This is her big cake that I got from Sam's. Ella LOVES animals so it was perfect for her. Plus it matched the color theme I had going-lavender and pink. (This pic makes the writing look blue but it really is a light purple)

Okay, this is where the picture in my head turned out WAY different than real life. I wanted to make Ella a little 'smash cake' all her own that matched her big cake. So I bought these mini cake pans to make her own 3 layer cake. The cake itself turned out great! It was just a polka dot cake mix, but it looked all yummy and moist.

The look of the cake, on the other hand, didn't turn out quite how I imagined it. But, my sister Kari was able to turn it into a decent looking cake. (No offense to Kari, because this was not her fault at all! She did great for what she had to work with, if it'd have been me I'd have thrown it at the wall in frustration) She is really good at decorating cakes, I wish I had pics of the masterpieces she has made for her kids. The problem was mine-my frosting was terrible! It kept melting everywhere! We tried cooling it in the fridge to no avail. We stacked the layers of cake on each other and got the coat around the cake smooth, but slowly the frosting between the layers started seeping out and making the cake sag and tip. The hearts that she had put on the sides started sliding down the cake and the borders that she piped around the top and bottom spread and kind of melted together. I was imagining a pure white base-with pastel pink hearts and lavender edging. Well it's not quite what I ended up with. I still put the purple Elephant on top(fitting right?!) which was cute. Looking at it makes me laugh; I wish you could see the idea in my head and compare it to the real thing, if you could you'd laugh too.

After destruction, she was cool with chewing on the elephant

After a quick bath, she hung out with her cousin Kaytlyn. That pretty much rounds out her party. It was so much fun. It was great to watch her open presents, flip the cake around, ya know the whole thing! I'm glad that everything didn't turn out as planned because it makes it more fun that way. The most important thing is Ella; my sweet baby girl is one! I love her so much and I am so thankful for her!

After everyone had gone home, we were hanging out a little longer and Ella found these little cups my mom had.

We put them on her hands and she looked so confused like "Hey, where are my hands?!"

"Eh, no biggie, this works, I can still eat it this way!"