“It’s my party, and I’ll do what I want to.”

Leah’s party was so much fun. I won’t lie – I was completely and totally exhausted afterward, but it was fun. There was just something special about everyone coming together to celebrate my daughter – it definitely felt different than any other birthday party I’ve ever been to. Hard to describe. I think everyone had a nice time – even Leah, who definitely had no idea that all of the fuss was for her.

I have nearly 1,000 pictures, so it was really hard to decide which ones to include. These are but a few of the good ones. They pretty much capture the essence of the day.

The decorations. I got her Elmo balloons (of course) and made her cake to look like a tag since that’s her main “thing” this year. (The tag cake idea went much more smoothly in my mind than in reality. We worked it out, though – a group effort.) The letters on the cake kind of looked like Elmo’s fur, which tied everything together. I also put her Taggie blanket and toys on the table, along with a picture of her sucking on a tag, to put everything in context. I think it worked.

During presents, her attitude was pretty much, “This is neat, but let’s move on to more wrapping paper.” She didn’t really grasp at the time that the gifts that we were opening were hers to keep, and she was clearly more interested in the paper and ribbons. I feel like I spent most of that time saying, “Leah, LOOK!” trying to get her to be enthusiastic about the sweet gifts that people had chosen for her. That, um, didn’t work so well (hence the title of this post).

Now….the ones everyone’s waiting for. A first birthday party is really about the cake, and she did just as I had expected her to. She dug right in. She made a mess, yes, but not as much as *ahem* some people do (you know who you are if I’m talking about your daughter here), and we were pretty pleased that more of the cake got IN her than ON her. Also as expected, she loved it when everyone sang to her. She gave us all a very enthusiastic round of applause when we finished.

Highlights: Elmo balloons, a “tag” cake, everyone under one roof (worlds colliding!), lots of Elmos, two bouncy balls, super cute clothes, a festive tutu party outfit, people singing, sharing her toys with her cousins, and cake. Lots of cake.