Mia's 2nd Birthday Party (144 photos), by Julia Elkington

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My Little Artist

Again, in honor of Mia's 2nd Birthday I am posting some pictures of the last two years ... below are the most recent pictures of her painting a tea set that Ya-Ya got her. How cute does she look with Nina's hat on??

My Baby is Turning 2!!

Its hard to believe that Mia will be two on Saturday, and also hard to believe that in the next couple of weeks we will be welcoming her little brother "Duke" into our world. In honor of Mia's Birthday week, I thought I would post some flashback videos and photos of Mia from the past couple of years. The first video I am posting is of Mia dancing with her buddy Svenja in Germany this past summer - she was about 15 months old (and her dance moves are definitely her dads :-).

Happy Hump Day and enjoy the video!!

Monkeys on the Bed!

The ATL!

Mia, my dad and I just spent a week in Atlanta visiting with friends ... it was a great time and Mia still talks about all her friends in the south (including the many fish and penguins she met at the Atlanta Aquarium). Below are some pictures from our trip to the Aquarium - for those of you who have not been to the GA Aquarium - it is well worth the $20 to get in ... so much better than any aquarium I have been to in California (even though two of its biggest exhibits were closed).

The rest of our time was spent catching up with old friends and playing in the snow (yes, you read that correctly!). The first time Atlanta has received snow in many years happened to be while we were there - and, it also happened to be Mia's first time experiencing snow. Though she was not that excited by it at first, she quickly warmed up to the idea!

Below are some pictures of Mia playing with Catherine, who is my friend Christina's daughter. Christina and I have been friens since 6th grade and it was so much fun watching our girls play together - they had a ball!

We also got to see Jodie with her two girls Caroline and Kate and my friend Tara. Jodie, Tara and I were really good friends in High School. We had such fun catching up and letting the girls play! I wish we all lived closer!

Merry Christmas!!

To all our friends and family, far and near, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, The Elkington's

'Tis the Season

Wow - cannot believe my last blog was on Halloween, but this is partially due to the fact that my camera was MIA for the past month and I feel like blog posts just are not as exciting without the pictures. So, I will make an attempt to make up for the missing posts with this one.

Christmas season is upon us and the Elkington Clan has started gearing up. This past weekend the Cooney's and the Elkington's went on their second annual tree cutting expedition to Petaluma. We went to Little Hills Christmas Tree Farm and Mia got to see Santa Claus (although she was not brave enough to sit on his lap) and we cut down our trees. The rule this year was that the tree should not be taller than Ryan ... the Cooney's followed this rule, the Elkington's did not. I think this was mainly due to the fact that Daniel was too hungover to argue with me when I found the tree that I liked. From the picture below, you can see that Daniel was not the only one hurting - Ryan was soaking up his knee injury and had Daniel drive him around the tree farm in the cart.

Today, Mia and I went to Boba's house to decorate a Gingerbread House. Mia had a ball! She LOVED all the candy, icing and sprinkles as you can tell from the pictures below.

Thank you Boba for a great morning and a beautiful Gingerbread House! Sorry we made such a mess :-)

Happy Holidays everybody!