Elna’s birthday party!

Elna was born on Memorial Day last year, so we thought it was appropriate (and mostly convenient) to celebrate her birthday on Memorial Day this year.  I had such a fun time decorating and getting ready for her party.  I did a pink lemonade themed party and  I think it turned out so cute! 

This picture was on the invitation we sent out.

When people came in they tried to guess which month was which from the monthly photos I took of Elna her first year.  Daren got all of them right—not even Brian or I got them all right, so that was pretty remarkable!

 

Linda and Allan Roberts

We had a barbeque and a lemonade bar (with strawberry, raspberry, & marionberry mix-in options)

I wasn’t trying to take pictures of people feeding Elna, but it just seemed to happen…do you think she got enough to eat?

So, you might be thinking at this point “What?  There are more pictures?”  But, believe it or not, there are—and this is only a tenth of what we took…

I really wanted to make Elna a perfect little birthday cake—pink with fancy piping and all.  You will see from the next picture that that didn’t exactly happen—this is how it looked when we got it out of the fridge:

But it was delicious!  Pink lemonade (and vegan! which I’m sure you had already concluded because of the look of that frosting. )

Elna was a little more tentative than I thought she would be.  She mostly poked her finger into the frosting and then licked her finger.

We skyped my mom and Annie during the cake singing/cake eating and she played the piano while we sang happy birthday all together.  The miracles of modern technology!

We made the birthday hat and bib for the occasion.  A lot of work for such a little girl.  After this party I can understand why non-first children feel slighted sometimes.  I can’t promise I will spend as many hours working or stay up till midnight the night before making fabric bunting and a bib for each of my children.  But honestly, I hope that I do, because as much work as it was, it was also fun to be creative and to celebrate our little Elna’s life!

Back row: Allan Roberts, Brian, DeWin, Lucy     Middle row: Barbara, Chris, Elna, Stacy    Front row:  Linda, Daren, Heather

Unwrapping her gifts from Grandma & Grandpa

The picture on the left makes me laugh—she was far more interested in Grandma’s cell phone than opening gifts.

I love the expression on her face in the picture on the left.  The picture on the right shows Elna opening her gift from us—a car seat.

The gift she is perching on above is from Chris—it’s a really cool puzzle/stool with Elna’s name in it and the number’s 1-10—I’ll have to get a picture of it.  She loves it!

Heather took these family pictures of us—I love how they turned out—thanks Heather! :

12 months (aka ONE whole year!)

1 year old!

The only way I could get her not to do this:

was to give her a book.  This girl loves her books!

At 1 year, Elna:

-- is a fearless climber.  She fell from tall places about 6 times in one day last week.  She climbs onto the back of the couch and then onto the bar behind the couch and then just perches.  Or on top of the shoe shelf.  She starts screaming in excitement and it’s kind of sad to burst her adventurous bubble when we take her down time after time after time…

-- also loves to climb in things.  She is in and out of her toy box all day long and loves to climb into a planter pot we have on our hearth right now.  She will even try to climb into teensy little boxes that don’t even fit her bum and then gets sad when she falls out of them. 

-- loves to dance and does it all the time when her toys play music or when my cell phone rings or when we listen to music.  It’s so cute!

-- leads music during church or when I sing to her.

-- free stands all the time but still won’t walk.  She can stand up in the middle of a floor without holding on to anything and she can squat back down and bounce in place.   

-- recognizes pictures of herself, me, Brian, and Jesus. 

-- still loves to eat.  I barely started giving her my bread and it’s her favorite thing ever.  She also loves green drinks and blueberries.  She likes chick’n curry, tomato soup with cheerios, veggie burgers and sausage, basil cream pasta, sweet potato pudding, and chili beans.  She will basically eat everything we eat. 

-- says Daddy, Mama, book, bath, hi, Jesus.

-- gives the best open-mouthed kisses ever.  On weekends Brian wakes up with her when she gets up too early and he brings her into our room when it’s time for me to get up to feed her.  She kisses me and kisses me until I open my eyes.  I should probably memorize these moments. 

-- loves playing peek-a-boo—with her hands over her face, underneath her bath towel, and under/over chairs and other objects.

-- adores the neighbor kids that play at the park.  And they adore her.  Sara (a 7-year old little girl) calls for Elna over the fence to play outside every day by yelling “Elna” super loud.  Elna will hear her even if our windows are shut and start yelling back.  It’s hilarious.  We love to spend time playing with her friends at the park sliding and swinging.  

-- makes a mad dash for the garage door, bathroom doors, or any cupboards when they are open.

-- is as cute and as sweet as ever!  We are crazy about her!

At 1 year old, Elna is 30 1/4 inches tall (84%), weighs 23.15 lbs. (88%), and her head circumference is 46 1/2 mm (86%).  So, basically she’s perfect!