Little One Turns Two

Ta-da!  I'm TWO

Two is an interesting age, and gives me such polarity about being a parent.  One minute, I love seeing that little brain fire neurons as she tries to express herself in words ("Momma - I not get gummy be-tause I brush teef before?" - all said brokenly while her eyes wildly search the insides of her brain for the right words); in the next minute I'm practicing every bit of reserve to not lose.my.wits (or something that rhymes with "wit") as she's throwing herself down in a temper tantrum because I want her to put her underwear back on. 

Ahhh....two.  How I've missed you.

Any parent knows that reasoning with a two year old is slightly more difficult than reasoning with a brick wall, and I'm fairly certain that Ellery spent months 18 through 24 perfecting this practice.  However, since the big Numero Dos has hit our house, it's like a new little girl is emerging, out of her toddler stage and into her "I'm a little girl" phase.  I'm hoping we just got a dose of the Terrible One-and-a-Halfs and that the Twos won't be as heinous as predicted. 

As if.  :)

Anyway.

To celebrate this Marvelous 2-Year-Milestone, Nana, Pops, & Auntie MyMy made the journey to Colorado - such fun!   To kick the weekend off, we started with a nice little gathering for Ellery's special day (a week early - not my fault the MLK holiday weekend didn't fall on her birthday :).  Unlike last year's affair, this year we kept it simple and the small cupcake-themed celebration was quite cute and perfectly precious :)

The party-sisters cheese it up :)

Don't they look like they're mirroring each other?

Yay!  Gifts!

The Christmas-gift tent makes for a good birthday-party play area :)

New boots from Nana & Pops!  Cowgirl!

And in true birthday fashion, I tried my hand at a cute cupcake cake (no, not THAT kind of cupcake cake, this kind! :)

A cupcake CAKE!  A giant cupcake!
(sure - I need (a lot of) fondant practice, but it's pretty cute, right???:)

...not too sure about blowing out the candle...
(Big Sass had to help)

...but has no qualms at all about digging into a cupcake!

After our little soiree we spent the rest of the afternoon prepping to watch the Broncos....in what would end up being their worst defeat of the year.  Glad we had that little ray of 2-year-old-party-goodness to mark our day instead of that heinous defeat...


On Sunday, we had more plans - church, then the National Western Stock Show!  Last year, I took the girls with our besties, the Janti, and had a spectacular time.  When Nana and Pops said they were coming to Denver in January, we decided we *had* to show them how the city-folk do it up, country-style!  

Nana and her girls prepping for the Wild West Show

Birthday girl shoves her face with some popcorn.
This girl could eat a barrel of the stuff.

Enthralled watching the Native American Hoop Dancers.
Indeed, they were quite impressive!

After the Wild West Show, we walked around the National Western Complex to see some animals.

My Cowgirls in their new Cowboots.
They'd make such cute little 4-H-ers :)
(and they LOVE their boots - wear them all the time.  It's the Suthern Illinoiz in 'em :)

Ellery cackled and cackled at the roosters.
They cackled back, which was a nice little circle of NOISE.

Pony Rides!

They both laughed and giggled the whole time -
Elle didn't even want me to stand next to her!

On Monday we swam, and later that night Nana, Pops, & MyMy had to head back home.  Them being here was such a fun gift for Ellery - but really all the girls needed was this:

Nana's IPAD!

I'm trying to convince John that we need an iPad now (that's going over reeeeel well.  I mean, I think it woulda been a totes approps gift for a 2-year-old, don't you?)  

Ya.  I'll keep working on it. :)