Vacation Bible School

We had a great week at VBS this year! Our church does such an amazing job teaching even the littlest ones about God's love. I am humbled and grateful to get the opportunity to be a part of it every year. This year, I worked in the 3 year old area but wasn't in the class with Ella (that tends to work a little better). I got to see her during chapel time, playground and theatre, but she was able to make new friends and had wonderful teachers in her room. Ella's teachers made a great collage of all the kids in the class doing their thumbs-up sign!Audrey made some new friends too and got to sing songs and learn Bible stories! What a difference from her last year at VBS! How precious is this one with my sweet girl holding a little Bible!

It was a very busy and full week which rounded out with us leaving straight from the last day of VBS to catch our flight to the airport to head to Florida!

Happy Daddy's Day

Oh how Ella and Audrey love their daddy!

My girls are so blessed to have a wonderful daddy who loves them so much. He is the fun one who still has the energy at the end of the day to chase them around the house after bath time. He is their hero and still their most exciting time of day is when they hear the garage door start to open and they squeal with delight and scream "Daddy" as they run to meet him. I am so lucky to be on this crazy ride called parenting with him!

To honor John, we started off the day dragging Daddy out of bed to do a scavenger hunt. The clues brought him to various spots around the house where he and the girls have shared special moments. Each spot had a small gift (mostly homemade stuff from the girls) and a new clue to bring him to the next clue. Finally, he ended up at the kitchen table for breakfast with all his girls. We headed to church and then lunch at his choice, Uncle Julios, then home for Daddy and the girls to get in some long afternoon naps. One of John's gifts along the scavenger hunt was tickets to the Frisco Roughriders baseball game that night. We got lawn seats for the first time and were a little hesitant as to how the girls would do in the heat and without a spot to actually sit, but it was perfect! We had the best time as the girls enjoyed all the yummy snacks you get at the ballpark while at the same time running all over the place. I don't think I would ever want to buy the real seats with the girls--they just had too much fun the way we were! It was a late night by the time we got home, but I think it was a fun day for John. I know the girls and I had a blast!

Sporting the free baseball caps
Daddy and Ella - with Audrey snacking in the back

Ella with a glimpse of the outfield

I don't know if the girls ever faced the field.

It was hot!

Lots of Swimming...and a Class Reunion

For the past few weeks, I feel like all we've been doing is washing bathing suits, hanging beach towels up to dry and rinsing chlorine out of Ella's hair. It's been worth it though for the girls to enjoy summertime and the joys of swimming! Ella completed her two weeks of swim lessons today and has done so well this year! Since she is old enough to do it on her own, Audrey and I just watched her each morning from poolside. She did so good and is so comfortable in the water now! Here are a few shots of her in action on her last day.

Blowing bubbles and kicking herself around the pool.
All the kids working on their splashing (kicking)

Just floatin..

And of course, Ella's favorite part--going down the waterslide!

We had a playgroup over at our house this week too! We had a little mini Water World in the backyard, with the pool, splash table, roller coaster and slide set up for the kids to play with. I think everyone had fun and enjoyed cooling off with some popsicles!

Lincoln's Ladies in the pool.

Sweet Ella

After swim lessons today, we met up with some of Ella's friends from school this year...a mini class reunion you could say. They had so much fun running around and one of their teachers joined us too. It was so hot outside and after about an hour and a half, we had to leave! This is a pic of the sweaty kids- Hudson, Erin and Ella - as we were leaving. Ella played so hard, her hair was all over the place!!

Best Buds from School- Hudson, Erin and Ella

Bookworm

We love the library! It is free, it is nice and cool during the summer, and you can go as often as you want with no limit on books. For about the past year or so, I have brought the girls to the library about every two weeks. It began mostly because we were tired of reading the same books over and over at home, but has turned into a fun outing Ella and Audrey look forward to (They have an enormous fish tank in the kids area). Ella runs up and down the aisles, inspecting the covers of the books to see if they look fun and decides which ones we will check out. This summer, we decided (yes, I gave her the option to do it) that we were going to do the Texas Reading Summer Challenge. We have to read 25 books by August 1st to complete the challenge. All the kids participating got to write their own name on a flower and stick it on the library wall. I think she was really excited to show off her new skill of writing her name by herself.


You know her mommy loves a challenge, so we have been diligent about reading our library books! We'll let you know once we meet the goal!

Farm Hands

This Saturday, we loaded the girls up and headed to Ham Orchard in Terrell, TX. (Thanks Spillmans for the idea!!) It is a little farm where you can pick your own blackberries and enjoy some yummy homemade ice cream. They've got a store that has lots of fresh fruits --especially delicious peaches) and vegetables for sale and a big front porch where you can relax with your ice cream! It was quite a steamy day so the girls and I only made it for about 30 minutes out in the field. We couldn't keep Audrey from picking the berries that weren't ripe, so I decided to let Farmer John finish up our bucket. We had a lot of fun and Ella thanked us over and over for bringing her. It was her "favorite thing of the day." We enjoyed relaxing on the porch over peach and strawberry ice cream and then headed home where I made a homemade peach cobbler that night. What a perfect summer day!

Ella working hard to get her bucket full of blackberries while Audrey watches on.

Audrey ate her way through the blackberry patch!

Enjoying a break!

Waiting for Daddy to come in from the fields!

Strawberry ice cream--yum!!

Audrey at 15 months

Our sweet Audrey is officially 15 months old. I know every parent says "I can't believe they are already ...", but I really feel like it has gone by so fast. I think with the second child you don't get to always relish in every milestone, but she is really such a joy. She smiles so much and her belly laugh will melt your heart.

We went to the doctor this week for her checkup and her stats were

Weight- 22.8 pounds (47%)

Height - 30 1/2 inches (49%)

Head - 19 1/4 inches (98%)

We are convinced the large head is related to her genius brain.

So a little bit about Audrey at 15 months...

She has got the biggest vocabulary! Her words are clear and concise and she can repeat most words we say to her. Some of her faves--popsicle, cupcake, cracker, Ella, Harper, Daddy, Momma, Elmo, Dora, baby, waffle, shoes, bow, bubbles, buckle, outside, cuppy, no.

She is very willing to talk to strangers and is friendly to most anyone, but she has developed a major case of separation anxiety. She just about has to be ripped off me when she gets dropped off in the nursery at church. Luckily, her big sister was just like it, so we are used to this behavior. It will pass, but for now, it does make my heart hurt when I have to leave her.

She is a wonderful eater and loves anything sweet --she got that from her mommy--but loves fruits and vegetables. She devours blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. I can open a can of green beans and dump some on her tray and she's thrilled. She has definitely tried a lot more things than Ella had at this stage, but as second time parents, we just feed her what we're having.

She is in love with Ella. She lights up when Ella comes in the room and the two of them are really playing together now. Audrey learns so much from watching Ella. She's quite the little mommy with her baby dolls --feeding them, rocking them, patting them "night night." She loves to cook in the little kitchen, loves to build with blocks and loves to color. She also loves to brush her teeth. The two of them stand on the same stool and brush their teeth every morning together. It is so cute!

She loves to walk and has basically given up being in a stroller or the grocery cart. She tells me "get down" and then continues to pull everything off the shelves. Errands with two exhaust me!

We love our little Audrey. She gives great hugs and kisses. She still loves to snuggle. We are so thankful for her!

Letter M

Now that summer has hit, we are not really in the "school" mode, so our crafts tend to come second to swimming and playing at the park. However, we are determined to get through the rest of the alphabet before school starts back up again! This week, we colored Macaroni noodles and used them to make the Letter M, we made a Mask, ate Marshmallows, played with Madelyn, made our M collage, created some art using Marbles, made a monkey, worked on tracing the letter M, and made some Moose antlers. I think Ella's favorite was the marshmallows...and Audrey's too!

Precious Words

Today has been one of those days where all of us girls (including Mommy) have been kind of "off." The girls have been fussy and we've had a lot to do, so as I was making lunch I had one of those "can't do this anymore moments." In fact, as I finished making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and told Ella to sit and eat her lunch for the third time, I actually said "Oh brother, I can't do this."

Without hesitation, Ella looked up at me and said "Mommy, you need to ask God to help you. Just talk to God and He will help you."

Yes, she really said that and she was right. It made me so proud to be her mommy and go grateful that God is developing her into a child that loves Him.

Zingo!

It is hard to find board games to play with a 3 year old that keeps her attention and is easy to explain. We have finally hit the jackpot with Zingo! I had heard from a few friends about this game and they were definitely right when they suggested it for Ella. She loves it and wants to play it over and over again. John and I had a great time this weekend spending some time just with Ella playing this. Perfect birthday gift or family game night addition...and it is less than $15!!

Weekend Wrap Up

We had another great weekend starting out with Bowling - Take 2! John heard from Ella how much fun she had earlier in the week, so he decided to take us back to Strikz on Friday afternoon after nap time so Ella could show him all her skills! Ella finds the most enjoyment in collecting a rainbow of colors of bowling balls--no matter how heavy they are! We played for an hour and took turns chasing Audrey around the bowling alley, helping Ella carry the balls up to the ramp, and actually taking our own turns at a little friendly bowling competition. We had a blast!

Ella just loves her Daddy!

On Saturday morning, we decided to let the girls experience a little culture and headed to the Nasher Sculpture Center in Downtown Dallas. They offer free admission on the first Saturday of each month from 10-2, so we figured why not see what it was all about. It was a beautiful day and the grounds there are gorgeous, however it is probably not the best place for toddlers. The security guards are very strict (and I mean yell at you strict) about no one touching any pieces of the artwork. Hard to explain that to a 15 month old and as you can see below, Audrey did not want to be held, but rather exert her independence and roam around herself.

Ella was all smiles that day for the camera--just a little glimpse of downtown Dallas in the back.

Audrey had no interest in pictures.

Our sweet beautiful girls

Let's Bowl!

We met some of Ella's friends at Strikz this morning and the girls got to bowl for a while. We've brought Ella bowling once before, but found ourselves waiting a LONG time as her bowling ball would SLOWLY make its way to the pins. At Strikz, they were able to set up a ramp where the kids could set their ball at the top and push it down with a lot more force that resulted in the girls getting several strikes! They had a lot of fun, but it sure was hard work trying to keep Audrey from prancing herself right down the lanes!

Madelyn, Ella, and Claire trying to figure out how to get the most pins down!

Ella was so happy with the pink bowling ball!
The girls loved getting to wear real bowling shoes!