Elina's First Birthday Party...

Although it's been almost a month I wanted to post about Elina's birthday party day...

For those of you who were able to come to Elina's party...thank you so much for enduring the heat with us! For those of you who weren't there...you may be glad! :) It really was a sweet time with friends and family and I think the kids had fun. However, it was so hot! I tried so hard to plan out every detail...jump house and play ground for the older kids to play on...mini ball pit for the pre-walkers to play in with umbrellas for shade (a large tarp under the ball pit so the kids could get in and out without getting in the itchy grass, with butterfly pinwheels to anchor the corners down)...hotdogs, chips, and fruit for lunch...cupcake caterpillar for the 'Birthday Cake', and Party Pails w/ foam stickers and pinwills for the kiddos, . I say all this mostly for documentation so I can remember what Elina's party was like (my memory is shot these days). Also for a learning lesson for myself: if it's hot outside, try to have everything set up in the shade (otherwise everything might get moved to the shade anyway!), if it's windy don't tie balloons to the center pieces unless they are really heavy (otherwise your party pails might get blown off the tables!), if someone offers to come early to help set up (Kristy!) accept her offer (otherwise your guests will arrive and things won't be ready and they will end up working instead of partying!). As you can tell, my baby's 'perfectly' planned party didn't turn out as I had envisioned it for the last several months, but everyone was so forgiving and amazingly helpful! Thank you all for making this day so special for Elina (and her mommy and daddy!). Elina seemed to do great with all of the attention and even the heat with the exception of the birthday cake picture moment (I think she got over heated)...
Here are some pictures (I hope to get to see all the pictures everyone else took soon...hint!)

I'm amazed at this picture since it looks like she's actually blowing. However, she's not...so what's she doing? The only thing I can think of is that she may be making her animal noise...

Maybe she was making a butterfly noise! :)

She likes the pinwheel...

A picture with some of her beautiful guests...

And...that's the end...she's not happy anymore...no more pictures please...get me outta here...(I even tried giving her back the blue butterfly that was previously taken away b/c she put it in her mouth and got glitter allllll in her mouth!...This picture makes me laugh so much...look at Elina's best friend Madison...since Ellie was done with her pinwheel Maddie decided to take a turn!) Too Funny!

The blue butterfly DID NOT work!

A little break and a snack makes everything all better! Time to open presents...

Elina was really good at opening her gifts!...She was so excited about each gift and ready to play right away...

Too bad we had to move on...it was really hot remember!...Towards the end she got a little fussy...the cure all for fussy toddlers??? what else but a cell phone of course (Thanks Brenna!)Here she is doing one of her favorite things as a ONE YEAR OLD!...'awky, awky' (Rocky, Rocky!)

Must have seen/heard the dog next door! :)