Pre-4th of July Fireworks

The fireworks stands have been calling Gracie's name lately. She had money burning a hole in her pocket, so we let her spend a very small amount on some sparklers and smoke bombs. Ella was not a fan of the sparklers. She especially disliked the things that Brent and I chose to buy. I think the snap 'n pops were her favorite.

Gracie loved the sparklers she bought. They were neon colors and she would try to write words in the sky with her sparkler. She's very smart in our humble opinion!

If sparklers get her this excited, I wonder what the big fireworks displays will do to Gracie?! She's definitely a fan!

A Sneak Peak

Ella's princess dress that she is going to wear at Disney World arrived today in the mail. She was super excited to have a package to open, and then when she saw it was a Cinderella dress, that made it even better. Can you tell she was excited? She was so happy with her dress, and I hadn't even altered it yet or fixed her hair pretty.

Ella kept saying, "Now we can go to Disney World." Just a few more weeks Ella!

Slipping and Sliding

What a perfect day for getting the slip 'n slide out! It was 100 degrees and the girls were ready to cool off. Ella was a little timid at first, so she just stood in the "pool" area and splashed in the sprayers.

Look at Gracie go! She promptly slipped the first few times and said, "Whoa, that is slippery." Um, yeah it is.

Ella liked to crawl down the slip 'n slide. It must have felt safer than actually slipping.

Gracie liked to slide on her belly with the boogie board. She is much braver than she was last year! After our slip 'n slide fun we had a picnic on the deck while they dried off.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful dad and grandpa! After church we headed to Moberly to spend some time with my dad. We started out with lunch at Rick's Americana Grill.

Look at those cheesy smiles!!! These girls have been blessed with two wonderful grandpa's. We will never forget their Papa, and continue to wish he could have watched them grow up. I'm sure he would adore Ella and would think Gracie is growing up to be a beautiful young lady.

Brent managed to sneak into a picture! This isn't exactly a well posed picture, but sometimes you take what you can get!

After lunch Brent headed out for a golf outing with some of his friends. The rest of us headed out to Rothwell Park to ride the train. Nana Kaser had never ridden the train. I think she enjoyed it!

Here's our gang waiting for our turn on the train.

Self-portraits are the best, aren't they?! Ella loved the train as you can tell by her cheesy grin!

Dare I Say It???

I may regret this post, but here goes....

I think Ella is officially potty-trained. Whew! I said it. This is one of those statements that I hesitate to say because I could jinx the whole operation and she might revert to old habits. I don't even remember when Ella's last accident was, so I think I can now say she is potty-trained. She went from hiding behind furniture to take care of business, to wearing big girl pants and having lots of accidents, to doing pretty good on #1, to telling me when she has to go and actually going. It is a wonderful thing to not have to buy diapers anymore. I will still buy wipes because they are handy for so many things and I would miss them if we didn't have any!

Ella is very proud of herself and eagerly calls any family member after she has done a particularly good job so she can brag a little. She gets an M&M after each successful trip to the bathroom. Actually, she hasn't even remembered to get an M&M for a week or so now, so again I say, "I think Ella is potty-trained!"

Hooray for Ella! Gracie didn't get completely potty-trained until she was 3 1/2 years old. I remember being so embarrassed in public restrooms when I had to put her on those changing tables and she looked so big. She would hang off the end of the table. Gracie was always tall for her age anyway, and I figured people thought she was a 5 year old who couldn't control her bladder.

It was a goal of mine to get Ella potty-trained before we headed to Disney World in July, so now my new goal is to get Ella to warn me of her need to potty before it's a pure emergency. Wish me luck!

A Pretty Princess

I went to a garage sale a few weeks ago and bought Gracie a game called 'Pretty Pretty Princess.' There are dress-up accessories with the game and you earn them as the game is played. The winner is the first person to have all of their accessories, including the crown. For some reason, Gracie usually loses this game and it has made her sad, but she is old enough that she understands what a good sport is, so she tries to put on a good face. Well, today Gracie won! She legitimately won and is was so exciting. She even had on a pretty new outfit, so she really did look like a pretty princess!

A Rainy Sunday

After church today we had to head over to the Methodist Church for their annual Family Fun Day. It's usually an outdoor event, but it was pouring down rain, so most things were moved indoors. There is a constant supply of entertainment during the day, and Gracie's dance class got to perform one of their dance routines. It was nice to watch them again, and Brent really enjoyed it since he had to miss her dance recital.

Gracie got a small dragonfly painted on her cheek after she was done dancing, but the rain washed a lot of it off, so when we got home I dug out some old Halloween face paint and we had some fun. Yes, I said, "we" had some fun. She saw a fish painted on a sample page at the church, so I did my best to recreate it with old worn out paints.

After I got done with Gracie, she had a little too much fun with me.

Gracie drew a baseball diamond on Brent's face. What a sport!

Ella painted her own face. Yikes! She's quite independent these days!

What a crazy girl! It may look like a bad idea, but it was pretty fun to get so messy. Gracie thought it was a riot since it's not exactly our normal Sunday afternoon routine!

Oh Ella, where is that pretty little face? I hid the face paints shortly after this because they wanted to continue painting for hours after we were done.