Look Who's Two!

 Our little Elmo lover just had to celebrate turning 2 with her favorite fuzzy faced friend. She's just a tad bit obsessed with all things Elmo. Her whole face lights up as soon as she spots Elmo anywhere. Her joy is usually followed with an exuberant announcement of "Eeeellllmo"!

  We celebrated 2 with just family {a slower pace} from last year's Garden Party and it was a sweet time focusing on our little lady. I still obsess about all the little details with a smaller crowd, but I am a much more relaxed party planner. Call me sentimental, but I look forward to sharing these pictures with Eliza Kate & reflecting on her birthday in future years as she probably won't remember our little celebration at a mere two. I loved pulling in the girly shades of pink & kid friendly polka dots to make Elmo a touch more feminine.

Ok, so you might need to step in and rescue me from my slight polka dot obsession. All of our parties are starting to look the same as I can't get enough of the cuteness pulling in the dots.  I stumbled upon a free printable Elmo party pack on Pinterest and Kinkos helped me with all the little Elmo cut-outs. Besides the balloons, I re purposed other party decorations to pull everything together. You should have heard EK squeal with delight on the party day as she spotted her favorite red friend while coming down the stairs. I saved the final reveal for her actual birthday.

There were moments her colors reminded me of Valentine's Day;) Landon marveled at my late night adventure standing on the table using push pins to hang upside down balloons from our dining room fixture. I kept adding little touches here and there restless & excited to share it all with my darling girl.

So there were a few "two year old" tantrums  moments during our family celebration. EK is showing more of her feisty side these days. Made me thankful that family had to endure her party girl demands. How would you feel if your beauty sleep was interrupted by a room full of party goers giving you attention? Hmm...And, isn't there a decorator's rule that decorating with red causes anxiety?

But, I must say that these two year old smiles made all of my hard work worthwhile. She melts me with those sweet grins. Fingers in her mouth = a dash of shyness.  We dined on BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and all the fixens' {southern word for sides}. Miller could hardly concentrate on the birthday dinner with the prospect of watching little sister open her gifts. He previewed the gift table and even shook a few boxes to make a few guesses.

Gift time was so much fun to witness. We leave the spoiling to the grandparents. Since, we're not into gift giving year round, we love to see the joy of present opening with our kiddos. Miller was EK's right hand man for all her package opening needs. Her new bubble machine brought lots of fun her way. The grocery cart was a hit complete with wooden food. Of course, Bitty Baby found a front row seat secure for the shopping.

It's amazing for me to watch her mimic mommy behavior with baby. She uses a much higher pitch tone to communicate.

Eliza Kate offered baby a plastic cookie from her tea set while baby was out shopping at Publix. That's her favorite part of our shared mommy and me shopping excursions.

Bitty Baby now has a plush baby bed with straps that can be carried to ball field.

Miller predicted that one of her larger gifts would be a pink Barbie car to drive dolls around. I think it's great that his little brain combined a boy/girl gift to make both parties happy. Too bad little sister isn't into Barbie yet.

The cupcakes were a hit as always after our present opening intermission.

And, EK entertained us all with her frosted pink mustache.

Finally, it was her turn to receive the Birthday Chorus after months of singing it to lovey and every other member of our family. Our girl has a thing for the birthday song.

She a cake girl...saving the frosting for last just like her mommy.

The frosting gets used as finger paint instead

Posing with Omi and Papa after cupcake time

And, testing out her karaoke Elmo microphone with her Poppy.

Then she enjoyed herding and bouncing all the party balloons after the party was over. Happy 2nd Birthday Eliza Kate. God made all our "girl dreams" come true with your joyful entrance two years ago. Birthday blessings to you my dear....XOXO!