Little Miss Leader

Today was Ella's leader day at preschool. Leader gets to be the first in line, hold the pointer, and bring snack. I decided to stay today so I could see her as the leader of her class. 

Ella's class have two guinea pigs, Itzy and Bitzy, as class pets. Someone built a new house for the guinea pigs. Mrs. B. put them in their new home for the first time today. It was so cute. The kids love the guinea pigs. When they squeal Ella thinks they are talking to her. 

After a bathroom break was circle time and show and tell. Ella loves being leader, because she loves using the pointer. She rocked that pointer today. I was so proud of her. It didn't bother her at all being in front of her class. 

Ella took her Minnie Mouse scooter and her pink blanket and baby for show and tell. Last time Ella was leader and didn't want to take any items for talk about. Today she picked out what she wanted to take and talked about them to her class. I was so proud of her. 

For snack time Ella took Spider-Man cupcakes. The rings on top were a hit!

After snack the kids sang some Christmas songs. It was so entertaining. 

The new playground is finally done so the kids were able to play out there. I am glad I was there to see it. They were so excited. Ella used to be so scared of other kids on playgrounds. I was happy to see her play with the other kids. She loves being around her friends. 

Today made me realize how great preschool has been for Ella. It makes me so happy to see how well she has adjusted. She loves her teachers and being around her friends.  She looks forward to going to school, and  I can't ask for much more than that!

Weekend recap

Friday night we had our second annual Christmas dinner with the Ice's at Cork n' Cleaver. We had a really good meal that night with great company. We always have a fun time with them. I'm thankful Adam and I have them to hang out with. 

Poor Aaron. He has been stuck with Adam since they were 18. I'm not sure why, but he has stuck around all these years! ;) j/k. Adam and Aaron are like two peas in a pod. 

Saturday my mom treated us to lunch and the Nutcracker. The girls were so good and made it through almost the whole show. Ella was VERY talkative the first half of the show. It was really entertaining. At one point when it was quiet I hear Ella say out loud, "Oh my god." I could have died. The Nutcracker was great. The kids were so cute. It made me want to put Ella in ballet. I would love to watch her on stage. I can't imagine how proud the parents of these children were. I really enjoyed it. 

 That is Don Mattingly dressed up in this dress. I had no clue! 

I had no clue that was Don Mattingly in the Dodgers Jersey. I need to get with the program. 

Sunday we had Ella's 4th birthday party, but I will save that for another post. She is going to be four tomorrow, and I can't believe it!

Our Christmas Card

I love Christmas cards. Every year I want to get the "perfect" picture. This year we did pretty good minus Brody being stubborn. Do you know how hard it is to get a child and two dogs to look at the camera?  Almost impossible! I think it turned out great though. 

Christmas 2012

Weekend fun... a little late

I have been meaning to post about our weekend, but I haven't gotten around to it until now. We have had so many activities lately. This past Friday Adam, Ella, and I ate at Dilegge's and went to see the fantasy of lights at Garvin's park. We did this last year too, and I'm hoping to make this a Christmas tradition. We decided to do the carriage ride through the park. It rained all day so I wasn't sure if we would be able to, but luckily it stopped raining that night. Ella was planning on sitting on my lap in the car as we drove through so she was surprised when we told her we were going to ride the carriage. We went to Dairy Queen for ice cream after. It was a fun night!

Saturday morning I participated in the Jingle Bell 5K. We met Aaron and Sarah there. My mom and dad were signed up to walk, but my mom was sick. My dad decided just to run. I was excited that I got my best time yet for a 5K, 27:14. My goal is to get under 27 minutes so hopefully I can do that at the next run in February. It was so nice out Saturday morning. I was planning on freezing, but I about sweat to death instead. 

My dad ran this in right under 35 minutes. I'd say that is pretty good for a 59 year old running his first 5K. :) 

Saturday night was Adam's work Christmas party. We had to take a dish and two $10 gifts for the gift exchange. I have never seen people take a gift exchange so seriously. Gifts were traded so many times I couldn't even keep track. Adam's gift got taken when there was one present left so I told him just to take the last one and end it. Yes, we are party poopers who needed to get home to a child that was up two hours past her bed time! We ended up with a $10 starbucks gift card and a bottle of homemade cranberry vodka that we left to be enjoyed by everyone. I'm glad that is over for the year! :) 

Sunday we went to church, and Ella and I went to the party store after. We had to get supplies for her spiderman birthday party. Yes, my girly girl wanted a spiderman party so that's what she is having. I can't believe she is going to be four in less than a week. Rip my heart out!

Fun filled weekend

We had such a nice weekend. Saturday morning we went to the Christmas Store in Santa Claus, In. All summer long I said I was going to stop at the Christmas Store after Holiday World, but every time I was just too exhausted. Christmas time seemed like a good time to go. My mom was up for the trip with us, and it ended up being a great time. 

It is a nice store, and I think they had every ornament under the sun. The only one they didn't have was the one Ella wanted, Spiderman. She did end up with a cute baby ornament. The best part was seeing Ella sit on Santa's lap. Ella hopped right up on his lap, and she wasn't scared at all.  He was such a great Santa. He reminded her to remember the real meaning of Christmas. He also told her to listen to her parents and grandparents and be respectful of the elderly. He was shocked to hear that Ella wanted Spiderman and Thomas for Christmas since she looks like such a girly girl. Little does he know;) 

 This girl knows how to shop! She learned at such a young age. She gets it honest:) 

After the Christmas store we went to the candy kitchen for a sweet treat. We found out one of the little shops by the Christmas store was painting faces for free. On our way out we took Ella to get her face painted. I think she is the cutest reindeer I have ever seen!

Saturday night we finally put up some Christmas lights on the outside of our house. Adam is not a fan of putting up lights. We haven't done it since our first Christmas at this house six years ago. Ella loves to look at lights so it didn't take her long to persuade Adam to put some lights on the house. Ella tried to be his little helper by handing him lights and climbing on the ladder. 

I also worked on a couple of Christmas projects this weekend. I got the idea from Brandi, and she saw it on pinterest. I made wooden snowmen out of scrap wood.  I love how they turned out!

Lastly, I was excited to see that Sprout Boutique used one of my photos of Ella as their cover photo on facebook. How fun!

Here are the rest of the pictures I took from that day. I absolutely love taking pictures of Ella infront of the tree. 

That's the Ella I know:)