St. Patty's Day Fun!

Today we went on a Rainbow Scavenger Hunt! 

 We found a container for each color and Ellie looked all around the house for any little items of that color that would fit in her container. I challenged her to find ten items in each color but in the end she found more than that!

We started with Red:

Since we were going in Rainbow order (Ellie LOVES rainbows!) orange was next. 

 Then Yellow 

And Green

Followed by Blue 

(She wanted to do Indigo, too, but I was skeptical that we could find ten items - so we skipped it)

Violet!

We had a blast searching for all the items!

 I don't know about you but thanks to The Cat in the Hat on PBS, I can't go through the colors of the rainbow without singing his annoying song in my head:

"Red, orange, yellow, green followed by blue, indigo and violet that's the rainbow song for you!"

I plan on keeping the items in the containers for awhile to use as rainbow treasure baskets for Maddie. She liked looking at all the items together!

We also played with rainbow foam and ate Lucky Charms with Leprechaun Milk for breakfast - but I'll have to add those pictures later :-)

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

Ellie's dance class performed their Christmas recital a few weeks back. She performed in three dances.

They opened with a jazz number to "the most wonderful time of the year"...

...but the best was the tap number:

They danced to "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." That song has long been a Christmas favorite of mine and now I love it even more!

They ended with another jazz dance to "Joy to the World"

Click below to see the videos:

Zoo

My parents gave us a family membership to the Zoo for Christmas last year. We have been many times this and we love it! One of my all-time favorite gifts!

 The beauty of the membership is that we never feel pressured to stay for hours. We can just see a few things each time and not wear the kids (and ourselves!) out.

Over the summer Anna and I wanted to get some pictures of our kids to give to Grandma V for her birthday. What better place than the zoo? Since it was July, it got really hot really fast but we still had a good time. No pressure.

One of our favorite exhibits is the Giraffe Encounter. They have built a deck that overlooks the African Savanna habitat and you can hand feed the giraffes! Have you ever been eye level with this tallest of creatures? It's amazing! It's against the rules to touch them or let them lick you, but who are they kidding? It happens.

(Don't you hate it when pictures get overexposed?)

 Maddie loves all things with fur and four legs. Giraffes are no exception.

Quite possibly the best picture she's ever taken!

 Definitely the best picture these two have ever taken together! 

Kiss!

The children's area has a great little creek-bed with water for the kids to play in and cool down. Definitely the best way to end a hot day at the Zoo!

I hope we get to visit the zoo a few more times before the year ends!

Here's the slideshow with all the pictures from our outing:

Dance Rehearsal

Ellie's dance class is performing next weekend and they had their first rehearsal today.

Aren't they cute? They were practicing their tap number which is to my all-time favorite Christmas song - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas 

Ellie was in la-la land for a lot of it. Her teacher says she's better in class - being outside is just too distracting! Click here to see the video 

Doodles

A few weeks ago Ellie drew these awesome pictures on her oldschool magna-doodle. I had my dad's camera at the time so I was able to grab some great pictures before she erased them.

   

 an ugly girl(!)

   

 a cat

I think she has talent, don't you? 

Hello Again!

It's been months years since I've posted anything on our blog. We haven't had internet access at home since then for various reasons but we are back in the 21st century! I'm hoping that I can be consistent with updates on our family....and maybe it will be a useful outlet for the craziness of my life :-)

Sewing Projects

Over the last few months I've done a few random sewing projects.
Here are some pics:



I also made her "Scary Monster" costume. See the pics below!

Halloween!!!

Ellie was a "scary monster" for Halloween because she makes a great growl/roar "raghhh" when you ask her "what does a scary monster say?"

Our church does a great "Trunk or Treat" ministry that we went to. Ellie's favorite thing was a toddler size bounce house that she got to play in. It was so busy and crazy there that we forgot to take any pictures! Oh well - at least we got some before we left the house!




Walking across the street with Grammie to get a treat! She was afraid of our neighbor at first - she thought we were leaving her with him! She warmed up when he gave her candy though....I guess there's a reason we teach kids not to take candy from strangers!!!!



Caitlyn (SuperGirl) and Ellie.

Ben (The Mad Hatter), Scary Monster, and Jon (Edward the Vampire)

Click the picture below to see the whole album:

Halloween 2009

First Birthday!

For Ellie's first birthday, we went to the Ruffino's ranch. They have a really cool place with lots of animals and most importantly (in a Texas August) a POOL!!!
The kids had a great time swimming before, during and after dinner!


Emma


Annabelle


Ethan and Uncle Josh


Opening presents! She was pretty good at ripping through the paper. (Naturally, she loves making a mess)


Daddy trying to get Ellie's new doll out of the box. Why do they have to make it so difficult?!?!?!



A talking book. Definitely one of the hit presents! (Thanks Bobbie and PawPaw Kell!)


The Birthday Girl


Aunt Anna made custom overalls for Ellie's birthday. They are so cute! The little girl on the front is Anna's original character, Zuzu.


Still carrying the talking book....


Kisses for Gramma V!


Birthday Cupcakes!!!! I made yellow cupcakes with seriously chocolate frosting and hot pink sprinkles - they were delicious! I got the recipe from the book "Cupcakes from The Cake Mix Doctor" They were called "The Best Birthday Cupcakes" - and they were!



Who needs hands?


slowly making progress....


She totally devoured the cupcake (and we gave her another one - a Pink Lemonade cupcake) and she hasn't had another cupcake since!

Click below to see all the pictures from her party:

Ellie's 1st birthday!

Thanks for coming, everyone!