A birthday party for Ellie

This is Ellie:

Ellie came to live with us around Christmas time.  She arrived at our home in Kaelyn's stocking.  Since she is a Ty stuffed animal, she has a tag that tells her name and her birthday.  Kaelyn discovered it after she had already named her Ellie.  So she decided that Ellie's nickname could be "Peanuts" since that was the name on her tag.  She has asked me every since December whose birthday is on March 22 and I am supposed to know/remember that it is Ellie's based off of what her tag says.  Kaelyn has lots of birthday parties for her various "pals" using her play kitchen set, dishes, etc. but this one in her mind was more real/important since she didn't just make up or pick a day for a pretend birthday party. 

She had been asking me about a party for a week or two prior to March 22 and I had already decided that we would have to have some kind of little party.

 

First, we needed cupcakes.  I already had a cake mix and frosting so we made those up in the afternoon.

Kaelyn doesn't usually have much interest in helping with cooking and baking but occasionally she will want to help and since this was for Ellie's birthday, she was pretty determined that she was going to help put the frosting on them.

She put a small little dab on the middle of each cupcake that she frosted.  :-)

Later that afternoon, we went to the Dollar Tree and picked up a few things.  Between what I already had at home and a few dollar items, we had a helium balloon, decorations, party hats, and even a couple dollar presents.

I decorated the kitchen while Kaelyn stayed in the bedroom.  I got the pals (her stuffed animals) that she wanted at the party and put hats on them.  When Kaelyn walked out with Ellie and saw the balloon, decorations, and her pals with party hats on, she was so thrilled!  :-)

The "guests" with the birthday elephant.

Ellie and the rest of the pals that attended the party.

From left to right:  the Tramp, Lady, Dumbo, Hello Kitty, and Bullseye, the horse from Toy Story.  Oh yeah, and Ellie.

Ellie with her balloon.

Kevin had to be in Orlando early the next morning so he had gone to Bible Study and then on up to Orlando for the night so he missed the party.

Kevin had mentioned that maybe we should invite Megan down but while I was having fun, I did feel slightly silly and wasn't sure I had the nerve.  As it turned out, Megan and Andrea came down to give something to Kaelyn and saw our party about to start so we invited them to join us and we were happy to have more guests of the human variety.  :-)

Unfortunately, Ellie was a bit small for the birthday hats so we had to try to rest it on her [fairly large] elephant ears.

And even if you think this whole thing is nuts, you gotta' admit that Ellie looks cute here with her birthday cupcake.  When Megan and Kaelyn went to "help" her blow out the candles, they were blowing right in her direction and I was minorly worried that they were going to ignite her.  :-)

Singing Happy Birthday

All three of the girls helped her open her presents.  There was an Easter painting picture from the dollar tree, a little stuffed puppy from the Dollar Tree, and a set of toys that Kaelyn already had.

So who had the most fun?  If you guessed Kaelyn or even Ellie, you might be wrong.  I was walking all over the Dollar Tree with a HUGE grin on my face because I was having so much fun planning the party and I knew people would think I was nuts if they knew that I was buying a balloon for a little stuffed elephant.  No, actually the balloon WAS for a little girl in a way.  That is where the sheer delight in it came from for me.  Seeing Kaelyn's excitement at having a "real" party for one of her beloved pals.  I hope she always has a HUGE imagination and I hope she always knows that her mommy cares so much about what's important to her - even if it's a little stuffed elephant's birthday.