Ellie's First Birthday!

 It is hard to believe but Ellie turned one last week.  I don't know where this year has gone. The saying that sometimes the days are long but the months are short is so true. It feels like just yesterday that she was in my belly and I was anxiously awaiting her arrival.

Her birthday fell on a weekday so we didn't plan too much hoopla for her actual birthday since she doesn't know what a birthday even is yet.  She went to daycare in her special shirt and after we picked her up in the afternoon we gave her one of her favorite treats. This little pumpkin loves all things pumpkin and Starbucks Pumpkin Loaf is one of her favorite things.

While we were feeding her dinner we decided to FaceTime my mom so she could say hi and when she and my sister answered they were in our front yard to surprise us! We were very surprised and happy to see them.  

They brought her a balloon and a gift from my Aunt and Uncle for Ellie to open. She had a great time pulling everything out of the bag and carrying it around. She doesn't understand social distancing (what one year old does) so she kept picking up leaves and offering them to my mom and sister.  We all wore masks and enjoyed seeing each other. She has been carrying around her balloon ever since.

 

Since having a party with in person guests was out of the question (dumb COVID) we had a Zoom party for her that weekend. Since she loves all things pumpkin I decided that gold pumpkins was an appropriate theme.  Even the cake was pumpkin flavored. She played with her cake a bit but wasn't that into smashing or even eating the cake during the party.  Too many other things/people to look at on the screen.  She was busy waving and blowing kisses to all her relatives. She was pretty much just hamming it up.

  

After cake she opened presents and was (like most one year olds) most excited about the wrapping and the boxes but we did open the packaging of a couple of her gifts to let her play with them. Over the next few days we opened a few more and she has had a great time playing and learning with her new toys.  She is such a loved little girl and not just by us! As people left the Zoom call she was waving and blowing kisses again and just loving life.

Happy Birthday beautiful girl!