Eliza's Birthday Party

Since we would be in North Carolina this year over Eliza's Birthday, we decided to have her party early while we were still here in Utah. It caused a little confusion for her at first about whether she was four or five because she is so anxious to be a big girl she was hoping it meant she was five now. We cleared it all up for her though pretty easily. We ended up having it on June 27th at our house. Like Max, Eliza wanted a pool party. When we were deciding on a theme we were pretty much just looking at puppy parties. Eliza LOVES dogs and wants one sooo bad. She has been saying that she wants a poodle for quite some time now and one day she told me that she wants a pink one, no big surprise there. I had to tell her that they don't come in that color, so she is now set on getting a white one. Anyways, I got to thinking about that conversation that we had and remembered the Pink Poodle in Paris. I googled it to see if there were birthday party supplies in this theme and lucky enough there was! I knew Eliza was going to love it and once I showed it to her she was absolutely set on it. There was no changing her mind in the least. So we ordered the stuff online and she was so excited for it to come. She thought that it would be coming in the mail that day! I wish online ordering was that fast, I would love that. On the party day everything turned out great. We BBQ'd hot dogs and had fruit, carrots and chips with it - some of Eliza's favorites. Then we opened gifts and Eliza was completely spoiled. She got a pink scooter (which is what she asked for, I found the pinkest scooter I could find and she loved it.), tons of clothes, quite a few Polly Pocket toys, a jewelry box, a puzzle, money, and a couple of other toys. Uncle Mike and Riley even bought her a pink Nintendo DS!! Wow, how generous, thanks Uncle Mike! She loved the DS and was super excited about it because Gage and Max already have them and she has wanted one. I was super excited because I knew it would be a life saver on our VERY long drive to North Carolina. After gifts we had cake and ice cream and then all the girls took a few whacks at the pinata. I love watching their little faces get so serious as they try to hit the pinata as hard as they can. After that the party was over. Eliza had a great birthday party with many laughs and lots of fun.

Tati, Eliza, Ava, Anna, Clara, Elie
We were so lucky that Grandpa Keith and Grandma Bobbie could make it so we could see them one last time before we left for North Carolina. They are amazing Grandparents ~ we adore them!
Eliza LOVES Grandma Bobbie sooo much. She talks about her all the time and will miss her so much. She's running over to greet her and help her down the stairs ~ how sweet!

Opening presents....


Isn't she darling??? I just love this girl soooo much!!
Look at her big ol' eyes eyeing her new DS!
Giving Riley a BIG thank you hug for the DS. These two sweet cousins love each other sooo much. Eliza couldn't wait for Riley's visit to Utah this summer. They've been playing like crazy!

I LOVE those big cheeks!
Eliza taking a big whack at the pinata.



A sweet group of girly hugs!
Daddies and daughters ~ Blake and Eliza with his brothers David and Mike, and their daughters Tati and Riley.
After the party was over and friends had gone home, Blake's family decided to stay a little longer to swim some more and just hang out with us. Everything was going great and then Blake came in holding Eliza who was screaming with blood running from her mouth. She had fallen and hit her mouth on one of the deck stairs. I took her over to the sink to rinse her mouth and take a look at what had happened. She had dug her teeth into the inside of her bottom lip. She had a scrape on her chin so I started to look at that and noticed she also had a small laceration on the outside of her lip just above her chin. I told Blake we should go to the ER just in case she might need stitches. I didn't want her to end up with a nasty scar on her sweet, little chin and I wasn't sure if she had bitten through her lip or not. Eliza was such a brave girl about going to the hospital. I got us in the car and held her the whole way there, (we were buckled up together, I'm not totally irresponsible.) she was so sad and just wanted to be held by her mommy. I couldn't say no. The ER got us in really quickly and it was decided that she would be okay with just some Dermabond (that was really expensive super glue - $130!). I probably could have done this at home myself, but you never can be too sure and it was worth knowing that she wouldn't end up with an ugly scar on her face. The ER nurse tried to give Lize a popsicle on the way out, but she didn't want it so we bought her an ICEE on the way home - she never says no to those. I was so proud of Eliza, she was so brave and never cried once after we left the house, she just wanted to be cuddled by her mommy which I was more than happy to do. Here is a pic of her sad, little face after we got home.