Ellie's Birthday

My best friend from college, Emily, was able to make it to Idaho for Ellie's Birthday. I was so excited to have her here and she was the perfect person to help me with all the party details.

 (Thanks Emily! I miss you).

James and I prepared and hung up the party decorations a few days early to get a head start.

(really I was just super excited) 

Here is Ellie the day before she turned 1.

Since it was Ellie's first birthday I wanted to start some traditions. I wanted to wake her up singing Happy Birthday, but lets be real, she wakes us up...so I went and got her, brought her to our bed and then we sang to her.

James had to run into work for a little bit that morning, but he took the rest of the day off. While he was at work I prepared tradition #2. I made a pancake in the shape of her age. It is the most pathetic #1 you may have ever seen, but it was as good as I could do.  (pretty sure Emily was sleeping through all this?)

After daddy got home I got the presents out and he brought her down the hall. I didn't bother wrapping some of them because I knew she'd be more excited seeing toys than wrapped boxes. And I was right. It was hard to get her to unwrap presents after seeing the toys so I hid them behind me back and had her sit on my lap. She got a few things from my mom and a few things from James and me.

It's no secret that Ellie is obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba. Someone I follow on Instagram showed her little baby the show once and said she was glued to the screen. I tried it when Ellie was really little and it was true-it sucked her in. I tried it a few more times as she got older and for whatever reason she LOVES it! My mom bought her Yo Gabba Gabba on DVD which we watch almost daily. She can't sit through a whole DVD (which has multiple episodes) but she can sit long enough for me to get away for a few minuets before she realizes I'm gone.

I had a coupon for "$10 off anything" to Babys' R Us and I found the characters for $10 (aka Free). She loved those too. I have so many cute pictures of her being so in aw of her Yo Gabba Gabba stuff.

Sadly, we lost Muno (the red guy) pretty quickly. James and I have turned the house upside down looking for him-no joke. My only guess is he fell out of the car. Ellie will throw stuff between her and the car door when she's done with it and it all falls out when we open the door. BUT we always pick it all up and I really don't ever remember bringing him with us anywhere. So who knows. I hope he shows up. It probably kills me more not to have the whole set than her because I'm sure she does't even realize he's gone.

Here is Ellie watching her DVD on her new Car.

After we all got ready in the morning we took Ellie to see Santa at the mall. Ellie is such a happy baby I did not expect her to cry. She loves almost everyone and "talks" to almost everyone. However, the second I sat her on his lap she SCREAMED. I was sooo sad. I know it's cute to have a screaming baby picture but it wasn't her personality. They let us get back in line to try again. We talked about him, I pointed to him I made him sound so fun. When it was our turn we showed him her toys and I tried to sit her on his lap again, but nope, she wasn't going to have it. We just stuck with the original picture. 

Last years picture. I think she was 6 or 7 days old if I remember right.

 Just look how much she's grown!

When you buy the Santa pictures you get coupons to Gymboree and Crazy8. I either needed to go there or just wanted to look, I can't remember, but that is where I found Ellie's pink party dress. I saw it online but I didn't even think to check the store to see if they had it but it was on clearance with an extra % off and then the coupon applied on top of that so it was cheap and I was happy to have a matching dress for her party theme.

I had to ask Emily what we did the rest of the day because it was all a blur. But apparently we went to Costco and Walmart and then the rest of the night we prepared for the party the next day.

Next up..Birthday Party