Meeting the Easter Bunny

Today I decided to take the girls out to the mall to visit the Easter Bunny. For those of you who know Ella well, you know she has a hard time with anything new. I was fully prepared with bribes of suckers as we made our way to his little bunny village. To my surprise though, she was very happy to see him, walked straight up to his chair, hopped on his lap and was all smiles for the picture. Audrey was not too sure about him though--no tears, but more of the "deer in the headlights look." Once we left, Ella informed me that "He is not a real bunny Mommy." Thank goodness we got that cleared up since as quick as we had left, Mr. Bunny stood up to lift up his costume a little to cool off in front of a fan. Happy Easter!

Skate Date

This week, Marcy and I decided to take Lincoln and Audrey to Stroller Skate to let them experience their first chaperoned date. Thunderbird Skate Center in Plano opens up the rink each Thursday morning for moms to bring their strollers and skate around (under the lights of the disco ball) with the kiddos while listening to some tunes that were popular back in the day. It was actually a little work out and we had both worked up a sweat after our hour plus cruising around the rink. We had a blast with them and definitely hope to do it again.

Here's a picture of the group

Lincoln checking his lady out...

And... the happy couple

Audrey would NOT keep her shoes or socks on. She spent most of the time trying to chew on her feet. I told her this was not proper date etiquette, but Lincoln didn't seem to mind too much.

Letter G

"G Week" started off with Ella getting to dip Grapes in Green paint to decorate a block letter G. We also used Gravel to make a Goldfish scene. We made a Giraffe puppet and a superhero--Groovy Grape. We colored a Garlic coloring sheet and of course made our collage of G items. We had planned to make gingerbread cookies, but after visiting half a dozen stores, I realized that you can't find slice and bake gingerbread this time of year! The last thing we did was Grow a Garden! In the picture you can see Ella holding her little cup of sunflower seeds we planted. Not quite a garden, but we'll see if anything pops up!

Spring Break

Though Spring Break isn't really that big of a deal for us right now, we did have a week without Mothers Day Out, soccer practice or dance. We had LOTS of free time and absolutely the most gorgeous weather. We took advantage of the chance to visit with friends and get outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Monday, we had Will and Lauren over. Who knows what these little giggle monsters were laughing about, but it must have been something funny!

Tuesday, we met our friends Jake, Hayden and Mallory at the park.

We met Audrey's beau Lincoln at the park on Thursday...isn't he handsome? :)

We had several other fun park outings and enjoyed have a week where we could just do whatever we wanted and start working on our summer tans!

Sydney and Soren Come to Visit

One of my dearest friends Whitney that I've known for close to 20 years (wow-I'm getting old) came to Texas for a visit. She lives in California and that is really her home I guess, but I still hope one day she might decide to head back to the Lone Star state! Whitney and I met in high school, headed to different colleges (her to Baylor and me to Aggieland), had lots of fun post college together in Dallas, and then she left for new adventures where she met her husband. They have two precious kiddos that fall right in between my girls. Ella is the oldest, then Sydney a year younger, then Audrey a year younger, and Soren a little less than a year after that. We only got to visit a short time, but I love the fact that despite the distance between us geographically, it feels like we live right around the corner from each other! I have been blessed with a few friends in my life that to me are more like family and Whitney is definitely one of those to me.

Fun with the Letter F

F is Fun!! We used feathers to make the Letter F, made a frog, created our "F" collage and made our very own flag! Ella is so good at saying the Pledge of Allegiance. They recite it each day she goes to Mothers Day Out and from about the third week of school, she had the whole thing down pat. John and I continue to be very impressed! We spent a LOT of the week holding up our make believe flag and reciting the pledge.

Career Day for Ella

Today was Career Day at school for Ella and they were supposed to dress up like what they wanted to be when they grew up. I was flattered at first that Ella said she wanted to be a "mommy" and then preceded to tell me she would need to dress up in a robe and ponytail. Just add sweatpants and flipflops and she would have my favorite outfit! I tried to convince her that we probably needed to think of something else that she could dress up as so we could actually have a costume. Result = Cinderella. There was no changing her mind that she wanted to be a princess when she grew up. Though I tried to explain that a princess is not really a career, she told me that she wanted to be a princess because they get to live in big castles and wear pretty dresses. I guess John and I will get to visit her in Orlando since her career will encompass picture taking with all the visitors at Disneyworld!

Needless to say she was happy with her choice and there were quite a few other princesses roaming around school that day.

Making Her Bed... All By Herself!

As I was trying to get ready today, I needed a distraction for Ella and I told her to run go make her bed. She has never done this before but I figured that it would just give me the extra five minutes I needed and then I would go in her room and fix whatever she had done.

To my surprise, I walked in and the bed was made...and she did a great job. Ella said "I'm such a big girl mommy. Are you going to tell Daddy about this when he gets home?" I was so proud of her, we called him right away and she got to tell him herself!

I'm trying to figure out if 3 is too young to start cleaning bathrooms too. :)

Audrey's Birthday Party

Since Audrey's birthday fell on Saturday this year, we decided to have a small gathering of friends and family to celebrate her big milestone. We set up the bouncehouse for the older kids and then let the little ones play on quilts outside and in the house. We had pizza for lunch and then got to watch Audrey enjoy her cake while the rest of the kids snacked on cupcakes!

Her boyfriend Lincoln brought her a pink rose and she got lots of fun presents from her friends!

The kids that were there were:

Cousins Jessica and Wyatt

Madelyn and Harper

Jake, Hayden and Mallory

Will and Lauren

Reagan

Pierce

And future husband Lincoln!

My sweet friend Jen who has picked up photography and is doing an amazing job with it, was so gracious to come capture some pictures of the party. It was so nice to not have to worry about dragging the camera around...plus she gets a much better shot!!

Audrey Turns One!!

Our precious little Audrey Belle has turned one!! It is hard to believe that she is not officially a "baby" anymore. She is sweet spirited and very outgoing. She loves to wave to anyone...definitely something we did not experience with "Stranger Anxiety Ella." She is my great eater and will pretty much try anything I give her, but she has a strong love for cheesesticks and raspberries. She has not quite mastered walking but can stand on her own for a few seconds and then collapses to crawl quickly to her intended target. She is my cuddler and loves to be held. She has finally decided she likes to sleep at night which has been the greatest gift she could give her mommy! She loves to clap and will join in to "If You're Happy and You Know it." She is a very good mimic to most words, however her favorites are Ella, Dadda, Momma, Hi, and Bye-Bye. When you ask her what a duck says, she'll smile and say "Quack,Quack." As you can see from the picture, she is working on more teeth. She's got eight now, but we figure some molars are just around the corner.

She thinks everything Ella does is funny, but is finally able to fight back a little when big sister tries to steal her toys. It makes John and I smile to see Ella trying to take care of Audrey...she really is a sweet big sister.

Audrey has slowed down in the weight category (always being in the 80-90 percentile on the charts), however her head is as big as ever! The doctor told us not to worry about it, so we're convinced she's just got a big brain and she's probably a genius.

Height - 29 3/4 inches - 69 percentile

Weight - 21 pounds 5 ounces - 53 percentile

Head - 19 inches - 99 percentile

We are so thankful for God's precious gift he gave to us in Audrey!

Two Little Princesses

Ella's friend Kaedyn came to play today and within a few minutes upon her arrival the girls had run upstairs and thrown on princess costumes! This picture was me catching them jumping on Ella's bed in full princess attire! They had a blast and Ella loved having her over. About halfway though the playtime, Kaedyn called Ella and said "El, come here." Ella replied, "My name is Ella, not El." Kaedyn's response "I'm going to call you El now." And that was that...Ella is officially El to Kaedyn now!

E is For ELLA!!

How can we not love the letter "E" since Ella starts with it? This week we colored popsicle sticks with markers (HUGE mess) and made letter E's, made an elephant craft, our "e" picture collage, created an Elmo from a toilet paper roll, lots of coloring sheets, and made an eggshell mosaic piece by dying eggshells different colors and gluing them on a black sheet of paper. Lots of fun, and definitely Ella's easiest letter to recognize!