My little girl turns one!

I didn't know how exciting it would be to see my little girl turn one.  It was even more exciting than celebrating my own birthday, and for those of you that know me that's saying a lot considering I take a whole month to celebrate my birthday... I realize that this is slightly egocentric but that's a discussion for another day.  I would have given Ella a whole month of celebration too were it not for two reasons.  One, I might be setting the bar a bit too high for a one year old and two, Ella shares a birthday month with her father so I thought perhaps I should give him a little credit too.  So this year I threw a combined birthday bash in their honor.  We had friends and their kids over for what I called a "Presidential Birthday Bash!" in honor of Shaun, Ella, and all those presidents with birthdays in February.  We handed out american medals and resurrected my favorite game, the Question Ball, revised edition for married couples.  It was quite the fun evening.  Unfortunately, I was so busy hosting the event that I only got a few photos of the night.  Here's just one of Shaun and Ella blowing out their candles on their separate (but equal) cakes.  Also a close up of Shaun's cake to show I may not be an ace of cakes, but at least a can make a decent one.

Later in the weekend we threw Ella her own little family party with nana and papa.  Ella opened gifts from her auntie Stephanie, friends, and enjoyed wearing her PJ's from grandma and granpa C that night.  She got lots of books, a few clothes, a little bear, music maker, and ring thing.  She loved every bit of it but probably loved the cake best!

Oh she's such a poser!  With every day that personality grows.  She ran down the hall with her new clothes and turned around to show them off just in time for the photo above.  What a ham!  The outfit of course is from nana.

And if the cake is not enough, I'll try the plate too she says.

This face is saying "don't judge me".  I am entitle to dig into this cake with my bare hands and then stuff what I can into my mouth.

And this, this is the look of satisfaction that comes after digging into a triple chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  Admit it, you wish you could do it too with such style and grace!  But alas, such a right is reserved for the babies of this world.  And it wouldn't be a true 1st birthday without diggin' in:)