Little Gym

With the end of the school year comes the end of gym for Ella.  We've been taking classes for a year now and I think we are both a bit burned out.  Here are a few pics to commemorate our time at the Little Gym...

 No question, the beam is one of Ella's favorite activities at gym.  She even got brave towards the end and would try and walk on the lower beam without any assistance.  I'm not sure she ever made it the full length, mainly because she'd get distracted and start looking off and not paying attention to where she was walking, so I'd have to swoop in! 

A close second to the beam was jumping on the spring board.  She could kind of make it bounce herself, but the fun typically involved me jumping with her.   This picture was right after she'd jumped up and she was on top of a mat wanting me to help her jump down.

Third on the list of her favorites was swinging on the bars.  At the beginning she would never hold on to the bar, would grab it for a second and then let go.  But she got to the point where she would hang there and swing for a bit.  Her least favorite thing at gym was anything that was a group activity.  Fortunately they encourage "exploring" and there were plenty of other explorers like her.  Oh, and maybe the all-time favorite was getting stamps at the end of class.  She always wanted one on both hands, both feet and her tummy.  Ella was always excited to show Addy her new stamps when we'd pick Addy up at school. 

Our New Pets

I'll admit I was not a fan of the idea when Dad scooped these out of his pond and said we could bring them home.  But Michael and Addy are great tadpole parents and are taking great care of them.  I figured they wouldn't last a week, but they have and they are growing, and I'm kind of excited to see if we actually end up with frogs/toads from this little science project.  Addy claims that one of them has legs now, but pretty sure that is not the case.  Hopefully the next update will be that they are ready to hop off into the great big world.  We will not be keeping them once they have legs!!

Let The Summer Fun Begin

We've been spending a lot  time outside the past few months, enjoying the nice weather, but now it is time to add water to the mix.  This particular weekend we had backyard splash fun one day, swimming at Grandad and Meme's the 2nd, and topped the weekend off with a swimming birthday party at the JCC. 

 This pic is one of many I think we'll see over the next month or so (or until Ella decides to get wet).  I thought that Ell would be more excited about the squirty ball this summer.  Not yet.  She stayed clear from the water, until something happened and the ball squirted right at the climber.  Then there were shrieks that you could hear down the block!

 Not exactly water related, but we are having lots of fun with the bubbles that Cousin Betsy gave Ella for her birthday.  Lots of fun "bubble pipes" that work really well.

 Addy was one happy camper once she got on Sally the float at Granddad's house.  

 Here is Star standing guard, ready to jump in and save Addy should she have trouble jumping off the diving rock.  Star hates it when anyone jumps off the rock!

Ella didn't get wet this day either.  She hung out with Granddad on the swing watching Addy have fun in the pool. I found the water to be quite chilly, so maybe that is why she didn't want to get in...she loved the pool last year, so imagine she'll be jumping in before the summer is over. 

Mother's Day

We had a nice and relaxing Mother's Day.  I was honored with a yummy pancake breakfast and all kind of handmade goodies from the girls.  Addy always manages to find good ways to use the chalk board and this was what she put together for Mother's Day.  I like how she leaves a spot for Ella to add her own touch.  I think that Addy actually ended up doing most of the "scribble scrabble" in the Ella section, but Ms. Ella just isn't into the arts as much as her big sis! 

Bathroom Update

No, it isn't fully functional, but we are in the home stretch.  Main holdup right now is waiting on the glass shower surround, but it is hopefully in fabrication as we speak.  All the pretty stuff is done though, so thought that I'd post some pics. 

As a reminder of what we started with

And even though it has maybe taken longer than we would like, the end result is going to be so fabulous.  Coloring is kind of quirky in the pics, but here it is!

Helmet

Ella is an official rider now.  The helmet looks huge on her head, and I remember thinking the same thing when Addy first got hers.  Also want to note that she can totally pedal on the tricycle now, but won't even try when we are out on a ride.  I've seen her do it on the patio though, so I know it is possible!

My Baby is 2!!

Ella's official birthday was the Monday after her party. Addy's allergies were bothering her, so I felt it was the perfect excuse to keep her home from school and we headed to the zoo.

Granted, there is food in her mouth, but she is looking at the camera smiling!  

Note quite sure why the concerned looks/

If you'll recall, the last carousel experience was a the rodeo and Ella screamed the whole time.  I was surprised she even wanted to ride the one at the zoo.  All started out great, she got a bit frightened when it started up, but eventually was OK.  Just a moment of screaming instead of 3 minutes!

On Friday we went for Ella's 2 year check-up.  And we were back to the screaming.  As soon as we got called back by the nurse, a look of fear set in her face.  She tried to be tough, but did a good amount of screaming.  And there were no shots involved.  She broke down in tears when the nurse asked her to step on the scale so we could weigh her.  The nurse had to leave the room before she'd step up.  Goodness!  But we survived and she is healthy and growing like a weed.  She is around the 69th percentile for height and 91st for weight.  She weighed in at 31 lbs - no wonder I can only hold her for a little while before I start hurting!  

Here is a little about Ella at 2 years old...

• Favorite color - yellow
• Favorite song - Baby Moses, her teacher told me that sometime they'll ask the class what song they want to sing and Ella is always the 1st to answer and she'll shout "Baby Moses".  I'd say the baby bumblebee song is close 2nd and sometimes we even get a mashup of the 2 which is always entertaining.
• Favorite playtime activity - playing with baby dolls, and most recently she is into changing the baby's diaper (even though they aren't wearing diapers) and she goes into her room and gets wipes and starts cleaning baby up.  Then she'll start wiping the floor and the tables...next thing you know she has 15 wipes out.
• Ella is crazy feisty at diaper changing time these days. 
• Favorite past time - giggling and making other people smile with her big smile
• Favorite tv show - Dora
• If given the option, Ella could play outside all day.
• Favorite food - chips and queso and she is getting into the salsas too, mostly the green sauce, but she is known to eat some of the red sauce too.  Not much the girl won't eat though. 
• Ella can put her shoes on like a champ.
• She is super curious about noises and when she hears something she'll put her finger up to her ear and say "listen"
• There is not really 1 favorite book, she loves all books and pretty much has Brown Bear memorized and a couple of others she knows good chunks of the book. 
• Ella loves to run.  When she does run, it looks like she is going to fall any second, but remarkably, she doesn't fall that often.

A Purr-fect 2nd Birthday Party

Ella LOVES kittens!  Which is ironic since the rest of us in the house are dog people, but it made for a perfect birthday theme.  We had kitten silhouettes in windows, in yellow of course, her favorite color.  And Addy wrote Happy Birthday on the chalk board.  We had Granddad and Meme, Grandma and Grandpa, Granny, and Jean and Tom over for a fun get-together.  Ella was super excited, super happy and I think felt totally celebrated!! 

 What a difference 4 months makes - at Christmas Ella could have cared less about presents.  As soon as she saw presents on the table she was saying "open presents". 

 Thank goodness for Addy, otherwise we would have never made it through the gifts.  Made the mistake of opening Addy's present first which was a kitten that meows and purrs and moves around.  It came with a milk bottle - Ella fed kitten while Addy opened most of her presents.  Granted, a lot of her presents were clothes, which she totally needed, but for a 2 year old were not the most exciting gifts to open! 

 A new sandbox built for 2.

 Ella clearly has figured out cake and it took no time for her to start sampling the icing.  Note the clothes she has on.  I say that they weren't exciting to unwrap, but I guess kitten got full and she stopped feeding it and she decided to try on some of her new clothes.  But she took them to Granddad to help and he just started layering the clothes.  She ended up with 2 dresses, a pj top over the dresses and pj bottoms under the dresses. 

 Next time I start fretting about the cake not turning out exactly like I wanted I will pull this pic out.  Does she realize how long it took to try and make those eyes look perfect?!

 The family!

Best free party decoration ever!  Pictures of cats doing funny things that I got off the internet and printed.  Ella cracked up at these for days!

Hunting Season 2011

Yes, this one is a belated posting.  Ran across some pics I meant to post back in the fall but apparently didn't.  Michael had a fun hunting season with the highlight being a very successful sand hill crane hunt.  We still have 2 big frozen birds in our freezer in case someone wants to come cook them up!

 Lots of LARGE dead birds.  Yuck.  Lots of happy hunters though.

Zach and Michael at a Labor Day weekend hunt in Uvalde. 

Wolf Crawfish Boil 2012

Another successful mini-boil.  Big news from this year - 1) Addy held a live crawfish, 2) Ella held a live crawfish, 3) Addy ate a cooked crawfish, liked it and asked for more. 

 Addy got quite brave and was even picking live ones out of the big pile before they were cooked.  I'm not sure I'm that brave. 

 Ella kept on calling them ants.  We'd correct her, she'd call them crawfish for 2 seconds and then they were ants again!  She only held one for a few minutes then wanted to, but Michael would hand one to her and she'd throw it on the ground right away.  I think that she ended up eating one, but wasn't a fan of the meal in general.  Ended up with some chicken nuggets.

New obsession = lemons.  Both girls were a bit obsessed with licking the lemons. 

Kindergarten Round-Up

I can't believe we had kindergarten round-up today!  Here is Addy and her buddies in front of her new school.  They couldn't be more excited to go to their new big school.  Today was just a quick intro to the school, presentation by the current kindergartners, followed by some fun with a petting zoo and playing on the playground.  It was also a mini-reunion for me, as tons of my high school friends have kids there already.  Addy is growing up way too fast and could have cared less whether Michael and I were there today -  she was running around with her friends the whole time.  There are at last half a dozen kids she knows that are going to be there in her grade, plus some of the older kids in kindergarten this year.  Great thing about going to preschool in the neighborhood is a lot of those same kids end up at the same school for elementary school.

I was excited about the school stuff, but I think that the petting zoo was the highlight for me.  Most petting zoos have some goats, sheep, pigs, pretty standard.  This one was amazing with baby chicks, turtles, ducks, bunnies, pigs, sheep, goats, and I'm sure I'm missing some animals.   I seriously want to hire them to just come setup shop in our backyard for a while so we can play. 

 Addy looks like she is killing the poor chick, but I think that she is actually being gentle, and the chick could have cared less.  I did hear some peep really loud now and again, but the kids were quick to put them down.  They had a whole tub full of these guys and all the kids were holding them.  I didn't get close, but Addy said there was a bowl of food in the middle of the tub and the chicks were all just running around. 

  Maybe more crazy than the chicks were these turtles that were running around.  Not real fast, but there were probably a dozen of these guys in all sizes, out of their shells just cruising around the pen.  I'm not sure if they were on some drug or something, but I've never see turtles this social before.  All the kids were picking them up and carrying them around - Addy kept on holding them upside down and they were just hanging out, no hiding in the shell. 

2nd Annual Easter Beach Weekend

I certainly see there being more of these...we had a great Easter weekend at the beach.  SO relaxing and the weather was amazing.

 Addy got straight to digging a hole when we got down to the beach.  She can nearly dig to the water herself this year.  And of course both her and Ella had to climb in and out of the hole a thousand times.

 And Ella found it hilarious to get in and out of the bucket.  When we first got to the water, she turned around and started walking back to the house.  She has some weird issue with the water and just kept saying "no ocean".  She spent a good portion of the time in my lap but finally warmed up.  At least she is finally a bit hesitant about some things - last year it was no fear of anything which was not ideal.  We need to find a happy medium right now!

On the way back from the beach with her bucket!

 We can't thank Granny enough for letting us change the railing on the porch - we went from spending most of our visit inside to spending nearly all of it outside, now that there are no hazards on the porch.  New activity this time - "painting" the porch with water.  I think that they spent hours doing this and Michael and I just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the great weather!

 It was a bit chilly, but after letting the water warm in the sun a bit, there was more fun on the porch in the kiddie pool.  I think that it was still a wee bit chilly, hence the chairs in the pool and not sitting directly in the water.  And Granny - Ella has finally stopped standing in the plastic chairs so we actually get to enjoy them now!!   And so grateful this pool ended up at our house after the storm - I never would have thought to have one of these otherwise. 

 Easter egg dying and everything went right as planned for Addy.  And the Easter Bunny made up for mistakes he made last year, like hiding her Easter basket and not putting candy in the eggs.  And I was most excited about remembering vinegar so we could have the bold color eggs!  What a difference a little vinegar makes. 

Somehow every holiday is a mini-Christmas it seems.  Girls got oodles of cards and some fun new toys. 

Egg hunters!  The white bunny Ella is holding may have been the highlight of the weekend.  A fake bunny that hops and makes little noises.  He has been named "Hoppy" and there is some fighting between the two girls because there is only one Hoppy, but we have our pet rabbit now and Michael and Star much prefer this option over a real one.

New swimsuits showed up again in a big egg - so fun, the girls can't wait to wear them!  Before Easter Addy gave us the run-down of where she'd found the bathing suit egg the past couple of years.  Seriously crazy memory, for a million dollars I could not have told you that two years ago the egg was hidden in the flower bed at the back of the yard at our house.  Once she mentioned it, I remembered but otherwise would have had no recollection. 

1st Field Trip

Addy went on her first field trip last month.  She went to the theater!  They got to ride a school bus to get there - big news from that was that there were no seat belts, so not only was it her first bus ride but it was the first time she rode in a moving vehicle and wasn't buckled in.  I still find the no seat belt thing a bit odd, but no biggie.  Wish I could have been there, the pics they took were too cute!

 The whole pre-k crew.  

 

Addy and her buddies on the bus.

Jewish Holidays

The spring has been full of Jewish holidays that the girls have had fun celebrating at school.

It seems like most of the celebrations they have at school fall on days I work, so I haven't been that great about going.  Now that this is Addy's last year though, I've done my best to make them all.  One Friday they had a Havdalah celebration.  What is Havdalah you ask?  According to the ultimate source Wikipedia it is "Jewish religious ceremony that marks the symbolic end of Shabbat and holidays, and ushers in the new week. Shabbat ends on Saturday night after the appearance of three stars in the sky. Some communities delay the Havdalah in order to prolong Shabbat."

And after the Havdalah celebration we had a craft project - decorating a pillow case.  Not sure there is any connection between pillow cases and Havdalah, but it was fun. 

Each year the Matzah Factory comes to school and the kids make their own matzo.  I think that the dough was pre-made and the kids rolled it out, put the holes in it with this snazzy gadget and then the Matzah Factory people baked it and the kids ate their creations. 

 This is completely not in chronological order, but here are some pics from Ella's Purim celebration.  Now, what is Purim you ask?  Again from Wikipedia, "is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther (Megillat Esther)."  But at preschools they run with the celebration part of the holiday, with costumes and a parade through the JCC.  Ella wears costumes for about 1 minute, so I just took the tutu for her to wear.  How they got her to keep the crown on her head, I'll never know. 

Just leaving this one in b/c she totally wouldn't even put the skirt on at home, but based on this picture she wore it for quite a while at school! 

Right now it is Passover and before the real holiday, the school hosted a mock Passover Seder and invited the parents.  Here is the festive Passover table.  Each kid decorated their own seder plate and kiddush cup.  

Here is Addy posing with her seder plate.  

I think that she actually took a bite of the parsley, but basically the boiled egg and matzo was the only stuff she'd eat.  Guess I can't blame her for not eating the horseradish though. 

It was fun going and learning about this tradition that I'd been hearing about since I was a kid and my Jewish friends were celebrating.  As with most of the traditions, there was lots of singing.  I was sitting behind Addy so I'm not sure if she knew all the Hebrew songs, but she definitely new the fun preschool songs they sang about the plagues and baby Moses.  Each year Addy gets enamored with Baby Moses at this time and the other night she sat on the couch and watched The Ten Commandments movie on tv until she fell asleep. 

While not as formal a celebration, even Ella's class had a little seder.  This picture makes me laugh because I can't tell if Ella is scared or just totally confused as to what is going on.  Ella certainly got into the Moses and frog plague song, but she wasn't really into much else.  Turns out she is not a fan of boiled eggs and was luke warm on the matzo.  

I think that we are done with holidays until the Fall.  And Addy will be at a normal school by then, so the only reason she'll know about some of these holidays is b/c her friends won't be at school!