Elijah Schneider's First Birthday Spectacular!

Elijah’s first birthday party was a lot of fun! We ended up with a pretty large crowd, about 25 people, so we held the festivities at Grandma Amanda and Grandpa Terry’s condo. Grandma had gone all out decorating the house with tons of balloons, all tied to different frogs that Elijah had acquired in the last year. We all ate the massive amounts of food that Missy and Grandma Koorndyk had prepared (burgers, hot dogs, salads, the works), then opened the rather impressive stack of presents, and then ate the cutest frog cake ever! Unfortunately Elijah was under the weather and not able to enjoy much of the activity. As the party progressed he became progressively sicker. He’s such a sweet boy that he had moments where he enjoyed himself, and perked up a little after having cake, but by the end of the afternoon it was clear that we were headed to the urgent care. What a stinky birthday present! The doctor said it was a raging ear infection (his third) and put him on antibiotics. It came on so fast – I could have taken him to the doctor on Friday but he would perk right up after cold medicine so I didn’t think it was progressing to anything more serious than the continuation of the cold he’d had – but he was just miserable by the end of the party. After being on the antibiotics he received Saturday night he was in a much better mood for the rest of the Memorial Day weekend, which was good at least. I just wish he could have enjoyed his first birthday party a little more. Good thing we’re going to have opportunity to throw these things again. All in all it was still a really great day, with the best part of the whole day just being able to spend time with people who all love and adore our little boy! Here are some picture highlights:

Opening presents - Elijah made a haul! A fire engine, a rocket ship, a wagon, bath toys, books, and lots and lots more toys to keep him busy!

Eating cake - We had a “cake controversy” at first because Jon only wanted Eli to have a little piece to smoosh, while Mom and Grandma said that he needed the whole cake to be able to smoosh if he wanted. Jon was worried that people wouldn’t want cake after sick Eli played with it. Mom and Grandma knew that even if he wrecked ¼ of the cake that there would still be plenty for everyone, and odds were that Eli wouldn’t wreck much anyway. Mom and Grandma won. :)