Our Little Monster

Ella was on the prowl today, wearing Gracie's lion mask around the house. So cute!

More Easter Fun

Easter Fun

Gracie with her Easter basket of candy, bubble bath, crayons, new Crocs, bubbles, etc. Who knew the Easter Bunny could be so practical?!

Ella's basket was full of Gerber Graduate snacks, a new box of crayons and a couple small chocolates. She didn't make out too well in the candy department.

Ella finally found the foil covered chocolate at the bottom of her basket. Everything else was cast aside.

Gracie loves a good bubble wand, and the Easter Bunny knew just the right color!

Right after our mini Easter egg hunt, we got dressed for church and headed to Moberly to celebrate the real reason for Easter. Gracie loved her dress this year.

A full shot of Gracie in front of Grandpa and Nana's fireplace. That's her favorite posing spot.

Ella is drawn like a magnet to Grandpa's organ. I think all kids would be, though.

I have a picture identical to this one from 4 years ago when Gracie was 1 year old. She had on the same dress for Easter and was sitting at the organ. Ella has a sprout and Gracie didn't have that much hair yet, so that will help me identify who is in the picture when I am 90 years old and have lost my memory.

Ella was not real keen on standing still for an Easter photo, so this is about as good as it gets.

This is my favorite picture from the day. Gracie was annoyed with how loudly Ella was playing the organ. Her natural response was to cover her ears.

Bowling

We headed to Kirksville tonight for an evening of bowling with the Doolin family. They drove over from Unionville and we had dinner and then headed to Leisure World for some pathetic bowling. (I'm speaking for my own score here!)

Gracie is great at Wii bowling, but this was totally different, of course. She did a pretty good job, but couldn't believe how heavy the balls really are. Brent was giving her some pointers before her first attempt.

Brent's sister, Brenda, loves to get her hands on Ella...or any other baby within her radar. That's probably part of the reason why she is so successful at running a daycare!

Mama and Ella watched the gang bowl. They were good cheerleaders.

Ella gave out some encouraging hugs throughout the night. If someone did a good job, they would get some lovin' from her.

Caught in the act of cheering! I hope she was rooting for me.

I thought this was so cute. Gracie, Kalyn and Ella were walking around the bowling alley by our lane, and they were lined up from tallest to shortest. Ella was trying really hard to keep up with everything the big girls were doing.

As usual, the music was blaring loud at the bowling alley. Ella provided much comic relief as she kept dancing and shaking her little body. She was gettin' down in this picture. (That's one of Brent's moves you are looking at!)

Gracie's Long Locks

Gracie has never had an easy time growing her hair out. It doesn't grow very fast, so I think she has only had it cut 3 times in her 5 years of life. When I straighten her hair, it looks so much longer. She loves for me to straighten it, and requested that I take a picture so she could see the back. :-)

What a poser! Gracie can strike a pose faster than anyone I know.

Gracie's reaction when I showed her the picture..."Ooh. Pretty. I'll try to not mess it up." Fat chance of that happening.

Silly Ella Loves Schwan's

We were sitting outside today playing while we waited for the Schwan's man to come by. Ella grabbed the Schwan's magazine and began flipping through the pages. She stopped on the ice cream page and began trying to pick up the ice cream pictures and put them in her mouth. It was SO stinking cute.

Ella...sampling the goods! She was pretty bummed that we had to leave before the Schwan's man ever arrived, so there is no ice cream in our freezer!

Yummy ice cream! I tried flipping to the page of frozen vegetables, but the game couldn't operate on that page. She quickly found her way a more appealing page and tried eating the picture of cookies.

Ella knew she was being funny and got a big laugh out of Gracie which just made her get even sillier! (You will notice her tongue in almost every picture these days. I was the same way at this stage. That might be the only thing about Ella that resembles me!)

And Then There Were Two

Anyone who has known Gracie for very long knows about her pink teddy bear blanket. She has packed it around since she was old enough to walk. This precious teddy bear has been lost and found more times than I care to admit. I even had to sew a pocket on it so that Gracie could put our return address in it in case he was lost again. Most days, teddy bear stays on her bed until bedtime now that she is a very mature 5 year old. Ella has a purple elephant that is the same style as Gracie's bear. Ella packs it around everywhere, in the same way that Gracie used to pack hers around. Well, one day this week I found both of the blankets neglected on the ground, side by side. It was funny to see, so I took a picture to remind myself of the days when my girls needed these items. In the blink of an eye they will be going on dates and denying that they ever had these security blankets.