Ellie is 2!

In the midst of adjusting to a new baby in the house, Ellie turned two! Alaina's birthday is a week before Ellie's which should make future birthdays interesting. This year we had Ellie's party two weeks before her real birthday so we could give her all the attention she deserves. It was a simple party. We had Grandma and Grandpa Hall and Ryan over. We had macaroni and cheese with hot dogs and a side of corn and mandarin oranges. I tried going for a book themed party so we had Dr. Seuss decorations and your typical streamers, birthday sign, table centerpiece and balloons. Ellie loved her balloons! We went and picked them out at the Dollar Tree. I let her pick out a butterfly one and I also got one that went with our theme. I'm pretty sure she got a full month's use out of those dollar balloons!

Since I wasn't sure when I'd be having the baby, we decided to keep our birthday treat simple. We had ice cream sundaes with home made caramel, chocolate syrup, hot fudge, whipped topping, nuts, book worms (gummy worms) and Ellie picked out marshmallows and sprinkles too. 

Grandma and Grandpa Hall got Ellie Curious George stuff since that's Ellie's favorite character. She got a backpack, a stuffed George, a pack of books and her own box of Curious George fruit snacks. Grandma and Grandpa Gale sent her a Fisher Price farm, a Fisher Price princess horse, clothes and about 20 of their unwanted Disney and kids DVDs. Grandma Lisa sent Ellie a cool Ring Around the Rosie doll that sings when you hold her hands. She also sent a super cute black and white polka-dot sweater outfit with a matching black purse and some other outfits. She also managed to buy a toy Ellie has had her eye on for months, a Mini Mouse cash register that has a little scanner that Ellie is still convinced is a phone. Gary and I got her a dog bed from Costco. We call it her reading couch and she loves it! We snuggle and read stories on her little reading couch every day! We also got her a handful of books. 

Ellie at 2:

Ellie is still the sweetest little girl! If I have to send her to time out she cries and repeatedly says "sorry" over and over. Luckily she's such a good girl we've only dealt with this two or three times. 

She's starting to talk a lot and can put ideas together to form sentances. "Me home (bye-bye) Baba (grandma or grandpa)" or "Mama wash me help". She has too many words to add here but I'll try to think of them all and add them to the end of this post.

She loves eggs, pretzles, sprinkles and whipped cream, apples and she'll eat bananas if I call them "George bananas". She is also still in love with milk. She recently was introduced to hot chocolate which we call Coco

Her favorite character is Curious George. We watch George every day and have for months. I've been impressed with the things she's learned from George!

Ellie loves her baby (Alaina). She kisses her every chance she gets and gets mad when we won't let her hold her.

She loves art. Play Dough, painting, water colors, coloring, markers... beads. She loves it all!

She loves helping me cook. She's especially helpful at making bread.

She loves books and music

Her favorite movie is the "Grandpa movie" which most people call Beauty and the Beast. 

She asks to have a ball (as in ball gowns and princess music). We did this on her actual birthday. Daddy danced with her after we all got dressed up. It was cute.
She is totally potty trained! (well, she still wears pull ups while sleeping)