Dress-up

Dear Ella,

Just before you turned two, you reached that milestone where you love to play dress-up.  There was a few months before your birthday where we had no dress up clothes for you to play with.  Luckily, you are a creative little one, and you found that anyone else’s clothes could be used for dress up.  One of your favorite things to do is to dig through Charlie’s drawers and put on his clothes/accessories.  Here are some snapshots of my favorite ensembles you have put together:

Even now that you have pretty princess dresses, you still love to put on Charlie’s clothes.  You also will take off your friends’ shoes and put them on your feet.  I can’t wait to see what style choices the future has in store for you.

 

Love,

Mom

Halloween 2012

 

Dear Merida,

Ever since I saw the previews for the Disney movie Brave, I thought that the makers of the movie must have patterned this character after you.  The movie is about a beautiful princess with curly red hair and blue eyes who is petite but fiery!  She wants control of her life and turns her mother into a bear in order to achieve it.  That’s you in a nutshell.  I decided that I wanted you to be Merida for Halloween this year since she reminds me so much of you. 

 

A few days before Halloween, we had our second annual Griffiths family pumpkin carving.  Last year you were totally into it, but this year you were not as interested.  At first I was disappointed, but your dad and I had so much fun that I didn’t care about your lack of involvement.  I did manage to get  a few pictures at the beginning of the carving party.

Our pumpkins did turn out pretty awesome.  Mine is the one that says welcome, and your dad’s is the one that has a hand coming out of the tombstone.

Each year just gets better and better.  I love being your mom and sharing the holidays with you…even though you do turn me into a bear sometimes.

 

Love,

Mamma Bear

Pumpkin Patch

Dear Ella,

I am terribly behind on my letters, so for the sake of time, I am just going to share photos and add short comments.

 The horseback ride was by far your favorite part of the evening.  You talked about riding "Cookie" for weeks after we left the pumpkin patch.

 Sadly, this was the best picture we got of our family on the hayride.  You both enjoyed it, even though you look miserable here.

As we were walking around watching your cute smiling faces, I kept telling your dad that it was the best day.  I love being able to go out together as a family and hearing you and Charlie laughing.  Thank you for such a great day!

Love,
Mom

San Diego Birthday Party

Dear Ella,

This year was special because we were able to celebrate your birthday twice!  On September 29th, we went to San Diego to celebrate your birthday and Charlie's birthday with your grandparents and cousins. 

We went to Nana and Papa's house first.  They were sweet enough to take us all to the Padres game that night.  There is a buffet inside the ballpark, and you thought the all you can eat dessert bar was about the greatest thing you had ever seen.  I have never seen you eat so much food.  Maybe we should do dessert for dinner all the time.  You are so stinkin' adorable that we even had two young ladies who wanted to take their picture with you.  Your Nana let you wear this Padres shirt, and she got you a stick-on tattoo for the game.

You and Charlie did pretty well for most of the game.  You liked sitting on your Papa's lap, and Charlie had fun flirting with some of the women in the rows behind us.

Around the 7th inning, you two were tired and cranky, so we left the game.  The Padres were losing pretty badly, and it was not a fun game to watch anyway.

The next day we went to your Grammy and Pa's house for the actual celebration.  Grammy got a pizza from Costco, and you and Lyla got to sit at the princess table and eat your slices.  Unfortunately, you would not cooperate for pictures.  This was the best one I could get.

After lunch, you got to open your presents.  You especially enjoyed the dress-up clothes from Nana and the baby doll from Grammy.

Next we ate the adorable birthday cakes that your Grammy made for you and Charlie. 

Finally, it was time to go to the zoo!  You love animals, (especially monkeys), and I was excited to see your cute face when you got to see the wild animals in person.  Although you liked looking at the animals, your favorite parts of the zoo were:
1. Getting to hold your cousin Alex's hand and drag him around
2. The petting zoo.

Your dad loved watching your smiling face when you were petting the goats that he decided he wants to get you two little goats for Christmas.  I love to see your little face light up when you are around animals too.  In fact, I love it so much, that I allowed your dad to try and get the goats for you even though your baby sister will be born right around Christmastime.  Happy 2nd birthday Ella!

Love,
Mom