Ellie Is 2!

 Ellie greeted her first day as a two year old with lots of kisses for her favorite dog - Ruby.

She then enjoyed several phone calls from friends and family

While her mommy wrestled with 8,792 pieces of a kitchen she was assembling for the birthday girl's big present, Great-Mimi came over and spent a rainy morning playing and watching Snow White with the kiddos.

My sweet girl at naptime

 Ellie's first flowers from a boy!

Sweet Marsh from Atlanta, GA kindly sent these to Ellie since they now share the same b-day!

(Welcome to the world, Marsh!  We look forward to meeting you!)

For her family dinner (b-day party will be in a few weeks combined with her big brother's bday),

I did an "over the rainbow" theme.  

I can't help myself.  I love a theme - even for family dinners!

 Will & I had fun at the grocery store choosing fruits and veggies in the ROYGBIV scheme.

 For the life of me, I couldn't locate a blue vegetable.

 Colorful balloons, streamers, and confetti atop a "gold at the end of the rainbow" runner helped make the table perfect.

 I found tall candles in ROYGBIV... and then forgot to light them.

 Ellie playing with Great Aunt Lili

 Sweet E - 2!!!

 Loving my fun mason jar lids and colorful straws

 The birthday girl & her Lovie

 The dinner consisted of some of Ellie's colorful favorites:

pink salmon grilled with yellow lemons

wild rice

salad 

roasted (yellow) squash,  (green) zucchini, & (purple) eggplant

& steamed green spinach (Ellie can not get enough spinach.)

and of course, colorful skittles & m&ms in bowls.

 For dessert, I made rainbow cakes in mason jars and topped them with rainbow sprinkles

 We were so proud of Ellie - she knew how to blow out her candles this year!!

& then she knew exactly how to dive in and eat that cake!

 We played a rousing game of "Ellie Do" - one of our favorites

(Everyone copies Ellie's motions - if you miss one, you're out. And Ellie lets you know if you aren't copying her correctly.)

 This year was also fun because she seemed to understand presents!

She got a little manicure/makeup beauty set...

 a mixer

 a hat for dress up

 a funny book about tails

 a historical doll

 and the 70+ year old table cloth that her Great Mimi used to play with with her baby dolls!  What a thoughtful hand me down for my girl.

 And finally the kitchen!!!

 She loved it...

 and the two of them have been very busy cooking all week!

 Finally, we watched the Ellie video I had made of her year.  Ellie loved watching herself on tv- this might be my new "I just need 15 minutes to accomplish something" idea.  She was fascinated.

The birthday fun continues at our house...

5 days til I have a 5 year old!