Life for the Esplin clan has been a little hectic, as I’ve mentioned in every blog post the last couple of weeks. Since we’ve been so transient, it was a little hard to plan the birthday celebration for Penelope that I had in mind. While I’ve had to come to terms with reality, we didn’t seem to have any shortage of laughter, cake, ice cream and family.
![cake & Penelope cake & Penelope](http://melissaesplin.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/_dsc0402sm.jpg)
I was a little disappointed that I didn’t have enough time to send out proper invitations, so I settled for pingg invitations and good ole fashioned phone calls. Pingg is fabulous, except when you don’t have everyone’s email addresses. Sadly a couple of family members fell though the cracks and weren’t informed of our partying.
![lemon cupcake lemon cupcake](http://melissaesplin.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/_dsc0373sm.jpg)
![cake face cake face](http://melissaesplin.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/_dsc0408sm.jpg)
My theme, if any of this had any sort of theme, was yellow. I love yellow, and Penelope brightens so many people’s lives that it just fit. I wasn’t able to get yellow cupcake cups or yellow napkins or yellow flowers (again, seriously only 24 hours to prep for this thing), but I did find my mom’s awesome wedding plates that had a ribbon of yellow, my yellow table cloth and some yellow wallpaper for Penelope’s happy birthday sign. Find the tutorial on how to make your own banner, here.
![birthday banner birthday banner](http://melissaesplin.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/_dsc0487sm.jpg)
I now realize how much effort my parents went to when it came to celebrating my birthdays. They always made such a big deal out of us kids. Stay tuned for a special birthday tutorial & download!