Party Girl

Yesterday we celebrated Elsa's first birthday two days early with an extremely fun birthday party. Yes, I put a lot of effort into planning and pulling the whole thing off, and, yes, she did not have a clue as to what was really going on and will not remember a thing about it, but it was so worth it. And, besides, we tried to do a pretty good job documenting it, so she will at least have visual proof of the fabulous cupcake-themed first birthday bash.

My parents and Jarrett's dad and stepmother were able to make the trip down for the celebration, and it was really nice to have them here both for the help in preparations (thank you, especially, Mom and Susan!) and for the party itself. Jarrett's mom so wanted to be here, but she unfortunately contracted the swine flu (ack!) and was not able to make the trip. I believe she is on the upswing, which is so good to hear, but we still greatly missed her! Besides family, we invited some of Elsa's little friends (though we missed several of them too, also due to illness!) and their parents and some of our other close friends, but still tried to keep it somewhat small and contained. Elsa didn't seem too terribly overwhelmed, and seemed to have a good time.

She wore an incredibly frilly cupcake party dress that I happened to come across months ago and just had to have (despite my usual unfrilliness). I had a large cupcake-shaped birthday cake made at Highland Bakery and I made smaller cupcakes, which my mom, Susan, and I decorated with butterflies made of pretzels, chocolate candies, and licorice (a Martha Stewart idea, of course). Both turned out very cute. And probably the most fun of the day was letting Elsa dig into samples of both desserts. Normally I try to be very health-minded when it comes to what I feed Elsa, but her birthday was a necessary exception. The child just had to eat her birthday cake -- and eat it she did! Just check out the photos and video. It is kind of difficult to hear over all the other background noise, but she is actually saying, "Mmm...," once she realizes the cake is actually something good to eat and not just some piece of art we set in front of her.

After the wonderful mess of cake eating, Jarrett and I bathed her (twice), put her in a onesie, and then let her go at her presents -- or, really, let her watch her friends open her presents for her. It was very entertaining, and she received many nice gifts.

I was completely prepared for a terrible night of sleep and a really sick and wound-up child after the afternoon activities, but she slept through the night just fine. She did seem a little out of sorts this morning and did not take a very good nap this afternoon, but went to bed fine again tonight. Perhaps she was just undergoing a little bit of sugar withdrawl. Sorry, babe... there will likely be no more cake for you until your next birthday.