Ella's birthday party

We had Ella's 1st birthday party the weekend after she turned 1...so the last weekend of January. Marshall's dad and stepmom were able to come down from North Dakota so Caleb had a sleepover at their hotel and spent the day (before the party) swimming, hanging out and even going to a movie! He had such a great time and really looks forward to their visits...he had been counting down for days beforehand.

The big party was held at my parents' house..we decided to do it there for a couple reasons..we knew Marshall's stepmom would be coming and she's very allergic to our cat, so this made it easier for her to be there. Also with all the snow we've had, parking in front of our house would be a challenge for a lot of people. Luckily, my parents had no objections to helping us out! My mom and brother made pans of lasanga and like always they all helped me with all the preparations. I am so lucky! (I think I've mentioned that a few times.) We had a great turn out of family and friends...ALL of Ella's grandparents were there, Aunt Laura, Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Joey, Aunt Chelsea, my Aunts Karen, Kathy, Ellen (and her friend Bob) and Louise (and Uncle Ray), my cousins Angela, Jenna (and her husband Mark and daughter Kate), and Michele (and her husband Todd and son Nicholas) and my friend Nicole and her kids, Sammy and Chase. We always feel so blessed when surrounded by such special people who love our kids so much! Ella really enjoyed her day and loved all the attention...she was super hyper by the end of the night and just funny to watch. She got into opening gifts (she got a lot of nice summer clothes, toys/books and even her own little chair!) but she was still pretty wary of the cupcake. Aunt Laura (Dua) made the beautiful princess cake and cupcakes!! It turned out so nice for our little princess...we had such a fun day.