Friday, May 20, 2011

Herzlichen Gluckwunsch Ellie und Herzlich Wilkommen Beth und Evan

Happy Birthday, Ellie! (Herzlichen Gluckwunsch in German, though forgive me--I don't know how to put the umlaut on my U. If you can tell me, please do!) And welcome, Beth and Evan (Herzlich Wlilkommen). We had a wonderful time visiting with Beth and Evan and celebrating Ellie's 2nd birthday last week.






Here's the whole fam (minus me, taking the pic!) having Ellie's birthday dinner. By the way, we are so excited--we finally found a good pizza place nearby. Ja!











Older sister can actually anticipate the presents and cake that are forthcoming--the birthday girl is blissfully unaware.














At first, she's dainty with her cake--using her fork and chewing.






Later, the joy of simply eating cake takes over. You go, Ellie!







Here's the cake and along with it the 100 yr old cake turner (on the table in front of me) that's been in Jon's family for three generations.




Ellie received some wonderful presents including these matching dresses from Baby Gap in Milan, courtesy of Aunt Beth and Uncle Evan. They are adorable!












And a huge thank you goes out to our friends the Winters for shipping us princess dress up shoes all the way from Michigan! Thank you!!









A requisite trip to our town bakery. We fill the entire eating area but sure enjoy going for a visit.








Also on Ellie's birthday, we drove down to Legoland Deutschland. Uncle Evan had already visited Legoland in Denmark and he and Jon were particularly excited to go see what this Legoland had to offer. It was such fun--a great park for kids and adults alike. Ellie has such fond memories that every now and then she just shouts out "Legoland!" for the fun of it.






Here are the girls with Jon and Uncle Ev after being drenched on one of the water rides. It was supposed to be an inocuous boat ride but ended up being a water fight. All handled it pretty well, despite the look on Kate's face.










The other sisters, at Legoland!

















Hangin' with her favorite aunt.












And before leaving, Aunt Beth and Uncle Evan graciously enveloped the girls in a Nielsen sandwich. Thanks so much for coming to visit us--it was wonderful to see you both again! We miss you!!


5 comments:

Betsy said...

Such a great time was had by all!!! Love the pics, Ellie sure did get into that cake! Having B+E for a visit made the time so special for all. Birthdays are such fun. Love the bakery shot. Thank you so much for sharing all the photos. The family photo is just fab! Love you all to the moon and back...G+P

b.niel said...

Yay! Love this post! We had such an amazing time and were totally honored to be around for E's birthday. Your family is the sweetest. Love you guys!

Evan said...

Wunderbar! (I hope I don't need an umlaut there...) I warms my heart to know that Ellie continues to randomly yell "Uncle EVan!" AND "Legoland!" Thanks again for putting us up and (putting up with us). Oh, I think you can hit CRTL+SHIFT+; before you type your vowel to get the umlaut (but this will probably only work in a proper wordprocessor, like MS Word). Happy blogging!
ev

Nana said...

Hi Luminatis
I just got back from our trip to DC and was thrilled to see the update of the pics. What fun, what great times together with family! The girls are growing up too fast! I remember last year on Ellie's b-day I was with you in Monterey. By the end of the cake eating session it was everywhere. It looks like she enjoyed it this year too!
We can't wait to see you and that will be within a month! YES! love,

Shari Baker said...

YAY! What a fun family celebration of Elli's birthday! I am so glad that you can host family, and glad, too, that you found a good pizza place! That's pretty essential when living in another country, I'm sure! :)