Family Time

Last Saturday we headed to Ryan, our great nephew's, first birthday party. I was looking forward to getting a cute picture of the girls in matching dresses...

*Undoing Ella's button.

Once again, I failed. This is why people hire photographers. At least it's why I do. I will pay big bucks to someone who is willing to get the girls to look at them for a picture. Really, I'd pay a lot. And I will be calling Bruce ("The Traveling Photographer") sometime soon to do just that.

It was a nice day for a road trip and the party was at a beautiful park on the water. We all took turns holding Ella (who of course was very very well behaved and went with the flow even though it meant very little sleep for her).

Here's our niece Alicia with her son Ryan. He was the birthday boy.
Ella chilled out on a table while everyone talked.
Lilly played football with Uncle Bill. I tried to get Ella to nap in her carrier but she wouldn't have any of that.
When it came time to cut the cake Lilly insisted on "the mouth!" and Bill nor I knew what she was talking about but she began to throw a semi-fit about it. I finally told her she could eat the piece of cake I was offering her or she could have no cake at all. She said, "I'll wait until affer dinner." I figured she was just being stubborn and we all went on to eat cake and be merry. Michele (my sister-in-law) then came over and said, "Lilly, here's the mouth!" and I was totally confused. Lilly wasn't however and sat down and happily ate her cake. Come to find out there was a picture of Ryan on his cake and Lilly and Michele had worked out a deal that when the picture was cut Lilly could have the mouth (no clue why she picked that part). So Lilly had decided to just wait and hold Michele true to her word even though I was clueless and frustrated that she wouldn't just eat the damn cake. Here's the mouth.
The kids collected candy from a pinata and filled their own goody bags (clever). Lilly loves pinatas.

Ryan loved his John Deere motor bike that his Mommy and Daddy gave to him.
We had a great time and enjoyed spending time with family that we rarely get to see.