Ella's Birthday

The last week has been a busy one filled with birthdays, birthday parties and lots of cake.

Actually, we aren't even finished the festivities for Brie yet, so I will just post pictures of Ella's celebrations for now.

This year my little girl turned 3. It's hard to believe that she is officially not a toddler anymore. She is gaining more independence all the time and insisting that she do things her own way in her own time. We so appreciate her unique personality, the way she makes us laugh, and the way she pushes down barriers to get what she wants. Unlike the rest of our family, she chooses to be different, to dance to the beat of her own drum, or more likely to make up her own music to dance to. She loves to sing, and she amazes us with how quickly she learns songs, not just the melody but also the words. Ella is driven by her passion for music and her love of life. She has an amazing imagination, complete with varying voices to complete her scenarios. We love her to pieces!

Here she is making Brie laugh about something.

Since the girls both have birthdays in the same week, we do one joint family party where grandparents, uncles and aunts are invited to come out for the day. We first tried this last year and since it was a success then, we decided to continue with that format again. Initially I was only going to bake one cake for both of them (Barbie cake) but I was abruptly informed by Ella that this was NOT alright with her. She was not going to share her cake with anyone else. She wanted snowman cupcakes. End of story.

I made snowman cupcakes last year with marshmallows on top for the body, so apparently I was to make some again this year. I had just gotten a new issue of Taste Of Home magazine and on the front was a picture of a different version of snowman cupcakes. They looked easy to make (and they were) and Ella was happy with how they looked so I went ahead with that.

She was thrilled to have them for "her" party. She actually told me that Brie was not allowed to even eat one. Obviously that didn't go over well. Crazy girl!

Ella got lots of little toys to play with; Ponyville, Polly Pockets, Barbies etc. Here she is lining up her new gifts before she begged for us to start opening them.

Happy birthday to my wild fun-loving girl!