Seems Just Like Yesterday....

....she was this big and today she turned two years old! We had a birthday party for Ella yesterday and she was sooo excited for it. She kept talking about her "burtday pawty" and that she was going to have all her friends come and she was going to have birthday hats and cake and "keem keema" (ice cream). We invited about 10 other kids and all but 2 showed up so we had a nice turn out. The morning started out with the happy birthday song, breakfast and then we got started on our party food. Ella helped me make over 50 gingerbread men.... She loved helping so much that she wouldn't stop taking fist fulls of gingerbread dough so she got to go eat lunch in her seat right about that time. :) Then she took a nap and I got to some serious work. I had to finish with the gingerbread men, make some of this gingersnap dip that was really awesome to dip cookies in, dirt cake, chocolate pudding for the dirt cake, gumdrop flowers for the dirt cake, and some bagel pizza bites. It was a pretty crazy 3 hours. Joseph was feeling pretty sick but I still had him run to the store for me b/c we didn't have a rolling pin and I was finding out real quick that a children's plastic cup from Macaroni Grill was not going to work. A rolling pin made it go much faster! Joseph helped so much despite his massive head cold. (Thanks Babe!) Ella woke up from her nap about 20 min before her party started. She was so excited and came running into the kitchen to greet me with a big ear to ear grin on her face, beaming and said, "Mah BURTDAY Pawty!". It was so sweet. This was the first time Ella had ever had any friends come over to HER house (we're always over at other people's) and she was soooo excited. She led all the kids to her room, held her arms open wide, standing in the middle of her (very clean) room and said, "Mah TOYS!!!". She would take toys and start handing them out for everyone. After a while of ransacking the room it was time to make cookies. I did kind of a Christmas theme for her party. All the kids got to decorate a big gingerbread cookie and take it home... All the adults ate and talked. While the kids went back and played some more. Then we decided it was time to open presents. Daddy helped as Ella sat on his lap. She got so much neat stuff and was really excited after each one. She'd open one and want to play with it and disregard all the other gifts. :) She made out with quite a bit. She got a Mrs. Potato head, My Little Pony, fun art books and boards, a hat and mittens, a dvd reading game and camping tent/sleeping bag from mommy and daddy, Little people, a dress up doll and holiday dress from Nonie and Pop, money from "Geem-geema" and Pop K, and a shopping cart with food from Aunt Ashley. Although she received many many toys, I don't think that mattered to her as much as it did to have all of her friends over to play with her. If you could've just seen the excitement on her face to have everyone at HER house, playing in HER room with HER toys you would've felt like I did and known that all the hard work and stress before the party was well worth it. ...even if her room looked like this at the end of the night. Looks like they had fun! and at least they weren't board. :)


Today at 8:35 am Ella turned 2. Joseph stayed in bed sick while Ella and I went to church. She got to have fun in nursery and play with friends some more. I started getting all stuffy and my sinuses were hurting so I after teaching my class I went to get Ella to come home early but she didn't want to leave. (quite a change from 6 months ago!) So it being her birthday I let her stay and I just sucked it up for another 40 min. We went home, ate lunch and we all decorated cookies together (again). Ella mostly just ate all the candy that was supposed to go on her gingerbread man and mine kinda looks scary but it was fun to do. After nap Daddy helped put up Ella's tent and we sat and watched Barney and ate popcorn. (she got to watch it in her tent, we opted for sitting next to it.) All in all, I think she had a fun weekend. But the fun isn't going to stop there. She still has a package coming tomorrow, her Nonie and Pop coming to visit, a sister coming on Friday, Daddy's birthday Sunday and then Christmas on Tuesday. Man, I don't think this girl is going to know what hit her! :) I hope you had a good birthday Ella girl! We love you.
....by the way, I did a new background on our blog and I've lost some links. If you see that your name isn't on my link list anymore, just leave me your address in the comments. I tried to remember as many as I could but alas, I failed. :) Thanks!