Ellie's actual birthday was the 23rd so we had a party on the 21st. This little get together came together very nicely and our family made it the nicest.
On Friday night my cousin Ashley, Drew and sweet baby Joelle came to stay with us and we had a nice meal at here at the house together. I'm so so so so thankful Ashley they came early because I put my cousin to work with party prep! You see, I had all the stuff bought early, had the more time consuming things made already but I still left the little things (lots!) until the day before and of.
Maybe that wouldn't have been a problem but I came down with some weird 24 hour funk that started after I left my little shift at the clinic. I just felt kinda dizzy and light headed. Well by that night it was body aches and chills and all I could do was the mental check list of : sub-par dinner (that I didn't touch), get Ellie fed, bathed and in bed and then shower myself and plant into the couch. My stomach was kinda cramping but I just felt like doing nothing at all. Friday morning I woke up with a monster headache, still zero appetite and knowing I wasn't going to able to parent to full capacity this day. Enter my heaven sent in laws. Ellie went with John to her grandparents after I got her dressed and fed a bottle. I slept a couple of hours after getting no good sleep the night before. I slowly started to come back to life after that and worked progressively faster to get ready for the weekend. My in laws took our dogs to the kennel (thank you!!!!) and all was well in the end and all got done by the time our cousins arrived. All this made me think: single parents and parents of multiple children HOW DO YOU DO PARENT WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE GARBAGE? Seriously??? You have some serious respect from me. (but for real all tips appreciated)
So long detour back to the party. Saturday morning my aunt and uncle came in from a long night's drive from PA and it was so good to see them! This worked out beautifully as they were coming anyway to see Ashley's family and they got to stop here! It is seriously wonderful to host family. My aunt Kathy stepped right in to helping and was icing cupcakes which thankfully I was smart enough to make the night before. We were all hustling (even the men had their jobs!) right up until. My parents, brother and his lovely girlfriend came in early to hang out which was great too!
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| cupcake ice cream cone! |
The decorating was not really themed (sweets?) but just simple girly with pale pink and gold. If anyone is interested in knowing, I made the garland just by thread fishing line with a needle through pom poms and then gluing the punched out glitter circles from scrapbook paper. It's easy, it's cheap and it can stay for parties in the future.
This was just a glimpse at the changes over a year with a picture for each month of age and one year portraits at the bottom. The pinwheel bouquets and "ONE" sign below all done by Ashley!
As everyone came in, we ate and caught up and then Ellie opened (lots!) of gifts. She loved it all and especially the books. The child loves to read. Everyone was so kind and generous to her. She will be well entertained! After her gifts, we had cupcakes and of course Ellie had her own. (disclaimer: I made the cupcakes, my apologies if they tasted like "cornbead", I'm no baker :) but hey, ya gotta try. Ellie gently poked at her cupcake and tried to pull off each sprinkle before she actually ate it. It was awfully cute because at first she would look at me and grin, like is this OK momma? I get the WHOLE thing??? Ellie eats like a little piglet so of course she devoured it. After that, things were winding down and we said our goodbyes and I chased people down with goody bags who had left without taking them ;) I didn't get a picture but they were brown bags with paper doilies tied at the top with baker's twine and filled by my dear cousin with candy....which I should have bought more of. I'm taking notes people, it was my first party.
So HUGE thank you to our dear, dear family. If it wasn't for ya'lls help and your presence at the party, it just wouldn't have been the same for Ellie. I have some more pictures below from her actual party.
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