Twin Time

Ellison has been eating up a TON of time with the twins, Hanna and Mary Grace. Over spring break, they spent almost every day playing at some point, and Ell loved every minute. We love that she gets to have "big sisters", and I'm FINALLY getting better at telling them apart.

Putting lipstick on Hanna (or is it Mary Grace?)

The weather was really only about 72 degrees, but all of the girls burst full throttle into their spring fever and felt it was warm enough to wear dead-of-summer clothes. They ran around and played outside.

So happy...

Minus a roof temporarily

[April 1, 2010]

Triad Park

We attempted to have a playdate at Triad Park one beautiful morning, to finally get most of our friends together with the school break starting. The bad news? Most of our friends still couldn't make it. The good news? We did get to see our Perez and Barksdale friends there, though the Perez clan wasn't able to stay nearly long enough. The park is great! We had never been before.

Ellison and Caroline. Ellison is still in a phase where she is timid of slides. The reason? "They shock me" (she gets a static shock when she gets off sometimes).

Baity, Caroline, and Ellison

Sweet little Maggie

Mollie was kind enough to bring the girls doughnuts, though they ended up having to leave before the girls slowed down long enough to have some.

Ellison, Baity, and Megan

Baity

After lots of coaxing, she finally did the slide. And got a shock. Along with an elbow burn.

For lunch we had a picnic. Loving this spring weather!

Baity playing in her car, and Ellison playing in hers. The girls were hollaring back and forth to each other through the open windows, having fun.

[April 1, 2010]

Disney Day at Dance

The "theme" day of the month at dance class was "Disney Day", so we had to go out and buy Ellison something Disney-ish last minute. I think it's the only time I've ever NOT seen a Disney character T-shirt at Wal-Mart, so we had to settle for this half of a Disney get-up, which worked out well. She loves her some Princess Tiana!

[March 30, 2010]

Flower Pressing

I can't believe she's tall enough to ring the windchimes all by herself now...

So, after playing in the backyard and collecting some Bleeding Hearts (I don't know the correct horticultural name), Ellison took the fistful into the house. Upon entering, she saw my Bible laying there, and asked for it. She then proceeded to place her Bleeding Heart flowers on the barstool, place the Bible on top of them, and start pushing down on the Bible with all her might. When I asked her what she was doing, she said, "I'm pressing flowers," like, duh. And for the record, I did not ask her to re-enact this, my camera was literally laying right there. I had NO IDEA where she knew about flower pressing from.

After doing this, she then walks over to the drawer and asks me for some wax paper. (?!). After blankly giving her a piece, she places it over her flowers, then presses again.

Where did she get this, upon my questioning? "Caillou".

[March 31, 2010]

New Dress & New Casita

When going through her piggybank one day, Ellison informed me that she wished to spend her money. Since, well, it is her money that she saved, I obliged. She said she wanted to buy a Snow White dress. Off to the store we went in search of one. When faced with so many choices in dresses - Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, she ultimately chose the Cinderella dress. She also tried to choose several new high heels, Barbie princess dolls, etc, etc, then finally said she would save up her money and buy them next time.

Ellison also had the good fortune to fall into some prime real estate. He beloved twins next door gave her their little casita that they have outgrown. It still needed to be cleaned up a little, so I told Ellison she could go out on the deck to peak at her new digs.

A couple of days later, Ellison and I had fun on a beautiful sunny day in the backyard scrubbing and hosing off the casita. Many yelps were heard coming from Mama's mouth throughout the housecleaning. With Ellison in control of the hose, she quickly found it quite funny to see the dance I would put on when her aim became careless and focused on me. The twins and their mom, out in their yard, could be heard giggling at the antics, which only got her going more.

[March 29, 2010]

Peace in the Storm

My poor little Moo Moo doesn't like storms now, so she was very unsettled the night we had several tornado warnings in a row in Guilford County. The magic hours began just about bedtime, and we wouldn't put her to bed in her upstairs bedroom (with towering trees surrounding our house), and we desired to be near the bathroom (Our storm shelter. MAN I miss having a basement!!!). There were a couple of house-shaking booms, which petrified poor Ell. Daddy, always one to try to make others more comfortable, had the brilliant idea to let Elli try out his noise-canceling headphones. It was perfect! The moment she put them on she got the biggest grin on her face - utter relief, and fell asleep on me within about two minutes.

[March 28, 2010]

Spring Clean-Up

After Jonathan got home from volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and did a yard spruce-up. Ellison was excited to have her very own gardening gloves, and went to town stuffing garbage bags and spreading pine needles, until she realized they were "pokey", then chose to play instead. Thank God for the twins - they were there to play with her.

Daddy made a fun game of "stuffing the caterpillar", which Ellison thought was great.

[March 27, 2010]

Bunny Day

OK, that's better...

Since we were all husband-less/Daddy-less this day, Megan & Baity and me & Ellison ventured out to take on "Bunny Day" at the Natural Science Center. Thought it'd be great to be in the Easter spirit. Well, Ellison must've left her spirit back on Mackinaw Drive, because she was so NOT into it. She loves animals - as long as their stuffed with cotton or behind a 2-inch thick wall of glass. She didn't want to pet the bunnies AT ALL. Wanted me to hold her the whole time. You could've told her that her beloved Teddy decided to join the Animal Discovery zone and ran off forever, and she would've just looked at me blinking her eyes. Just an off day for Moo-Moo.

Not sure how we managed to get such an animated smile captured in photos when they seemed non-existent that day. At least indoors. She perked up some out in the animal area.

She requested a pink flower for her face painting session.

And Baity had a little bunny face.

Ellison has amazingly never been afraid of mascots. Just the opposite in fact. That seems to be slowly changing right now. She's really excited to see them, but as soon as they get super-close to her, she wants to be held. After fretting for some time that she wanted to see the Easter Bunny, and becoming upset when she saw him/her from afar and we said we'd have to wait a little while to see him/her, we eventually lucked out seeing the Bunny walk down an empty hall toward us. Ellison did not want to be close to the furry creature when she saw the imminent meeting ahead of her.

Now, I know Ellison... she'd say she didn't want to get close, then 2 minutes after the Bunny left she'd cry because she wanted to see it. That is so her. She has this thing with goodbyes lately. She has to have closure several times before she's satisfied. When saying goodbye to me or Jonathan, we do our normal hugging and kissing, and then 30 seconds later as we walk away or get in the car, she starts getting very upset wanting to give one more hug and kiss. And then one more. This happens about 2-3 times before we actually part. And heaven forbid we actually pull away from the driveway or street without waving as she stands in the front door watching, waving, and blowing kisses. Daddy made that sad mistake recently and had to drive back - she was crushed! I swear I about needed a therapy session after witnessing that - so heartbreaking to hear, after watching a face go from smiles to utter sadness and sobbing, "Daddy didn't wave to me!".

Okay, let's rope this sucker in... Digressing... Where was I?

Oh yeah. So because of all of this, I coaxed Ellison into standing, albeit far enough away, by the Easter Bunny for a pic. She looks like she's really enjoying herself, doesn't she?

Baity's turn

As I said, Ellison became more lively outside, and the girls were enjoying themselves.

After a scraped-knee-with-torn-tights incident (poor Baity), we headed back in where Megan and I decided we were in dire need of getting the heck out of dodge and getting some food. After resettling back at their house to eat, things went downhill from there, so Megan and I threw up our hands and realized the day was just "off" for all of us, parted ways, and prayed for some good naps.

[March 27, 2010]