Ellie Jo's 2nd Birthday Celebrations - Part 1

You read that title correctly; she had several birthday celebrations:

•  Mommy & Ellie's day at Starbucks, and then dinner with Robert's family and our friend, Olivia
• At church in the new Ministry Action Center for Robert's family, Ellie's friends and our church family
• At Nana & TaTa's (my mom & stepdad) for my mom's family and one of her closest friends, Cora
• At KinderMusik (just with churro cupcakes)
• At Awana (with special cookies that Grandma "Hey" made)

...as well as a host of other fun excursions.

Just as I did last year, I used my Personal Leave Day on Ellie Jo's birthday to spend the day with her. Initially, I had plans to do a few different things with her, but her nap schedule didn't work out with it all. So, we just got up and got ready to go at our leisure, and then went to Starbucks to get her pink cake pop (annual tradition now), and "Ellie Coffee" (AKA, chocolate milk with whipped cream).

 She had a good time, but it was a stretch for me! It was easier taking a 1-year-old out last year than a 2-year-old this year. Primarily, potty breaks were the toughest - I had to pick up everything I had with me to take her to the bathroom when she hollered, "Potty!" and it was just a cluster. Trust me, if you'd seen it, you would have laughed. I bet everyone who was there did, because she started pulling down her birthday skirt before we were in the bathroom, ugh. But we made it!

You'll see in the picture above that she had NeNe's phone
glued to her head. That's because "her man" (AKA Chris Young)
was being "played and she was in a good mood. Therefore,
she got to keep said phone smashed to her face as long as she
wanted.

 Later, we went out to dinner at La Playa Bonita to continue the birthday girl's Cinco de Mayo celebration! (Yes, May 5th is her actual birthday!)

Included in our entourage were Great-Papa (Grandpa Byers) GiGi (Grandma Byers), Papa (Robert's Dad), Grandma "Hey" (Robert's Mom), NeNe (Robert's sister), Olivia (one of my BFFs), and of course, the birthday princess and her parents!

Here she is, "peeking" at the kids in the booth
behind us. Olivia was entertained.

The following Saturday, we had a big birthday celebration for Ellie at the church in the new Ministry Action Center!

Here's Daddy & Ellie, welcoming everyone
to her birthday party

 Many of the decorations I had at this party are things that are being re-used from past celebrations, or things that I purchased very inexpensively from Amazon or Party City.

The Sofia Scene Setter I bought on Amazon -
it stuck to the wall with no tape or tacks, and had
no sticky substance on it! Crazy helpful!

The beverage table,
complete with Princess Punch

The gifts table

Another shot of the gifts table - you can
see the sign behind it from this angle.

The "Fiesta" table where the food was located

Dishing up at the Fiesta table!

Some of the "re-used" decorations were the signage: Gifts, Goodies, and Ellie Jo banners. The Gifts & Goodies were ones I made for my friend's baby shower and I held on to them specifically for this purpose! The Ellie Jo banner is from her birthday party last year, and it usually hangs in her bedroom, but we took it down for this celebration. Some other decorations that were repeat visitors are the hanging lanterns. I bought them for Ellie's 1st birthday, and one also hangs in her bedroom. I will continue to reuse all of this stuff! It's not cheap, and I'm glad I had it all ready to go!

The "Birthday Princess" Sofia banner I got on
Amazon.

 Total, I spent $27.78 on Amazon purchases for Ellie Jo's birthday decorations. They included:

• Sofia the First Cupcake holders
• 5-piece Scene setter (which we split up to decorate multiple areas)
• Swirly hanging Sofia decorations
• Sofia Tiara
• Sofia birthday banner

The "Goodies" table where the cupcakes cake
was located

Another view of the Goodies table

 As we were getting set up, Robert's dad started working on taking down the Missions Conference flags that were still hung up on the flag poles. All of a sudden, I had a brainstorm, and I asked him to leave the flagpoles up, because I would use them around the Gifts and Goodies tables to hang streamers off of. It worked out so well! It looked regal, like a real royal princess party!

The beautiful Sofia the First
Princess dress "cake" made up
of nearly 50 cupcakes (each
individually wrapped in Sofia
cupcake wrappers) that GiGi
made for Ellie's party

The birthday girl in her "throne"
(AKA, a chair with one of
Grandma's chair covers and
a sash)

She wouldn't wear her tiara,
so Daddy tried to encourage her...

...it didn't work.

I asked her to smile. This is what
happened. I feel like she was
channeling her inner Lesley Gore.

Sadly, I spent over $100 at Party City. :( But most of the things I purchased are things that we'll use again and again, or things I was stocking up on, such as 100 plastic cups, foil hot dish holders (I really bought those for church potlucks and MOPS food days), a bunch of $1 prizes for Ellie to choose from when she fills up her potty charts, etc. The rest of what I bought at Party City were things like pretty napkins, balloons, a Sofia bean bag toss game, etc. That game is either going back to Party City this week, or we'll save it forever, because the 2-year-olds weren't quite big enough to understand it at the party. However, with my $100 purchase, I got a free Frozen pinata! (Which didn't even get hit hard enough to break - it's in our garage).

Will & Brooke

Robert & Ellie Jo

Praying before food time (note Ellie Jo's "closed
eyes")

Sweet Brooke on the stage

Ellie & Brooke playing on stage

Hanging out & chatting before the party

2 candles on her birthday cupcake

Daddy helps her get started with her cupcake

Digging in

While we sang happy birthday, Daddy had to
sit with Ellie Jo

She didn't really want that bite Daddy was
giving her

I LOVE this face!

Time for the pinata! Daddy & Uncle Will
got everything set up

Getting ready!

Emily was by far the best!

Evan was next

LOVE his face here!

Daddy ended up just opening the pinata and
spilling the candy for the kids. I think it was
hard for the girls to hit Anna & Elsa's faces. Next
time, I won't get that on a pinata. Noted.

With just 4 little ones, it made it easy.

Thankfully, because Robert is my husband, it
wasn't just candy in the pinata - there were
snacky foods, too. I'm not all for sugar highs!

Note: I got lazy and didn't edit any pictures after this point. This is just present opening and playing with gifts.

The very first gift - from Uncle Will, Auntie
Jenny and cousin Brooke!

It was a beautiful furry rocking horse! Ellie Jo
did not have the reaction any of us expected (I
have it on video), so Brooke & Emily tried to show
her that it was okay, but she still wasn't having any
of it.

She eventually warmed up, though!
Here she is a couple weeks after her party
riding "Secretariat" in front of the Frozen
castle Auntie June & Uncle Brian got her!

Evan & Emily were great helpers with the gifts!

Brooke was very patient while Ellie opened
everything!

Yup, this is a treasured memory...

Gifts from Aunt Judy & Uncle Ken

The aforementioned Frozen castle!

So many neat new toys!

Brooke got silly!

On the move to give loves

She was somewhat patient while Daddy read
cards before opening gifts.

The favorite toy at the party!

Tissue paper is subjective, right?

Daddy reading more cards

Super cute new outfit from the Richardsons!

I have no idea what's happening here, but I feel
like Emily is trying to advise Ellie not to bite her
skirt...

Perched on the stage!

Showing off her birthday cash!

John Deere tshirt from the Roghairs!

Giving Roni loves

"I'm twwwwooooo!"

Olivia gave the baby her very own Chris Young
CD!

And promptly gave loves!

Daddy wasn't moving fast enough...

Loves to Great Papa

Great Papa, Ellie Jo and Abby

The girls played with this ball for so long!

Brooke really got the hang of tossing the ball!

The girls love playing together!

They did a great job sharing!

All in all, it was a super fun afternoon, and Ellie Jo got to spend time with so many people who love her! I wish we could have had every single person we wanted to there, but I realize it's just not always possible.

Stay tuned for more about Ellie Jo's birthday celebrations!