ella's bake shoppe...

i just have to say that ella's birthday this year was awesome!!!!  my first born has become rather fond of the food network...along with cooking and baking...so it seemed fitting that we decided to have a cake decorating party!!!!  

then we decided to invite the entire group of 1st grade girls (27 total)...plus a few sweet friends from church & life...and things got a bit tricky!!!  i had to quickly realize that my mom & i were not going to be able to make that many cakes...mainly due to the fact that we didn't have that much counter or freezer space!  thanks to alyson foreman - one of the most delicious bakers around - we were able to supply each of the girls with their own "mini cake" to decorate!  back in business!!!!

my precious birthday girl...she just makes my heart smile!

because i'm me...and am slightly obsessed fond of planning birthday parties...i asked the birthday girl's amazing daddy if he would help me create a "bake shoppe" stand!  i'm the mastermind (aka found the plan on the internet!!!!) and he's the
cre-a-tor i should say!  it turned out FAR beyond what i could have imagined!  i L.o.V.e it and i think we will get tons of use out of it this summer when we sell our lemonade!!!!!!

we had the party on a friday afternoon immediately after school and the weather could not have been better!  i was so thankful for the beautiful day!  

we lined the driveway with this cupcake wrapper garland (thank you, pinterest!!!)...and then i got the bright idea to have "my carpenter" cut out some huge wooden "spoons"!  like the flat ones that borden's used to give out with their ice cream!  i'm not sure if anyone else could recognize what they were...but i loved them!!!!  

then i had jeffrey (at midnight the night before!) outside with me "draping" the carport ceiling!  i'm sure he had some choice words for me...one being "what in the heck is draping?!?!"...but he happily thoughtfully stapled away until the job was done!!!!  

hung the aprons with care...

got the raspberry lemonade ready to roll...

set out the icing and all the other "goodies" we were going to use for their masterpieces...

and then just waited for the sweet guests to arrive!!!!  

they did an amazing job decorating their cakes...and i'm so proud of the way that each one took their time to make their "confectionary canvas" a work of art!  i've had more moms tell me that they weren't allowed to eat the cakes because the girls didn't want to mess them up!!!!!  

with the help of my mom, i made these glass cake stands that each child was able to take home!  just some donated candle sticks, glass plates from the dollar store, and e6000 glue...and voila...a surprisingly adorable cake stand!!!!  

here are the final products...on display...

even the "babiest" price had a good time decorating...although i'm fairly certain that she ate just about as much icing and as many adornments as she used!  love that girl!

 

i love that the above pictures shows her about to eat just "one more piece"...& she's seeing if she can get away with it...

looks like she did!!!!! 

we only had one mishap...that we were quickly able to "save the day" with an extra cake...thank goodness for that!  lots of tears were shed by that sweetie!

when the girls weren't decorating cakes...we had them drawing pictures for ella or making cupcake wrapper flowers!  everything ran more smoothly than i could have dreamed!!!  

we paused for a few minutes to sing to our special girl...i can vividly remember singing to her on her first birthday.  i can remember exactly where we were standing, who was there, and what we were wearing.  *sigh*  here we are...EIGHT years later...singing to that same "little baby"...and i'm holding another one with yet another close by.  my heart is SO full!

these were the cupcakes that we (mom the baker...me the decorator!) had for the girls to actually eat since their decorated cakes were going home!  

here are two of my girls...ella eating a cupcake while hula hooping (HA!) and ava eating a cupcake while in heaven (the girl luuuuuuvs some sugar!!)!!!  maddie was still decorating her masterpiece!!!

each of the girls took their picture at the "bake shoppe"!  such cute, cute little ladies!  it was a super special day with super special friends and family...celebrating an INCREDIBLY special little girl...that just happens to be our ella!  

thanks to everyone that partied with us!  we love you!

the invitation

the two ava's

one of mommy's sweet friends

precious victoria

couldn't love her more if i tried!

one of the BEST grandpa's in the entire world...he makes memories for life with these three little ones!

how can my 6 lb bundle be eight years old?!?!

don't leave me out guys?!

my three decorator's treasures...

birthday girl's

sweet maddie's

precious ava's

the party planner

a trio of love...lots and lots of love!!!!

ella in her apron...ready for the par-tay to begin!

my two bigs with their two FaVoRiTe people!!!

silly shot of the group!  love these girls...i'm so thankful that ella has special friends to celebrate with her!  thanks for making her day perfect!!!