Ella's First Nightgown

It's silly to post about something like this, but Ella looked absolutely adorable in her new nightgown tonight. It was a risk to put her in a gown when she could potentially have access to removing her diaper. Eek!!! She looked so big standing up and walking around in her gown, but of course she wouldn't cooperate when I tried to get that shot. Instead, she wanted to sprawl out on Gracie's bed and acted big.

Just kickin' back and relaxing on big sis's bed.

Ella's first nightgown in a Dora gown. She gets really excited when Dora comes on TV, so I guess she will be a lot like Gracie.

Not again!!!

Oh, yes. Tonight Ella made a nosedive over the side of the tub again. She just really wants to play with Gracie and reaches over sometimes to grab a toy. This is the second time that she has reached too far. She wasn't happy about it this time.Ella didn't think it was quite as funny as Gracie did. She wanted out immediately.

Once I removed her onesie and her water logged diaper, Ella was all smiles again. I hope you learned your lesson this time, Ella!

Trying Out Our Tennis Skills

Well, I guess it's actually racquetball, but the semantics are the same as tennis. Gracie loves to strike this pose for me after she has successfully hit the ball. I think it's super cute!

Anything Gracie does, Ella has to try, so she has been trying to get coordinated enough to hold a racket and ball. She just bounces the ball and thinks she has done something big!

This girlie loves her pacifier. I really don't let her have it all day, but while she is teething so hard right now I have had mercy.

Ella also continues to have her passion for sweeping. Any broom will work, but this yellow one happens to be her favorite.

Work, work, work...that's all she ever does! :-)

Feeding the Birds

This summer we have committed to feeding birds. Ella has noticed birds for a long time, and would stand at the windows during the winter waiting for a bird to be in our yard. Then she would point and grunt. Well, now if she sees a bird she points and says, "ba, ba," so that's progress. We have two feeders outside, but this little suet feeder is outside my kitchen window so we can really keep our eyes on things. It was going great until a beautiful woodpecker found our home. He likes to visit around 6 a.m. and start pecking on our house. Hmmm...we may rethink feeding the birds.

Gracie's Day of Fun

This week something interesting happened in our house. Gracie started talking about getting her ears pierced. She has really never expressed any interest, so it surprised me a little. She wanted to get her ears pierced, and I realized I was 4 when I had mine done, she is now 5, so why not?! We ok'd it with Brent just in case he had a differing opinion, but he thought it was fine so today we headed to Columbia.
She might look a little nervous in this picture, but she was mostly excited.

It seems like it took forever for the girl to line up the dots she marked on Gracie's ears. That was probably my nerves making me feel that way, though.

This is the 12 year old girl who pierced Gracie's ears. OK, she probably was 20, but she looked 12. She did a fine job, though.

The girl let Gracie hold a teddy bear to squeeze in case she got nervous.

We were just trying to kill time until the second girl was available to help pierce Gracie's ears. We definitely wanted both ears done at the same time so that we could ensure she ended up with 2 pierced ears instead of 1.

The big moment......

Oh, that is so sad. Honestly, that's as bad as it ever got. Gracie never really cried hard or anything, but she acted a little stunned that it hurt. We never really talked about it hurting. I just told Gracie it might make her jump because she might be startled.

The tears didn't last long. In fact, 10 minutes later Gracie was happily riding the carousel sucking on her sucker the earring store gave her.

After the carousel, we headed to Chucky Cheese for the first time. Gracie was very excited to go, and she thought it was fabulous.

Gracie made a friend instantly, and they buddied up and did everything together until Reece had to leave.

Oh, what a fun day. We don't get so spend as much one-on-one time with each girl as we would like, so this was a fun day.

Gracie's Pre-K Graduation

Tonight our big girl graduated from Tri-County Christian School's Pre-K program. It was a very exciting night for Gracie, as she is ready to move on to kindergarten.

Well, bummer. Gracie is blinking, but this is the only picture I have with her at her graduation. Brent couldn't come due to a conflict at his school, so we just had to take lots of pictures and videotape the program for him.

Gracie was very proud of the yellow rose we gave her before her graduation.

Mrs. Helton has been the principal at Tri-County for something like 8 or 9 years, and this is her last year. She was very good with Gracie when she first started at Tri-County after we moved to Macon. Gracie was very scared and cried for several weeks straight, but Mrs. Helton was always so patient and kind with her. Fortunately, she goes to our church, so we will still see her!

Mrs. Dawn was Gracie's Pre-K teacher. She was a good teacher with lots of energy and patience!

This was Gracie walking down the aisle for her graduation ceremony. Our church is so dark, and it's very hard to get good pictures. The lighting is always weird.

Gracie was very pleased to be graduating. Her class was sitting down while the other pre-k class was saying a poem. She was just smiling so nicely that I had to take her picture!

Both classes sang 2 songs together.

Going Off To Kindergarten (Sung to "Oscar Mayer Wiener Song"

"Oh, I'm ready to go off to kindergarten

that is where I really want to be

Cause when I get to go to kindergarten

Everyone will be so proud of me!

Kindergarten, Here We Come! (Sung to "I've Been Working on the Railroad")

I've been going to my preschool, all the whole year long,

I've been going to my preschool, and I've learned a lot of songs,

I can count and say my letters, I know my colors too.

I've been going to my preschool, all the whole year through.

Graduation day, Graduation day, Graduation day is finally here!

Graduation day, Graduation day, Graduation day is finally here!

Gracie and her classmates tried to sit nicely while they waited for their names to be called to receive their diplomas.

Yea! We were so proud of our big girl!

Her class also said a poem about their teacher. It was super cute, but I don't remember how it went. I just remember there was a line about her having to wipe their noses, and I thought that probably pertained to Gracie most days!

Gracie's class of graduates!

The Official Diploma

Bailey and Gracie were good friends at school. One day when we arrived Bailey said, "Come here, best friend." Sweet moments!

Letting Go

It is so very hard for me to let Ella try to feed herself. I know it will end up in a mess, but she needs to learn. So, tonight I let her have pudding for a snack and just sat back and watched.

Hey, that's not too bad. Her aim is usually off, but this was a good effort!

At the end of her snack, she realized she was really messy. Ella doesn't like being messy (I probably did that to her), so she wanted cleaned off pretty fast.