Parents.com sent me an email a few weeks ago asking what I was doing for Prince George's birthday.

Prince who??? Oh, that prince! Is he turning one already? My god, time flies when you stop watching Kate Middleton's baby bump for two seconds!

Ummmm… should I be doing something for Prince George's birthday???

The correct answer is "No".

Unless you are an anglophile like my friend Sara (pronouced Sah-rah), in which case, you probably have a cardboard cut-out of Prince George wearing a party hat, sitting in front of an actual cake to be shared with twenty of your weirdest friends.

No, really. Life-size cardboard cut-outs and weird friends was how Sah-rah was able to properly celebrate Kate and Will's wedding.

After a quick google search, I found out Prince George's first birthday is on July 22nd. It's a good thing I was alerted two months prior so I would have appropriate time to plan!

I emailed Parents.com back and said, OF COURSE I'LL BE CELEBRATING. In terms of importance, Prince George's first birthday is right up there between Christmas and my mother's 25-year anniversary to my stepfather Sam. (Congratulations Grammy and Sammy! Want to come to a royal tea party for babies to celebrate?)

Grammy and Sammy declined. Something about going to Italy for their anniversary instead. To each their own!

I called my friend Seri from Little Miss Party to see if she would celebrate with me.

"1ST BIRTHDAY ROYAL TEA PARTY???!!!! Bring Harlow over and she can party with Luke!"

That's more like it. 

Luke is Seri's two-year-old and he's obsessed with Pippa. Or is it Spiderman? I can never remember.

I brought Harlow over and they nimbled on short bread cookies, ate cupcakes with a spoon and sipped warm milk with their pinkies out. Seri and I made gold crowns with pipe cleaners and beads, which Harlow wore proudly for the next two hours. I told you, she loves accessories.

I loved the crowns so much, I took home some pipe cleaners to make them with Mazzy.

That's when the magic really happened.

I had seen heart pipe cleaner crowns on Pinterest and decided to do my own version. You start by taking two pipe cleaners to make a circle fitted to your child's head. Then use one pipe cleaner to fashion a heart and twist the ends around the circle. Then you can add as many hearts as you like. You can keep the hearts plain or decorate with beads.

You can use pipe cleaners in different ways to make the crown as intricate as you like. Mazzy loved stringing beads and experimenting with patterns. I liked building zig-zags on top of zig-zags.

I know I joke around about not being very crafty, but that's really because I have no time and I'm lazy. I was an art major in college. If I put a little thought and energy into it (and I'm legitimately enjoying the craft), I can make a pretty awesome pipe cleaner crown.

Mazzy can too. She made a crown with a single beaded diamond and decided it really suited Dad. I was shocked she didn't use any pink!

Then we all celebrated British Royalty Style.

Mazzy even invited Prince George.

Errrr…make that Princess George.

So there you go. I celebrated Prince George's birthday twice. And he didn't even turn one yet.

Your move, Parents.com.

—————————————

For more easy craft projects to do with kids, follow my Easy Peasy Crafts board on Pinterest.