It's My Party...

Well, we have survived our 1st big birthday bash! I never knew how exhausting it was to plan a "kid" party - all the party favors, balloons, Kool-Aid, & entertainment - WOW! And it's expensive too - but of course totally worth it.
Ella looked absolutely adorable, at least me and Daddy thought so. I found this precious little brown & white polka dot dress that was just perfect but it didn't have any pink on it; and little girls HAVE to have pink on - always. (I can't believe I said that - I swore I would never dress my daughter all pink and fluffy like my mom did me & Chels, but what you can't see is that Ella is wearing ruffle socks. Ha Ha! I love it!) Anyways, back to what I was saying; the dress was lacking pink so my mom added this pretty little pink bow and it was just enough. (Thanks Mom!)
She was a little overwhelmed by all the people at first but warmed up really quickly and stole the show. She was passed around from this aunt to that uncle, grandma, grandpa and everyone else under the sun. I was really proud of her, she was such a trooper.
Now for the cake...My sister made this beautiful cake for the little princess and Ella loved all the little butterflies. They were the first thing she grabbed when we put the cake in front of her.She was more interested in soaking in all the attention she was getting from the crowd standing in front of her with our cameras in her face than she was in digging into the cake at first, but she finally figured it out.

So after she demolished the cake, we went for a quick dip in the tub and changed outfits again (for the 3rd time) to get ready for opening presents.
She started to get a little tired and fussy right before we started opening but it didn't take her long to shake the attitude after she saw all the bags and tissue paper. She had fun opening them all and had a few gifts that she wasn't ready to move on from. She really got some cute toys and a lot of really nice clothes too.

We really enjoyed the party of course, but I think we had more fun hanging out in our PJ's all day on Sunday watching her play with all her new toys. She was occupied the entire day by all her new stuff and every now and then she would just put her hands behind her head and look around like "oh my gosh, look at all this!" It was so precious! So here are a few snaps of her playing with some of her new things. OK, let me explain this 1st pic - She has this weird thing where she thinks she has to climb on top of EVERYTHING. I just had to post this picture because she tried and tried all day to climb on top of this little baby stroller that Sabrina gave her and she finally got it late that evening, and she was so pleased with herself as you can see by the sh#t eatin' grin on her face. If this doesn't spell success, I don't know what does.
Neal & I gave her a big girl swing that hangs from the tree and she really loves that too. All the kids at the party took turns pushing her and making faces at her when she swung by them - they all had so much fun!
She finally pooped out around 10:30 p.m. and crashed for the night....and I went to bed crying; again, because I just can't believe my baby is already 1. You plan and wait for this day to get here for so long then it passes so quickly right before your eyes - but I have about a million pictures to remember it by and they are all posted on our Shutterfly website for you to check out. I guess that about wraps it up about the party so I will leave you hanging by telling you Neal & I think she will be walking by the end of this week... :)