2nd birthday disaster

I spent weeks of planning her awesome elmo birthday party and she spent the majority of the party crying.  The night started out well. We got some cute pictures of her and she was playing with her cousins. I don't remember exactly when the fussiness started but it just escalated. We ended up spending half the party outside walking with her. I even walked all the way to the nature center to see her favorite bunnies. On the way back she refused to sit in her car or walk so I had to carry 29 lbs and push the car with my hip.  Every time we tried to take her back in the house she would cry and scream again.  The singing happy birthday and blowing out candle part that I tried to prep her and get her excited about for the last several days was like ripping off a bandaid--did it quick and as painless as possible.  It wasn't until some people started leaving and I took her upstairs for a bath to just calm her down and get her away from the chaos that she became more like my sweet baby. We went back downstairs afterwards and she happily opened her presents but we did it oh so slowly to not overwhelm her.  So it took a failed birthday party for me to realize she doesn't like crowds and attention.  I would never have guessed it considering she likes to say hi to random strangers and strangers are always saying "she's so friendly!"  *sigh* I hope this is just a phase.