A Day of Celebration

Today was a great day; busy, but great! The morning started off a little crazy. I left my phone at school. Paul was working. Ellie is teething. Erica was tired because she fights sleep, and Ethan had a soccer game. What a great day to plan a party, but it all came to gather nicely thanks to our family.

Ethan has really been wanting a race car birthday party for sometime now. We decided that this year he could celebrate his birthday with his friends. He chose to have his party at Rascal's Fun Zone. He loved it! The kids were able to ride go karts, play games, eat pizza and ice cream, and just have fun. Ethan loved being able to drive the go kart himself. He kept telling the operator to make the cars go faster.

Ethan was getting ready to pass his dear friend Ruthie. She was a little timid at first, but did very well the next chance she had behind the wheel.

Ethan, Jake, Luke, Addie, and Genna enjoying their pizza and ice cream.

After Ethan's party, we hurried home to meet our family to celebrate Ellie's first birthday. I think that it was a good thing that I was so busy that I didn't have much of an opportunity to dwell over the fact that my baby is turning one.

Ethan had many gifts for his birthday, Ellie had lots of gifts for her birthday, and Erica even received a few gifts for being a great sister. She was so happy to receive presents also.

My Ellie Bugs' birthday cake. Didn't B'maw do a great job icing the cake? It still looks good after Erica fell into the cake!

Ellie and her Daddy opening presents. He enjoyed being able to help her on her big day!

My sweet little Bugs . . . you can tell that she it not feeling well. Those teeth are really bothering her.

Opening presents with Mommy and Daddy

And now the best part . . .

before

and after!

Ellie LOVED her cake! She was so excited that she forgot about her teeth bothering her. She had cake and icing EVERYWHERE! I think she is still blowing red and black snot out of her nose. Paul and I both had to change shirts after getting Ellie into the bathtub. We had to drain the water and refill the tub because it was so dirty, and we took her high chair outside and hosed it down. Erica helped me, so I even was hosed down!

What a great day! Ethan wasn't ready for the day to end. Our neighbor is sleeping over at our house.

Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts. That was very generous of you. Thank you for taking the time to help celebrate with us. We are very blessed to have such a loving family.