Evangeline “Ellie” Sophia Donohue turned 1 on April 12th (the Sunday before last).
My sweet baby girl appears to have had a great time … her little kingdom (ie our apartment) was transformed into a Frozen wonderland, her friends and family came, she got presents, and best of all, got to eat her very first cupcake (factoid: it turned her poop blue).
Oaken’s Ice Cold Lemonade, Hans’ Frozen Hearts, and Troll’s Tossed Salad
Olaf Cupcakes, the Do You Wanna Build a Snowman Station, and Ellie’s First Birthday Cake!
Kristoff’s Swedish Meatballs, Sandwiches, Sven’s Carrots, Yellow Snow! and Chocolate!
I threw a rather big birthday party, by my standards. The effects were:
1. Ellie got a magical celebration based on her favorite movie;
2. We had a GREAT time with family and friends, and
3. I discovered that I quite enjoy party planning.
This last part surprised me. As I’ve mentioned before, hosting parties is a source of anxiety. But this time, my “mom self”, who was intent on making it a perfect day for Ellie, took over entirely. You can get a lot accomplished when you let your mom self take over, people. For two weeks, I was on the birthday plan attack. First I Pinterest-ed, then I shopped, and then I designed and collected all the printables, and then I got all the foodstuffs, and then we drove to Ohio for my brother’s wedding the day before (crazy, right?), and then the night before and morning of her big day, I baked/decorated, cut out snowflakes, and basically threw it all together.
Two crises arose that brought out my choleric bossy side. As I mentioned, my brother’s wedding happened the same weekend. So our calendar looked like this:
Thursday – buy all party food, etc.
Friday – drive to Steubenville, Ohio. Hang out with friends, attend rehearsal dinner.
Saturday – attend brother’s wedding and reception. Drive back to Buffalo. Bake cake.
Sunday – decorate cake, go to Mass, get last-minute things at Wegmans, make ALL THE FOODS, decorate the park gazebo. Party starts at noon.
^ That is actually what my Sunday morning looked like. Except that my debit card got declined at Wegmans so I had to leave my cart there and send Brian back for it with his card. Whew. Oh, also, it was waaaaay too windy outside to have the party at the park, which we discovered half an hour before the guests were set to arrive. Needless to say, I was a stress ball.
But … thanks to my wonderful hubby and Ma-in-law, we re-located the party to our apartment, threw up the decorations, and the party was practically perfect. It was crowded, but so much fun! As evidenced in the above pictures, there was Frozen-themed food aplenty, activities for the kiddos, and presents for my baby girl.
The party itself is already solid gold in my memory. But the planning part, too, fills me with a happy feeling every time I think about it, despite the craziness. Whenever I come across my “Ellie’s First Birthday” Pinterest board or computer file, it makes me want to plan another party … so it’s a good thing Brian and I want a big family. There will hopefully be LOTS of kids’ birthday parties in our future!
Hannah's Homely House 