All the fixin's!!!!

Holy moly....its been nearly a month since I have been on my blog. No nothing has happened to me...I blame it on a lost cord, really. My pocket camera's cord sprouted legs and walked away. On some of our outings that is all I use, so I have been pictureless without the cord. Never fear, though, I have borrowed a cord, got the pictures as well as a boat load of others from the good camera.....

The big event, Ella's birthday will dominate for a while. I am going to trickle in pictures for a while so I don't have a blog black hole like I did last month.

So Ella's party. What a blessing that Ella has turned three. I hate to same time flies because it is so cliche, but it does sum it up. It seems in some ways her baby time was a million years ago, and in other times how did that baby get to be this big? I mean seriously I could lay awake at night thinking about how she has litteraly grown in front of my eyes, yet somehow I feel like I missed it. Did she do all that growing in her crib at night? I mean really, its amazing. I am so blessed by God to be a part of her life!

We have not had a birthday party for her before this was the first and I had SO much fun start to finish....We extended the table with the leaf. All over the table are little squirt toys...


I am totally not a streamer person. Don't laugh...I googled how to use streamers. I have been terrified of the things for years. Don't know why, but I overcame my fears with a little help from Google and Binyam!!!! I really liked how it turned out. I originally bought the beach balls to just litter around the house as decorations...UNTILL...I saw how much balloon were. I don't know if there are balloon deals out there to be had. I had no idea they are like $1.20 each. That is not for the fancy ones either, just the plain ole latex colored balloons...Holy cow....I got the beach balls for much less than that when Walmart clearanced out their summer stuff. Thank goodness. Don't know when the light bulb went of to hang them, but it is awefully cute! I also decided to do all the colors of plates, cutlery and streamers to match the balls.

Aaaah yummie the food. I had pulled pork, Mexican salad, macaroni salad, regular salad, fruit salad, chips and dip with homemade salsa. The best thing there was the Hellava Good bacon horseradish dip. I guess people were afraid of the horseradish???? Thanks people for leaving it all for me!!!!!!!The infamous cake. I was going to make my own. How could I beat that...couldn't. Especially trading the time and toil to make one with the ease and convenience of buying this one.... What was I thinking trying to make one....??????
Here is the birthday girl herself showing off her table...actually she was sneaking swipes of frosting from the cake, but it was her birthday...whatever floats her boat!!! Oh, and the pail on the table is filled with rice crispy treats and candy popping rocks.



The goodie bags. All beach paraphernalia. Rubber duckies, sand scoopers, bug houses, sidewalk chalk, beach bags....

The outside arrangement. There was a slip and slide off to the left out there too. The big pool was a gift from God! I found that for insanely cheap at Walgreens of all places when they were getting rid of all their summer stuff too!!! Great find! Binyam took this picture from the upstairs window when the sun peaked out for five minutes. Yes, it pretty much rained all day, but that didn't stop the kids from swimming, thank goodness!
And the birthday girl herself in her birthday dress (garage sale in Avalon)! The dress didn't last long, when the kids came she was out of that quick as lightening and in her swimming suit....