That's right! Ella is officially 1! We had a great time celebrating her birthday and managed to stretch her birthday celebrations over a whole week. That's just the way I love to celebrate birthdays! The Saturday prior to her real birthday, we had an awesome family birthday party at Ella's Nana & Grandpa's house. We are so grateful to Kevin's parents for hosting this spectacular party for us!! We did a "color/rainbow" theme because yes, I am a teacher by nature and these things must have themes!!! It turned out great! Every family that came represented a different color. I made a rainbow cake and the kids got coloring books, colored pencils, and Skittles for their party favors. Super cute all around. Ella was so blessed to receive tons of gifts from clothes to books to dolls! It's so nice to have some pink and purple toys in the mix now.
The following week we had a mom's group celebration at the park in honor of Ella and Liam (Chuck and Toni's little guy) turning one. They are 8 days apart! We had donuts and juice and the kids got to run around and have a blast.
On Thursday, Ella's real birthday, we kept things pretty normal but got to enjoy some chocolate cake and sing to her one more time. Then we were off to watch Daddy play baseball! Oh yeah...I forgot the cutest thing of all: On Wednesday evening I took Luke shopping to get Ella a gift "from him." We wanted to get Ella a little Elmo doll since she is always stealing Luke's from his bed and she just loves him! We went to Target but they were sold out of Elmo. We did end up getting her Honkers, one of those guys who makes sound come out of his ears by honking his nose. She loves it and carried it around with her all day on her birthday! It was so sweet to watch Luke give her the present when she woke up on her birthday.
**Also, I made a slideshow of Ella's first year on One True Media. If you haven't seen it yet, please e-mail me at sarahmann80@gmail.com and I'll send you the password for it.**
So even if it's a month late (eek, she's 13 months now!), we had a blast on Ella's birthday. Now just 2 short months until our "baby" boy is 3! Wow!
Enjoy some pics from our girl's first birthday!
This is how I made the rainbow cake. First, I made a box of white cake mix and split the batter.
Then I added food coloring gel to each bowl.
Then I ladeled the batter in concentric circles, going in opposite order for each pan.
Bake it and frosted it as normal...
This is what the middle looked like! Yum yum!
Nana & Grandpa wore white for our themed party!
Team Green: Liz and Paul
Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Szanto were super colorful!
Team Pink: Dave, Vanessa, Briggs, and Baby GIRL!
Team Blue: Doug, Sarah, Eric, and Dylan
We were team purple. I just fell in love with this purple dress for Ella.
Blowing out the candle with some helpers!
Ella was so generous with her cake! She was like, "You've got to try this! It's amazing!"
Luke did not want to try it that way!
The morning of her actual birthday! One!!
Luke giving her the birthday present from him. She liked holding the bag like a purse!
Getting some help from big brother
Grandma and Papa at the party...this one didn't upload with the rest :)
I love the rainbow cake and the idea of having each family represent a color! Also, yay for getting your boys into purple! Love it!
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