The Birthday Bash

We had a little party for our sweet birthday girl on Saturday.  And by little I mean we kept the crowd small -- just family and a couple of dear friends -- but I maybe got a little carried away with the details (I realized this when my sister called me a liar).  I just had so much fun putting it all together and doing something special JUST for Ellie...oh well :-)

So here are a bunch of pictures, courtesy of my friend Eileen who was sweet enough to bring her nice camera and good eye to the party.  (And fair warning - this is really so my family can see, all others may become bored in the process of this blog post...)

We'll start with the main event - the birthday girl!  This was about as adventurous as she got with her cake.

She did enjoy fingering the frosting for awhile, though.

Family photo at the end of the night.  Despite Eileen's best efforts, the was the best we could muster.  My poor, non-photogenic family.

It was a watermelon theme, and a cake should generally be the center-piece at a birthday party, so here we have a watermelon birthday cake. Ta-da!

This might have been my favorite thing - watermelon lemonade served out of a watermelon punch bowl.  Compliments to Dan for a very fine "carving" job here.

Watermelon pops, and blurry in the background you can see some quesadilla bites (just because we needed something that wasn't sweet).

I printed off a photo from each month (actually, the same ones I posted on my blog on her actual birthday) and clipped them to some twine strung across the wall.  Then I added some little labels so no one would be confused :)

Another view of the cake.

I also did a knot banner (which I think I strung a little too high - oh well), and you can see the watermelon cupcakes there, too.  The little ones enjoyed those.

Now, back to the birthday girl.  She didn't blow out her candle, and I didn't really give her much of a chance when she tried to grab it instead.  We'll work on that for birthday #2.

Daddy looking on, as I realize I should probably remove the "seeds" (chocolate covered raisins cut in half) that may possibly become a choking hazard - whoops!

"Here Pepaw!"  He gave the best attempt at getting her to try it, tearing off some chunks for her to grab.  But she just thought she'd share, instead.

She played with this hat for a long time a few days before the party, walking all over the house with it on.  But that night - no way was that thing going on her head!  This was about the only picture we got with it.  Oh well, it was free!

My dear friend Jessica and their littlest, baby Claire.

Here's the kid's table, complete with 4 sweet little girlfriends.  Caralena (4) and Mally (2 1/2) are Claire's big sisters, and Kaelyn (2 1/2) is Eileen's daughter.  These girls have been friends since babyhood (Caralena & Mally were our neighbors once upon a time), and they played together all night long.  It was wonderful!  (Eileen's 4 month old son Drew, her husband Dave, and Jessica's husband Jason were also there -- I just didn't get any pictures.)

Here they are with the bubble machine & some chalk.  What else do you need?

Ellie had lots of help opening her gifts (although no one seemed to help me with the toy packaging...)

Caroline didn't seem to mind that the presents weren't specifically for her...she just scooped them up to play with before Ellie had a chance!

Ellie's new giggling baby doll from the Pankake's -- she's giving it some snuggles here.

That's my Ellie!

Happy birthday again, my sweet Ellie!  I hope you enjoyed your special day!

And now I will continue on with my (ir)regularly scheduled blogging...thank you.