The things I haven't told you about Ella's quarantine birthday (Living in a Pandemic in the Summer)

June arrived and you know what that means! Ella's birthday!! We were planning for a big 11th birthday, with a flamingo theme, but the COVID19 Pandemic had other plans. She still had a wonderful birthday and we thought we would be able to have the party later in the summer, but again, as I write this in August, we haven't been able to get everyone together yet. At this point, we'll probably table the flamingo theme for next year!

To make her birthday special in the pandemic, I decided to order up those birthday yard signs to surprise her and get the neighborhood to honk in her honor on the big day! Thank goodness it arrived. The shipping kept being delayed and after back and forth with customer service, we were able to have it overnighted and it arrived in the nick of time. Whew. Now about these pictures. You will have to see what's different! 

Okay, first difference: Jay decided to remove the fence in the porch area that day, so the pictures I took in the morning had the fence, but the pictures I took later in the day, do not! LOL! Also, we noticed afterwards, that Ruby Pearl totally photobombed Ella's picture! Do you see Ruby sitting at the front door? OMG! Hilarious.

We kept the donut tradition alive and ordered up an "11" giant donut for our fave shop. Well, this one has got to be the biggest we've ever gotten. WOW! 

We all wore flamingo shirts for the celebrating!

We tried to get on the Today Show virtual plaza, but we weren't chosen (bummer).

Ella had made a sign just in case!

She wanted to bake something with me on her birthday, but not her birthday cake (more on that below), so we decided to make birthday cake pops!

Her cake request was ice cream cake from DQ. We didn't want to get the big cake since it's just the three of us, so we got the ice cream cupcakes which were so cute and delicious!

This is 11

I am certain her wishes included being able to see her friends!

Family in flamingo shirts for the win!

The undocumented parts of the day included a suprise car parade from her BFFs which was so unexpected (we were all supposed to be doing a car parade at school but it rained so they cancelled) and then we had facetime with family too!

Happy Birthday Ella! It was a strange birthday FOR SURE, but it was still great to spend the day with you and celebrate your big day!