Pack-it-all-in Post

I probably should have done all this in two separate posts. But I didn't think of that until after the pictures had all uploaded. End of story.

Ahem.

Here we go.

The weekend before Ellie's birthday, we had two family reunions in two days. The first one was for my mom's side of the family. We spent the day...

riding in Grandpa Moose's golf cart (or pretending to, anyways)

trying to figure out why everyone kept throwing those dice things on the table over and over again

being fascinated with the "puppy!" and his nifty little shoes

lifting up "webby" buckets of reservoir water

snuggling with mommy when it got too windy

AND practicing our "streamlining" dives.

What a day.

Next, we journeyed on to Twin Falls for a reunion with my dad's side of the family. This journey ended up taking us all the way to Sun Valley (which is WAY out there, by the way).  I had never been there and despite the 4-hour return trip to get home, I'd definitely visit again. It was beautiful!

My pictures were limited to those of the girls gorging themselves on delicious toffee-covered caramel apples. It was probably the best part of our day, so....

And this is where you should pretend I did a separate post. 

Subject: Birthday Party!

We just invited the grandparents to have dinner with us on Saturday, so I didn't do much in the way of a "theme." But there had to be a cake, of course. Or cupcakes, in this instance. 

After going back and forth between Minnie Mouse and Elmo (Ellie adores both of them), I settled on...

Elmo!

She was pretty excited and definitely thought it was lame that we had to eat dinner AND open presents before she could get her little hands on Elmo. 

Such a happy birthday girl, isn't she? ;)

At first, she just kind of picked the cupcake apart. I think she was a little disturbed by the idea of actually eating her beloved Elmo. She kept examining all the little parts and saying "Mehmo?" And then looking at us with this puzzled expression.

And then I finally had the bright idea to give her a spoon.

She had no hesitation about digging into her favorite furry monster after that!

And just because I never got a picture of her with her stash, Ellie got: a slip-n-slide, a caterpillar sprinkler, two Minnie Mouse dress-up figurines, a Dora lego set, a new Magnadoodle, a little Teddy Grahams container, and four really cute outfits.

Phew! The End.