hip-hip hooray! ellie is two today

how does the time fly so swiftly during childhood? it wasn't much long ago when i was roaming the streets of my own childhood, riding bikes down to the "big hill," getting shoes stuck in the marsh behind our house, reading books and living off apples in our large apple tree. those days have fluttered by, replaced with the sweet happiness of motherhood. and now, i watch my beautiful and imaginative kids live their own lives.

but, sadly, they are growing too quickly. my little ellie'an' is already two. how did that happen? she was just born a blink ago. now, she is our jabberwocky full of joy.


birthday eve: we celebrated a birthday week at grandma and grandpa johnson's house. cousin rory's birthday was the previous sunday, ellie's on wednesday, and otho's on saturday. whew, what a crazy week but it makes for a fun birthdays.


grandma johnson makes this awesome icecream cake. she layers cake, then ice-cream, then cake, then ice-cream again. then she covers the cake with coolwhip and drizzles the beast with chocolate. it's the best family tradition, and otho was super excited to eat a huge amount.


grandpa johnson holding baby riley. grandpa has a special way to make upset babies happy.


don't understand it, but ellie was super sad when we gave her the cake (okay, i really do understand...she wanted to sit with the boys and not in the high chair). but it's her party so she'll cry if she wants to.


on the birthday morn': ellie had her friends stanton and heidi come and play. stanton was a little sad the entire time (until his mom came...thanks kimmie), but he really enjoyed the playdough.


heidi and ellie with their playdough. get this: three two year olds and none of them tried to eat the playdough. and who made the biggest mess? abe, of course.


my cutest happiest birthday-est girl of them all.


we watched carebares and ate popcorn. how is it that everyone in this picture has a goofy face?


now that ellie's two, she can make the goofiest faces of them all.


ellie loves to sing, especially when singing happy birthday to herself. please excuse my singing, because frankly, i can't. and half-way through the video ellie is trying to grab for raisins and forgets that she really does love to sing.


peter piper pizza: we went to peter piper pizza to celebrate ellie and otho's birthday. ellie wanted to ride the carousel the entire time. she loved it!


most of the time ellie ran around looking at all of the lights. she also liked playing skeet ball (granted, she couldn't even get a gutter ball, but i gladly played with her since i kick trash at that game).


i thought i was super good at skeet ball. otho immediately got 100 points the first ball he threw. he was super good, and knew it. here he is with his goofy happy face.


otho playing skeetball (with a cheerleader/ball stealer on the side).


abe joined in on the skeetball fun.


and he would hop around when he made a good point or two.


later that night: after peter piper pizza we came home and opened up gifts for otho and ellie. i got ellie a cabbage patch kid (living my childhood through her, yes i know), and she was super super super excited when she opened it, she could hardly wait for daddy to take the doll out of the box.


here is her little baby, which she calls baby but is really named maryanne, but will most likely be called baby forever.


since her birthday, ellie and baby haven't been apart. she sometimes takes off the diaper and smells the butt and says, "eww," or she'll change the doll's clothes, or push her in the stroller, or feed her a bottle, and most often she makes her a bed and puts her to sleep. oh, it is more than cute to watch!


and not to forget about otho...he got an awesome lego set for his birthday that he and daddy and abe put together (i think ken enjoys the legos more than anyone). otho has been playing with legos ever since then. he stayed up till 9:30 so he could build with daddy, and they made a plane, a car, and a truck. super duper cool, dudes.


ellie and her cake! we love you ellie and are so happy you have spent the last two years in our family. your energy and happiness make our lives more fulfilling.


it was a long and happy day for my princess, and she was just plum-tuckered-out (this is really a nap picture, but she's so stinking cute, and it works for an "end of the day" shot, so bare with me and suspend your belief for a moment).