Friends and Fun

Care groupe kids minus two, having fun Thursday night. Love these kiddos.

Have you seen three cuter faces? I have not!

These three girls had matching dresses and we needed a photo shoot. They were playing ring-around -the-rosy here. Love the smiles!

Elli and I went to the pool on Thursday. She is swimming like crazy, not hardly wanting to touch the bottom anymore. I can't believe how fast that happened!

Our last day for Moms and Tots was at Orchardly Park. It was so fun. Lots of moms came and we were able to enjoy fun times together chasing our kids. We even decided a run to Graeters afterwards was a must:) Here, Elli and Lily have on their "hoods." Sweet little friends.

Summer School Accomplishments

I wanted to write about what Elli learned from summer school before I forgot.
Learned: All letters, most sounds, match upper and lower case, trace letters and lines, opposites, clap out syllables, three new Bible verses, patterns, recognize numbers 1-10, crab walk, skip, jump forward, throw a ball above her head and catch it, cutting, rhyming ending sounds, writing letters, and I am sure there are more things, but I cannot think of them now.
Improved:coloring, gluing, counting (to 20), writing her name, riding her tricycle, sorting, puzzles, color recognition, shape recognition of objects around us, finding letters in books and other reading materials, telling stories from a picture, and again, I am sure there are more things, but I'll have to just stop here.
We had a great time. There are so many things to teach Elli and so many things for her to learn. I am sure this list is no where near complete, but I wanted to remember as much as possible from the specific things we worked on over the summer. How fun to see her learn and use those new things in her life. Makes me smile:)

Duck and Goose

Elli wanted to play duck, duck, goose. I told her it was a little hard to play with only two people. She said, "that's okay. We'll call it duck and goose." We began playing and then she didn't pick me to be goosed. I looked sad and she turned around, after starting to run, and said, "Don't worry sweetie. I'll pick you next time." So she outran whoever was chasing her and came back to "duck" again. This time she picked me. I was so thrilled! So on and on we played for about 15 minutes. Fun times being an only child with a crazy mommy!

A little side story that I want on the blog. One day at the pool, Brent and I were tossing Elli back and forth. We stopped for a break and Elli looked at Brent and said, "Daddy throw me in the air so I can fly like an angel." Love it!

Hilton Head Again

The boys and Elli checking out a sand dollar or starfish or jellyfish. Anyway, it has their attention. We didn't spend much time playing in the ocean after the first few days. The jellyfish were terrible. Dad got stung pretty bad on his legs and Matt got it in the leg and face. Not many people were in the water due to the severity of the stings. Nearly everyone we passed had been stung or someone in their family had been. Awful!

Grammy and Grandma watching the dolphins at Sea Pines.

Elli played Little Red Riding Hood in the puppet show at Harbour Town. She was so serious, as always, but of course was loving it:)

The family in front of the Light House at Harbour Town.

We went to Sea Pines and wanted to eat at Salty Dog Cafe, but it was a long wait, so we ate at The Wreck of the Salty Dog. Great food, most of us got fish and chips. Elli played with the figurines and colored on the floor. She loved it.

By the end of our vacation, Elli as wimming all by herself. That's right, Elli has joined the ranks of those who can swim all on their own!!! If I knew how to post a videa, it would be on here. I'll work on it.

The wedding continued

Getting sleepy after a long day and fun dancing. She was even doing some break dancing with spins on the floor. You go little girl!

Cutting the very delicious cake that took a small tumble before the reception. It still tasted wonderfully though!

So Elli loved this sparkling grape juice. Good thing it was only juice! She kept asking for more from the servers. She also liked walking up to people and "crashing" glasses.

Heather and Gary having the first dance. So pretty!

Heather and Gary's Wedding, Aug 21, 2009

Beautiful picture of Heather and Gary right after the ceremony.

We needed a family picture.

Heather and Gary wrote their own vows to each other. They didn't read each other's vows before hand and were surprised at similar they were.

Elli was the flower girl. She had a bucket of flowers and handed them out to each person in the audience. She did a great job. She did however want to run up and give Heather a flower and I had to hold her back!

She looks so pretty.

The first part of our Hilton Head vacation

Vacation has been great so far. We have played in the pool, swam in the ocean, eaten in, eaten out, played games, watched movies, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. Here are a few pictures to show what has been going on. Elli enjoys playing in the sand and getting shells, as well as swimming in both the ocean and the pool. She can do it almost totally by herself now. What a big girl. The big kids, adults, have played like we were kids again, except for the grandmas who watch us act like kids:) Brent has enjoyed two rounds of golf with dad going along for the view. Dad got stung by a jelly fish, Elli fell out of her princess bed and Elli is sick, of course. (She seems to always come down with something on vacation) We are however having a great time.

The Cincinnati Zoo

Elli and I went to the zoo today as our last trip for summer school. She can even spell it now and recognize the word, zoo. Such a smart girl from all that good teaching this summer. The pictures represent some of our favorite moments. I couldn't put 60 + pictures on here, so enjoy the sampling. Elli walked into my room at 7:00 this morning and climbed into bed. I asked her why she was up so early and she replied, "You told me to get up early to go to the zoo." She was too excited to sleep. The polar bears were our absolute favorite, followed closely by feeding the giraffe, watching the seals, seeing the bird show, and looking at the "cute little kitties":) Of course she had to ride the carousel and get ice cream. It wouldn't be much of a trip without those things. Loved being your teacher little girl and ending with such a perfect day!

Moms and Tots

The kids had fun playing with the water pump. They took turns filling buckets and pumping water all over each other.

Lily, Elli and Merdith loved playing in the caves.

Sherry is trying to get some baby time, but as you can see, the other kids needed Sherry time:)

Moms and Tots from church has been a great thing for me this summer. We went last year, but not as many times. I feel like I got to know some moms better, kids better, and parks in the Dayton area better. This park is Wegerzyn Gardens. It was beautiful. I may never have gotten the chance to go if I hadn't gone with this wonderful group of ladies from church.

Heather's Bridal Shower

Mom, Leah and I had a bridal shower for Heather on Saturday. It was very fun. There were 20 ladies, 2 little girls, and lots of food and presents. Heather got many beautiful gifts and Elli of course wanted to help with all of it. She did help me make this delicious layered cake with strawberry filling. You can see in this picture that she helped me with the icing. She also helped Leah with one of the quiches. She added some pumpkin pie spice, so we decided it didn't need that kind of help. That one went into the garbage. All the helping aside, she was just about as excited as Heather all day long. What a fun day with the ladies. Fun memories.

The Greene County Fair

Elli and Brent went to the fair tonight as I went to Bunco. They had a blast as you can see. They ate dinner, rode lots of rides, watched the horse races, looked at animals, got dessert, and came home exhausted. As you can see in the pictures, Elli rode her first roller coaster, and she even told Brent, "I didn't ride that one yet." "That one" was the ride that takes you up and then you fall. Brave girl. Brent said she kept a face that said, "I'm not so sure about this" but bounced right off and said it was fun. What event is not complete without a milkshake? No event in Elli's eyes, so there is a picture of her drinking a shake and looking at the cows. I am sad I missed out on so much fun,. but glad it was a great memory for Brent and Elli! Love you both:)

Must love dogs

This may be a line Elli uses one day when choosing friends and eventually a mate, because she does love dogs. Elli loves animals in general, but especially dogs. Since it was raining, I asked Elli what she wanted to do. She said, in her little way, "I have an idea. How about we go to the mall and play with dogs. Is that a good idea?" (I love it when she uses this phrasing) So, we went to the mall and played with an adorable little yorkie-poo. Elli is so sweet with these little dogs. She also wanted to take a picture of me:)