A princess party

My little girl recently turned four years old. To celebrate this event we threw her a princess party. It was tons of fun. Here are some of the pictures:

Ella was excited to wear a new Cinderella dress.

The party began with dancing to princess music.

Ella and her four princess friends. She is the youngest and the tallest.

The girls decorated paper crowns for pin the crown on the princess.

Ella wasn't fond of the eye mask, and said she wouldn't peek if I
let her cover her eyes with her hand.

This cake is supposed to look like a crown. It is pink and has confetti frosting.

Our son

It is fun to watch my children grow and change. They do and say the cutest things. Ella used to have her own words like "niece" for "more" and "malt" for "milk". Eli has his own cute sayings too. He says "me me me" which means "read to me."

It is sad that children must grow up. But the growing is made more bearable by our ability to record and keep the memories of our little ones. I remember my father sitting us down around a tape recorder and having us record our voices. We sang primary songs and said our first prayers, reported on our day at preschool and announced excitedly that we wanted to listen to the recording now. As I grew up I loved listening to the tapes of me as a toddler. I loved listening to my father's excited voice as he taught us how to record our voices. He knew then what I understand now: children grow up too fast. I am forever grateful for the blessing of technology that allowed my parents to save our voices. I am even more grateful for the technology we have today that allows me to record my children; not just their voices, but all of them.

And so, here is a video I made of my son. I will watch it over and over again just as I watch and re-watch my videos of Ella. Man, I can't believe what a sentimental mom I have become.

Eli at 20 months

A quilter turned seamstress!

I've been feeling extra sew-y lately.

This is what I was able to make during Eli's nap today. Yup it took three hours to make from start to finish. I absolutely love it.

The pattern and tutorial are found at: http://www.kukyideas.com/journal/2006/07/tiered-skirt-tutorial.html

A museum?

During Fall break the kids and I decided to join some friends at the local children's museum. Ella loves museums. She was expecting an art museum but I don't think she was disappointed.

Eli's Dessert

We begin our story with Chris getting Eli ready for bed. I was practicing the piano. Chris was working on the computer. Eli was...

Eli was getting into Chris' chocolate covered pretzels. His loving older sister has taught him how to reach things on the counter. But Eli doesn't know how to get down from the stool. So this is how we found him when he called for us.

I am glad that Chris hadn't put Eli's pajamas on him yet. I am also glad Eli couldn't get down. Could you imagine the mess he would have made?!?

So Eli got his dessert and a bath too! His dream come true.

A hiking we will go...

I love October in Tucson. The weather actually feels cool enough to go for hikes again. We jumped at the opportunity to enjoy the 90 degree weather that happily occurred on Chris' day off and went for a hike in Catalina State Park.

The view was amazing and I'm not just talking about my family...

The hike was 2.2 miles round trip and Ella hiked the whole way. She carried a water bottle and dry clothes in her back pack. Sadly, the "pool" we were hiking to was dry so the extra clothes were not needed. One might be led to believe we live in a desert.

After the hike we enjoyed a picnic in the shade. Ella loves picnics. She was also thrilled to find a tree that she could climb.

Is it cold where you live? Want to come visit us? We could go for a hike...

Princess bowling

While on vacation this past August we had a girls outing of Princess Bowling. This entails getting dressed up like a princess and going bowling. Ella was in heaven.

Here are the princesses: Doddy, Aurora, and Thumbalina.

Ella named us, and we will never know where she came up with the name Doddy for the princess in white. She was persistent though and her aunt worried that Ella thought that was her real name.



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