Ella's Bake Shoppe Party

Back in September we had Ella's 6th Birthday Party. For several months we talked about having a cake decorating party after seeing the adorable one Courtney threw. Ella was immediately on board and helped plan the entire thing!

I knew she wanted to do crafts, play a game, and decorate cakes. The rest of it kind of just flowed together so nicely and the party was AWESOME! Seriously, one of my most favorite parties I've thrown and there were only 5 little girls there.

For the crafts, we decided to decorate aprons, hats and the cake boxes the girls would take their decorated cakes home in. That is how we started the party

After crafting was finished, we had snacks! The party was from 9:30-11:30 so I didn't do a full spread of food, just some fruit, donuts, muffins and juice!





After eating it was time to play the game - the only game Ella really wanted was pin the candle on the cake and well, when I couldn't find it at the store or even Amazon, I quickly realized we can make it! I had Rick draw the giant cake on poster board and one night before the party Ella and I colored away. Is it perfect? No, but it was perfect for what it was! The girls were so adorable while playing this game and I'm glad they're still at an age where this was fun.

After the game came the best part and the part all the girls were waiting for - cake decorating!! I ordered those 6" baby cakes from our grocery store (they are the ones people buy for cake smash photos) I had them leave them white and bought a bunch of fun decorating supplies from Hobby Lobby. The night before the party I also made the frosting and the day of just put it into sandwich baggies - everything was prepped before the girls showed up which was key.

I was literally blown away by the concentration the girls had decorating their cakes! Each girl took their time, was very detailed and had so much fun with it!! Once they were done, I loaded up their cakes in their decorated cake boxes and the party was over. The girls all ran outside to play for a little before their Moms came (I did have 2 moms stay which was nice to have the help! - I made sure to have coffee and coffee cake for us)

This party will be one we always remember, that's for sure!!

Happy 6th Birthday Ella Bella!!

**originally meant for September 5th


My Dear Ella,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! Today you are SIX!! More than 1 whole hand!! You are growing at warped speed it seems and I feel like just yesterday you were turning 2 and we were having a Minnie Mouse birthday.

Time is flying but we are having so much fun. I absolutely love watching you grow into your own person.  You are an amazing little girl who loves hard, is so caring & thoughtful and I couldn't be more proud of you!

You are an AMAZING little artist. I have said it before but you get that from your Dad. Mama is only good for stick figures but you, you can draw just about anything you put your mind to! It's so cool to see! At night after we read to you and tuck you in tight, we can find you 5 minutes later with a sketchpad in your bed doodling.  Just recently I bought you a light for your nightstand and you would have thought you won the lottery with how happy you were!

Which brings me to that; you are the kid who is so happy & excited for things! When it's getting close to a holiday, birthday, school, vacation, anything like that you count down and every day exclaim how excited you are for the day to almost be here. You truly are grateful for the little and big things in life and I sincerely hope and pray you are always that way.

You are such a good big and little sister.  You know exactly how to take care of Avery or you are always willing to lend a hand and show her how to do something. You are very good about including her but then there are times you want your own space and I totally get that. You do very well with balancing it.  Your bond with Brayden continues to grow stronger as you get older. I can see you two connecting on another level now and it's very sweet to see. He will work with you on reading, play games with you, and when I see things like that it melts my heart.

You started Kindergarten a week ago and you are rocking it!! You love it so much and that makes it a little easier to let you go every day (although I miss you sooooo much!!)  You are reading level 1 books mostly on your own and know hundreds of sight words.

You are playing t-ball and actually really loving it despite not really wanting to try. You have your 2 friends on your team so I'm sure that helps :) Either way, it's very cool to see you be part of a team sport!!

You are still really into Minnie Mouse and I love that, but about a few months ago you became OBSESSED with Peppa Pig. I don't know how it happened because I don't remember introducing that show to you so you must have found it on your own. Anything and everything has to be Peppa these days and while I thought it was a phase that wouldn't last through summer, it's looking like it will go well into the holidays! There was even a time you spoke British and were calling Avery, George (who is Peppa's little brother in the show) You even want to be Peppa Pig for Halloween!

Ella, I know 6 is going to be a great year for you and I cannot wait to be right by side watching you grow!

I love you, Happy Birthday!!!

Love,
Mom

Happy 5th Birthday Ella Grace!

My dear Ella,

Happy Birthday to you!! Today you are 5, on the 5th which means this is your GOLDEN birthday. How exciting is that?!

I cannot believe we are here, 5 years later from the day you came into the world (much earlier than expected I may add) - these years have flown by and my tiny little peanut has turned into such a beautiful little girl.

Ella, you are so special! When I look at you, I just know you are destined for greatness. You are the sweetest, most compassionate little person and I absolutely love that about you!! You are giving, kind, sincere and just an all around good person. I truly hope these qualities only continue to grow.

You are my crafter, my little artist. Usually you are sitting down and doodling up some awesome drawing or making something. You love to write little letters and roll them up and give them to us. Or you like to put them in envelopes and stamp them with our return address stamp. You are so creative my sweet gal!

You are such a good big sister!! You take of Avery so well (even though Miss A doesn't always want/need or appreciate it) - you tend to her if she gets hurt, you help her get on the potty if she needs help, you are always willing to lend a hand to her. You are a great little sister too although I think you love your Mama role in regards to being older than Avery.

You and Brayden have your own special bond. Some days you two fight non stop and others it's just  you and him, hanging out in eachother's rooms, telling eachother secrets and getting along so well! I hope your relationship with both Brayden & Avery remains strong throughout the years.

You are one smart cookie! You are learning sight words, you have impeccable handwriting, and you are are a whiz at puzzles. I have a feeling you are going to LOVE learning when you are in elementary school.

You are Mommy's little helper and you love it that way! You ALWAYS want to help me when I'm cleaning, cooking, or doing pretty much anything. I love that you are so eager and willing to help and I always appreciate the things you do for me.

You are a Mama's girl when you want to be and a Daddy's girl when you want to be. I love the moments you want me because for so long you were only about your Daddy :)

Baby girl, today we will celebrate the day you made our lives better by adding to our family!

 

I love you so much Ella, Happy Birthday!!

Love,
Mommy




*linking up with Lindsays Sweet World & Our Pretty Little Girls

Happy 4th Birthday Ella!

My Sweet Ella Bella,

Happy Birthday to you!! Today you are 4 and I really can't even begin to believe that! I swear I just had you (7 weeks early) and you were spending your first weeks in the NICU.  How much you've grown these past 4 years simply amazes me!

You are the sweetest thing ever! To me, your Dad, your brother, your sister, your Grandparents, pretty much everyone! You love to cuddle and be affectionate and I hope that never goes away!

You are such a smart little cookie! You can count to 49 then after you say 100 :) You know all your letters and numbers by sight and sound. You love to do puzzles and are really good at them! You know every color and most shapes. You have a love for learning and I hope that never leaves you.

You are the best big sister and best little sister.  You are always looking out for Avery and including her in everything you do. You always make her laugh, especially by playing peek -a - boo with her. I can already see such an amazing bond between the two of you.  Then there's your brother. Half the time you want nothing to do with him and the other half you are obsessed with him and always want to be with him. You two also have such an amazing relationship.  I hope you all always get along and want to hang out with one another.

You have always been a Daddy's girl but I'd say in the last year you've really become my little sidekick. You always want me to put you to bed and read you a story and you always want to be by me, doing whatever it is I'm doing.  Let me tell you sweetheart, I love that.

You like to sing what you doing, for example you'll sing "I'm in the playroom playing with my toys and having so much fun!" It's so cute when you do this!

You are our outside kid (Avery too) and we love that about you! You love to ride your bike and your new scooter, it's pretty much all you want to do everyday. We will say it's time to go out and play and you are the first to get your shoes and go out the back door. You love swinging and this summer learned how to pump all by yourself. You still love sandbox so much and spend lots of your time in it.

You are such a determined little girl.  When you set your mind to something, you will do it, no matter how long it takes or how hard it may be.  I love this about you!

You love the water and have come so far this summer with swimming.  While you aren't swimming on your own, you are very comfortable (which can also be really scary) and I'm sure by next year you'll get it.  You love to wear your puddle jumper and goggles and swim under the water.  You love to run and jump in the pool and do cannon balls and you especially love when Daddy throws you up so high in the air!

I think during your 3rd year you learned to handle your meltdowns much better.  We don't really have days anymore where you wake up and are immediately crying for God only knows, or where you melt down to the floor and throw a fit.  I am very proud of you growing into a little girl who can use her words to express herself!





Your bedtime routine is either I or Dad read you a book, then we lay with you but it has to be on the striped pillow closest to your wall, we cannot lay on the same pillow as you, you just do not like that! You love when I tickle your back and tell you stories with my mouth.






Some of your current favorites:

Color(s) - Pink/Purple
TV Show - Paw Patrol, Elena of Avalor, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Gravity Falls
Movie - You still love Frozen
Game - Busy Busy Airport or The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game
Book - Palace Pets
Toy - Playdoh and your treehouse
Hobby - Riding your bike and scooter and drawing and cutting
Food - Chicken Nuggets & Fries


Ella, you are such a special little girl. Your smile can light up a room and you have the ability to make everyone around you happy.  I hope these qualities stay with you forever.

I love you so much baby girl, Happy Birthday!

Love,
Mom




*linking up with Our Pretty Little Girls

Ella & Avery's Ice Cream Social Birthday Party

Today is Brayden's first day of 1st grade and I really can't believe summer is over for him! I am going to miss being with him everyday so much, but it will be so good for him to get back into a routine (me too!)

Today I'm sharing our gals combo birthday party we had on Saturday.

We decided a while ago we would do a combo family party for the girls since they aren't in school yet and don't really have their own friends. Their birthdays are a month apart so I decided on August 20th, a little after Avery's and a little before Ella's.  Poor Ella though, she keeps thinking she is 4 now...

Anyway, I knew an ice cream themed party would be so cute because they both love ice cream so much! (I mean what kid doesn't!?)  This wasn't a huge party by any means and I didn't go over the top decorating, but what I did do turned out pretty cute if I must say :)

I made the invitations by using my silhouette to cut 3.5" circles in purple and pink cardstock, that was for the back of the ice cream.  I just typed up the wording in Word, printed on white cardstock then used a 3" circle punch to punch them out.  I glued the white cardstock inside the pink and purple and also used my silhouette to cut the cones. Easy peasy!

The only other DIY stuff I did was make the banners, which were a little more intricate that I usually do but still pretty easy thanks again to my silhouette!

As soon as we hung the banners Rick said I should have used black letters - yep, I totally should have! I didn't even think about them being hung up against our white blinds! Oh well, they were still cute, but next time, black letters

Using a giant cupcake stand to hold all the cups/cones was the perfect idea! Thanks Pinterest and Aunt Nancy :)

I bought these little wooden spoons to make it seem like a vintage ice cream social - I still have about 80 of them left, ha ha

I used a veggie tray from the dollar store to hold all the toppings and it worked perfect! Except that I left it out during the party before the ice cream was ready because we were serving food first and there were probably more little grabby hands in here than I could count, but hey, what kid could resist all this!? I barely could :)

I snapped a couple pics of the girls before the party because I knew they would not sit still once it started and would probably get very dirty! (I was right about both of those)

              

My aunt once again made the most amazing cakes!!! Seriously these might be favorite!  I made the 4 and 2 by just drawing free hand and cutting out on glitter cardstock and hot gluing to toothpicks. 

 

Some party pictures - I was kind of bad and didn't take too many!

See - little hands grabbing the candy, and I told you she would be dirty! Ha!

The weather was perfect until about 2 hours into the party it started raining and a huge gust of wind came through taking our tents with them. Everyone helped to grab everything and we moved the party inside.  I would have loved to sing and do cake outside but Mother Nature had other plans!

I love Avery's face in this picture! Both girls sure knew how special they were on their party day!

After singing and cake cutting, it was time for the ice cream social! The hubby said he wanted to be the scooper after shutting down my idea of prescooping and freezing them so they would just be ready. I must say, he makes a cute ice cream scooper :)

       

 Sisters :)

Thankfully the rain only lasted 10 minutes and after ice cream we all headed back outside.

We played pin the cherry on the ice cream and pretty much every kid cheated - made me realize I need to have a blindfold next time!

I made another pinata for the girls' party and it was so cute! Each kid got 2-3 turns and then it broke open.  This one was way less chaotic than the one at Brayden's party :)

Ella and her bestie Ava!

Best attempt at a family picture :)

It was a great, low key, low stress party and most importantly the girls had a great time! 

Source List:

Pink/White Polka Dot Ice Cream Cups 

Wooden Ice Cream Spoons

3" Circle Punch

Girls Ice Cream Tanks

Pin the Cherry on the Ice Cream Cone Game

*linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending