Ella's bday party was yesterday. We just ended up doing a family party and that worked out great. Ella was a little overwhelmed by all the presents! She just wanted to stop and play with each thing. Overall she did great and got lots of fun new toys! Minnie Mouse was definitely the theme of the day-I certainly hope she loves Minnie for a LONG time!
Here was her Minnie cake...I did NOT leave myself enough time to make this! I'm not sure what I was thinking-I didn't start icing it until about 2 hours before the party. It was much harder to do than I thought it would be and I didn't even ice the edges. Oh well! It definitely wasn't perfect but I don't think Ella cared :) One mistake I made was showing her the cake at the beginning of the party instead of right before we were about to eat. All she wanted to do was eat that cake! I ended up putting her in time out at her own party because she was just out of control!
Looking at her gift pile, ready to dive in!
I was so excited to find this-its a Minnie Mouse oven mitt! She loves to "borrow" mine and pretend to bake. This also came with a little mini cupcake pan, spatula and decorating kit. Cute!
Aunt Rachel got her these dress up Minnie Shoes! They are so cute! Today all she wanted to do was twirl around in her Minnie Shoes :)
This was probably her favorite present of the day-a Minnie Mouse and Car from Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah. We were able to skype them in during present time! (oh, if you are wondering about that bump on her head...she had a little run in with a brick fireplace-so sad)
Time for Cake!
This was about the best family picture we got-Ella was NOT in the mood all day!
Reading her new book with Aunt Rachel
Much happier after her nap! 
Here are some things about Ella at 2 years old...*she's still mostly a mommy's girl, but has gotten MUCH more attached to daddy
*not a great eater lately-her favorite meal is cheese in a tortilla and grapes
*talks so well! her favorite phrase is "oh goodness!" and "I'm Ok Mommy!"
*sleeps from about 8pm-6:30am, 1 nap a day, usually around an hour
*loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Agent Oso, Pooh Movies, Finding Nemo and Cars
*Loves reading-her favorites are Pokey Little Puppy, Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I love you, and her "Alice book"-a pop up Alice in Wonderland book
*talks on her play phone a lot-mostly to Aunt "Fra" (Sarah)
*Has gotten much better about recognizing people and going to them, much to the delight of the grandparents
*In mostly 2T clothes but some of her 18 and even 12 month clothes still fit!
*Giving kisses is probably her favorite thing to do-she probably kisses me at least 50 times a day-love it!
I'll probably go back and edit when I think of more things but my mind is going blank! She's just a fun loving and sweet little girl. She's so affectionate and sweet-most of the time! We can tell she's transitioning into the phase where she will really be testing her boundaries and seeing what she can get away with. So far she is very responsive to time outs and the occasional spanking. We have not had to spank her too many times but I can already tell she is staring to work the system with the time outs, so spankings may be happening more often in our house. I'm thankful for her sweet spirit and look forward to seeing her personality develop more and more!
