The Birthday Party

So, we decided that Miss Ellorie's birthday party was going to be quite the to-do. I know, she's never going to remember it. But that's okay. It sets the stage for making each and every one of her birthdays a BIG DEAL, something I feel really strongly about doing.

The invites:
Yes, I designed them myself. I was really happy with how they came out, actually.

And yes, because I am crazy OCD-Mom, I had to change her dress color from the original picture (blue) to match the invite theme (purple). Yay for new photoshop tricks!

My crafting:

Yes, I went a little crazy with craft ideas for this party. First, I made a chalk board sign. This is a tradition I kind of want to keep up all year, to give an idea of her at this point in time. 

I also made a wreath for the door with birds and pansies, and, of course, an E! It turned out fairly nice too.

Probably one of my favorite things that I did though, is make photo timelines to hang around the tents. I printed out pics from the last year, and glued them to ribbon. It was so cool to go back and see how much she'd changed over time.

Oh, and I made her a party hat. She never wore it. Stinker. It was darn pretty, though. 

The party: 

We had about 30 people there. We tried to keep it pretty small. We had a station where the older kids could design their own birdhouses and we had cornhole, played with birds trying to get into their nests.

The presents: 

Girl now officially has more toys than she knows what to do with! 

She loved helping open the presents! I think her favorite part, though, was playing with her BFF Lily. Those two are something else!

The cake smash:
Of course, the princess's first cake was from West End. And yes, I was loony enough to make a bird cake topper for it. It turned out super cute!

She LOVED the cake. The progression, in pictures:

Hmmm, what is this?

Mom, Dad, why have you been hiding this cake stuff from me all my life???

Oh, I LOVE it! Get in my mouth!

Cake Drunk.

Yes, she had a horrible sugar buzz afterward. Of course, she picked her party day to have crappy naps, so she was overtired and on a sugar high. It was actually pretty funny!

The thank yous:
We took some 'thank you' pics the next day. I am incredibly happy with how they turned out. She is such a ham!

All in all, a good time was had by all, and I can't believe my little one is ONE YEAR OLD!!!