American Girl

It was a big day for Ellie. She has purchased her first American Girl doll. We walked to the American Girl store, checked everything out and left with a brand new Julie doll. Ellie hasn't let go of her since we got back to the hotel. We are headed back to the American Girl Cafe for dinner at 5:30. I'm sure I'll have lots more pictures of that experience...

Batman

Our family is SO lucky to have Batman on our side.

What in the world?

The other evening I told the kids to get their pajamas on and we would have a little pizza/pajama party. So Ellie comes downstairs and has done her hair for the party. I think Austin's face says it all...

ABC Movie

I had to create a movie for one of my classes this term. I had a brilliant idea to use the kids in it. John was sure that it wasn't going to work - getting them to participate without complaining, etc. Well, everything started great and there was only a little bickering about who had done more than the other and one episode of crying (which if you watch closely when Ellie is doing the letter "X" you can see she is a little sad). All in all, it was a pretty easy process and had no idea that we all have access to Moviemaker on our computers! Very cool!

(The video quality isn't quite as good as it was before I uploaded it to Youtube. That is something I'm trying to correct for next time - if there is a next time!)

Here is the Youtube link:

ABC Movie

zoo

The kids and I enjoyed a short trip to the zoo today. A benefit of having an annual membership to the zoo is that when we go, we don't have to spend the whole day and make sure we see everything. We typically let each person pick one thing to see on each trip.

Ellie does NOT like to see the gorillas because they are in a building that does not have very good ventilation. She says is smells disgusting, which I have to agree, it kind of does. She heard that one of the gorillas had a baby, so she wanted to risk the stink and try to see the baby gorilla. Well, the baby gorilla is not on display yet, but Ellie saw a small monkey and thinks she saw the baby. Is that bad that I let her believe that was the baby?

Austin tried to pick the nose of the gorilla statue and Ellie saw a large rock that looked like an elephant butt. I have to say, I agree with her. Do you?

Easter Eggs

The kids colored Easter eggs this weekend. While the egg coloring was mostly uneventful, Ellie created something in our driveway this weekend that surprised me.

While enjoying the warm weather this weekend, the kids were out front riding bikes, scooters, practicing cartwheels in the grass and drawing with sidewalk chalk. Ellie drew a hopscotch, wrote the vowels, drew a flower, and then...drew Jesus dying on the cross. I hope that we are able to continue this daily interest in Jesus after she leaves her Christian school for public school next year. I do love how both of them learn Bible songs each day, Ellie attends Chapel during the week, and read Bible stories at story time.

Austin turns 4

We are in the middle of birthday season at our house. Two down and two to go! Austin decided a few weeks ago that he wanted a rock for his birthday. We were driving home from school one day and I was asking Ellie what she wanted for her birthday. While she was thinking about it, Austin piped up and said he wanted a rock. I had to verify that I heard him correctly. For all I knew, he said "wok". But, I did hear him correctly. He said "rock." I have no idea why he wanted a rock for his birthday. I suggested a toy, but he stuck to his guns and insisted that all he wanted was a rock.

Well a few weeks later (after a few times of him repeating his rock request) I asked him again what he wanted for his birthday. Same answer. A rock.

I told him that we had already bought him something else and he got a little upset with me and repeated that all he wanted was a rock!

So, I'm off the hook, right? A rock. No problem. I can do that. Wrong! Ummm, our yard has been covered in snow for weeks! Getting a rock was not impossible, but it wasn't as easy as heading off to the backyard. So, Nana and Pop helped out with the rock issue since they were on vacation in Florida and South Carolina, which did not have a foot of snow like us. They came through for Austin and he scored a whole bag of rocks! He got several small rocks, one with a painted tiger on it, and another one for him to paint.

Oh, we bought him a game and Legos, too. The Legos were a hit.

The cake. Well, I don't have nearly enough energy to explain what happened there. All I can say is that I followed the recipe exactly (well, almost exactly) and it was almost inedible. Luckily, Austin is only 4 and doesn't care about such things. All I know is that I threw out over 1/2 of a cake and I now need to prove my baking abilities all over again. I'm including a picture of the cake for entertainment purposes only.