Ella's Party: The People

Ella's outfit came together randomly. Her tutu was from my mom, bought before she was born. The onesie came from my cousin, Steph, for Christmas, and the shoes were from Buzz and I.

I don't know where Jill is for this picture...she must have been chasing Jacob around.

Buzz's Dad's family

My dad's family

Jeanie's friends/family

Our friends

My mom's family

The party was so much fun and the last guest left around 9 when the sun went down. The place was awesome because we were surrounded by trees. Everyone was so generous and Ella received a nice mix of toys, clothes, gift cards and Buzz's favorite (cold, hard cash). I feel like I've been planning this party forever so I must say that I am glad it's over. It's much more fun to attend a party than to throw one. Now I know what my mom went through for all those years. Since my birthday was so close to Mother's Day, she had a Mother's Day/birthday party every year until I was 16. Not to mention rotating Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter with other relatives. Oh and I have two siblings that had parties all the time too. Geez.

Anyway, I wanted to thank my dad too for the massive clean-up effort and general helpfulness during the party. Also, thanks to all who brought appetizers to share. I feel like this is an award acceptance speech so I'm going to bring it in with this last thought...I am so glad Ella got to celebrate her birthday with so many family and friends. What a lucky little girl.

Ella's Party: The Decorations/Food

Please bear with these next few posts. I worked hard on Ella's party and my sister wasn't there so I'd like to share the details. Also, it's a good keepsake for the blog book. The party was held at Randall Oaks Farm & Zoo on Saturday, May 22nd at 2:30 pm. I searched far and wide for a reasonably priced farm cake and couldn't find one so I settled on horses. The farm cookies were my piece de resistance. They took like 4 days to make and were so tedious but I think they turned out pretty good...

For the dessert table and Ella's cake table I made spotted cow table cloths.

You can't see it but inside the frame there is a photo of Ella taken every month from 3 months on in the same chair with the same doll.

There were supposed to be balloons on the other table next to the fireplace but my mom moved them to alert people as to where the party was.

This table had Ella's high chair, some snacks and a guest book. If you didn't sign the guest book...I know who you are!

We had two full tables for appetizers and boy did those fill up fast. Lots of my family brought appetizers and it was very appreciated.

This was one of the kid's tables with favors, bubbles, hats and chalk. The little ones got board books or farm puzzles and the bigger kids got horses on sticks.

Here is the craft table with play dough and farm cut-outs. Busy kids are happy kids!

For dinner we had pizza. My mom and dad made their famous fruit basket and Jeanie made a hearty salad.

I wish I would have arranged this cuter...

Here is a partial shot of the room. I never got a wide shot of the room. Oh well. I could not have done all this decorating without the help of my mom and Jeanie. They arrived early to help me. Thanks so much!!! And Buzz was a workhorse bringing all of this junk to the facility. We borrowed a mini-van and it was filled to the gills.

Ella's birthday

On Ella's birthday, I took her to Randall Oaks Barnyard Zoo. She seemed to enjoy looking at the animals.

Next we walked to their park. Her favorite thing is swinging and she cries when you take her out.

We invited my parents and Jeanie for dinner and cake. Jeanie was busy with work and saw Ella the night before so it was just my parents.

She enjoyed opening presents.

Buzz didn't want to stop for a cupcake (right Buzz?) so we cut her a piece from my birthday cake that my parents brought over. Sad but true.

The poor thing struggled because she wanted to eat the ice-cream but it was freezing her mouth.

Next she opened a present from mom and dad. A pink lawnmower. We only got her a few things because Buzz made a nice deposit in her savings account - not to mention the giant party we were throwing. She seemed a little pissed though ;)

We attempted to get a shot of Ella and her two best friends but Otis had more important things to do...