Ella's First Birthday Party (with family and friends)

With friends Mike and Deanna.

Cousin Sabrina and Aunt Sarah.

Grandpa Martin and Ella.

Uncle Duane dancing with Ella.

Opach side.

Cousins Hannah and Emily helping us open gifts.

Family from Nora's side.

Grandma and Grandpa Liss.

Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah.

Liss side.

Pink boots--perfect for Ella.

Ella's denim jacket from Brigette.

Finally sampling the cake. This is as dirty as she got....one hand only ;)

Birthday cake we ordered (and then decorated with owls).

The smash cake Mike and I made.

Ella sporting her Birthday hat.

On Sunday, October 24th we celebrated Ella's 1st Birthday with family and friends. It was such a great day! We really appreciated all who came out on the sunny, unseasonally warm October day! Over 50 of us gathered at Gelsosomos in Crown Point to celebrate (since our Valparaiso home was still under renovation). Ella received many much appreciated, generous gifts. Of course her cake was decorated with owls (what else ;). Mike and I made the smash cake and we ordered a larger coordinated sheet cake. Mike actually did a great job in helping decorate the smash cake...he decorated with the purple frosting (must be his experience in working at a bakery years back in college :)

For Ella's birthday, she wore a sparkly tutu I found and a custom made shirt from our friend Brigette (who lives in California now and who we truly miss)! Brigette also surprised us with a custom jean jacket--very cute! Brigette also made a custom shirt for Ella's tutu. It is perfect! Her tutu was custom made by another friend of mine.

After we sang Happy Birthday, and her candles went out she started to cry for some reason. Not really sure why. We sang "Happy Birthday" ("STO-LAT") in both Polish and English. Sto-lat means "many happy years". During her song, I called our friend Brigette and her family sang with us. It was as if she was there, so it was nice :) We recorded the song for Aunt Lori and family (in Massachussetts) so they could be a part of it too.

We were grateful that our cousins Mark and Kristy were able to join us from Florida. We are also grateful to cousin Sabrina for helping put Ella's 1st year picture CD together for the party. It turned out to be quite a project with over 1,000 pictures to choose from! A special thanks to everyone who had a part in making it such a memorable day! What a great way to celebrate Ella's First Year! What a big girl she is becoming.