BIRTHDAY POOL PARTY

On Saturday Isabella invited all of her friends to a POOL PARTY!! It was a lot of fun because basically everyone we know has little girls. Mommy did a great job decorating; she is so creative! We all know that Bella is all little girl and Mommy's decorations captured Bella's personality to a tee! With the backyard at Grandma and Grandpa Noorda's house all decorated and the pool heated, we were ready for party!

We invited a bunch of families from our ward, a few families from the dental school (unfortunately because of vacation none were in town), as well as a couple of other families that Stacie knows from growing up in Vegas. After all was said and done, 7 little girls and 1 little boy celebrated with Bella at her party--she was so excited to have so many other kids around.

When everyone arrived we went swimming--like we've said before, Bella just loves to swim. The pool was a hit with all of the kids. We swam for about an hour and then got out to have dinner. Daddy was excited to actually use a BBQ and enjoyed cooking up hamburgers and hotdogs for everyone--there was plenty of food, meaning it must have been a good party!

After dinner, Mommy gave the little girls flower headbands and we put them all on the grass to take some pictures. It was really funny to watch as the girls' personalities came out: Bella was trying to get the other little girls' attention and look at their faces, a couple little girls didn't want to wear their headbands, one little girl took another little girl's headband to give to her brother, the little girl whose headband was taken started crying, and then yet another little girl tried to comfort the one that was crying. It was so funny to watch. We got some very cute pictures of all the girls in their headbands.

After the headbands we sang Happy Birthday to Bella and brought out her cake. Mommy made a special cake just for Bella so that she could dive into it and make a mess. Bella's cake was quite a sight! For some reason the icing on the sides didn't want to stay put and as we drove to the Noorda's we just watched as the sides of the cake began to collapse. We tried to fix it, but it was a lost cause--oh well, it was meant to be destroyed by Bella anyway. When Bella first saw her cake, she wasn't quite sure what to do. After blowing out her candle (with Mom's help and the help of the wind) she gingerly stuck her finger in the icing on the top of the cake. She played with it in her fingers for a minute and then looked at Mommy as if asking what she was supposed to do. Mommy helped her get a taste of the icing and she wasn't impressed. In fact she made a face of disgust as she ate the frosting (we were all laughing quite a bit at this point). She tried to crawl away, but we put her back by the cake and she started to hit it a little bit, but nothing major. Finally Mommy put some cake in her mouth, and again she gave us the most disgusted face--cake is not her favorite! She was done and the funniest part was that she didn't get any of it on her clothes! What a funny little girl.

After the cake, Bella opened presents! Again, Bella was a very lucky girl because her friends brought her so many wonderful gifts. She is very grateful to have such great friends!

With the first birthday party all finished up, we think it went very well and was a lot of fun. We know Bella had fun because she barely made it home without falling asleep.