Elsie's birthday weekend

Elsa's grandparents love her SO much that they even came down south for her birthday! Jeff's sister Jen came too, and Jan came over so it was a good old family affair. Elsa was beyond excited to have all these people that were super interested in what she was doing and saying, hanging out with her all weekend. Elsa wasn't the only one psyched about the visit- Thor knows a sucker when he sees one, and he was on my mom's lap roughly 67% of the weekend.

A whole lot of lounging and baby hair sniffing went on too. In between lounging though, I have to admit the parents rolled up their sleeves and totally helped clean the house, fold laundry, do the dishes, and take care of the front and back yards. My mom even mopped the house about 10 minutes before leaving for the airport so I came home from work to shiny clean floors. Thanks Esmeralda!

Some of you loyal blog readers may remember this post about a certain play kitchen for Miss Elsa. Well, Nonnie came through and a few days before her birthday it arrived! I previously posted about wanting the white version of the KidKraft kitchen play set, but when it came time to order it, the white one jumped up about $50 in price! Whatevs. So we went with red and I'm SO happy we did. I'm normally not such a red fan, but it's super glossy and awesome and hides her hand guck smudges and it's sassy as all get out. And still gender-neutral unlike their pastel pink kitchen which Henry and the Rasmussen boys would probably shun. Maybe.

It took Jan and I three hours to assemble. Seriously. And we were on our game! We're good at stuff like this! I love IKEA and Jan is totally OCD too with these kinds of kits. He spent his childhood building models and RC cars so he kind of knows how to put stuff together. We had a system set up where I was in charge of hardware and instructions while Jan assembled and figured out hinges and we made very few mistakes, and it STILL took us three hours. Not to brag, but non-Trondsen kids would probably take like 5 hours to put it together. Jeff took fantastic pictures of our progress. I'm being sarcastic, they are terrible pictures and he shouldn't be allowed to document anything anymore. Ever. Karen has totally spoiled me.

Uncle Jan was a little beat and sweaty after the ordeal.

And here she was birthday morning! She was instantly into it. Definitely a recommended toy for a two-year-old.

She LOVES it. She says "I COOK! I COOK!" as she clangs her kitchen utensils on the pots and pans set that Grammie got her. It even has a little phone attached to the fridge cabinet which she uses to call her friends to chat while she makes her soup. It's kind of the cutest thing ever.

Mandy made her this adorable little matching apron which is just too much cuteness that she can't wear it all the time or I'll fall over and die. Speaking of cuteness-overload...

Holy crap!! This was the gift from Jodi and Ryan (no offense Ryan, but Jodi is totally getting all credit for this even though your name was on the card) and it was a mini shopping cart filled with felt food that came in PERSONLIZED "Miss Elsa Gourmet Grocer" muslin bags!!!!! I die. LOOK AT THE SHRIMP!! She wheels the cart everywhere in the house now taking all her dollies grocery shopping while wearing amazing outfits from Auntie Lynne and rad mint green lace up Vans from Heather and Andrew. Super stylish.

She got so many other amazing gifts (even though I swear I wrote NO GIFTS PLEASE on her birthday party invite) that I'm sure will be popping up on this blog quite a bit for the next year or more...

But one of the best gifts of all was time spent with Nonnie, Marmie, Grampa, Auntie Jen and Uncle Jan. She is one adored child.