The best laid plans...

We celebrated Elora's 1st birthday a little over a week ago and we had so much fun. All of my grand plans fell apart, but when you have a little girl who is loved by friends and family and they all gather to celebrate her first year of life in this world, a party can't help but be a great success :)

I was so afraid that we would have a disaster on our hands because Elora hadn't taken a good nap all day. I had planned the party around her nap schedule knowing that if all is well, she would be waking up from her 2nd nap right when the party needed to start. Unfortunately, I fear she could feel the tension of us rushing around to get things ready and she just couldn't sleep. But with all of the excitement at the party, she was a trooper and did amazingly well! The party went great and we had a lot of fun.

I had so many plans of amazing handmade decorations and favors and goodies, but I'm realizing that I am not so good at time management and those plans of craftiness fell apart. I did manage a few things. I made the bunting banner you see above as well as her party attire. I also made some cute little cupcake toppers for my sad cupcakes.

One thing that went perfectly as planned was the big moment I had been preparing her for, for months...blowing out her candle. We'd been practicing but I was afraid that with all those people looking at her she'd freeze up. But she did great. She got it on the first try and everyone cheered. That freaked her out a bit, but not too much as she proceeded to hand me the candle and dig in to her cupcake. She loved it.

All in all, it was a fun time and I just let go of all the things that didn't go as planned. We were so blessed by everyone who came and Elora is loving all of the goodies she received.