Ellie's party...the decorations

I decided to not go too "themey" for this 1st birthday party.  I am sure in the coming years I will give in to the Dora, Barney or Mickey Mouse parties that Ellie requests, but for now I just went with E's signature colors, PINK AND GREEN!

And boy did we have it everywhere!  From the punch and napkins to the candy buffet and everything in between, it was a pink and green explosion!

I ordered the invitations, party banner, decor picks, cupcake toppers, candy jar labels, water bottle labels and favor bag labels all from WH Hostess.  Kelly was fabulous to work with!  She did a great job and had everything made and shipped in record time.  Y'all may think I am crazy, but I started ordering from her in September.  I knew in order to have what I wanted, I would have to space some things out!  I also found the glass jars for the candy at TJ Maxx.  They have been riding round in my trunk for months!  I was so glad I started early.  It made it much easier on my mind, and wallet:)

                                     Birthday water!

Drink table before the pink and green punch

            Kids treat bags.  They had personalized bubbles, candy, a noise maker and a pencil.

I decided not to stress myself out with food, so we didn't have any!  The party was at 2 in the afternoon, so we just had cake and ice cream cups (no scooping here!) and the pink and green candy buffet for the favors.  

We had pink and green jelly bellies, lollipops, rock candy, gum balls, covered pretzels, cookies and cake!  All of the candy came from Bulk Candy Store.  The pretzels and jelly bellies came from the Fresh Market in Memphis.  LOVE that place:)

I was giddy when I picked up the cake.  I had it made at HRH Dumplins and took them an invitation to go off of.  They matched the colors perfectly!  I think the smash cake originally looked a little different, but it was dropped when they went to get it out of the fridge, so they had to re-do it.  I thought it still turned out cute.

The cake was white chocolate on the bottom tier and strawberry on top.  SO yum!  I thought the cookies turned out perfect too.  Our favorite Bartlett place, the Busy Bakery did them and the cake for party #2.  

My mom and I made the wreath, wrapped forks with tulle, and spent one night making all of the tissue paper flowers.  They were a cheap and easy, but fun decoration.  We had a signing board for the guests to sign and found the "E" pink and green banner at Tuesday Morning on clearance for $5.99!  When we saw it we knew we had to snatch that up!

The party hat was a Trees-n-Trends find and I bought the bib back this summer and just had it monogrammed with the "Happy Birthday Ellie".

The birthday girl of course had to have birthday bloomers, and her dress was a sidewalk sale find from back in July.  We bought it big so she could wear it all summer.  

I finally found a cheap Etsy seller that does cute bloomers!  

Whew!  I think that's it.  The little details are what really made this party special.  More to come soon!

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Wow, it's been a while.  I may have to break this up in to parts like I did Christmas!

First off, I cannot believe our big girl is ONE!  We had a great week that was full of celebrating and now this mommy is tired!  On Ellie's actual BIRTHday, we just stayed home.  She woke up to a crazy Mommy and Daddy singing to her, and I made her cupcakes that night (with my first attempt at homemade buttercream) again with more singing at 5:26, her birth time.

I was a little teary eyed and squeezed her tight, and she probably got a million kisses that day.  She is just such a blessing and I could not be more thankful for such a wonderful gift!  She also had a few special visitors and lots of phone calls, and she was off to bed at 6:30!  Birthdays are hard work around here:)

The rest of the week was spent finishing up last minute details for the big PARTY weekend!  Stay tuned...

Party Preview

If you don't already know, there is a certain little girl that has a first birthday coming up!  We have had lots of fun getting ready for the big day, or days I should say.  We are having 2 parties!  One at our house for our peeps around here and one at my parents for our Memphis folks.  Here is a little teaser without giving too many details away.  There will be a full recap after the parties, don't worry!

Just rambling

I cannot stand Kate Gosselin now, but back in the day when they were a cute, sweet family I was obsessed with their show!  My favorite line Kate ever said was "make a mess, clean up a mess, make a mess, clean up a mess.  Poop, diapers, diapers, poop."   That is SO my life right now!!  Poor Ellie had an accident at school this morning maybe 10 minutes after I dropped her off on the ONE DAY I did not pack a  change of clothes.  I was out doing a few things when I got the call.  So I rushed home and grabbed a new outfit and took it to her.  I had visions the whole time of her sitting in the room naked and freezing!  I felt so bad for her and was mad at myself for not packing extra clothes.  Luckily, when I got there they had found an extra outfit--light blue wind pants and a gray and blue striped thermal shirt.  It was hilarious!  I wish I had thought to take a picture.  I had her all dressed up in this cute Kelly's kids outfit that I love...too bad she only wore it for 25 minutes today!

I think the reason for the blowout may be the antibiotics she's on.  Poor thing has another ear infection!  I knew something wasn't right.  She has been waking up at least once or twice a night and waking at 5 am.  That is SO unlike her, so I finally quit playing games with myself and scheduled an appointment.  Sure enough, right ear!  I hate the guessing part.  She hasn't eaten very well recently either so that was another sign.  One of her top teeth have cut through so I think that may the culprit of it all!  I always think I am crazy and beat myself up wondering if I should take her to the doctor.  She has yet to run a fever which I am thankful for--but that would help with me knowing she was sick or not.  Anyway, she's sleeping a little bit better and hopefully will be 100% very soon!

I'll leave you with a few more random pictures...

Snow Day

Schools are out, our office is closed...it's officially a SNOW DAY!

Technically, this is Ellie's 2nd snow, but she was still in the hospital when it was falling down last year.  I decided to suck it up and bundle her up to get a few quick pictures.  I wish Don was here to enjoy the fun!  He would have built a big snowman by now and would have Ellie out there with him to enjoy it.  Oh well, hopefully it will snow again this winter!

Ellie had on her fleece PJ's, a fleece snowsuit, and this snowsuit on over them both!  She had on so many clothes she kept falling over.  It was SO funny!

 Poor baby, the things I put her through!

We stayed outside for a grand total of MAYBE 3 minutes...

 Just long enough for her to try and sit up but then fall back down again.  This baby was NOT going to get cold!!

 Hopefully this smile means she had a little bit of fun!

We are now inside. Ellie is napping , No Peek Beef Stew is in the oven smelling delish, and I am picking up toys for the 400th time today.  I am not a neat freak but toys thrown everywhere drive me crazy!!

YAY for snow days!!