Ella's Birth-Day!

Backing up a bit...boy this last month has been a blur! Ella's actual birthday just happened to fall on President's Day so the boys were home from school and Daddy was home from work. It was gorgeous so we decided it would be fun to get out and enjoy the nice weather we were having. 

Down to Des Moines Beach Park we went.  

Zeke Man is still a little unsteady on his feet when he's not on a completely flat surface so Daddy was helping him out. 

Ella and Jackson were completely inseparable this day. They usually aren't like that, but they wanted to do everything together. It was so fun watching them truly enjoy each other. 

It was so nice out...a little chilly with the wind. We also made sure that we got down there for low tide. The tide was just starting to come back in so there was plenty of beach to explore. 

There is this funny little island area that I think you can get to if the tide is completely out, but it was full of seagulls. Their own private island away from all the kiddos that would just love to chase them! 

Daddy and the boys searched and searched, but for some reason there weren't that many crabs to be found. Not sure if it's just the time of year or what. Normally you flip over one rock and tons of crabs going running. I think they maybe saw 5 and we turned over a ton of rocks. It's so funny to see the boys running from rock to rock, flipping them over and getting their face as close to the ground as they can and in turn sticking their tushes way up in the air. I tried to get cute pictures of them exploring, but no such luck...they were all pictures of tushes sticking up!

My pretty birthday girl. She wore a backpack so she could store all the treasure that she and Jack found. They are both cute little hoarders! 

"Come on Jack....let's climb the rocks!"

After a while it was Jack's turn to carry all their loot! 

My super duper handsome man!

After time at the beach we headed home so everyone that got their pants and shoes wet could change and then we to lunch at Red Robin. We love Red Robin!!

Zeke has definitely turned a leaf and has been clinging more and more to Daddy lately. The other two boys did this closer to 2 years old. It's all part of him growing into a big boy. 

While we were there we ended up running into some friends from church. Ethan came and joined us while the staff sang happy birthday to Ella. He was so sweet wishing Ella a Happy Birthday! 

Later that night we had dinner and then Ella got a birthday cupcake. I didn't actually make a cake, but I had one leftover Valentine's cupcake that a friend made so she got that. 

It even had a yummy heart shaped jelly bean on it. She loved it and thankfully the other kids didn't get all upset that they didn't have cake. 

We gave Ella her present from us so she could at least open one present on her birthday. 

Because of my Grandma getting hurt and then passing away Ella's birthday party has been postpone twice so I actually ended up finding some really cute puzzles for her for cheap so she's going to get another present from us to open up at her party. 

I got her present back in September at Target on the clearance rack for only $8. 

It's a cute Sophia game where there is a castle and you have to search the castle for different trinkets. The windows can open and you can see if the trinket is in that room or not. It's fun and she likes it....the boys do too! It was a nice low key yet fun day to celebrate our wonderful girl!