Eve of the 2nd birthday

Tomorrow is Ellen's second birthday... and all of the local family came down to celebrate it today. She is currently obsessed with Elmo. I don't know what the deal is, but she loves this furry red monster who talks in the the third person. So, we decided to go with it for her birthday theme. Erika spent all day in the kitchen yesterday making a cupcake cake to look like Elmo, and when Ellen saw it this morning she couldn't wait to bite into it.
Then I drove out and picked up the balloons that we had ordered. 12 primary-colored balloons and a mylar Sesame Street School bus. Ellen got even more excited when she saw all of those come through the front door.

Family members showed up and it was time for cake. We sang happy birthday and she had Mom's help blowing out the candles.

And then it was FINALLY time to bite into the cupcake. Ohhhhh... she loved it.

Then we moved the party inside and Ellen got to dig into her gifts (with Mommy's help of course). She was really spoiled.

Oma got her a baby doll. An item that she has been coveting for almost 3 months was finally hers. Oh the hours of dress up time that will be had. She even got a crib (edit: cradle) for the baby which we put next to her bed so that they can go "night-night" together.

Eventually the family had to leave, but before they left we managed to sneak in a cute photo of the three girls sitting together on the couch.

Thank you all for making it out, we had a blast!