The Second Birthday - Cake Time!

This is the last of the 2nd birthday posts... I just had so many pictures I had to split it up a bit.  After we bounced around for our alloted time and wore ourselves out it was time for Cupcakes!  Surprisingly it took some convincing to get the little miss out of the bounce houses even for cake!

She was surprisingly patient waiting for everyone to sing happy birthday to her (I think deep down she truely enjoyed all the attention on herself!)

She needed a little help blowing out the candles 

Once we gave her the go ahead she was all for eating the cupcake and licking the icing.  She started off a little lady like but it didn't last long.

We remembered to get a family picture before we left but someone wouldn't give up the ballons! 

I decided I wanted a picture of the guests at her party and who would have guessed they all agreed to take one and even decided to look at the camera!  A picture of 4 3 and under is impressive!

I loved EK's outfit we ordered for her birthday and was so glad it came out exactly like I invisioned.  I went with purple so we could reuse for LSU football season.  It came from this Etsy seller.

Everything for Ella Kate's birthday came out just like I hoped and she was all smiles for it.  It will definitely be a birthday we will remember and it wouldn't surprise me if she requested to have it at Jumpin' Jack's again next year!

The Second Birthday - The Little Details

As I mentioned in the last post, Jumpin Jack's took care of all of the little details for Ella Kate's birthday!

I ordered Ella's invites from a seller on Etsy and I just loved the way they came out!  I wanted something that showed we were going to be bouncing at the party and the designer came up with the perfect design.  I especially liked the colors of the invite since it kept it girly and fun!
We were able to order handmade cookie party favors to give to our guests through Jumpin Jack's and that made things so much easier!  We decided on crown cookies with EK's initials on them.  I had favor tags made from this site on Etsy to stick on the back that went with our invitations.

Jumpin Jack's lets you pick from cupcakes or cake for the party.  We definitely went with cupcakes since if you asked EK what she was getting for her birthday, her response was always cupcakes!

 

 The birthday girl's cupcake with two candles!

Since EK is beyond blessed already with the amount of toys she has we decided to ask our guests to forgo gifts and bring their favorite books to donate to our school.  We got so many great books and I can't wait to let EK drop them off on Monday.  I definitely think her school is going to be very excited as those kids can wear some books out!

Thanks again Jumpin' Jack's for taking care of all of the details.  Made this party so much easier and worry free for me.

The Second Birthday Party - The Venue

We were lucky enough to have Ella Kate's 2nd birthday on her actual birthday and let's just say we had a blast.  I had wanted to get her a bounce house at the house but with the unknown of the weather and the price to rental a single bounce house, we decided it would be better to just throw the birthday party at a local Bounce House.  We chose Jumpin' Jack's Party Shack and it sure didn't dissapoint!  They did everything possible for us and took care of all of the details!  All we had to do was show up with socks and water and we were set!

I took plenty of pictures during our hour and 15 minutes in the arena and here are some of my favorites!

Daddy had to show Ella exactly how it was done.

Granny and Parrain definitely got in on the fun!

Keith and Rowan headed down the slide.

We were lucky enough that Courtney and Rowan were able to come up for the weekend and these two were inseperable!

Annabelle got in on the fun

and so did her momma, Karin (our favorite photographer!)

There were lots of races down the slide

and even Nanny got in on the action!

all of the kiddos headed up the ladder on the big slide. 

Thanks Jumpin' Jack's for an amazing 2nd birthday for our little munchkin!

Ella Kate - 2 Years Old

Well Ella Kate, you are officially two years old!  I just can not believe how quick the past year has gone by and how much you have grown and changed in that year.  So what have you been up to?

You are about 35 pounds and 36-37 inches tall
You wear a size 5 diaper, 2T - 3T clothes, and size 6.5 - 7 shoes

In the past two months are so your vocabulary has increased so much!  You are able to say some longer sentences and one of your favorites is Ella Kate do it.  Yes you talk in the 3rd person quite often.  You repeat anything we say to you and it is just wonderful to hear you talk - though you have some sort of accent and we can't figure out if it is British or East Texan!

You love art and would color, paint, or draw all of the time if we let you.

You can count from 1-10 about 75% of the time and have just begun singing your ABC's though you sometimes skip some letters.  You also can finish quite a few of the pages in books that we have read to you.  Your favorite books are Goodnight Moon, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Goodnight Book.

You love Minnie Mouse and pretty much the only time you sit still is when we put on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

You still love to eat and I don't think that will ever change with us as your parents!  Some of your favorite foods are:
Breakfast - Yogurt, Strawberries, Sticks (French Toast), and Biscuits
Lunch and Dinner- Applesauce, Chick Fil A nuggets, Cheese, Ham and Cheese roll-ups, Beans and Rice, Broccoli, Spaghetti, and Pizza
You also love lots of fruits including watermelon, oranges, Bananas (as long as you don't have to eat them at home), and peaches

This past month we started you in gymnastics and you LOVE IT!  You are the baby in the class but are the tallest one out there and get really excited when we say it is time for gymnastics.

I just can't believe how much you have grown and changed in just one year!

Ella Kate we look forward to seeing what year 3 has in store for all of us!  We love you sweet girl!

Family Pictures at the Beach

While we were at the beach we decided to hire a professional photographer to do some family pictures of both our family and Brad and Courtney's.  We were really trying to get some good pictures of the 3 great grandkids and I have to say that they really did get some great ones of all of us!  If you are ever in the Pensacola Beach area and need a photographer, we highly recommend Mirabel Photography!

We finally got all of the pictures back so I wanted to just share a few
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Beach... Final Day

It just amazed me how my child could go from sand lover to sand hater and back again so many times in one week.  Thursday we were back to loving our time on the beach and we were very thankful for that as Thursday was the nicest day yet.  All of the weather that we had been experiencing off and on during our stay had finally cleared up and the water was just gorgeous!  Just in time to remind me how much I love the Gulf coast and why we will probably go back every year from here on.

Ella Kate and Easton got in a little time doing some sand castle building with Papa Mike.

Kid just loves to observe everyone around her

She even showed Papa Mike how to correctly use the shovel! 

She spent lots of time running in and out of the water on our last day and became little miss brave.

Glad to see the smile on our last day after all the tears throughout the week when she couldn't decide if she liked the beach or not!

The trip was great and we definitely have lots of memories from our first beach vacation!  Now to just start planning for our trip next year... maybe

Oh Wait We Hate The Beach Again... Day 3

Wednesday was much of the same as Monday for our little beach baby.  She wanted nothing to do with the sand or the water so we didn't spend much time out of the condo.  Actually Courtney and I spent quite a bit of time on the balcony just letting the kids run around like crazy while the men played golf. 

Wednesday was also Brad's birthday so the 4 of us took advantage of having grandparents around and took the Portofino boat across the bay to the Boardwalk for dinner and drinks.

Of course we had to take a few pictures on our extremely windy boatride!
 

 

We had a delicious dinner at Hemingway's and I highly recommend it if you are ever in that area.  The best part was that the Portofino boat docked directly in front of Hemingway's so we hopped out and were able to get a great table on the balcony which over looked the bay.  It was a perfect spot to enjoy some adult only time with our very best friends.