Elin's 1st Birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday Precious Elin!

When it comes to birthdays, anniversaries and other 'holidays' (like mother's/father's day, Valentine's day, etc) the DeBoers are not big celebrate-ers. We do celebrate, don't get me wrong, but we rarely go all out. A nice dinner at home (or maybe we'll spring for Chili's!), come cake and a few gifts is a typical birthday celebration. It was no different for Elin's first birthday - at least on her official birthday. 

True to form, Elin was pretty chill the whole time. Luke was definitely more excited than Elin. He struggled to wrap his little brain around the fact that it was Elin's birthday, not his. But the fact that he did get a few small gifts from all his grandparents and was able to eat a cupcake, or two, made it a little easier for him to deal with the fact that it wasn't his special day. And Elin, of course, was happy to share the limelight. 

Luke 'helped' Elin open some of her presents.

 Grammie DeBoer was on skype while we opened the presents she sent and gave Elin her first cupcake to eat/smash. Gotta love technology.

 Elin got a basket of play food from Matt and me - she enjoys taking everything out and putting it back in the basket. 

Such a big girl! Lately her favorite thing to say has been "Whoa". I'm pretty sure she was in the process of saying 'whoa' in this picture - she was probably impressed with my mad cupcake decorating skills. ;)

 She wasn't so sure what to do with all the singing and being the center of attention. 

 It didn't take long for her to figure out that sugar is delicious and that we were allowing, even encouraging her to dig right in. Such a sweet, sticky mess! 

Friends of ours' little girl, Lucy, turned 1 a few days after Elin so we decided to have a combined 1st birthday party (mostly just an excuse to get friends together). We had cupcakes and other yummy treats, some punch, and a few 'adult beverages'. We made some tissue paper pom poms and hung white Christmas lights around the patio - trying to make our backyard look less white trash (I'm not sure that the Christmas lights in May helped that at all, oh well). It turned out pretty nice and we all had a great time. 

 Elin was pretty tired by the time the party rolled around (I don't think she took a very good nap that day) She wasn't sure what to make of all the people singing to her. Lucy wasn't so sure about things either! It was hilarious to watch their faces during the singing of 'Happy Birthday'. The batteries on my camera died just after taking this picture but Liz got the singing on video. I'll have to get a copy somehow.

Happy Birthday to two of the sweetest little ladies we know! We love you!!