Ellie's Birthday Party

A Strawberry Shortcake Themed Party that was fit for a Princess!

Chef Ellie helped bake her birthday cake -- a strawberry cake made from scratch that was YUMMY. Does she look happy about this process or what??

And let me say that I won't EVER be quitting my job to go into cake decorating. I waited too late to get Kenya to do Ellie's birthday cake (she had a wedding) and so I decided I could make a fondant icing Strawberry Shortcake cake all by myself. What WAS I THINKING???

My mother in law, Mary, came for the party and helped the night before. It took two of us and we still didn't do a great job of putting the fondant on. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning trying to get the cake just right. You'll see the final result a little farther down the page.
Here is a sweet picture of Ellie with Aunt Jeanne.

The train table was a bit hit with all the kiddos.

This screams, "It's my party and I'll pout if I want to" doesn't it???

It was a riot watching these three boys all sitting in the floor glued to the Strawberry Shortcake movie.

This was one of the two tables of goodies we had to eat: cupcakes with strawberry filling, strawberry Crush soda, strawberry lemonade, chocolate covered pretzel sticks, sweet and sour meatballs, chili cheese dip, strawberry "whoopie pies", cake balls, spinach artichoke dip, BLT dip, peanut butter/jelly sandwiches (mini-shaped sized), and a veggie tray.

Ellie's BFF, Addie, was checking out one of Ellie's presents from Ava.

AND .... the previosly mentioned cake...

Crazy, that's all I can say. But, Ellie loved it, and that is all that mattered in the end. I mean, look at this face.

Blowing out three sweet candles.

Wonder if she wished for anything?

Ellie and Maverick are definitely cut from the same cloth -- go, go, go and play, play and play.

Katherine and Princess Ellie

"I'd like to phone a friend."

It was a lot of fun for Ellie!! She had great friends around to help her celebrate; she got so many wonderful presents AND she had cake. We had a great day celebrating this little one's life.

My facebook status the day before her birthday read:

Somewhere in Kyrgyzstan, it's already 3/29 and a mama is certainly thinking about a birth three years ago. I hope, in her heart, she can somehow know how VERY MUCH I love this child, what a wonderful life she has and what a blessed gift she was to our family. I wish I could tell her.

I'll leave you with a funny quote from Ellie from the day before her birthday:

"Pink is not my favorite color anymore." Ellie

"Really? What is your favorite color?" Me

"SPARKLES" Ellie

Her new nickname? Sparkles Latham

Ahh... the life of a girl who likes sparkles.