summary: in which zoe celebrates her fourth birthday with a princess party

(larry's not an ass in this, and everyone is happy)

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A month later, Zoe's birthday had arrived, and at her request, Cynthia had organized a birthday party for her, inviting several girls from her ballet and art class over for a Disney princess theme celebration. Larry and Connor had spent the previous day blowing up balloons and hanging up decorations, while expressing their mutual disgust at the overwhelming amount of pink and purple. Cynthia spent the morning painting Zoe's nails, doing her hair, and finally helping her into her Aurora dress. Connor, who had a day off from kindergarten, restlessly spent his time alternating between reading and goofing around with Skywalker.

At last, Zoe came downstairs. "Look at me, Connor!" she exclaimed, twirling around in her pink dress.

Connor hopped off the couch excitedly. "You look so pretty!" he said, reaching up to poke at her tiara.

She smacked his hand away. "Don't touch it!' she chided seriously, smoothing back her hair. "Mummy spent a very long time on it, and my friends are coming soon."

Connor shrugged and wandered into the kitchen. There were two trays of cupcakes, all iced with pink cream and decorated with colorful sprinkles. On the opposite counter, there was a bowl of chips and another filled with chocolate. After taking a quick look to make sure no one was looking, he grabbed a handful of each and stuffed them into his mouth. A little guilty, he quickly hurried upstairs to his room where he stayed until the guests arrived.

When the doorbell rang, Connor went to sit at the top of the stairs where he could observe without actually having to greet or interact with them. However, Cynthia spotted him and motioned him to join them.

"And this is Connor," she said, introducing him to the group of girls. "He just turned five last month."

"I'm almost five," said one girl, who was wearing a Cinderella dress. Connor recognized her as one of Zoe's classmates from ballet. He had switched to a more advanced class a week after his fifth birthday, which meant he and Zoe no longer danced together. However, he still remembered most of the girls from the previous class.

"I didn't know you had a brother, Zoe," said another girl who was dressed as Belle. She probably went for art with Zoe, since he hadn't seen her before and he didn't take art. She exaggeratedly whispered in Zoe's ear, "He's so handsome."

Connor rolled his eyes as Zoe turned to look at him. "Yeah, he is," she laughingly agreed.

Just then, Skywalker bounded over, her tail wagging in excitement at the sight of visitors. The girls squealed collectively.

"A puppy!"

"It's so cute!"

"Can we pat it?"

"Yes, you can. But you must be careful, she's not a teddy bear," Connor said, echoing Cynthia's words.

They gathered around Skywalker and ran their hands over her silky fur, murmuring about how soft and sweet she was, while she thumped her tail against the ground in joy.

"Alright girls, do you want to have some snacks before we play a game?" Cynthia said, gesturing to the table. Connor grabbed more chips for himself, and was just about to ask her a question when the doorbell rang. Cynthia went to open the door, and Molly Harris was standing there, looking rather flustered with a tray of cookies in her hand.

"Hi Cynthia, sorry I'm late, my mom messed up the recipe the first time, so we had to do it again."

"No, worries, Molly," Cynthia warmly said as Molly stepped in. "We just started, shall I set the cookies along with the other snacks? They look great." Molly nodded and Cynthia took the tray from her and rearranged some of the dishes on the table to make room for it.

"Where's Samuel?" Connor asked.

"He's at soccer," Molly replied as she took a cookie, handing Connor another. He accepted it with a small smile and nod, secretly glad that Samuel wasn't there.

Finishing the cookie, he went to Cynthia and tugged at her sleeve. "Mummy, can I go do something else?"

"Alright, why don't you help Daddy set up the piñata?"

"Okay!" he skipped down to Larry's workshop, which was in the spacious shed just behind their house. Opening the door, he poked his head in.

Larry looked up, the piñata on the table and packs of candy and other various things scattered around it. "You're just in time," he said, looking up. "I was just about to do it myself."

"Can I help?" Connor asked, taking a seat next to him on the workbench.

"Sure," Larry said, as he opened the flap on the top of the unicorn piñata. "Just pick the candy you want and put them in here."

"Can I put these in?" Connor held up a pack of mini chocolate bars.

"Anything you want." Larry smiled. Connor seriously chose the different chocolate, candies, and toys and filled the piñata up.

Larry grabbed a chocolate bar for himself; winking at Connor, he unwrapped and ate it.

"Can I eat too?" Connor asked, grabbing two Hershey's kisses.

"Sure," Larry shrugged. "I mean, I ate some, so I can't say no to you, right?"

Connor laughed, and crammed the chocolates into his mouth.

Fifteen minutes later, Cynthia opened the door and stuck her head in. "Guys, we're cutting the cake soon, is the piñata ready?"

"Yup!" Connor chirped. Larry picked it up and they went back into the house. Cynthia lit the candles as Larry hung the piñata up on a hook on their backyard porch. Everyone gathered around and sang the birthday song to Zoe, then she blew out the candles as they cheered. They all ate a slice of cake and when they were done, they headed to the porch.

Larry handed Zoe the broomstick wrapped in colorful paper (Cynthia had suggested Larry's baseball bat before deeming it too easy to break the piñata). Connor picked Skywalker up so she wouldn't get hit as Zoe swung the stick at the piñata. Each of the children—including Connor—got a few hits at it, and Cynthia was just about to comment that the piñata was tougher than they expected, when it finally split open, spilling out its contents all over the ground.

And then it was chaos, as everyone was on their hands and knees, trying to pick up everything and stuff them into the goodie bags Cynthia had provided. Connor hugged his filled bag to his chest and proudly ran up to his parents to show it to them. Cynthia's eyes widened at the bulging bag of loot.

"Don't eat all of that in one day," Larry joked.

Connor rolled his eyes. Of course he wasn't going to eat it all in a day. He was going to save it, and eat one piece a day—or maybe two, sometimes—and he would make all that candy last a long, long time.

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After the guests had gone, Connor and Zoe lay on the couch, stuffed with cake and other snacks, and with Zoe's various presents scattered around on the floor.

"Oh!" Connor suddenly remembered, sitting up. Zoe turned to look at him. "I almost forgot that I have a present for you!" He bounded up the stairs to his room, reached under his bed and grabbed a wrapped present. He rushed downstairs and thrust it into her arms. "Open it."

She tore off the pink wrapping paper, revealing a stuffed tiger. "Oh, it's so cute!" she beamed. "Thanks, Con!" She wrapped him in a big hug.

"You're welcome, Zo-Zo. Happy birthday!"

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please leave a review if you enjoyed this! im sorry this is a shorter chapter but ive been in a writing slump for the past week and just...ugh
but reading your comments Motivate me a lot! -hint hint wink wink-

also, send me prompts for future chapters and i'll try to incorporate them (while staying as canon as possible)