Ellie's 2nd Birthday

Ellie's second birthday began rather uneventfully - I had to go to work and Pete was out of town for the whole week, so our morning was fairly typical.  I DID try to have a little decoration for her, but Ellie tore it down before I could even see her initial reaction to it.

After she'd gone to bed on Wednesday night, I hung balloons on the stairs.  She was halfway down the stairs and had torn most of the balloons down before I had even gotten myself dressed!

Ellie's day school requests that if a birthday treat is brought to the class, that the parent brings a snack after nap and takes the child home afterward.  I rearranged my work schedule so I could do just that.  Fruit was the suggested snack, so I brought watermelon slices on a stick, and strawberries, kiwi, and blueberries.  When I arrived, she was wearing a crown!!  SO cute!!

Here she is sitting with her little school boyfriend, Anderson.  Sadly, Anderson has moved on to Busy Bees as he turned two before Ellie.  I'm glad their last day together involved a party.

After school we headed over to Joanne's house to play in her backyard and go for a walk.  Suddenly, she looked just like a two-year old.

Joanne and Jerry got Ellie one of the most special gifts:  A BIG CICI!!  Bigger than Ellie herself!  Big Cici is a blanket with a giant Cici head attached and Ellie loved it right away.  She recognized it instantly, called it "Big Cici" and started rubbing its ears and dragging it around, trying to show it to J&J's cat, Roscoe.

Then we walked to Graeter's for some celebratory ice cream.  Jerry was able to take a break from work to join us.  We made it home just in time to Skype with daddy for a few minutes before he had to go to another meeting.

Saturday, Pete was finally home after a week-long meeting in Boston.  We opened gifts from family and gave Ellie her gift from us.  

A fantastic cookie baking set from Matt and Jen for our budding cook!

Ellie's gift from us:  A Skuut Balance Bike!!  Her legs aren't quite long enough yet, but she likes to scoot around as best she can while Pete or I help her balance.  Don't worry, we have since had her fitted for a helmet, and she knows she must wear her 'helmet hat' if she wants to ride her bike.

So that was Ellie's 2nd birthday!  We threw a party for her on Sunday afternoon - I'll try to post about that tomorrow.  Sorry there's not an update on the basement remodel - the contractors did not come Friday as planned, nor did they come today as planned, so hopefully tomorrow they will actually make it to finish the project.  Then I will happily give an update!!

I just put my one-year-old to bed for the last time.  I figure I should share some of what we've been up to these past few weeks since Easter.  That and I'm really procrastinating with some reports I have to write for work.

Two Saturdays ago we went to Breakfast with the Babies at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill.  Admission included a buffet breakfast and then visiting with all the baby animals that were around the farm.  Ellie got to meet Fiona, a one-month old Scottish Highlands calf, some puppies, lambs, goats, chicks, and a cat.  Much like the first time we went to Shaker Village, she was still not a fan of the full-grown chickens or turkeys.  What made it even more fun was that several of our friends were there as well.  These girls have such a good time playing together.

Ellie rode in her very-first car cart last week while we ran to Lowe's to pickup hardware for our basement renovation.  It's not ready for the full-reveal yet, but I think the guys are coming on Friday morning to complete the finishing touches, so be on the lookout for that post!  (there's a sneak peek at the end of the blog)  :-)

She also continues to engage in dangerous behavior with her toys at home:

 

and participate in general shenanigans with her Daddy:

That's all for tonight!  I have to work tomorrow but am bringing a snack to Ellie's class after nap and will have a full report to follow.

Easter Weekend 2012

We had quite the Easter weekend with our little almost-two-year-old.  To start it off, we attended a little brunch/Easter egg hunt at our friend Annie's house.  Pete and I weren't sure how quickly Ellie would get the concept of pick-up-the-eggs-and-put-them-in-the-basket, but she was an instant pro!

 Then there was fun to be had going down the slide,

and riding in the wagon. 

To top it all off, the girls decided to throw around some leaves for some inter-seasonal fun.



Later that day, after a nice long nap, we walked down the street for our friend Scarlett's 2nd Birthday party.  I didn't take any pictures there, but Ellie had a great time in the backyard, playing with colored poms, riding in Scarlett's new wagon, and stalking Blixa the cat.  So by 4:30pm on Saturday Ellie had eaten not one, but two entire cupcakes on her own.  I guess it's all in the spirit of a holiday weekend.

Sunday morning when Ellie came downstairs for breakfast, she discovered that the Easter bunny had visited her.

After breakfast we got ready for church, and then after church/lunch/nap we dyed some eggs.  (no pics of that, sorry)  Ellie did really well requesting which color she'd like to dye her eggs, and very gently dropped some eggs into the cups with adult assistance.

Ready for Mommy to go hide the eggs.

Note the eggs falling to the floor - yep, they were the hard-boiled ones.  Oops.

Watching Mommy hide the eggs in the front yard.

Then it was time for the hunt!  For the second day in a row, she had a great time.  And we didn't even have to fill the eggs with anything!!  (hoping this lasts for a few more years)

Just before the egg hunt, I had put in a rack of lamb to roast.  So after the egg-hunt, we had a hungry boy and tired (and hungry) baby girl.

I don't have a picture of our entire dinner, but the lamb turned out really well!  (It wasn't as rare as it looks in the picture, more of a pale-pink medium rare.)  I served it with warm red-potato salad and roasted asparagus.  Lamb recipe here.  

So that was our Easter Weekend - hope yours was as fun as ours!  Now bring on the spring weather!!