HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY!

A special blog happy birthday seemed fitting for one of my biggest blog fans!  Happy Birthday Granny, we love you - Bethany, Michael, Addison and Ella

Father's Day Beach Weekend

I found these adorable adirondack chairs for kids at the Big Store and couldn't pass them up.  They are low to the ground and Ella can't tump them over.  The chairs were a hit...

except when Ella sits in it properly she sometimes has a bit of trouble getting out!

Addy has been talking about smores for ages, so we took the fixin's to the beach this weekend.  Maybe not the best to roast marshmallows over charcoal, but not a lot of wood down at the beach!  I think that the melty chocolate was the most exciting part of it all. 

Ella was super tired on Sunday and just wanted to go take a nap, but nope, we were headed to the beach for one last dip in the ocean.  At first Ella just laid her head down on Michael's tool bag like it was a pillow and then she decided it looked like a comfy seat.  She looked like a little birdie in a nest, even laid back onto another tool box behind her and just sat there forever while we got ready for the beach. 

Ms. Ella woke up once we got to the beach though.  She LOVES the water now.  She doesn't even get upset when the waves knock her over.  She isn't a fan once you get too deep, but she will play around in the shallow water for ages. 

Cute sisters!

Instead of packing up and heading back to the house for lunch, we just took lunch with us and had a picnic.  Little sandy, but lots of fun! 

Addy still loves digging holes (as does mommy) and now Ella likes coming and sitting in the holes as we are trying to dig them out.  

HAPPY DADDY'S DAY!  Michael and his girls at the beach.

(I waited too long to take this - Ella was done with the beach at this point, way, way past nap time!)

The New Mommy, Addy, Ella Days

This summer Addy is going to camp 5 days a week again and she will continue with 5 days in the fall.  I am so fortunate to only work 3 days a week that I have always loved having Mondays and Fridays to be a stay at home mom.  It is a change having Addy gone part of the day on Monday and Fridays (she is only at camp from 9-3 and will only be in school in the fall from 9-12) but it is also fun to have some one-on-one time with Ella.  It has been an adjustment going back to being the one dictating the schedule and activities, as opposed to when Addy is around when I just ask her what she wants to do and we go from there. 

Ella is a ball of energy and always going non-stop unless there are good books around.  We did a trial gymnastics class on Friday and she LOVED it, so we are going to start doing that every Friday.  Here are some funny pics of Ella goofing around on Monday

Butterfly Kisses

Our little butterfly did an awesome job at her dance recital today.  Her dance was called Butterfly Kisses and and as you can see she had a great purple costume, she got to wear makeup.  It was very exciting (mainly the makeup part, specifically the red lipstick).

We weren't allowed to take pics during the actual show, but here are some from the dress rehearsal on Thursday.  I have video from dress rehearsal too that I'll try to post, but haven't done a video post yet, so not sure how timely I'll get that done!

Rehearsing the big finale

Happy 8th Birthday Star!

Super Star turned 8 today and we had a mini celebration after Addy picked out some gifts for Star.  Star of course had no clue what was going on, but I know she appreciated the attention!

 For the 1st time in 8 years, Star finally has a collar with pink on it.  There was a remarkably large number of collars with pink on them, but Addy picked this one.  

And it wouldn't be a birthday celebration without rawhide treats.  Addy had to help Star a bit with the unwrapping. 

Summer Days

I think that the goal this summer is to either spend our weekends at the beach, or in the pool.  It is HOT!  Today was our first big swim day, mainly because the water was finally warm enough for me to be willing to get in (I'm a wimp!).  Also was Ella's first official swim.  She's been in the pool before, but not for more than a couple minutes.  Probably was a good hour today.  She wasn't a fan at first, but we got her in a float and I think that she realized it was just like a big tub and she was hooked.  She was even putting her face in the water before it was all over. 

Addy is starting to remember everything that she learned in swimming class last year and today we introduced her to diving and by the end of the swim she was diving/jumping in (still perfecting the dive) by herself in the shallow end.  Ready for her to start her swim lessons and I told her that she is going to be swimming the length of the pool by the end of the summer and diving off the diving rock - we'll see!!

And of course some fun pics from the day

Memorial Day 2011

Had a busy and fun weekend at the beach.  Michael and I are on mission "finish the beach house", so I spent some quality hours with a roller, priming the bedrooms so we are one step closer to getting those done!  Still tons of beach time.  I think we counted that Addy and Michael went down 4 times, which may be a record!  Ella went 3 of the times, and the one time she didn't go, Star went.

Addy's favorite beach activity is still playing in the water, whether it is just sitting in the surf collecting shells or jumping waves.  Another fun thing we like to do is dig really deep holes until the water starts filling in from the bottom.  And of course sand castles.  There was still plenty of seaweed around and it made lovely plants around the castle grounds. 

Ella's favorite activities are anything to do with sand and climbing on our beach chairs.  I'm not going to lie, there was sand consumed this weekend.  We just did our best to make sure that there were no shells consumed too.  Michael said at one point this morning Ella was picking up sand and rubbing it in her hair.  It was cute this trip, she got noticeably excited when we got her swimsuit out - she was ready to go! 

 Ella is definitely our climber.  She climbs on everything and turns out these chairs are great because they don't tump over and if she falls it isn't far to the ground.  She spent a significant amount of time climbing all over these, going from one chair to the other.   Notice all the seaweed?  It was pretty gross.

This is gross and hilarious at the same time.  Mainly gross, but she didn't seem to care.  Her whole face would get covered so we'd go into the water to rinse it off - she'd get fussy when we were cleaning her up, not when she was covered in sand!

Lounging on the porch.

Addy loves popsicles for dessert at the beach.  Her new game this weekend was picking the colors that we got to eat.  I tried putting in a request and it got denied - her response was "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit".  Wonder where she got that one from?

Granny, Ella LOVES her new chair!  Remember the comment about her climbing up above?  I think less than 2 minutes after we first set the chairs on the ground, she was standing up in hers and fell over.  She is sitting nicely in these pics, but most of the time she was standing up or getting one leg stuck in the hole on the side, or rocking in it.  So needless to say, the chairs weren't out too much b/c they made Ella kind of crazy! 

This was our 1st successful kite weekend.  I can't tell you how many I have bought and finally found one that flies.  So Addy and Michael got one going really good and next thing we know it is wrapped up in the powerline in front of the neighbors house.  But we happen to find another one in the dried up lagoon next to the house.  That one was great and Addy got really good at kite flyin'!

"Thanks Granddad and Meme for having a 2 story house so that I could learn how to climb stairs.  It is really fun at the beach house too."

Outside Time

We spent nearly all weekend outside.  Michael was working on the shed project and the girls love to be outside, so outside we were.  Given how hot it is, it made sense to play in the water.  We got nearly every water toy out and Addy had fun playing in everything.  Ella still not a fan.  There were also lots of wagon rides which is probably Ella's #1 outside activity (other than eating sand and these sea shells that we have from the beach - seriously can't keep them out of her mouth).  Michael and Ella also went on a super long bike ride to visit Granddad and Meme.  Here are some pics from the weekend...

 Ella is watching Addy playing on the splash pad - you can see the skepticism in her face!  

 No skepticism here.  If it is water related, Addy loves it! 

 Safe from the water, Ella had fun climbing in and out of the chairs.  I'm not sure I'd ever seen her climb up in these chairs before, so she was extra proud of herself.  Love the fun smile in the top one and the one below captures the scrunchy nose thing that she does that is so cute! 

 Fun times with the crazy flower.  She is aiming the flower towards Dad in this pic! 

 These were obviously not at our house, but today Addison was talking about going swimming all morning, and she got to go with Granddad this afternoon.  She has grown so much over the past year and can easily touch the bottom in the shallow end.  She is super excited about camp starting so that she can start swim lessons.  She is claiming to have forgotten some of the stuff she learned last summer, but fortunately she didn't forget how fun it was to be in the pool.  It was just this time last year that she wouldn't leave the steps! 

Bed Head

These pics don't really capture it great, but I have to document Ella's bed head!  It is hilarious.  Mainly happens during nap time in the morning for some reason.  We usually have to wake her up for lunchtime so the pics are all of her in her seat at the table with a bib on.  One side seems to always be smooshed and sticking up on top - I can't help but laugh every time I look at these! 

Chicago

Michael and I had a super fun weekend in Chicago last weekend.  I had training the week before and Michael flew up Friday afternoon.  While I was there for training the weather was amazing, nice and warm and hardly a cloud in the sky.  I was of course inside and hardly got to enjoy it.  Then Friday comes and it is 80 degrees first thing in the morning and by the time Michael gets there it is in the 50s and the clouds have settled in over the city.  Fortunately the rain held off until Sat night so we got to see the sights and just be cold, not wet.  Best thing was hanging out with Amy and David.  Spanish tapas and sangria on Friday night, deep dish pizza on Saturday...it is amazing that Amy and I don't see each other for years and then twice in nearly a 4 week period!  Looking forward to the wedding in Espana next year!

Here are some pics of me and Michael at Willis Tower.  We knew it was 0 visibility when we went up there, but felt the need to actually see the glass ledges since we'd watched an entire TV show on how they installed them, how they clean them.  I can say it was a lot less intimidating to step out on the glass ledge in the clouds, as opposed to looking down 103 floors to the ground. 

 (not sure what happened with this one - it was a digital camera, not film!)

Book Worm

Hopefully this isn't just a phase, we finally found something that will keep Ella still - books!  She loves to unload her book cabinet and bring you ones she wants you to read.  Her favorites seem to be those with picture of babies and baby animals.  It is really cute when she brings you a book, she'll either turn around and just sit in your lap or will just plop down on the floor next to you.  Too cute!