Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
A fire pit night
S'mores in the backyard were on our summer bucket list and it was a lot of fun with Dave and Julie. Our neighbors even joined us for a little while (can I say how much I LOVE our neighborhood??). Lots of sugar and fun were had by all :-)
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Summer!!!! (Part One)
I have been missing from blogging world. I've been busy enjoying life and kids and a break from school. Blogging often feels like "work" to me but I know I'll be happy to have the record of my kids so I'm going to try to get back into it. Lord knows my memory is horrible and if I don't blog it, I'll forget everything about my babies' babyhood!
So, what have we been up to...
Ella:
-Camp!! Ella started off signd up for 1 week of Grace Adventures Day Camp (where I am friends/related to 3 of the 5 people on the leadership team) and ended up going for 3 weeks! She LOVED it and Chris and I LOVED reliving all our memories of christian summer camps in our youth :-) The Silly Songs she learned were probably my favorite part! Check this out...
-Reading!!
Ella was reading short words and sounding some other words out in the spring but somehow, this summer, she is FULL ON reading. I'm seriously shocked when she reads to me. The "sight words" she knows and can read without sounding anything out has grown a TON. Since when does she know how to read?? It really just clicked and she's loving it!
It's been funny to see how this opens up new things for her-she can read the remote control and the tivo onscreen prompts and now starts her own shows and is very proud of herself. She reads menus, cereal boxes, signs, and of course books.
It's probably my favorite thing right now to snuggle up with both girls all clean from a bath and have Ella read Sadie's bedtime book to her. So sweet! Trying to treasure up all these wonderful moments with these girls.
-Ella is into...
*Hello Kitty anything
*Wild Kratts (a cartoon that highlights a different animal in each episode-I'm pretty into it too)
*Having us read her Babysitter Club books. I loved these growing up and have saved some and collected others when i see them for Ella to read (I thought) in middle school. But, she loves them! Chris and I read them at bed time and we're on our 5th one! She's totally into the stories and characters and it's fun to share something I loved as a kid with her.
*Ella still would like to eat next to nothing. If she could, she'd live on ritz crackers, fruit snacks, ice cream and if she had to pick a vegetable, olives. She likes fish quite a bit but has been quite fickle even with that. It's a struggle to get her to eat anything substantial or healthy. Sadie on the other hand, is eating us out of house and home.
*Ella is usually helpful and thoughtful and hilariously clever. She has a sassy side and definitely can be too much of a disciplinarian with Sadie. I remind her often to not yell at her sister (usually for crawling toward something she might try to eat) and leave the discipline to me. She has good intentions but is in a LOUD phase and enjoys being the one to "save" Sadie by shrieking if she seems to be doing something she shouldn't. She also likes to be sneaky and hates sitting in time out which when combined have turned into some moments where Chris and I are trying not to crack up while disciplining her. The other night she went to time out during dinner (I don't remember why) and then was suddenly not sitting in time out in the hallway anymore. As we're looking for her we suddenly hear laughter. She had somehow, crawled under the dining room table, while we're sitting there having dinner, and we didn't see or hear her at all! She's got the sneaky thing down pat!
She came out of her room a few weeks ago at about 9pm to tell us she discovered something.
Me: What did you discover?
Ella: I was laying in bed, and I was thinking about why I have trouble with obeying sometimes. And I realized the problem! See, sometimes I forget what I'm supposed to do. But, if I remember and do it right, then I remember the next time and I obey! So, I just have to remember and I'll be good all the time! Ok. Good night. (and she trotted back to bed)
Chris and I were overwhelmed with the sweetness of her laying in bed thinking about how to obey more. She really has a good heart. Her tendency to try things she sees other kids do (like pulling hair or saying "stupid") gets her in trouble but she does tend to not try again after being scolded. I love her so, so much and it's exciting to see her genuinely interested in learning about how to love people and please God.
*Spiritually, Ella has been asking questions about truth, the Bible, why some people believe different things, and whether God tells me if she does bad things ;-) She's been really interested in doing a devotional book we got her, listening to the Jesus storybook Bible Audio book (which is amazingly narrated), and overall seems very interested in spiritual things. We're just trying to live out our faith in front of her all the time and letting her make choices about her own faith in her time. So thankful for the opportunity to introduce her to the deep joys of having a relationship with God.
So, what have we been up to...
Ella:
-Camp!! Ella started off signd up for 1 week of Grace Adventures Day Camp (where I am friends/related to 3 of the 5 people on the leadership team) and ended up going for 3 weeks! She LOVED it and Chris and I LOVED reliving all our memories of christian summer camps in our youth :-) The Silly Songs she learned were probably my favorite part! Check this out...
-Reading!!
Ella was reading short words and sounding some other words out in the spring but somehow, this summer, she is FULL ON reading. I'm seriously shocked when she reads to me. The "sight words" she knows and can read without sounding anything out has grown a TON. Since when does she know how to read?? It really just clicked and she's loving it!
It's been funny to see how this opens up new things for her-she can read the remote control and the tivo onscreen prompts and now starts her own shows and is very proud of herself. She reads menus, cereal boxes, signs, and of course books.
It's probably my favorite thing right now to snuggle up with both girls all clean from a bath and have Ella read Sadie's bedtime book to her. So sweet! Trying to treasure up all these wonderful moments with these girls.
-Ella is into...
*Hello Kitty anything
*Wild Kratts (a cartoon that highlights a different animal in each episode-I'm pretty into it too)
*Having us read her Babysitter Club books. I loved these growing up and have saved some and collected others when i see them for Ella to read (I thought) in middle school. But, she loves them! Chris and I read them at bed time and we're on our 5th one! She's totally into the stories and characters and it's fun to share something I loved as a kid with her.
*Ella still would like to eat next to nothing. If she could, she'd live on ritz crackers, fruit snacks, ice cream and if she had to pick a vegetable, olives. She likes fish quite a bit but has been quite fickle even with that. It's a struggle to get her to eat anything substantial or healthy. Sadie on the other hand, is eating us out of house and home.
*Ella is usually helpful and thoughtful and hilariously clever. She has a sassy side and definitely can be too much of a disciplinarian with Sadie. I remind her often to not yell at her sister (usually for crawling toward something she might try to eat) and leave the discipline to me. She has good intentions but is in a LOUD phase and enjoys being the one to "save" Sadie by shrieking if she seems to be doing something she shouldn't. She also likes to be sneaky and hates sitting in time out which when combined have turned into some moments where Chris and I are trying not to crack up while disciplining her. The other night she went to time out during dinner (I don't remember why) and then was suddenly not sitting in time out in the hallway anymore. As we're looking for her we suddenly hear laughter. She had somehow, crawled under the dining room table, while we're sitting there having dinner, and we didn't see or hear her at all! She's got the sneaky thing down pat!
She came out of her room a few weeks ago at about 9pm to tell us she discovered something.
Me: What did you discover?
Ella: I was laying in bed, and I was thinking about why I have trouble with obeying sometimes. And I realized the problem! See, sometimes I forget what I'm supposed to do. But, if I remember and do it right, then I remember the next time and I obey! So, I just have to remember and I'll be good all the time! Ok. Good night. (and she trotted back to bed)
Chris and I were overwhelmed with the sweetness of her laying in bed thinking about how to obey more. She really has a good heart. Her tendency to try things she sees other kids do (like pulling hair or saying "stupid") gets her in trouble but she does tend to not try again after being scolded. I love her so, so much and it's exciting to see her genuinely interested in learning about how to love people and please God.
*Spiritually, Ella has been asking questions about truth, the Bible, why some people believe different things, and whether God tells me if she does bad things ;-) She's been really interested in doing a devotional book we got her, listening to the Jesus storybook Bible Audio book (which is amazingly narrated), and overall seems very interested in spiritual things. We're just trying to live out our faith in front of her all the time and letting her make choices about her own faith in her time. So thankful for the opportunity to introduce her to the deep joys of having a relationship with God.
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| A Tutti Frutti date with Ana and Daniel Franca-Koh. Ella LOVES this place and always has 2 or 3 kinds of frozen yogurt with gummy bears on top :-) |
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| Blurry for some reason but cute pic of Ella at camp! |
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| Ella and Hannah had a lot of fun at camp together and were in the same group all 3 weeks. |
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| Playing at Annie's House. Lucy who is 2 calls Ella "Miss Ella" ha! |
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| On a mommy-Ella date at Panera. My girl is a clown. |
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| Before: Ella got her 3rd haircut a couple weeks ago! Cut 4 inches and it's still pretty crazy long. But beautiful. I LOVE her hair. I dread the day she starts wearing it straight :-( |
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| After! |
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| Sister Love! |
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| Hannah and Ella have had 1 1/2 sleepovers at our house this summer. The first one went pretty well but the second time they were almost asleep and Hannah changed her mind about not seeing mommy until the next day and wanted to go home around 9:30pm :-( Ella cried when she left but such things are inevitable with little girls! |
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| Matching Pajamas has made Ella SO excited! I love that she thinks this is SO cool! |
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| Did you know 4 cousins can fit in a baby play canopy? |
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| Yes, that is Chris' head peeking out inside the crib! What can I say, it's been a FUN summer! |
Friday, July 30, 2010
Summer so far...
We're having a fun summer!
My mom threw me a little baby shower and Ella and Hannah got to be hostesses and take drink orders and bring them to everyone. She even got them little corsages to wear! I've never seen Ella so excited or so intense...she took her job seriously and was SO proud of herself for doing such a "big girl" job so well!
Part of Chris' Father's Day present was some pancake paraphenalia because he is quite the pancake chef :-) He got the apron he's wearing (it says "Pancake Freak"), a super wide pancake flipper and some fancy syrups and molds to use. Ella and I benefit greatly from this interest of his :-)
There's a cute little snow cone stand near our house where the cones are $1-nice, sweet treat for hot afternoons.
And though I haven't gotten pictures of much, Ella has been in a bunch of camps this summer! She started with a week of science camp (which she loved), then a few weeks later soccer camp, then she's been at camp at her pre-school most mornings for the last 3 weeks. I get mornings off to get things done and she gets social time she CRAVES. It's been great! Next week the baby comes and then Ella will have music camp in the mornings the following week. The rest of the summer should be fun too as we settle into a new rythym with the baby arriving in 5 days!!
Soccer camp at the Y with her cousins :-)Monday, June 14, 2010
Discovery of a Beach Ball Sprayer
1. The unknowing approach
2.The shocking first spray(courtesy of a dad with good timing crouched by the water nozzle)
3.The hasty retreat
4. Wait...this is fun!
5. REALLY fun!!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Beach Trip '08
We really did have a fun time at the beach. I'll let the pictures tell the story.
The Christy's always let us borrow their portable DVD player for long car trips-it's a lifesaver. Ella is obsessed with the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD and Zoe's Dance Moves. This time we hooked her up with headphones which was great so we weren't all singing "A says ah, A says ah" for 3 hours.
The first day we went straight to the beach. Ella really wanted to make a sand castle. She'd only seen them in books and we really have been talking about them for MONTHS so it was really exciting to see her face light up when Aunt Marissa taught her how to use wet sand to build a tower. She was thrilled!
It didn't last long but Ella did try to lay down and read with the rest of us for a few minutes.
It's probably a little known fact but I LOVE swimming. I LOVE the feeling of being underwater and since I spent almost every day of my childhood summers at the pool, it's sort of nostalgic. I was in the pool more than anyone else on this trip and practiced all my old tricks (handstands, forward and backward flips etc.). It was so much fun! Ella enjoyed it too mostly because her bathing suit ROCKS and she can totally "swim" around the pool by herself! I highly recommend these suits with flotation devices built in. And you don't even need a fancy one, this one was $9.98 at Walmart and it's been great all summer.
On our last day we went to the board walk at Rehoboth (thanks for the tip Ed!) and Ella got to ride on a bunch of cool rides. Definitely very kid friendly (and cheap!).
Just before heading home we got some Ice Cream and tried (futily) to teach Ella to lick it so it wouldn't drip. She just kept insisting that she needed napkins. She's really the neatest eater ever which is unusual in toddler world.
And last but not least...we stopped at a McDonalds on the way home for a bathroom break and CRACKED UP when we saw this lady on her motorized scooter at the drive thru. To top it off she had her little lap dog sitting on it with her!
The Christy's always let us borrow their portable DVD player for long car trips-it's a lifesaver. Ella is obsessed with the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD and Zoe's Dance Moves. This time we hooked her up with headphones which was great so we weren't all singing "A says ah, A says ah" for 3 hours.
The first day we went straight to the beach. Ella really wanted to make a sand castle. She'd only seen them in books and we really have been talking about them for MONTHS so it was really exciting to see her face light up when Aunt Marissa taught her how to use wet sand to build a tower. She was thrilled!
It didn't last long but Ella did try to lay down and read with the rest of us for a few minutes.
It's probably a little known fact but I LOVE swimming. I LOVE the feeling of being underwater and since I spent almost every day of my childhood summers at the pool, it's sort of nostalgic. I was in the pool more than anyone else on this trip and practiced all my old tricks (handstands, forward and backward flips etc.). It was so much fun! Ella enjoyed it too mostly because her bathing suit ROCKS and she can totally "swim" around the pool by herself! I highly recommend these suits with flotation devices built in. And you don't even need a fancy one, this one was $9.98 at Walmart and it's been great all summer.
On our last day we went to the board walk at Rehoboth (thanks for the tip Ed!) and Ella got to ride on a bunch of cool rides. Definitely very kid friendly (and cheap!).
Just before heading home we got some Ice Cream and tried (futily) to teach Ella to lick it so it wouldn't drip. She just kept insisting that she needed napkins. She's really the neatest eater ever which is unusual in toddler world.
And last but not least...we stopped at a McDonalds on the way home for a bathroom break and CRACKED UP when we saw this lady on her motorized scooter at the drive thru. To top it off she had her little lap dog sitting on it with her!
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