Ava's 2nd Birthday!

I’m sitting here making myself crazy because I did something incredibly dumb today! I accidentally taped over the videos of Ava’s 2^nd birthday party that we just had on Saturday. I can’t stand it! I feel like I’m going to go crazy thinking about it. They were the cutest videos and not only that, but we don’t have any videos of Ava’s 1^st birthday party either! AHHHH! I’m a terrible mother! The thought seriously entered my head to stage another party, but then I realized that it would involve gathering together 60 people and flying 7 in from Salt Lake. I guess that's unrealistic.

I worked my tail off for this birthday party and it turned out really cute. We had about 25 kids and at least that many adults. We ordered 18 pizzas from Pizza Hut. I spent HOURS working on this adorable castle cake that Ava loved! Thankfully, that tiny clip survived the video massacre today. I have one video of her waking up the morning of the party and admiring her castle cake. She was so excited to put “Rella” on the chocolate drawbridge. She really thought it was cool that Rella had a castle her size.

So the party consisted of kids in various princess, prince, pirate, bride costumes and parents mingling and watching. We had a table where the kids decorated their own crowns and that’s where Ava spent most of her time. She loved the “sprinkles” or glitter. She sat at that table for practically the whole party putting sprinkles on her crown. She made a crown for her baby sister and it was so cute! She liked having everyone sing “Happy Birthday” to her, but in true Ava fashion she got a little shy. It took several attempts to get the candle blown out, but after that she ran away with a big piece and was so happy!

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson where here, along with Kylee, Luke, Cheri and Grandpa and Grandma Great(Myers). It was a great party!

After the party we came back to the apartment and opened her MOUNTAIN of gifts! Her friends were very generous! She had fun but was a little annoyed that she couldn’t stop opening presents and just play with what she had already opened. The funniest was when she opened Kylee’s present. It was clothes in a gift bag. Ava reached in and kept pulling clothes out and tossing them over her shoulder. She was so confused when she got to the bottom and there was nothing there. Where was the present?! It reminded me of my nephew William's infamous words to Grandma Dunn, "We don't get clothes for birthdays!"

Later that night we drove over to Hollywood. On the way, Ava was watching the videos of her birthday. She was laughing and saying the names of all of her friends. This is the beginnings of my family history disaster! It’s such a shame because she loved watching those videos! The camcorder ran out of batteries while she was watching…..

Yesterday was Sunday and we got up early to play with some of her loot. She was playing with a tiny little Cinderella figurine when she spotted a wrapped present from Grandma and Grandpa Dunn. I didn’t notice her opening the gift until I heard her say, “Oh, Tute! A Rella Tup!” which translated into adult English means, “Oh Cute! A Cinderella Cup!” Then I turned and watched her say to the figurine, “Like it, Rella? Like it?” How cute is that?!

Last night she slept over at G&G Johnson’s hotel. It was really fun for me to have the morning to play with baby sister. I don’t get very much un-interrupted time with Elsa. It was really sweet when we went to pick Ava up, she was really excited to see me. (Which I was over the moon about!) But she was jumping out of her skin to see her baby sister! She was so excited to see Elsie, she couldn’t get to her fast enough. It makes me so happy.

Today she spent a good amount of time “tooking” or cooking on her new castle stove. She was having such a great time, and thus, the taping over the birthday party mis-hap. The videos from today are really “Tute!” but I just wish I could rewind my life to 5 hours ago and get the tape to the right place so I could have and enjoy ALL my videos!