Happy 2nd Birthday!

Yesterday was Elinor's 2nd birthday. We had planned a small party and spent the day before decorating and cooking. The morning of, Elinor came running in our room in a great mood. Dave and I had stashed her presents next to our bed. One gift was an Ariel costume that she had to put on right away and is still wearing today. Auntie also gave her some cute baby bangs in the morning. I've been wanting to give her bangs for awhile but held off until her birthday.

As the day went on, we continued cleaning and getting everything ready. We were supposed to only get less than an inch of snow that day. But once it started, it never stopped. People started calling to cancel and we decided to call it. At least we had Auntie (my sister) in town to celebrate with. Some sweet friends from out of town had sent some birthday gifts that she was able facetime and open. We felt terrible though and we are eating nothing but snacks/cupcakes for the next few weeks. But in Elinor's eyes yesterday was awesome. She got new toys, got to eat all her favorite snacks and played in the snow and that's all that matters

I made Elinor a banner. I just added personalized banners to my Etsy if you are looking for one!

I made a backdrop out of streamer, yarn and string.

 Always messing with the tree. We put safe for toddler ornaments on the bottom which she keeps taking off.

 This is when we realized the party wasn't going to happen. Such a bummer. But Elinor just wanted to watch the snow

 My sister made vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World . I've made them before and they have never came out as good as these ones. She actually follows directions exactly...maybe I should try that

After we all ate way too much, we headed outside to play in the snow. Elinor had so much fun until she got snow down her pants. I have to find where her bib snowpants are. Moving and not knowing where things are is so frustrating

We ended our night with watching Christmas movies and snuggling with blankets on the floor. After she fell asleep We took some pictures to match our last 2 Christmas cards just for fun.

Read:  On the day she was born, 1st Birthday party in PA, 1st Birthday party in MA

Happy 2nd Birthday baby girl. We love you so much and are so happy to have you in our lives. 

raising a vegan child

When I was pregnant I knew Elinor would at the least be vegetarian until she decided otherwise. Now that she is here and I've been reading healthy happy vegan families making it look easy(veggie kids/vegan dad/before I was a mom/oh dear drea) I'm wanting to raise her vegan.

Of course the first thing people always ask are "HOW WILL SHE GET HER PROTEIN???" "HOW WILL SHE GET ANY CALCIUM??" because I guess you can't get either of those from anything except meat and milk. The only thing I'm remotely worried about her getting enough of is B-12 but we do use nutritional yeast a lot and also a lot of soymilks and cereals now have B-12. 

One post I found recently from Veggie Kids, on how to raise a vegan child, gives a break down on where exactly vegans can get there protein, calcium and other vitamins. Explained simple! Go read it non believers! 

I get pretty defensive when people question us for being vegan or now raising a vegan child. I feel like we eat a lot healthier than most of the people that question us. We are very aware of what we eat and need. I don't mind if someone eats meat but don't act like we don't know what we are doing.

 (I didn't mean to turn this into a vent but I've been getting little comments recently when someone finds out.)