FLASHBACK: Ellie's Birthday

Like I said, I am nothing but determined to get caught up on a bit of Ellie's life, starting with her birthday. And sorry, this is a long one.

We had Ellie's birthday party before her actual birthday because I wanted all of our family to be there. I didn't want her party to be super huge, because, well I'm thinking I'm going to slowly start burning out. We decided to do a "You are my sunshine" theme. I think we've sung that song to her everyday of her life, so it just seemed fitting. My sweet friend Katie made the decor and invitations for the party. Look how cute!

 

Besides that, we kept things simple with some balloons, a million photos of Ellie, and some food tags. It turned our perfect. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a cook, meaning we also kept things simple with the food. We served some soup and rolls, veggies, fruit, and lemonade. I did, however, make some banana cupcakes because our little ray of sunshine cannot get enough 'nanas in her life. ever.

 

Going through and deciding on a reasonable amount of photos was probably the most difficult part of the decorating but it was also the most fun.I for surely had teary eyes and soggy cheeks by the time I narrowed everything down. She's grown so quickly and has gotten so much less chubby. Bitter sweet is the only way to describe it.

 

Ellie loved having her friends and cousins at her party, along with all of our other family. She is a loved little gal. We spent the evening eating, chatting, and running around in the front yard and playing hide and seek. Ellie's cousin, Brooklyn, is the games master. We're never bored when she's around and Ellie just adores her big cousin. 

I learned that opening presents with a 1 year old is pretty slow going for everyone involved. Ellie loved all of her gifts, but didn't love getting something fun and then getting it taken away to open something else. Bless everyone for sitting through that debacle. If anyone has suggestions for present opening, please let us know! I'd love to avoid that if possible.

 

I searched long and hard for the perfect birthday onesie. Isn't it funny how things like that matter SO much, but they actually don't really. However, I am glad that I got this one made (bless Etsy custom orders) because she is our little Ellie Bean. My favorite part was her birthday crown and I don't even think I have a good picture of her in it, oh except in her one year pictures! I'm still a little obsessed with it.

 

Ellie's actual birthday was much less exciting. We went shopping at Toys R Us, which is her most favorite place EVER. I also love it because she can't verbalize her want for anything but I can still put her down and let her roam the isles. I think we'll be hitting it up often when the winter months start to seem long.

 

Later in the afternoon Ellie got to play at the park with her friend Sophia. She was in heaven. This gal loves sliding and climbing. It makes me so excited for the coming summer. We'll probably be living at the park and the pool. I'm so excited.

 

 That evening both of the grandma came over for a mini birthday celebration of Little Caesar's pizza and pumpkin pie, haha. I was going to get Ellie and actual cake but didn't order anything and couldn't find anything not disgusting right off the shelf. Lesson learned. Lucky for me Ellie loved her store bought pumpkin pie and we called it a night!

 

Ellie also managed to get herself stuck in the dog door. Like any good mother I made sure to run outside and take a picture before rescuing her.

 

Oh, Eleanor Bean Blythe! I wish I could put into words how we feel about you. You truly are our little sunshine. Your smile, eyes, and little belly laugh lights up the whole room. You surely keep us on our toes, but the difficult moments are far outweighed by the beautiful ones and we just can't imagine life without you. Mom & Dad love you little one.