Elaina's big day

Today was a big day. We had Elaina’s party. Actually, it was more like “Elaina’s full day”. Once Mother, Abbie and Austin made it here, I let them stay up for a little while because everyone was so excited to see each other. We let the girls sleep in the living room on the air mattress. They were excited to “camp out” in the living room. When I finally got everyone to sleep last night, Elaina was sure to ask that I we sing “happy birthday” and let her have a birthday like Emma. I gave her a kiss and said, “Sure, sure. Now go to sleep”. For Emma, we had the kitchen decorated and gifts out when we went and woke her singing “happy birthday.” I woke up around 7 AM because I figured out what Elaina actually meant. I had dropped the ball. Elaina wanted the big hubabalu that Emma got and I had nothing like that planned. Mother and I quickly drove to Kroger and got some flowers and donuts. When we got home Austin, Josh and Emma helped us decorate the kitchen.

Elaina actually slept late. That was a treat. She did wake up before we finished, but we just made her stay under her pillow with her eyes closed. Once everything was finished, we sang to her. She was really excited.

Then she got to open one present. She has wanted this doll ever since Emma got her doll on her birthday. It is like the American Girl dolls.  Mother found it on sale and I’ve been holding on to it for a couple of months. We let her open the one gift in the morning so she could share the rest of the day with her special friend.

Then mother and I started assembling the cake. It wasn’t too bad. Mother was a great help to me. It was nice to have two sets of hands. :} Once the icing was on, I started getting the towers together and rolling the sugar cones in sugar crystals. Mother started decorating the cake. Emma and Abbie wanted to help, and we welcomed the extra hands helping. Elaina had gotten her feelings hurt earlier (Emma wanted to read the book that came with the doll before Elaina could) and was hiding out in her closet. By the time the girls were decorating the cake, Elaina made her way in and decided to help also. I think the girls decorating the cake worked out perfectly. They really liked getting to decorate the cake. I think it helped make it even more special. ~ Sorry about the pictures.  My camera is doing some weird stuff and the pictures are not coming out as good as they used to for some reason.~

Here is what the cake turned out looking like.  I know.  I was going to make the cones look a bit better, but by the time it was done, I figured it was good enough for today.  After two straight days of baking and decorating cakes/cupcakes, I was tired of icing and cake!  Elaina was excited about it.  Actually, all the girls were excited about it.  Their excitement was all it took for me to decide it was good enough.  :}

We then got ready for the tea party. We had lots of great food.

Everyone (except Grandma, of course) had their babies sit beside them. I was the waitress. I was called 'servant' a few times, but I quickly let them know that I was their waitress, not servant. :}

They were really patient and let Mother and me clean the dishes before we had our manicures. I didn’t get any pictures because I was busy applying polish, and gems to their nails. I also had seen on a blog about how to make a flower with polish. I attempted that on the girls and Mother. They were happy. That’s all that can be said about that. :}

After the manicure, Mike and Jake returned from the Air show they attended to avoid the tea party get out of our hair. Elaina opened her gifts from everyone. She got lots of great things. She was really happy with all her gifts.

We then sang “happy birthday” and she blew out her candles on her cake. The only problem was that we were all so full from our tea party that we didn’t even want to think about eating the cake yet.

We let the cake sit for a while and the kids went off and played.

Around 5 PM it was time for Grandma to get Abbie and Austin back home. ~I know you are dying to know, and the answer is "yes".  We forced ourselves to eat some cake and ice cream before they left. Way to much is still left over, though. :} We were all sad to see them go. We are grateful they were able to come and share in the fun with us.