About a month ago a good friend of mine called me to ask if I would be Alice for her daughter’s Alice in Wonderland birthday party and I obviously screamed “YES” before the question even left her mouth. Not only do I love parties, birthdays AND dressing up, but I knew that Rachael was gonna crush it. She throws the most incredible parties and is an amazing artist/crafter/seamstress/mom. She sewed me this beautiful and perfect Alice dress (which I secretly want to wear everywhere all the time) and I boned up on the Wonderland world by watching the movies and reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

One thing I really like about Alice in Wonderland is that Alice forgoes the entire romantic component integral to most Disney tales. Now, I’m a sucker for romance. But this story is just so unique and refreshing without it. Alice is strong and brave and precocious and scared and battles with what’s right and what’s wrong. Besides the hallucinatory overtones (thank you, Lewis Carroll) Alice in Wonderland is the kind of tale that inspires girls, but allows them to just be girls. She has no title, no money, no powers, no prince. She is Alice and she marches her way through this strange new land with headband held high.

This party was fantastic. Rachael went above and beyond with the decorations, food, games and of course, our costumes. Her daughter Sarah, the birthday girl, has a dress matching mine and Sarah’s twin little sisters were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum! When i was killing my usual weekly 5 hours at the mall I noticed this Cheshire Cat costume in the Disney store and knew instantly that Reese had to have it. (BONUS: We’ll be doing the trick-or-treat party at Disneyland on Friday so obvi we’re wearing this! Despite my pleading the Beard passed on being the Mad Hatter. Booo.)

In the bushes were roses painted red, the flowers had faces and the food tempted us – literally!

We played flamingo & playing card croquet, which even ended in a beheading a la the Red Queen! It was hilarious – me and the girls were in tears! Rachael also took cute photobooth-style photos of each of the girls with “Alice” for a thank you/favor.

I’m still not sure why she couldn’t find a better Alice than me – all I really have is the blonde hair and enthusiasm for colorful tales. Alice is supposed to be a young girl (7-10ish), and when I mentioned this to my husband he said “Babe. Sorry to break it to you… but you do NOT have the shape of a 10 year old.” Bravo, Watson. LOL. I also toted a baby around with me for much of the party, which makes basically no sense.

But that’s the great thing about Wonderland. It’s all nonsense.