Ribbons & Bows

Ribbons and Bows, Frills and Fun was the theme of Elena's first birthday party.  There was plenty of hustling around prepping all the food, decorations and crafting.  How I pulled it together, I don't know!  I did an ABSOLUTE horrible job of taking pictures at her party.  I realized after everyone left, that we didn't get a single picture of our family or of Elena...bad Mommy.

Here are the pictures that I did get....

                                          

Happy Birthday Laney!

 Cake #1

 Cake #2

 The Foooooood!

 The Gift Table 

 Daddy and the Birthday Gal

We really wanted to honor Elena's first birthday giving back to the hospital that saved her life and allowed us to celebrate this special milestone.  Instead of bringing a gift for Elena, we had everyone bring a toy to be donated to the Riley Hospital Cheer Guild.  The last thing we need are more toys anyway! :)  Elena received many toys, blankets and animals while she was a patient, so it was awesome to bring three boxes of toys back to Riley.  To top off the week, my family served a meal on Thursday at the Ronald McDonald House.  As you probably read from our CaringBridge, the RMH was our haven especially when Elena was in the PICU.  I don't know what we would have done without that comfortable space, wonderful volunteers, and plentiful food.  I definitely had to fight back the tears every time a family came through.  It brought back so many memories of exhausted days, thanking the volunteers who served us so many meals.  So much heartbreak there.  We were so happy to offer a smile and a world-famous Frey Coney Dog!

It was certainly a bittersweet birthday week.  Lots of memories, good and bad.  But mostly, we were grateful to be celebrating a birthday and were very busy showering Elena with kisses, hugs and squeezes.