When it came to celebrating Ellie’s birthday, we really didn’t want to do anything big. We just wanted to have my folks and my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner. It’s pretty rare that just the six of us get together, so we thought it’d be nice to do for Ellie’s birthday. We decided to have tacos, and cupcakes. And since it was here first birthday, I wanted to make the cupcakes from scratch. Not like she would know the difference, but I still wanted to.Â
I don’t think either of us originally thought about her birthday being a big deal. It’s not like she was going to remember it. And we didn’t want her to do the typical cake smashing in the face. I thought it was just going to be a nice dinner with the immediate family. But as the day got closer, it was a BIG DEAL. She was turning ONE! Not only was she turning one, but we as parents made it through the first year.  I remember thinking back to when we were only getting two hours of consecutive sleep a night, and thinking that this phase would NEVER end. I’ll never have a goodnight’s sleep again, I thought. But here we were at a year. And she was sleeping through the night, and so was I! We made it! I was so anxious to have those early days over. The first three months felt like three years. But with her birthday coming, I found myself looking back and missing those days. The days when we could nap together on the couch. When I’d put her in the “pouch” and walk around the house or the neighborhood. When she wouldn’t nap and we’d go for what seemed like a billion walks a day. When all she could do was lay there and giggle at the ceiling fan. I had named all the ceiling fans in the house; Lady FANny of Omaha, Mr. PHANi Pak, Ellie’sFAN Club, and Mr. FANtastic. I had forgotten all about them! And that was only six months ago. Now my little girl is walking and quickly entering toddler-dom.  This WAS a major milestone for her, and at the last minute we both felt like we needed to make it a bigger deal than we were.
I went to the Party Plus store and bought a few banners, and an award pin that said “I’m 1!” And then I figured the cupcakes needed to be dolled up, too. So I got Hello Kitty cupcake toppers, gold foil cupcake papers, and hot pink food coloring for the frosting. I decorated the table with a pink table cloth and set the table all fancy. Also, Aya went and got Ellie a special birthday dress for the occasion. We could have easily done a lot more, but it was way more than what we had planned.
We didn’t want her to have-at-it with a piece of cake, but I figured we would feed her part of the cupcakes.  Which might I add, were pretty awesome. I got the recipe from our friend Lindsey who we refer to as, the Dessert Queen. Anytime we have a group dinner, she’s always designated to bring dessert. Why mess with something that works right? Anyways, between the cupcakes and the frosting, I used four sticks of butter. FOUR! I also went for the Ghirardelli chocolate to melt instead of Nestle Tollhouse. You know, to make it special. And when they came out of the oven, they sure were purrty. Baking a cake from scratch was pretty easy, but dang, it’s expensive. Maybe next year I’ll do the $1.50 cake mix from a box.
The evening was just what we wanted. A small intimate evening with the family and Ellie seemed to enjoy herself and the attention. My mom made her a fly dress and bought her some pink sparkle Converse-like shoes. She was more entertained by the ribbon on the box than she was by anything else though. And then it was time for cupcakes. I gave her a small piece of the cake part at first, and she seemed to like it. Then I gave her a piece with the frosting on it. She made a face, then she gagged, and then she puked.
Happy Birthday Ellie! Sorry I made you puke!
Yes, we had a fun time! I know she won’t remember but we sure will !