2 Years Old Today!!

My baby turned 2 years old today. She's doing so much now. She's saying a bunch of new words every day, and developing quite the little personality. It's hard for me to realize she's not quite my little baby anymore. (Though she'll always be my baby.) I remember Ella's birth day like it was yesterday. It was such an exciting, happy day. How have two years passed already?? I never knew being a mommy would be such work and so exhausting. But I also never knew being a mommy would be so much fun. Ella has enriched our lives so greatly. I thank God every day for her. She is such a blessing to me, her daddy and her family that love her so much.

We had a fun day! We did a few art projects...

Painting over the marker with water to see the colors run like tie-dye...

Randomly painting...

And Ella also had her first try at scissors today. She did pretty well and enjoyed actually being able to touch scissors of her own! After cutting up a bunch of different colored scraps of paper, we made a collage. (She enjoyed the glue too!)

Later we went to Bounce City where she got to burn off some energy jumping all over the place!

The ball pit was a big hit.

We drove home in a huge thunder and lightning storm and lo and behold, our entire neighborhood had lost power. We had fun lighting candles and eating birthday cake by candlelight. Ella really, really loves being sung to. :)

Daddy and Ella enjoying the cake. Ella actually didn't seem to care for the cake which I'm totally ok with. Shocked because she's our daughter and we like cake! ...but ok. :)

She also wore her birthday hat.

And opened a couple presents we saved just for her actual birthday. She was really excited, can you tell?? :)

She wanted her bear dress up puzzle opened immediately...

then went right to work dressing mama bear, baby bear, and papa bear.

It was a little bit of a crazy night and Ella didn't get to bed until way later than usual, but it was a special day. My little girl turned 2.