The Party :0}

Saturday was the day of Elisha's first American-size celebration.

Mamaw and Tatia Paula (Tim's mom and sister) went all out and had a fabulous party for the family to celebrate both his homecoming as well as his officially becoming a toddler and joining the terrific twos!!! :0)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words- so here you go......

The great jungle theme went through out- he enjoyed roaring at the cake- you should have seen his eyes when I asked if he wanted to blow out his candles- priceless!!

Here he is taking it all in.

Here we are with Cheyenne- our niece. She was giving a brief photo lesson to Elisha before the present opening began. He loves the buttons!!!

Elisha has had a love for fire engines even before we brought him home. He loves to make the siren noise, with loud honking in the middle. The fisher price fire engine from the Frank family made just the same noise. He didn't want to stop pressing the button :0)

Cheyenne made him a pillow with her new sewing machine. She was so excited to see Elisha open this gift- here he is *sleeping* on it- complete with a little bit of snoring ;0)

He enjoyed throwing the paper out of the bags, ripping the paper from the boxes and really just wanted to stop and play with each toy. I was so proud of my little man- he even loved to open the cards!!

If you click on the this pic to enlarge it, you'll see he now is an official future hero.

He wasn't so sure of the bow on the head- but once he was able to take it off and put it there himself he left it on for several minutes.

He had a great time meeting a lot of new family and spending time with family he has already gotten to know. With the hectic schedules and a holiday weekend, we were unable to see many faces we had hoped to- but for the same reasons were able to see some family members we hadn't seen for a long time.

Tim showed video of our trips to Russia so our family could see the orphanage and a little of what our time was like in Russia. It was pretty cool to watch Elisha. He kept running over to the computer, pointing to us, saying Mama, Papa.
Here is Elisha saying, "Good job!"

All in all, we had a wonderful time, and at the end of the day, as we were cleaning up- the fire department had a run, so Elisha got to watch the real deal- the engine with lights and sirens running, pulling away from the fire house.
After a ride around the block in the ladder truck with Papa, we were able to come home and get cleaned up and off to bed.

I know this party was for Elisha, but from the bottom of my heart I want to thank my Mother and Sister-in-law for the priceless gift they gave me. Though I asked a few times ahead of time if there was anything I could do, they said they had it all taken care of. To be able to relax and enjoy my son's first birthday party with him and not stress about the details (like all the incredible food you provided- yum!!) was a wonderful, unexpected and highly treasured gift. Thank you!!