ellie’s party!

saturday, january 16th, was ellie’s first birthday party ever, and it went off without a hitch :)

we started the morning off with errands to pick up the cake (winnie the pooh themed), the balloons (two dozen of them with helium and about 30 with air from my LUNGS), and the fruit bouquet (which was beautiful, albeit expensive, and totally worth the money).

we wanted it to be a big celebration, but we didn’t want there to be so many people that ellie (or we) felt overwhelmed, so the guest list included only family, close friends and a few of ellie’s favorite fellow babies.

…but it still turned out to be quite a packed house!

so many people contributed such wonderful food, too. grandma shirley made her delicious deviled eggs, auntie lolo made the coveted cheeseball, auntie margie brought taquitos and homemade salsa (ryan’s favorite!), grandma rodi brought meatballs and bacon-wrapped chicken, and my mom brought the best homemade guacamole i’ve ever tasted. we also had the fruit bouquet from edible arrangements and, of course, cake and ice cream!

and despite the fact that it was *just* christmas a few weeks ago, the birthday girl was showered in presents yet again :) i don’t want to hear any complaints when she’s older about her birthday and christmas being so close together – she has enough new toys to last year the whole year!

cake time was also nap time, so ellie was a little grumpy when we brought her to the table. the ice cream was enough to keep her going, though! she listened intently as everyone gathered around and sang to her, and sat perfectly still as we helped her blow out the candle. i think she made a wish :)

it really was a perfect afternoon. thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us, and extra special thanks to our good friend jon, who so generously took the photographs we’ll cherish for a lifetime. we are so very lucky to know all of you <3