2nd Birthday Party with Elmo

Ellen is 2!! I can't quite believe I have a 2 year old! I feel like this past year has just flown by and she's grown into such a sweet little girl. We celebrated her birthday with an Elmo themed birthday party with her friend Emma who has a birthday 6 days after hers. We had lots of friends and family here to celebrate with us and it was a great party!

The girls had matching Elmo outfits, but had to wear jackets most of the time because the weather was a bit chilly, but thankfully not raining!!

Here are a few pictures of the big day:

The birthday girls:


The toddlers: Emma, Ellen, Emmalia and Marshall (plus Mommy Kristen) in the background


Ellen and her Aunt Sara and Aunt Lindsay:


We played an awesome party game: Pin the Nose on the Elmo!
Here is Ellen getting spun around by Uncle Chris (Emma's Daddy)


And she goes for the win:


Actually all of the kids did really well and were remarkably accurate with nose placement. I think Emma ended up being the closest. :)

We had chocolate cupcakes because Ellen LOVES chocolate. She ate her first one in about 1 minute by shoving it in her face. She then had a 2nd one. She was definitely not hungry for any dinner that night!


Party Table: There were a lot of awesome gifts!!


Girls playing in the sandbox at the park where the party was held:



In other news...we have our dog back. The guy who adopted her was a bit too naive and didn't really listen to me when I told him that she doesn't get along with other dogs inside. (I must have told him 100 times) So he stupidly had her stay with his friends dog the FIRST WEEKEND he had her, and of course they got in a big fight, with Amara as the attacker. So she was returned to the shelter 2 days after the "adoption" and is now back with us. We continue to take her to their adoption events, and people love her, but seem to have an issue with one of her two problems: Either they have other dogs, so that won't work, or they have young children, and I just don't trust her around young children. So... we will continue to foster her and hopefully over the next month we will find a good home for her with someone who is not a moron.

Lastly, here are Ellen and Emma on a walk in their new birthday present rain boots. (it was NOT raining, but Ellen loves wearing her boots so she wears them every day) Emma also wanted to wear hers once Ellen came over with them on. :)


And here is a picture of me at 31 weeks!! We are getting closer!


Oh and PS. we are *maybe* starting potty training!?! Ellen peed on the potty ~5 times today! She did have one accident while she was wearing her big girl underwear which we are letting her wear to add to the excitement of it, but its a start! I'm still a little concerned she's not ready, but I'm also so ready to have her out of diapers. I don't think she knows when she needs to go, but she's good at going once she's on the potty. Parents who have done this before... any advice? Our toddler 411 book says that if you are putting your child on the toilet every 2 hours then you have succeeded in potty training yourself and your child is not ready. Agree / disagree?