{WHW}: 1st Birthday Partying

You may be tired of hearing about Ella turning 1, and if you are...sorry (I'm only a little sorry). This was a big milestone in our lives, and our girl's life and it was just crazy how quickly the year went by. It's so cliche, but it's incredibly true.

Ella's birthday weekend was busy busy busy but oh-so worth it! Everything came together perfectly, and even though Ella was a little overwhelmed by everyone being around and was kind of a stage 5 clinger to mommy and daddy, it was a great day celebrating our favorite girl!

So, let's get to the details and pictures!

My BIL has a bouncy business on the side, so they offered to put one up for Ella's party. I figured she wouldn't really use it, but girl LOVED IT!

She got in a lot of bouncy time before the party started and her cousins were more than thrilled to play with her:

The cakes turned out even better that I had imagined! Believe it or not, these are both Walmart cakes and were incredibly reasonably priced (in fact the smash cake was free):

 Birthday banners--the bottom one is Ella's 12 monthly photos from her first year. It was so fun to see how she grew and changed each month!

 We had quite the spread of food and beverages. We may have gone overboard because MG and I took home 7 bottles of wine with us (oops)

Everyone started arriving a little after 3, which was perfect because Ella napped until 3 on the dot (she must have known she was needed haha). 

The pink tutu and headband only lasted for a little while, but they were cuter than cute!

Lots of photos were taken through the afternoon:

We opened the mounds and mounds of gifts that were brought (so generous!)

After eating and chatting, it was time to sing happy birthday and see our girl's reaction to her first bites of cake.

Surprisingly, she was very dainty about it, taking tiny bits of icing and eating it. I helped her dig into the cake part and she happily shared it with me--including my face and my hair lol

We sang happy birthday again a little bit later around her big, fancy cake and at the end Ella clapped (and then screamed lol):

All too soon it was time to clean up, pack up allllllll the gifts, and head back to my in-laws' house.

It was the perfect day, with the most beautiful weather we could have hoped for, surrounded by our family and family friends. We are so blessed to have this loving family--Ella doesn't even know how lucky she is :)

Ella is ONE!

Just like that, my baby is one year old.

This was the fastest, craziest, awe-inspiring year of my life. I'm so thankful for this adorable little being who made us a family, and brings so much light and laughter to our lives.

Watching you grow and learn over the last year has been so incredible. There's rarely a day that goes by where I don't stop and think about how blessed we are to have you in our lives.
I couldn't love you more, Ella bear, and I'm so looking forward to your shining personality coming out more and more over the next year.
Happy Birthday, lovebug!

{WHW}: First Bday Planning

Yes, you read that right...I'm in the beginning stages of planning Ella's first birthday party. How this is possible, I'm not even sure because it feels like just the other week we were bringing her home!

My SIL in New Jersey offered to host Ella's birthday party including a bouncy (which my BIL rents out on the side). It'll be a party with just family, so relatively low key, which is a-okay with me. There's plenty of time for big birthdays, you know, once Ella actually remembers them haha.

Anyway, I've gone the totally predictable route and turned to Pinterest for good ideas, and I think I've found some cute ideas to try and incorporate.

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Ironically, this girl's name is Ella, too :)

I love the idea of the floral headband, and the tutu around the highchair. She actually has this exact highchair, so I see doing something like this.

I also have all of Ella's monthly photos in the rocking chair in her room, next to her stuffed elephant that I could put on something like the hoop above, or this:

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This cake is gorgeous, and I just love the gold hearts, too!

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I could see her in an outfit similar to these two:

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The tutu is probably my favorite, but who doesn't love glitter shorts too?

A fun extra, would be something like this for a makeshift "photo booth"

And I'd love to snap a fun photo like one of these of my girl on her special day:

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For mamas who've already done the first birthday, are there any things that you did that were super cute? Or things that didn't go well? Give me your thoughts!

Now it's your turn to link up with Jessi and I to share what's hap-"pinning" with you!

Weekending with the Birthday Boy

Whew, I'm wiped coming off of this weekend, and it's because we celebrated MG's birthday Saturday night and stayed out a wee bit later than we normally do (as in, much later).

The weekend was packed with highlights though! Although the majority of the photos are of Ella...shocking I know :)

~Friday night we stayed in and cooked dinner that we were gonna make Thursday night but I hadn't felt like making so we'd ordered pizza on Thursday. Low key night in with our little miss was really nice.

~Saturday morning was MG's birthday and the birthday boy was given his present in the morning, along with baby snuggles--the best present of all!

~Ella finally fits into these adorable joggers that I got her a couple of months ago, and I was so excited! She looked so damn cute, I couldn't take it

~The Holiday was on, and we, of course, had to watch it

~We went out for a little bit and listened to Christmas music the whole way

~Ella's diaper leaked while we were out and we changed her in the tailgate of our car...#parentlife #babiesstillpooponyourbirthday

~in the early evening, we started getting Ella ready for bed, and a coworker of mine came over to babysit Ella so we could go out to dinner with our best couple friends. Luckily she went down easily and we got on our way!

~Our friends announced that they are pregnant!!! We've been waiting for this news for a while and were SO excited!! 

~We had dinner at a place of MG's choosing, and then went to a bar we used to frequent back in our 20s, and several of MG's friends came out to meet up. It was entertaining being out in the bar mayhem, but I will say I don't miss being bumped and jostled around, and not being able to hear well enough to have a good conversation. #yesimold

~We stayed out until a little after 11 and then came home. Ella had slept soundly the whole time we were gone and continued to sleep well the rest of the night.

~MG woke up feeling less than stellar, but there was a bright spot to his morning which included this nugget sleeping until 8am! #bless

~We got Panera for breakfast because neither of us felt like cooking anything

~Ella went down for a nap and I went to get groceries etc for the week

~The afternoon involved more snuggles and lounging around the house

~We made it out in the afternoon for a family walk which felt good and helped wake me up a bit

~We ordered in Thai food and had a super low key night in, watching football (I'm number one in my fantasy football league still and going to playoffs). 

There may have been some pre-bedtime snoozing on the couch, too. Because #old.

MG said he had such a good time Saturday night, and I did too. It was nice to get some "adult" time in (even if we paid for it the next day haha) and not just be "mom" and "dad". I'm so thankful for this man who I not only love, but I really really like, too :) 

Hoping your weekend was fun-filled, too!