Big first day

So Ella is finally a big girl now. It is official. She started Kindergarden this week and is loving it so far...even though she has only been for 3 hours on Monday and today (Wednesday)is her first full day. On the way home from school on Monday we were talking about school and she said, "it was the best ever!" It is going to be a great year for her.


The family the morning of her first half-day of school

Ready for her first half-day of school!

This is Ella and Amelia in front of her new school...Discovery School.

Ella posing at her table. I can't wait to hear about all of the learning that is going to happen everyday.

I am so excited for her to be at such a great school with so many of her friends. I will miss her at home and can't believe that she is finally in school for real. I know that God has placed her at this school, with this teacher and with these kids for a reason and it is going to be a great experience for her. Amelia and I will try to keep busy this next month before she goes to pre-school...for now, we will make some snickerdoodles to have when Ella gets home. This should take my mind off of Ella being gone for the next hour at least...

Amelia turns 3

We celebrated Amelia's 3rd birthday again at home this weekend. She loves mermaids, so I made a mermaid cake. I was quite pleased with the way that it truned out and so was she. She is so different from Ella in her interests in toys. She loves to play with and dress up Barbies. She recieved two new barbies, a horse for Barbie to ride and lots of new Barbie clothes! This will keep her entertained for hours! She also loves playing anything princess and dressing up. I love my girly girl!

Amelia's mermaid cake

Amelia loves her new pony baby! Thanks Lili!

Take a deep breath and blow out those candles!

Smores

What kind of trip to Meme and Papa's would it be if there wasn't a fire with smores? We had fun roasting the marshmallows and making hobo cherry pies. It was the perfect evening for it too. Mmmmmm...wish I could have just one more!

Amelia is the chocolate fanatic. After she had her smores, she grabed a bar of chocolate and shoved two pieces in her mouth and was about to down a third when I intervened. I think that she swallowed them whole they were gone so fast!

Higgins Lake:part 3

We always love to go tubing and only one day was calm enough to go. Ella had been tubing last year, so she was eager to go. Amelia was not...even though she is the more rough and daring child in some ways, she wasn't ready this year.

The girls had fun on these two boats this year.

The Dragonfly

I had to post this funny sequence of pictures. I was taking pics of the girls playing in the sand, when I noticed a dragon fly on Amelia's shoulder. Being the great mom that I am, I moved in a little closer and was amazed that it was still there. I took a couple pictures and then told Amelia that she had a dragonly on her shoulder. I think her face says it all!

Higgins Lake:part 2

On Tuesday, we took a boat trip to the State Park and had grilled hot dogs! They were the best! The girls had a great time playing in the sand and on the slides and swings.

Amelia loves her meme!

Drew was right at home driving the boat!

Fun in the water!

Higgins Lake Trip:part 1

This past week we took a trip up to Northern Michigan to visit my parents. We had a blast hanging out with them on Higgins Lake. Here are a few pictures of our first few days there.

The first sunny morning that we were there. The beautiful lake is in the background.

Ella has always loved going on Grizzly rides. (the Grizzly is the 4-wheeler) This year Amelia finally got enough courage to go on the Grizzly and she loved it. This is a great picture of Papa and the girls on the Grizzly.

My parents also got a new pontoon boat this year. We were able to get out on the lake 4 days. It was so nice! The weather cooperated for the most part. It was cool and sunny most days, in the mid-high 70's, and a bit windy at times, but we had so much fun!

Amelia fell asleep on Meme...the funny part about this picture is that she had just dozed off to sleep and then grabbed a fishy, with her eyes still closed, put it in her mouth and chewed it a few times and fell asleep again! It was crackin' us up!