Rain brings worms

The sitter shared a picture from school today with me. There is a compost bin at school and this week the kids have been helping find worms for the compost bin. According to the sitter, Ella LOVES hunting for worms...

Wordless Wednesday

Easter

Easter Sunday was jammed packed and therefore this blog posting is going to be jammed packed. Unfortunately the rain we have been having for weeks on end ruined the outdoor egg hunt opportunity as well as any good outdoor photo opps.

Easter morning started out at our house with an egg hunt. Ella absolutely loved hunting for eggs and we have had several indoor hunts since. We also gave her a gift of a bubble toy, a bunny, snacks, and a spinning egg light toy.









Stopping the egg hunt for a minute to watch some bubbles...



We then headed to Botkins to stop by Grandma Joyce's house and head to my aunt's house for the huge Paul Easter gathering.
Ella checking out all the Easter gifts from Grandma....


Grandma gave Ella her first candy necklace....



Grandma and Ella took some time to read a new book...

get her hair fixed...

and check herself out in the mirror...


Ready to head over to the Easter gathering...


And play with cousins...


And go outside and check out the train each time it goes by...


And point and say choo choo....

And Grandma Joyce gave me jelly beans for the first time...

Too many jelly beans :)

And last we tried to take a few pics outside but Ella was too tired as it was way past nap..






Emma and Grandma Joyce followed us to Cincinnati to spend the night. We were supposed to head to Coco Key waterpark today, but were sad to find out they changed their hours this month and therefore couldnt go.

Ella still had lots of fun playing with Emma...


And reading bedtime stories...



And eating breakfast the next morning with her favorite cousin..


Whew what a day! We all are overdue for a vacation. Speaking of, we will be heading out for our trip very soon!

Happy Good Friday

Ella is very excited about the fun things planned for this Easter weekend! She has already had an Easter filled week at school with both dying and painting eggs as well as other fun crafts (such as glasses pictured above.
Unfortunately I am at work today but look forward to only a three day work week next week!

Manicure and Mowing

Ella asked me to paint her fingernails this past weekend. Ever since, everywhere we go and everyone she sees, she has to tell them about and show them her fingernails. Earlier in the weekend she kept calling them toenails but now is correctly identifying them as fingernails. And even though she holds very still, I have a hard time staying in the lines on such tiny nails...


Both of us blowing them dry...

Holding very still for her manicure...






Last night Tom was mowing the yard when we got home from swimming. She was so interested, she watched him do the whole backyard from the window. All through bath she talked about daddy mowing the yard and said mowing, vroom vroom, beep beep and turned her hands in the air to the motion of a steering wheel :)


And dirty face but those big brown eyes melt my heart....

Sunday Funday

Yesterday Ella and I had a playdate with a friend and her four year old son and sixteen month daughter. She lives only a few miles from us and is a stay at home mom turned photographer. We went over for the kids to play but also for her to teach me how to begin setting my exposure manually on my camera as well as learning to use natural indoor light versus a flash.
Her son was our subject for the first few. I was surprised how clear of a pic you can get with natural, indoor lighting and me manually setting my camera...

I did not get too many other shots of the kids together as it was difficult with them running around and me trying to use natural light. I still have a lot to learn :)

Her son is quite the entertainer and him and Ella were fast friends..


It was such a beautiful day that after the playdate, Tom, Ella, and I headed to the park...



As you can see, daddy enjoyed the slide as well :)



Peek a boo...


And even though the sand and water table was really supposed to be a birthday gift in July, we decided to go ahead and let her enjoy it. We are currently re painting and re organizing our garage so Tom and I were anxious to get it out of the box and outside.