Sweet and Sassy!

Ellie enjoyed a girl's day out with a friend last weekend.  We took them to Sweet and Sassy to get a "Glittery Glam".  They had their hair done, nail polish and glittery makeup!  Ellie's hairdo was called "The Diva".

While we were there, we saw a birthday party of 12 4-year olds.  They were all in princess dresses and getting mini-makeovers.  It was quite a sight!

After the "Glittery Glam" the girls walked the runway!

Happy Birthday, Ellie!

Ellie is 7 years old today!

We celebrated yesterday with a good old-fashioned birthday party at our house.  Six friends came  over and we played lots of games:  Penny Pincher, Battle of the Oranges, Ha Ha Ha, Pin the Heart on the Unicorn, and Candy Pickup.  We then enjoyed chocolate cupcakes (decorated with Peace Signs) and vanilla ice cream.

It was fun to watch the kids all playing and laughing together.  Great time!

Awana Grand Prix

Ellie and Austin competed in the Awana Grand Prix again this year.  They worked hard painting and designing their cars and John worked hard to increase the car speed over last year.  He worked with a friend from church on the axles, wheels and weight of the cars.  All of the work paid off!

Austin chose to make his car look like a skateboard ramp, complete with a skateboarder and boombox on it.

Ellie painted hers with with bright colored polka-dots and then glued seven little animals on it.
Austin won 2nd place for Design and 2nd place for Speed in his age group.

Ellie won 3rd place for Speed in her age group.

Crepes

So we've had a jar of Nutella in the pantry for quite a while.  The kids have been afraid to try it - not sure why they are afraid of chocolate, though.

John made some crepe batter last night and that came in handy this morning since the kids and I are home because of the ice storm.  I made the crepes and put Nutella in the middle.  Austin LOVED them.  He ate 3!

Ellie cried about it and didn't want to eat hers.  Eventually she ate it, but did not want any more so she ended her breakfast with Cheerios.

I was proud of Austin for trying something new!

Reading

My friend Jill is working on her Reading Endorsement and needs to do 15 hours of tutoring to complete one of her classes.  I volunteered Ellie to be her tutoring "guinea pig".

After her first session with Jill at the library, we got Ellie her very own library card and she checked out five books.  She read in the car all the way home and then proceeded to read to her brother!  I loved that she had been inspired to read.