ella's marriage continued...

She just came back into the room to discuss her "marriage" to Emma a little more.

Ella: We really are married. Really.

Me: Why did you decide to marry Emma?

Ella: Because.

Me: Because why? You usually decide to marry somebody because you love lots of things about them.

Ella: Because she plays doggy with me. That's it. Oh, and I like playing with Precious (Emma's dog) with her. That is it.

Ella: What do you like about Daddy? (very sarcastic tone LOL)

Me: So Ella, why don't you live with Emma? You usually live with the person you're married to.

Ella, in a "duh!" tone: Uh...we live across the street from each other!

Me: Oh. Okay! I just can't believe you're married and you just turned four!!

Ella: Well....really, Mommy....I want to be married to you!

;)

Marriage and Thanksgiving as described by a 4 year old.

I just had the most hilarious conversation with Ella. As you are reading this, keep in mind that while I'm doing everything in my power not to roll around on the ground in complete hysterics, Ella is totally serious. We were listening to Christmas songs and lying on the living room rug together. This is what ensued:

Ella: Mommy, is Christmas after Thanksgiving?

Me: Yes, Christmas is about a month after Thanksgiving.

Ella: Oh. How many days until Thanksgiving?

Me: Um....about a week. 7 days.

Ella: Are you married?

Me, a little surprised at the sheer randomness: Uh...yes, I am married.

Ella: You're married by Daddy, right?

Me: Well, I wasn't married by Daddy, but yes, I'm married to Daddy.

Ella: Oh. Well, you have to get married to somebody else for Thanksgiving!

Me, stifling laughter: Hmm..Really? What do you mean?

Ella: EVERYBODY gets married by someone else for Thanksgiving!!

Me: Well....remember how we talked about when you get married you promise that person that you'll be married to them forever? A long, long time?

Ella, totally annoyed I didn't get the 'swap marital partners for Thanksgiving' memo: No...you gotta do it for Thanksgiving!

Me: Well, ok Ella, I'll look into that. ::giggles escaping::

Ella: Sighing....I'm married to Emma.

Me, full out laughing: Really? Don't you just mean you and Emma are really good friends?

Ella: No, we're married. You and I are both married.

Me, egging her on: Well...how did you get married?

Ella: We danced. And held hands. Like this.... (demonstrating a slow dance move)

Me, tears streaming down my face: Wow! So, you don't want to wait until you're older to get married? And how about a boy? You want to marry a boy?

Ella, serious as a heart attack: No. I'm married to Emma.

Ella starts to walk away out of sheer irritation at my apparent ignorance

Me: Hey Ella, how long have you been married?

Ella, yelling from her bedroom: A LOOOOONG TIME!!!

Me: How long?

Ella: A long, long time! a looooooong time! FOUR DAYS!!!

At this point I'm crying from laughing so hard. What a riot! So all you married people out there.....you better be on the lookout for your new spouse!! The clock is ticking!!! LOL!

A Letter To My Daughter.

My Sweet Ella,
There are no words in this letter that would be able to express what you are to me, but I felt compelled to write this anyway.

Do you know you changed my world?

I remember the day that I knew you were coming. With my back against the bathroom wall, head spinning, I knew my life would change forever. And through those months, with you rolling and kicking inside me, I began to know you. We decided on your name, Ella Kathryn, which means: Beautiful and Pure. How fitting, right? I loved you with all that I am from that day on, my sweet Ella girl.

Do you remember what we were doing on this day 4 years ago? I do. Seemingly eager to meet the world, you arrived 4 days before your induction date. You were the most beautiful, perfect baby I had ever seen. When the nurse laid all 7 pounds 4 ounces of you on my chest, it was magical! Your tiny cry was calmed as soon as I put my hand on your back and started speaking quietly to you. What an amazing feeling it was to believe you already 'knew' me. I cried tears of such amazing joy as did everyone in the room. We all loved you so much, Ella! Our first night together I still remember like it was yesterday. My nurse taught me a cool way to hold you in bed. It was called "Kangaroo Kare." We pulled up my shirt and took off your tiny little shirt, and I snuggled you, belly to belly for hours. This was supposed to help you pattern your breathing to mine as well as help you feel secure. I remember being so in love and happy, and scared all at the same time. Here you were, this precious little baby and you were entrusted to me. I was overwhelmed with the magnitude of it all. I wanted to be the absolute best mommy to you and to give you the moon and the stars!

These last 4 years have flown by! It is so hard to believe that you are already 4, but even harder to believe that you haven't been in my life forever. You have grown from that tiny, fragile baby into a smart and vibrant little girl. You are so funny (which I have to believe was inherited from me ;-) ) and have the best live-in-the-moment prospective on life. I love how you dive right into things and aren't afraid to try new things! You also amaze me with your undying love for animals. You are so kind and gentle and have a very, very wise soul. Out of all these things, I think my favorite thing about you is the way you can make me feel. You make my heart soar with the way that you love me. The way that you tell me, without prompting, that you love me several times a day. The way you make sure everyone knows that I'm your "best friend." The way you smile at me in the mornings when you climb into my bed. You are truly the most spectacular thing that has ever happened to me.

It's hard to even describe all that you are to me. You are my savior and my hero. You are my every breath, my reason for getting up in the morning. You are the birds singing, the smell of vanilla and the sunflowers blowing in the wind. You are my heart beating, my teacher, warm feet in my bed on cold mornings. You are every word ever written, all things sweet and good and every sunset. You have taught me the most valuable lessons. You have taught me patience and unconditional love. Everyday brings prayers and thanks for your existence, your wisdom and your health.

And so, sweet Ella, on the anniversary of my most memorable night, I thank you. Thank you for all that you are and all that you have brought to my life. Thank you for loving me unconditionally and believing in me. And most of all, thank you for choosing me.

Here's to your fifth year! May it bring you many new discoveries and may you continue to feel loved and cherished by everyone in your life. May you keep your wonder and the fearlessness that inspires you to live your life full-tilt.

And on this day I'd like to renew my promise to you that I made 4 years ago. I love you with all that I am. You have my heart and all that encompasses it. I can hardly wait to see what your life has in store for you. You are destined for great things, Ella!

Happy Birthday, my angel.

I love you, sweet girl of mine,
Mommy.

Ella's 4th Birthday Party! :)

This is a birthday that will go down in history!!! Ella had the most fun I think I've EVER seen her have. I'm going to try and remember all the details, so Ella can look back one day and remember this special day!

Ella's special party guests: 3 Emmas! (Emma Alexander, Emma Strong & "neighborhood" Emma), Gabby and Misty, Jordan & RJ and Mark, Lily and Evan.

Unfortunately our Canon camera is on the blink, so we had to rely on Misty's point-and-shoot. You know we love you "Aunt Misty," but the quality of these pictures are a little iffy ;)

Mommy tried to transform the house into a "Birthday Wonderland." We had lots of streamers, balloons, and birthday paraphernalia! I wish all you blog-readers out in cyber space could have seen it in "real life" because the pictures were hard to take at certain angles, ect. I decorated the night before so Ella was SO excited to wake up to her whole house transformed into total Birthday-ness! Here are a few (poor angled) pictures of the decorations! :)

Ella was a great hostess as each of her friends arrived. She would usher them all into her playroom and introduce them to each other. Around 15 minutes after the party started, we called Ella outside! This is the view she had from our porch, looking down the road...

Mrs. Jess and Mr. Seth made a dramatic entrance as they road the horses up our street and directly into our front yard! Ella was in complete awe. I wish all of you could have seen the absolute joyous look that was plastered on her face!!! Immediately she asked to pet the beautiful brown horse, Renee. She was so sweet and gentle and in absolute heaven!!

Ella and all the other kids listened while Mrs. Jess explained all the rules. Ella donned her precious helmet and was off to the races!! She kept the same smile you see in this picture the entire time! It was so sweet to watch. I think she would have stayed outside forever riding those horses! She was almost a natural and loved when Jess taught her how to hold the reins all by herself.

After Ella and all her friends had a chance to ride the horses (several times) we all headed inside for a true 'cowgirl feast.' On the menu was: Hot dogs, nuggets, mac-n-cheese, potato salad, baked beans, veggie tray and various chips-n-dip. We then lit the candles on the birthday girl's request of strawberry cupcakes and vanilla icing. (Mommy was partial to the 'adult' version of strawberry cupcake with cream cheese/strawberry icing with pecans!) Ella successfully blew out 4 candles while everyone sang happy birthday!

After food and cake, we moved onto every 4 year old's favorite part! ;) Ella got to sit in her special birthday seat and open presents! She got a lot of really cool animal-related gifts (a complete veterinarian set complete with a dog and crate, horses and horse trailers, Littlest Pet Shop accessories, ect) lots of neat games and a few doll toys! :) She really lucked out with a wide variety of awesome gifts!

We topped off the afternoon with a pinata, which Ella has been SO excited about! We all went outside and all the kids (and ahem--some of the adults) took a whack at the pretty horse pinata. It was fun to see all the kids frantically scattering around the yard to fill their bags full of goodies. Ella said goodbye to her friends and passed out party favors.

We all had a great day with Ella. I'm very grateful I got to take part in such a special day for her. I'm thrilled she always have such cool memories of her 4th birthday with the horses. To everyone reading that contributed--THANK YOU! :)

Public Service Annoncement!

Just wanted to make a post for those who are anticipating the upcoming pictures. As soon as I wade my way through the Strep Swamp, I will be posting pictures of a pretty substantial milestone in Ella's life. HER FIRST HAIRCUT! Yes, the first time ANY hair has ever been cut from her little head. She looks positively adorable and I can't wait to show off her new 'do.

It's funny how many people have told me haircutting nightmares after learning of Ella's first cut. Most of these horror stories involve the kids cutting their hair themselves. Yikes! Thankfully, Ella has never tried her hand at hair art. She was pretty proud of herself when she accessorized her hair, though.

Yep, she's creative. Yes, those are clip-on earrings.

So, check back for some MAJOR Ella cuteness!

My Karma? Why do you ask?

Ohhhh, because my beautiful small fry is sick AGAIN? Gee, you might be on to something...



::Sigh:: This time? Strep. It seems she's caught my nastiness with a little added bonus. She woke up this morning begging to go to the nearest gas station for a Popsicle. I didn't really think much of that considering she's a self proclaimed Popsicle-a-holic. Knowing what I know now, she probably just wanted something cool on her little throat. :( After her Popsicle, she had a weird whisper voice going on accompanied with a lotttt of whining. So around 10:30 I asked her to lay down with me and take a nap. Very little resistance. For Ella, this was nothing short of a miracle. We snuggled together and within 20 minutes she was out COLD! She slept for 2 hours and then woke up with a fever. Bless her sweet heart! I knew something was wrong when she turned down her "stand by treat" of a McDonald's cheeseburger, claiming it "hurt too much to chew it and swallow it!" After a medical treasure-hunt, we wound up at the after-hour, pediatric center. They swabbed her and sure enough, instantaneously positive. Thank goodness I decided to take her! She's GOT to be well for her birthday, cowgirl/horse riding extravaganza on Saturday! Thankfully I got her first dose of antibiotics in her tonight and the Dr. felt pretty confidant that she'd be feeling really good by Saturday. So if you have a spare second and could spare a few feel good vibes, I'm sure she'd appreciate them :)



Right now she's sleeping soundly in her bed. I rocked her for about 30 minutes before she fell asleep. I'm sure we're a funny sight together in that glider. Her legs hang down so far now, I joke that soon they will drag the ground. I'm sure some of you are getting a good chuckle out of me rocking my almost-4-year-old nightly. But you know what? Every night when it's just me and her in her room that's lit only by her nightlight, it's almost magical. I wouldn't trade that time for anything. She melts into me and pats the same part on my arm, every night. So I decided a long time ago....I will rock Ella until she absolutely insist that I not. I will savor that time and try to memorize everything about her. The way she hums along as I sing the same song every night. The way she has a certain spot on my arm that she gingerly pats in rhythm with the rocking chair. Everything.

In the mean time, I'm going to try and enjoy my little bug for the last few days that she's 3.

Snowflakes and Sparkles....Christmas Swap '08!

Join me in a fun and sparkly Christmas Swap for this holiday season! :)

I have decided to organize a fun, holiday swap! :) The theme is "Snowflakes and Sparkles" and will set the tone for some cool, Holiday fun! Hopefully we will have enough participants to make this super cool. Who doesn't like to tap into their creative side AND get fun mail?

As a preface, I'd like to make sure that everyone that signs up for the swap will follow through with your assigned partner. I really want this first swap to be AWESOME! :)

Onto the "rules..."

Leave a comment on this blog letting me know you are interested in participating in the swap!

Then, send me an email at ellasmommy1117@aol.com with the below form all filled out so I have your information.

Name:

Mailing Address:

Email Address:

Personal Holiday Style (modern, vintage, country, funky, traditional, ect):

Favorite Holiday colors:

Favorite Holiday foods & snacks:

Any dislikes (Santas, nutcrackers, country, certain styles, ect):

Anything else about yourself that will be helpful to your partner:

After you email me the form, I will email you back with a confirmation, letting you know I have included you in the swap. Make sure you receive an email from me! If you don't receive a confirmation email with in a day or two, please leave me a comment via my blog and let me know. Sometimes emails land in my spam folder without my knowledge! I will leave this swap open until Monday, November 17th. I will assign partners shortly after. The boxes should be sent around November 28th-30th so that everyone can enjoy their holiday surprises!

As for the contents of your swap box, I'm leaving that entirely up to you! You can buy things, make things, glitter things, paint things, ect. Just make a creative swap box full of "Holiday Sparkle!" (examples: ornaments, stockings, holiday decor, holiday "goodies," Seasonal Candles, Christmas books, ect) Let's make this swap "sparkle!" I'm really excited and hope lots of you decide to join in on the fun! Spread the word so we can get lots of fun participants! It's always fun to meet new people, and what a great way to do so! :) So lurkers, come on out!! Get involved in this fun swap! :)

MIA and a lack of Halloween.

Hello faithful blog readers!

I know each of you were furiously checking my blog everyday, riddled with anxiety as to where the heck I was. ;) Okay, were you even a teeny bit curious?

Sadly, I've been pretty darn sick. What started out as a sore throat quickly turned into an ear infection, pharyngitis, an upper respiratory infection and hey, why not a little UTI for good measure? I've had my feel of sickness for awhile, thank you. (Hear that Universe? NO MORE!) Anyway, 2 antibiotics later and 1 prescription of bladder-numbing-meds (stop laughing) later, I think I can finally see the speck of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. On the bright side, I've had a great, blonde, 3 1/2 foot nurse to take care of me. She's really awesome when you need a plate full of about 32 marshmallows, OH! and she rocks at pouring Sprite! Unfortunately, she's not quite getting the "please-fetch-Mommy's-meds" thing, but hey, we take what we can get! ;-)

Speaking of sickness, moving on to Halloween. Poor Ella woke up with a fever :( As most of you know, with Ella's Periodic Fever Syndrome she usually gets sick at very specific intervals. So with her having her fever bout last month on the 22nd, I knew this month around Halloween we were on borrowed time. Sure enough, Halloween morning she crawled into my bed with 102. As upset as I was, Ella was INSISTING that Halloween was not canceled. She knew each and every 'event' we had planned for that day, and there was NO way in heck she was missing it. So, I rotated Tylenol and Motrin all day and she did really well :) The afternoon of Halloween we went to the square with some of Ella's buddies to trick-or-treat at all the businesses nearby. As we were getting ready to leave and I was getting all Ella's ladybug stuff situated, I was informed that she'd rather be the "Snow Princess" for this particular trick-or-treating. She has this beautiful dress up outfit and she chose that over her ladybug. The custom one. The one mommy poured over for weeks finding. LOL! So, off we went to the square. She looked absolutely beautiful in her dress and her tiara. Everyone just LOVED her dress and several strangers even took pictures of her! Of course my camera is on the blink so good thing Linda had her little point-and-shoot to get a few pictures of E. All the girls were pretty uninterested in pictures so excuse the quality ;)

As we waited at home for it to get dark ('cause really, what's the fun in TOT'ing in daylight?) I think Ella had JUST as much fun handing out candy as she did receiving it. Seriously. A couple times I had to bribe her just to stay on the porch as she was stalking the kids on the sidewalk :-X LOL. She finally put on her ladybug costume and off we went. She was really excited to invite our neighbor, Emma, with us. We got out the wagon, which we decorate as the "Halloween-mobile" every year and hit our neighborhood. I was very proud of her! She went to every house with the same enthusiastic "Trick-or-treat!!" followed by a genuine "thank you." I didn't even have to remind her :) A lot of houses in our neighborhood were NOT home so around 7:30 we decided to hit a neighborhood close to ours. We all piled in Emma's mom's SUV and I sat with the girls in the trunk (LOL) with the hatch open. At each house we'd jump out and then hitch a ride to the next house. Pretty sweet set-up :) Around 9:15 we had tons of candy and a tired little girl. After we did the annual ritual of dumping out all our candy on the living room floor and separating them into their individual piles.....we hit the sack. I'm waiting on my neighbor to send me the pictures that she took from Trick-or-treating.

:)

....Girls just wanna have fun-unnnn....

That is the song that the girls were singing, totally straight-faced, at the top of their lungs. As you can see, they also accompanied themselves on the piano!

We met up with some of our favorites yesterday! (Linda & Sarah, Debbie & Noelle, Christy & Emma and Joy & Riley) Everyone had a great time! We were all laughing at all the different personalities! Sarah is the karaoke diva and usually randomly bursts into song which makes for some hilarious moments...Noelle is Ella's animal buddy. They usually can be found off somewhere together playing a variety of animal-inspired things. Emma is the sweetest, most polite little girl I think I've ever met and Riley is the spit-fire of the group! Interestingly, all their little personalities mesh extremely well together. We were together for most of the afternoon/early evening and we had very little drama! ;) The girls played until dinner time when we decided to have an impromptu dinner together. We packed up the girls (and Carter, too!) and headed to a nearby pizza joint, Vendetta's. It was DELICIOUS! Linda and I shared the most amazing pizza with garlic and artichoke hearts!! Thankfully we have plans today, or I would be bribing her to go back with me ;) The kids all behaved great and had such a great time together! Thanks girls, we had a blast!

Calling all Fairies...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Ella was invited to Riley's 3rd birthday party last week. It was a Fairy/Princess themed party and all the little girls were asked to wear their favorite princess attire. Ella chose her beautiful, puffy fairy dress. It was SUPER cold that day, so thankfully she didn't mind being a layered fairy. We paired her dress with a leotard and leggings and she was all set! Riley's house was decorated SO adorable!! (Seriously, Joy...November 15th, right?!) I was holding my breath about how well Ella would participate with all the girly, princess-y things, but thankfully, she did great! Riley's mom, being Martha Stewert's twin, had the neatest craft all set up for everybody. They each got to decorate their own Repunsal-esque hat with beautiful beads, stickers and glitter paint! This was Ella's favorite part, ofcourse. She was also quite proud of her name writing skills and insisted that she do it herself.

Hard at work..

Ella and Noelle modeling their masterpiece

After the craft, we all gathered for a treasure hunt. All the girls were told this adorable story about lost treasures in the woods, ect. We all pretended that Riley's living room was the "woods" and the girls searched for their necklaces and pirate coins. They all totally got into it and frantically tried to recover the missing treasure ;) Finally, each girl got a turn to try and "Pin the Tiara on the Princess!" I was laughing SO hard watching Ella, blindfolded, wobbling all around trying to make it to the Princess. Amazingly, she stuck that tiara in exactly the correct spot! ha!

After some pretty darn good sparkly, pink cupcakes and a looooot of candy from the pinata, my fairy was a pretty happy camper!

Miss Priss.

Enough said! This is a proof sent to my email, but I just couldn't wait to post it ;)

My, how you've grown!

Halloween '06

Halloween '07

Halloween '08

Disney on Ice!!! :)

It's 2 days later and I'm still awe-struck! On Thursday night me, Ella and Guppie went to see the newest production of Disney on Ice. It was absolutely amazing! A-m-a-z-i-n-g!!! When we got to the arena, Guppie suprised us with front row seats! We literally had the best 3 seats in the entire arena! Right as we took our seats, "Cars" took the ice and Ella's face was just priceless! As Mater and Lightening McQueen swirved and drove on the ice, she was in awe! As they raced, they played her FAVORITE song, "Life In The Highway" and she sang and smiled like I'd never seen before! After Cars, Lion King took the ice. It was amazing to see these elaborate costumes and props literally 5 feet from your face. Ella loved Simba, Nala and Mufassa, and kept her eyes glued to the ice the entire time. We also got to see a Little Mermaid number. "Ariel" was beautiful and a phenominal skater. We have the Little Mermaid on DVD, so Ella was familiar with the songs and general plot. Again, it was just mindblowing. The whole production was out of this world and just SO firstclass. Last was a new part of the show featuring Tinkerbelle and all the fairies of Magic Hollow. The whole show was something that we'll all never forget!! Here are a few pictures of our night:

First, the obligatory "arena-offered-picture-with-a-Disney-prop" picture:

Here are a few random pictures of the show:

And finally, the post-show pictures!

Terrific Tuesday.

Ahhh, Tuesdays. Sort of a "lost in the shuffle of the week" kind of day. Not hectic Monday, not a day to mark the "hump" of the week, not a day that comprises 'TGIF' and certainly not weekend-day quality. So, I've decided to do my part to spice up Tuesdays ;-) Here are a few interesting little facts to jumpstart your Tuesday:

If you yelled for 6 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat up one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it, huh?)

Banging your head against a wall burns 150 calories an hour.

A flea can jump 350 times it's body length. That's the equivalent of a human jumping the length of a football field.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Right-handed people live, on average, 9 years longer than left-handed people. (Score!!!)

The catfish has over 27,000 tastebuds.

Pretty interesting, huh?

In other news, Ella is thoroughly enjoying the month of October. She's been working hard on lots of crafts that can help decorate our house. She's made my windowsill above my sink adorable :)

She also made a piece of foam board into the perfect Halloween decoration for her room!

*For all of you wondering about the drawing to the left of the pumpkin, that is Ella's "Halloween Horse" ;-)

Today we're just hanging out and getting a few things together for the rest of our week. Thursday night we're super excited to be going to "Disney on Ice!" I haven't told Ella yet so she'll be SOOOO excited when I tell her. This version of the show includes Cars AND Lion King. She'll be in heaven! Check back for pictures :) Friday we have a "Princess Party" at Ella's friend, Riley's house. All the little girls are going to show up in their best Princess get-up and head on over to Riley's castle. We will see how long Ella will tolerate her costume. LOL! After the party we will head over to "Trunk-or-Treat!" at a local church. The members line their parking lot with their decorated cars/trunks and the kids go from car to car "trunk-or-treating." We went last year and Ella had a ball. They have hayrides and inflatables and all kind of fun games. So we're looking forward to that, too. Saturday I'm thinking about taking Ella to get her pictures taken for Halloween. We'll play it by ear.

We hope everyone's having a great week! Ella is insisting on including Rudy in this post, so I'll leave you with this picture! :)

Funny.

I absolutely love this picture sequence!! This was from my birthday! LOL

Happy Birthday to Me! :)

Yep, Saturday was my birthday :) I sort of had a couple days of celebration this year. Friday night I had more of an "adult" celebration with lots of my girlfriends. We had an absolute blast! There was tons of awesome food (which was very thoughtfully planned as ALL vegetarian) We had veggie shish-kabobs, baked beans, deviled eggs, bean salad, pasta salad, twice baked potatoes and an array of yummy appetizers! Everyone went in together and gave me the most beautiful flower arrangement in a really cool vase. I also got several really sweet cards :) We all had so much fun together and I really appreciated all the people who really went out of their way to make my birthday so special! Thanks Linda and Joy--know you're reading! :) LOL!

Saturday, my actual birthday, I woke up to an excited Ella who sang "Happy Birthday dear Mooooommy!!" at least 15 times before 9am ;) Russ took Ella to McDonalds so I could relax in my jammies for awhile and that was nice. They came back and Ella presented me with a cute little cake adorned with about a million candles, LOL. We got ready and headed to a neat fall festival in Mcdonough. Ella was in asbsolute heaven! There was a petting zoo, cool inflatables and cool booths with arts and crafts, face painting, ect. I got a fresh squeezed lemonade <swoon> and Ella choose a frozen, strawberry lemonade. There was a band there, and Ella made her debut as a break dancer as she got down to "Cupid Shuffle." LOL! After we walked around for a few hours, we headed to dinner. As we ate my birthday dinner, out of the blue, Ella patted my back and said, "I really love you on your birthday, Mommy!" :') Who could top that gift?

Here are a few pictures to enjoy:

Galavanting With Guppie.

Guppers. Gup. Guppilicious. All terms of endearment for my Mom, Ella's "Guppie." Monday afternoon, Guppie and Ella had a date while I went and got my hair cut. They always have a lot of fun together, and this time was no exception! Ella was thrilled to have Guppie play "doggy" with her and was even treated to her favorite lunch! They always have adventures that crack me up. Their last outing consisted of an hour and a half browsing Target! LOL This particular afternoon was spent playing around on our square, a cool lunch together and of course, topping the afternoon off with a little shopping ;) I love the relationship Ella and my mom have. It makes my heart smile.

Guppie,

"I had fun with you yesterday. My favorite part was when we ate ice cream together! I love my doggy stroller! Maybe next time we can go bowling together!!"

I love you!

Ella

Goooo...um....Packers?

Sunday afternoon Ella and I headed over to a Sunday Football party hosted by some of our friends. Obviously, our agenda was purely social....as we had NO idea who was even playing ;) Ella had SO much fun with her friends! She was pleasantly surprised when we got there and she saw several of her little friends were there! They are all either almost 4, or newly 4. They entertained each other for hours! A lot of hide and seek, painting the sidewalk, and flashlight "tag" after it got dark! Sarah had a new baby kitten who Ella was smitten with. Another little girl there, Noelle, is also a cat lover--so Ella Bella had a little cat-holding-competition!! :) We got there around 3 and didn't leave until after 11pm! Every time I would entertain the thought of leaving, Ella would respond with an emphatic, "Noooo! We're having FUN!" Who am I to argue with that? So, I got to have a lot of "adult time" while Ella had a blast with the girls. It was a good day for everyone! :)


If you look closely, you can see Ella showing off her GORGEOUS lipstick that she also used for "blush." :)

The girlies snuggling with "Angel." Ella, Noelle and Sarah.