Ella's 1st Birthday Party

Ella's 1st Birthday Party was sweet and simple.  We ate pasta for dinner (her favorite), had fun birthday cakes, and lots of pink decorations.  Happy Birthday dear Ella!

Ella is 1!

A year ago our little Ella was born.  I sometimes call her my "pink poof" because I admit I sometimes can't resist the pink dresses, flowers, and bows.  So today I dressed her up in the dress I bought especially for this day and tried to catch a few good birthday photos of her.  The best ones are at the bottom of this post.  Happy Birthday Ella!  You bring so much happiness to our lives.

"Walking" behind her new birthday princess truck.

The boys helped me by trying to get her to smile.

 

But mostly she just wanted to watch them play.

 

Grayson's Beyblade Birthday Bash

Grayson turned 7 today.  I can hardly believe it's been 7 years since that day when I first saw his little face.  A lot has changed in the last 7 years.  My big kid is a first grader, loves to play soccer, trade Pokemon cards, and battle Beyblades.  So today we hosted a Beyblade Birthday Bash at our house.

Grayson got a bunch of fun presents this morning when he woke up - including his first digital watch, complete with a stopwatch.

Our Beyblade party was organized into regular play, and then a tournament.  The matches were all set in advance so there was no guessing whose turn it was to play.

These, by the way, are Beyblades.  Super cool, very fast, powerful tops.  They are all the rage amongst the elementary school set.

You use them to "battle" your opponents in a Beyblade stadium.

Everyone arrived, and the fun began.  Tony refereed the battles in Stadium 2, I referred the battles in Stadium 1.  They played best out of 3.

Snack break - chicken fingers and fruit.  Then it was back to more battles.  These kids could play Beyblades all day long.

I should have recorded how incredibly loud it was.  Screaming, cheering, and chanting for favorites.

Ella was #1 cheerleader.

Then we started the tournament.  In the end Wilson prevailed over Grace in the final round - but it was a close one.

Even Max was in on the action.

Then it was time for Beyblade Birthday Cake.

And the party ended with an impromptu game of soccer.

We were really fortunate to have such warm weather in February.  It's very unusual, but we ran with it!