Ella's Half Birthday Party

We decided to have Ella's birthday parties in the summer each year. So on Saturday, June 25, she had a birthday party that was like her 2nd birthday party but she was 2 1/2. I think it went better than one in December would have.

I got so busy planning meetups that all of the planning happened in a week. I sort of planned the food a week in advance then planned everything else 1-3 days before. I spent a ton of time Thursday compiling the data for the little numbers collage I had.  I finished that late Thursday then went through pictures to find some to print.  Wednesday I made rockets. Then it seemed like not enough on Thursday night when I put them on a string so I made more on Friday.

Cutting fruit and veggies took way too long. I was up to past midnight finalizing stuff inside and started setting up outside early on. I tried to get Dave to get out of bed and he kept thinking there wasn't much to do.  Then at 9:15, Divya and Maie showed up to help decorate. Dave barely helped. Then he had to leave to go get food, ice, and something to make dip for the fruit.  That took forever.

Luckily everyone was at least 15 minutes late since we were still decorating.  We also never actually finished.

Ella got to open her present from us before people showed up.

Maie and Susu were first and gave Ella her gift bag and Ella just carried it around forever.  She did look inside once and was so excited about her Steelers shirt.


People started showing up and it was a few minutes before going into the pool.  Dave still wasn't back and I was greeting people but Beth decided she could handle Ella and Gio in the pool so Ella was able to go in. It sure was nice to not have to be in there too to be able to greet people and finish setting up the food.

Dave got home just as Ella was about to jump off the diving board.  Beth was treading water for awhile to catch the kids as they took turns jumping in. Most were too scared so they stood on the board for a bit and slowly stepped off.    Dave went in the pool shortly after getting home so that Beth didn't have to handle Ella too.  Ella and Arya took turns jumping into Divya's arms. They had so much fun.

A little after 11, Dave got out of the pool to start making the hot dogs. He made 16 instead of 24. We had 1 left after everyone ate (but 2 were still yet to come).

We had fruit, veggies, hot dogs, Jersey Mike's hoagies, pasta salad, chips, and Doritos. We had marscarpone dip for the fruit. We had ranch and hummus for the veggies.

Some were still eating but we did cake because 3 sets of people had to leave to get to a baby shower.

Dave commented while cutting the cake, he asked if he should cut them Pennsylvania sized or California sized.  He did a mix but still actually cut them smaller than they would in PA.  I had 2 cakes but we only did ice cream cake with being in such a hurry. So then everyone ate that cake (but me) and we almost ran out.

Then we went back into the pool.  Most people left by 1. Then a couple didn't show up until 1:45. The party was from 10-2.   Brenna and Dan left around 2:30 then Ella ate again.  Then Dave took her back into the pool while I cleaned up.  She shouldn't have because then she didn't nap until 4 PM (when I took her for a car ride).

While cleaning up Ella did open a couple presents even though I told her not to. Then she was using the rocket launcher for a bit before nap.

After nap, Ella opened some of her presents. She was in an awful mood and wouldn't put on clothes so she's indecent in the pictures that I took of her opening and playing with the presents.