4th of July Party!

Our 4th of July tradition is to go to Kristin and Laney's house for their annual 4th of July party!!


There's always a food contest every year. I think I've won only once in the several years we've gone. I guess I need to pick up my game. This year I choose festive strawberries.


They always have this very fun water slide for the kids. It's definitely a big hit. I think Ella went down it no less than 120 times.








They took a short break to stuff down a hot dog.


Then we're back to the slide!


Kristin and I just can't handle how big they are. This was them on this same slide at the 4th party 3 years ago. Ughh!


Sweet girls!

Laney's 5th Birthday Party!

I'm so behind on blogging, but I couldn't resist posting these pictures, even though they're from April. They are from Ella's bestie Laney's 5th bday party. It was Fresh Beat Band theme, which was perfect for Ella too.



This picture takes my breath away. Kristin and I continually talk about how incredibly blessed we feel because of Ella and Laney's friendship. They were born just 2 1/2 mths apart. Their lifelong friendship began when Kristin and Todd returned to DFW airport when Laney was 9 mths old after just picking her up from Taiwan. Kristin and I often dream about their lives years from now...being in each other's weddings, starting families together, their kids being friends. It's fun to imagine. :-)












Keeping with the theme, all the kids decorated their own paper guitars.




We LOVE you Laney bug!!!

The Zoo!!

Heath and I celebrated 9 years of marriage at the end of May! For our anniversary celebration we took our sweet girl to the zoo and then him and I went out for dinner just the two of us. It was a perfect day!











This gorilla was so sweet and so cute. I felt kind of badly for him. He just looked so sad. Is that weird to say?


Ella was really afraid to go up to the window. This was as close as she would get. That is because earlier in the day, there was a huge school group at this exact window and this gorilla, who I just said looked sweet, started banging on the window really hard and that entire group of school kids SCREAMED at the top of their lungs. It was actually very entertaining because I'm pretty sure he did it to get that exact reaction from them.








This gorilla seemed really sad too! He was wearing this potato sack over him the entire time we were watching him and then at one point he walked over to a corner of his cage, got into the fetal position and put the potato sack over his head so nobody could see him. Every few minutes he would peek out with one eye and then hide his face again. This guy needed some serious alone time.




Riding the train


Ella and the giraffes. We love the giraffes. They're mine and Ella's favorite.






We love Bonnie the elephant statue. It's become our little zoo tradition that Ella takes a picture with Bonnie whenever we come. Not sure why this came about, except that I'm really good with coming up with all kinds of random traditions. :-)


This was 2009


2007


Silly Daddy & Ella




We was such a fun and perfect day!

My Sweet Graduate!

The end of May, Ella graduated from Preschool. Like I said in my last post (which was a LONG time ago), we have LOVED this preschool. They have taught her letters, words, math and the Word! It's been awesome and we're sad that we won't be walking those halls next year like the past 2 years.

Her graduation was PRECIOUS. It was the cutest thing to see 100 tiny people walking around in caps and gowns.

This is Ella's graduating class on the wall outside her classroom.




This is their year book they give to the kids at the end of every year. It's called the Me Book. I am SO thankful to have this with pictures of all the fun things her class did throughout the year.


Before the actual graduation, they put on a musical. This is at the beginning when Ella spotted her entourage. Pointing and smiling and blowing kisses.


There were groups of about 7 kids that put on little plays in between the big group songs.


Ella's group put on the play the Boy Who Cried Wolf.


This is Ella running to the boy who was crying wolf.


She gets there and asks him "What happened?"


Then she marches back to her spot mad.


She is very mad at that boy! Ha! We practiced this face before her performance. She's too cute to look mad. :-)


This is her "I'm trying not to laugh mad face"!


Once again the boy tricked her and once again she is walking away angry.


I was so proud of her that she didn't freeze up. I think she loves the stage, unlike her mama. But very much like her Daddy.


Time for graduation! They are so precious I can hardly handle it. Notice how tiny Ella is compared to her classmates. My sweet LITTLE girl.






Getting her diploma and sweet hugs from her teachers.








Ella and her sweet friend Nathan. Love this story...I won't go into the whole thing right now, but Nathan's mom, Karin, and I worked together 11 years ago at DBU. She was a very good friend. We didn't keep up after I graduated. Then randomly our kids end up being in the same preschool class. I don't think for a second it was random, but that it was very much ordained for many reasons. It has been amazing getting to reconnect with her.


Big hugs from Grandma and Granddad!


Our sweet girl!




The family










Along with Ella's Me Book, they also gave each graduate a diploma and the Read With Me Bible! Have I mentioned how much I have loved this school?