Leah's 2-Year-Old Elmo Extravaganza

Of course Leah's 2nd birthday party had to feature non other than her favorite furry red friend Elmo. You would not believe how much Elmo stuff you can find for parties at almost any store you go to. I didn't want to go too overboard, especially since she only had adults attending her party, but I did want to make this a day she'd remember. I kept telling her about her Elmo birthday party all week. I'm not sure if she really understood-- she may have thought it was Elmo's birthday-- but she did keep going around talking about her "Elmo b-party."

This may very well be one of my favorite pics from the day. I'd been working with her all week on "How old are you going to be?" First she said "seven" then "five" then finally she got "TWO!" She couldn't hold up two fingers on one hand so we showed her how to do one on each hand. Here she is saying she's "TWO!"























There was a total of 17 people throughout the day (including Leah & Andrew). We were so blessed to have just about everyone we love come to support Leah on her birthday. She didn't even know what to do with all the attention!!











































The balloons may have been one of her favorite decorations! She loved bouncing it back and forth between people-- like in this video:

She got a lot of great gifts! Among her favorites: A set of Lego-like blocks that can create Ernie & Bert (from Sarah & Ben), an Elmo doll that blows kisses (from BJ & Chela), some coloring books & books from Grandma & Grandpa, and a doll that can go in the bath from Nana & Papaw. Brett & I got her a set of baby doll "accessories" (pretend lotions, wipes, diapers, etc.) and also a toy cash register that really adds & subtracts numbers. We also got her an Elmo sticker book-- she already has a similar one and she did all the stickers in a couple weeks (there are over 500), so we got her another. It was probably her favorite. She wanted to play with everything right away, not really understanding the idea that there was still more to open!

My friend Sarah volunteered to make her an Elmo cake. She went above & beyond my expectations! There were even Elmo cupcakes. Leah is still talking about her "Elmo cake."



























I'm not sure what was going on in her head when we sang to her and ate the cake. She seemed very timid, almost afraid of all the people surrounding her and singing. She clapped and said "yay!" when we were done, but probably only because that's what everyone else was doing. She did really well blowing out her candles-- she seemed to know exactly what to do-- but she was still a little timid and didn't even really want to eat the cake. When we all finally got our cake & sat down with her, she did eat it, but even then she did it very daintily, with a fork. I didn't get the singing part, but here is a video of her blowing out the candles.


















































The little brother spent most of the party sleeping or being held.










































Bed time was rough that day-- she hadn't taken a nap, everyone had left her & all the fun was over-- it was definately an emotional day & we were all too exhausted. Still, it was so much fun to have everyone we loved together in one place and it is a day we will remember for a long time!