Ella's Third Birthday Party!

We celebrated Ella's third birthday party on Sunday (a little early).  Her actual birthday is this Saturday, June 2nd.  I can't believe how much she's changed in just this past year.  We celebrated with family on Sunday and it was a Dora Fiesta!  A few pictures (okay more than a few) from the day!

See these streamers?  I sewed them!  I first saw them on Pinterest and I knew I needed those for the Fiesta.  I thought the link on Pinterest was going to be a link to buy them on Etsy or something, but it was a link to a tutorial!  They are awesome and so much fun to sew! 

This picture of Ella & her balloons has sort of become a traditional birthday picture.  Although this picture is not that great, it's fun to see how much she's changed between yearly pics!

 Some of the decor inside - see the ruffled streamers?! So fun!

Ella and Grandma Deb helped me get everything ready on Sunday morning.  There was a lot going on in those few short hours before everyone arrived. 

Ms. Ella before the party started.  Can you tell she was getting excited?!

Since this year's party theme was a Dora the Explorer Fiesta, we thought it was only fitting that everyone don a Sombrero for the birthday pictures with Ella.  It was SO fun! Kind of makes you want to pull out Sombreros at every party.  Everyone got into it as you will see in some of these pictures!!  OLE! 

HA!  So fun.  We had a taco fiesta lunch and of course birthday cake & ice cream!  Now let's see the cake!  I made a #3 cake with purple frosting and fondant stars which I think turned out great.  The frosting was a big hit, so that recipe will be used again.  I also made cupcakes decorated with same purple frosting and Dora the Explorer cupcake toppers (which I put together using free printables from Nick Jr. - brilliant!) and homemade brownies cut into star shapes topped with colored sugar.  

Ella wasn't able to blow out the candles on the cake this year, maybe next year though!  

 Happy Birthday to you....happy birthday to you.....

She got loads of gifts, including many Dora-themed items!  Lots of super cute summer clothes too.  She's been having a great time playing with all the new toys already and so far her favorite thing is the cash register (thanks Grandpa Gary & Grandma Dianne!)  She loves it.  You see, she is obsessed with her grocery cart and before we had this new cash register, she insisted that I check out her groceries for her (and I had to say the "beep" sound for each item before placing it in her cart)!  She is something!  Now she can check out her own (and baby's) groceries.  Hurray!

  A Dora fiesta dress-up dress from Grandma Jolyn and Papa Paul!

 Chase & Ella had such a good time hanging out together at the party!

 Taking a break from all the playing (and it was SO humid outside!)

And, after everyone left it didn't take too long for Ms. Ella to snooze.  She had a fun filled birthday party!  Can't wait to celebrate her actual birthday this Saturday!

Weekending

Hello hello!  A few pictures from our weekend.  Ella & I (along with Annie and Andrew) hung out at the park on Saturday morning.  It was a bit windy, but really fun.  Probably the longest trip we've ever spent at the park - over 2 hours!  I know!  I think we deprive her of park time, but what gives?  How many times can one slide down the slide?  A GAZILLION I guess!  Insert the sound effect "WHEEE" here....

See this last picture?  The park has a xylophone and Ella was playing it for a while with Andrew, and then Ella decided to sing too (and then dance!)  It was A-dorable.  Super cute.  I can't believe she is going to be THREE here shortly.  We're celebrating with family this weekend - can't wait!

Mother's Day 2012, A visit to the Zoo!

Happy Mid-May and Mother's Day!  This month is flying by!  We celebrated Mother's Day with an early wake up call from Ella, who told me "Happy Mother's time day"  So cute!  Jay picked up coffee and made breakfast (delicious)!  Here are some pictures of our trip to the MN Zoo yesterday.  Ella had a great time - it was so busy though!  Her favorites:  the cows and the fish.  We're at a zoo with all kinds of wild animals and she prefers to visit the cows and fish.  So funny.  But she did like the monkeys and the penguins too.

 Blueberry biscuit something or other (it's a Paula Deen recipe).  So good!

 My gift - a gift card to Best Buy (IPad, come to Mommy!)

Ella and I.  Notice her right eye?  She fell last week and had a huge goose egg above her eye and a red bruise down the middle of her cheek.   I have a better picture near the end of the post.

 Checking out the monkeys at the zoo

 So adorable!

 On our way to the farm to see those cows!

 Saying hello to the sheep and goats (below).  Ella would really say "hello" and she waved to all of them.

 Visiting the young calves

This cow was feeding near the center of the pen and as we were standing there, she came walking right over to us.  It was pretty cool, and Ella of course loved it!

 Getting our first look at the penguins

  Waddle, waddle, waddle

Here's a better picture showing Ella's big ugly bruise above her right eye.  The goose egg went away the next day, and the bruising has traveled the course of colors and is currently yellowish. Never a dull moment!