Ella's 4th Birthday Party! :)

This is a birthday that will go down in history!!! Ella had the most fun I think I've EVER seen her have. I'm going to try and remember all the details, so Ella can look back one day and remember this special day!

Ella's special party guests: 3 Emmas! (Emma Alexander, Emma Strong & "neighborhood" Emma), Gabby and Misty, Jordan & RJ and Mark, Lily and Evan.

Unfortunately our Canon camera is on the blink, so we had to rely on Misty's point-and-shoot. You know we love you "Aunt Misty," but the quality of these pictures are a little iffy ;)

Mommy tried to transform the house into a "Birthday Wonderland." We had lots of streamers, balloons, and birthday paraphernalia! I wish all you blog-readers out in cyber space could have seen it in "real life" because the pictures were hard to take at certain angles, ect. I decorated the night before so Ella was SO excited to wake up to her whole house transformed into total Birthday-ness! Here are a few (poor angled) pictures of the decorations! :)

Ella was a great hostess as each of her friends arrived. She would usher them all into her playroom and introduce them to each other. Around 15 minutes after the party started, we called Ella outside! This is the view she had from our porch, looking down the road...

Mrs. Jess and Mr. Seth made a dramatic entrance as they road the horses up our street and directly into our front yard! Ella was in complete awe. I wish all of you could have seen the absolute joyous look that was plastered on her face!!! Immediately she asked to pet the beautiful brown horse, Renee. She was so sweet and gentle and in absolute heaven!!

Ella and all the other kids listened while Mrs. Jess explained all the rules. Ella donned her precious helmet and was off to the races!! She kept the same smile you see in this picture the entire time! It was so sweet to watch. I think she would have stayed outside forever riding those horses! She was almost a natural and loved when Jess taught her how to hold the reins all by herself.

After Ella and all her friends had a chance to ride the horses (several times) we all headed inside for a true 'cowgirl feast.' On the menu was: Hot dogs, nuggets, mac-n-cheese, potato salad, baked beans, veggie tray and various chips-n-dip. We then lit the candles on the birthday girl's request of strawberry cupcakes and vanilla icing. (Mommy was partial to the 'adult' version of strawberry cupcake with cream cheese/strawberry icing with pecans!) Ella successfully blew out 4 candles while everyone sang happy birthday!

After food and cake, we moved onto every 4 year old's favorite part! ;) Ella got to sit in her special birthday seat and open presents! She got a lot of really cool animal-related gifts (a complete veterinarian set complete with a dog and crate, horses and horse trailers, Littlest Pet Shop accessories, ect) lots of neat games and a few doll toys! :) She really lucked out with a wide variety of awesome gifts!

We topped off the afternoon with a pinata, which Ella has been SO excited about! We all went outside and all the kids (and ahem--some of the adults) took a whack at the pretty horse pinata. It was fun to see all the kids frantically scattering around the yard to fill their bags full of goodies. Ella said goodbye to her friends and passed out party favors.

We all had a great day with Ella. I'm very grateful I got to take part in such a special day for her. I'm thrilled she always have such cool memories of her 4th birthday with the horses. To everyone reading that contributed--THANK YOU! :)