Aw, it’s perfect! I reassured her. “I love it. I can store little trinkets in here and have a little fairy friend! Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome!” Chloe smiled, glad that I loved it.

“Now open the one from Emilie and I,” Molly suggested, and I chuckled while picking up the one she pointed at.

“Ooh!” I gasped after opening their gift.

Inside was a new flavor of Lipsmackers that I had been wanting and a beautiful money purse.

“Look inside the money purse!” Emilie whispered.

Ooh la la! Cash is always appropriate for a birthday present. ;) “Thank you, Molly! Thank you, Emilie! I love the lip balm, the purse, and everything!” I thanked them. “Y’all are so sweet.”

“You’re quite welcome,” Emilie responded.

“No problem!” Molly chorused.

“Moving on!” Cécile announced, and I couldn’t help but smile again. “Now can you open me and Josefina’s present?”

“Absolutely!” I laughed, picking up the remaining gift box.

“No way!” I breathed, looking at the two containers of hair elastics. “How did y’all know I had been wanting these?”

“We just know,” Josefina winked.

“Thank you so very much, guys!” I told Josie and CéCé. “These are the exact colors I wanted! I love them!”

“We have one more thing,” Molly mentioned next, “before this party is over.”

I wondered what else my amazing friends could have possibly planned for me. “What’s that?” I asked.

*

“…Happy birthday, Molly-Anne. I made a cake for you. :)
~Christina”

Jocelyn gasped and dropped the note, letting it fall to the floor. “OH, NO! We totally forgot about Christina!”

“Oh, she must have her feelings so hurt,” Jessa realized with a sinking feeling. “We didn’t invite her!”

“Where is she?” Emma wondered softly.

“This is not good,” Celina shook her head.

Jocelyn sat down hard next to me on my birthday throne. “I feel terrible! I knew there was something I was forgetting. Oh, I can’t plan anything right!”

“You’re a spectacular party planner, Jocelyn,” Jessa comforted. “We all forgot about Christina. In fact, none of us have even seen her around lately!”

“Yeah,” I furrowed my eyebrows. “Where has she been?”

“With the Girls of Many Lands dolls,” a voice sounded in front of us. We all turned our heads to look, and there was Christina!

I jumped up and hurried over to Christina, wrapping my arms around her in a hug. “Oh, Christina!” I exclaimed. “I’m so sorry we didn’t invite you – I didn’t even know where you were! Thank you for the amazing cake, I can’t believe you baked it yourself and – wait, what? With the Girls of Many Lands dolls?”

“Yup,” Christina nodded. “I felt bad for them. They have to stay in their stands so often because they are retired and delicate. So I kind of just took to living with them. I like their company, and I think they like mine, too.”

“That’s so nice of you, Christy,” I told her.

Christina smiled and shrugged. “Thanks. It’s only fitting, since I have no where else to stay.”

“No where to stay?” gasped Emma, coming up behind Christy and I. “You’re more than welcome to stay with us, Christina!

“That’s alright,” Christina politely declined. “I rather like staying with the Girls of Many Lands dolls.”

“Well, since you’re here,” Jocelyn jumped up and proposed. “Please join the party!”

Christina’s face lit up with a smile. “Thank you!” she sounded relieved. “I didn’t know whether or not y’all wanted me to come, since I’m younger than all of you, after all.”

“Of course we wanted you to come,” Jessa chimed in, reassuring Christina with a smile. “We just didn’t know where you had been.”

“You’re right in time to watch Molly-Anne open her presents,” Celina nodded.

All of the sudden, Jocelyn froze, her face turning pale.

“What?”

“That’s another thing I forgot,” Jocelyn admitted miserably. “The birthday presents.”

*



“Why, party games, of course!” Chloe informed. “And you get to choose what we play.”

Some people hate having to determine things and make decisions that others might not like, but not me! I liked being the leader and voicing my opinion. “Okay! Let’s play runaway princesses.”

“Again?” Ellie sighed. “We play that every birthday. Why don’t we play Wild Girls outside again? ‘Surviving in the wild’ was SO fun!”

“It’s Jasmine’s birthday, not yours, Ellie Mae!” CéCé reminded in her motherly way.

I was not one to give in so easily, but I wasn’t cruel. “Don’t worry, Ellie. You can be the evil prince again.”

Ellie let out a maliciously evil laugh. As much as she loved playing action and adventure like in Wild Girls, she loved being the villain, too. She didn’t mind playing boys, and I have to admit, she made a good bad guy.

“Hey!” Chloe spoke up. “I like being the evil prince! That’s the most dramatic part. Especially when I die.”

I smiled. Chloe loved making dramatic deaths. And I have to admit, she’s great at them, too.

“Then y’all can be evil accomplices,” suggested Emilie.

“But we can’t both die! That’s too heartbreaking!” Chloe gasped as if Emilie had indeed broken her heart.

“Ellie can have a change of heart,” Emilie proposed again. “So only the truly evil prince will die.”

Chloe let out a bellowing, more-malicious-than-Ellie evil laugh, and Ellie just grinned.

“Okay, guys, let’s play!”

Boy, was it ever fun. I don’t believe I’ll ever grow out of playing princesses, especially not with Chloe. She thinks of the most awesome plot twists to turn a classic princess game into something original and creative very time.

“SURRENDER OR DIE!” Chloe bellowed, waving my balloon her sword in the air to my helpless maids who had helped me escape.

“THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU TO PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO MY KINGDOM,” Ellie demanded, “OR DIE AS WELL!” She had hunted me down in the forest where I had ran away to.

She tried in vain…

To roll me off a cliff. :P

Forty-five minutes later, Ellie dropped to her knees and sobbed over the death of her dear evil accomplice.

Tears streaming, she repented of her evil deeds and begged for forgiveness, to which my maids heartily gave her.

I placed my hand on her shoulder, showing her mercy by having her life spared, and invited her to live in our palace since her father would be furious she hadn’t successfully taken over our kingdom.

All the while Chloe was making theatric dying noises. :P

*

“Ohhh…”

A very awkward silence followed. Sometimes everyone gave me something individually, or somebody planning a surprise party would organize something everyone could be a part of. I guess everyone had assumed that’s what Jocelyn was doing while Jocelyn assumed the opposite.

“I baked the cake with the help of my GOML friends,” Christy mentioned. “Does that count as a present?”

“Yeahhh…” Jocci let out a deep breath. “I just…” She turned to me.

“I’m so sorry, Molly-Anne. I wanted this party to be perfect, but I did a terrible job.” She sighed. “Can I just say happy birthday?”

I gave her a comforting smile. “You did the best job ever! Just having all of you as my friends is the perfect birthday present.”

Jocelyn forced a smile, but I could tell she was very disappointed.

“Um,” the soft voice sounded behind us once again, and all heads turned. “I have a present for you, Molly-Anne.”

I heard Jocelyn breathe a huge sigh of relief behind me.

“Really?” I asked with a grin. “You didn’t have to!”

“I know, but I wanted to!” Emma giggled, reaching behind the couch to reveal… “Close your eyes!”

I may or may not have peeked anyway. ;)

“Here it is!” Emma revealed the gift.

“Ooh!” Came the fascinated chorus of all my friends.

“Thanks you SO much, Emma!” I gasped, unbelieving what my eyes were seeing. It was so hard to find a mirror in our size, and yet, Emma had done it!

“Thank you, Emma,” I thanked her from the bottom of my heart, giving her a hug.

“Thank you all!”

*

I was right; it had indeed an amazing day.

? Madi here! I really hope you guys liked this post! It took me eight hours and forty-five minutes just to take the pictures. 0.o I spent around the same time just writing it out, too. :o

Behind-the-scenes! I just discovered this wonderful light AFTER I took all of Jazzy’s pictures. :P ;) I’m still getting the hang of it from when I used to use it in 2013. How do you think the pictures turned out for Molly-Anne’s scenes?

From 8:30 to 11:45am I took Molly-Anne’s birthday pictures, and then since that time all the way to right now I’ve been editing the pictures and putting it into the post. I didn’t know it would take me this long – and I even cheated by working on it on Monday when I was supposed to be resting! :P

But that’s not all! Surprises, surprises, surprises are coming up super soon, and I’m super excited for them to debut! Thank you for giving me some time to recover even it meant this had to be posted two days later. It worked out, since it took way longer than expected. :P

Whew! I finally finished it just twelve minutes before the cutoff for the most people to see it as soon as possible after getting home from school.

Now to finish my school. :P Thanks for letting me take a break to work on this first, mom! ?

Was it fun to read the birthday bash-smashes of Jasmine and Molly-Anne?

Love,

P.S. OH NO! The featured image! *rushes to photo editor*

P.P.S. *dies* Done with three minutes ’till cutoff! ?