Second Birthday Fun!

Ellie has been so excited about her birthday for weeks - mostly about the ice cream and cake that she was going to eat. Her favorite part was discussing who she was going to eat it with - Gigi and Grizz, and Mimi and Pa, and Sara and Jake. The other day I was tempted to start inviting more of her friends and our friends and turn it into a big party dinner, but considering how wiped I am right now, I am glad I stuck to my initial plan of immediate family only. It was plenty of crazy fun for everyone!

This morning we started her day (or rather, she started her day when she climbed into bed with us) by playing the Beatles "Birthday," and then we told her she had presents in the living room. I'd gotten her a Sesame Street doll house-type contraption, similar to one that my cousins had when we were kids. It's just a little house with a bunch of Sesame Street characters, and most importantly, it does not require batteries or make noise. And of course, she loves Elmo (aka: mommy's little red baby sitter) so I thought it would be a home run.

Yeah. She tore the corner of the paper and saw Ernie (not her favorite) and got sort of freaked out. She retreated to the other end of the living room and told us no.

Eventually, once we got all of the friends clipped out of the box and ready for playing, she was entertained. And then she was thrilled!

We went to Mommy Matters to see all of our friends, cupcakes in hands. It was actually a really nice celebration - we haven't seen Lexi since she turned 2 (ten days ago) and one of the younger babies just turned one on the 17th (which I always remember because that was my due date.) So everyone enjoyed.

Toddlers goofed off. All were happy.

Then we took the rest of the cupcakes to Tim, and got a chance to eat lunch with him and his coworkers. Ellie mostly snuggled up in his arms and tried to lick him (I was too busy scarfing my lunch to notice.)

Our afternoon was spent napping, hanging out and cleaning up a little, and then our lovely family began to arrive. We made brats ahead of time and so just had to warm them up, and then we had salad, pineapple and chips. The perfect meal for a very Midwestern baby. She was pretty thrilled with our offering (once she started eating. We had a little pre-dinner melt down from hunger.)

THEN IT WAS TIME FOR PRESENTS! She was so funny, because as I handed her a gift, she'd yelling "dis is my pwesent!" She didn't care terribly about opening it, or even what it was, she was just so excited. Then she got them open and was even more thrilled!

She got a Bitty Baby from Mimi and Pa and some accessories from Jake, and she was overjoyed about her new baby.

She also loved her rabbit vest from Gigi, and once the evening quieted down, she insisted Auntie Sara read her all of her new books.

Then pink bunny cake and ice cream, hooray!

It was such a nice night with our wonderful families. As I said before we started eating, I don't know how we would have survived the past two years without them. I could say Ellie is the lucky one to be growing up so near her grandparents, but really, we are the lucky ones.