Ela has a birthday

Last week, Ela turned one. I can't believe how fast the last year has gone! We had a lot of fun celebrating with Ela in a variety of ways. On Ela's actual birthday, her godfather, Rob, was around. We went out to do some sightseeing with him.

Rob also gave Ela some presents. The book about Dogs is her favorite for the moment, but the monkey made for better photo ops...

On Saturday, all the grandparents and some other family came up for Ela's first birthday party. Since Ela is a little young to be choosing her own theme, I decided to go for a Japanese theme. The hardest part was attempting cherry blossoms on the cake (and the picture refuses to rotate, sorry about that).

I also did a little bit of origami to decorate the house. I didn't expect this to be interesting to Ela, but it turns out she loves it. We still have it hanging, and I'll probably turn it into a mobile for her room sometime soon.

Even though it's two months early, I put out our decorations for Children's Day, since it's a Japanese thing.

And, of course, there was Japanese food to be had: onigiri (rice balls), sushi, pocky sticks, some baby cookies, and Miso soup (not pictured). We took a trip to the Eastern Market the morning of the party, and Zack bought chips and salsa, so we served that, too.

Ela, of course, was all dressed up, and seemed to enjoy all the grown ups giving her attention.

She only had one friend under the age of 17 at the party, her second cousin, who is a pro at this birthday stuff and helped her with the present opening process. I'm pretty sure we couldn't have done that bit without her help!

We got the cake eating ceremony on video, but by that time Ela was more interested in napping than eating. She really does like cake, though.

After cake, Ela took a good nap and the party broke up pretty naturally. I think the adults all had a good time, too. I certainly enjoyed having everyone around to celebrate the big day.