Wrigleyville Summerfest

So, I've been slacking lately on updating the blog, and tonight I'm going to catch up. Father's Day weekend, our church put on a street fest called Wrigleyville Summerfest. Marc was part of the planning committee this year, so he was working at the fest all day on Saturday. His brother John, his girlfriend, Katie, and John's son, Johnathon, all came over for the day too. John helped Marc out at the fest, so Katie and I had the kids all day. We had fun though. We took the kids to the fest in the morning and they had a great time. There was some kids music when we first arrived, and Ella really enjoyed that. Johnathon was a little crabby at first, but he soon warmed up to the activities. After the music we went to check out the other stuff they had for the kids. There was a petting zoo, and both kids loved it. Here are some pictures from the petting zoo.


They also had pony rides for the kids and Ella went on one!!! She actually loved it, she cried when she had to get off.

After we came home and Ella took her nap, we took the kids to the park and then for ice cream. It was a fun day and the kids were exhausted by the time it was bedtime. Katie and I also had fun, and were probably equally tired.

Memorial Day Weekend

My parents were in town for Memorial day weekend and we had a great time with them. I love when they come to visit, it gives me a since of home. We always have a fun time with them and we try to do something new each time they visit. This time we went to the Garfield Conservatory. It is someplace that Marc and I have talked about going to, but we just never got around to it, and as it turns out it is only about 2 miles from our house! It was a great place to go though, free admission and free parking!!! Ella had fun just being with "papa" and "nana", and seeing all the flowers and trees. The conservatory was gorgeous and it even had a little indoor play area for the kids. Here are some pictures from the day.
While they were here, mom and I gave Ella her first haircut. She really didn't need that much trimmed so we didn't want to take her someplace and pay $20 for a trim, so we decided to do it ourselves. Here are the couple of pictures we took. Oh, and a picture of Ella with her new bow in her hair.

The weather turned out to be great all weekend and it was a great weekend. I had such a good time being home all weekend and not having to work. I look forward to seeing my parents again soon and Ella can't stop asking for "papa" and "nana".

Baby at the Park

Since the weather is finally starting to get nice, Ella and I spend most of our afternoons at the park. She loves going to the park and being a big girl, doing everything by herself! This week she has started to want to bring "baby" to the park with us. "Baby" is just one of her dolls (all the dolls, stuffed animals, etc are called "baby"). She loves to take baby with her on the playground and have her do everything with her. Here is a video of her going down the slide with baby.

With all the playing and activities we have been doing she definitely sleeps well at night. Actually, nap time is pretty good too. We just have to get over the initial hesitation of actually wanting to go to sleep, but then once she is out, she is out. Last weekend I worked and her and daddy had the whole weekend to themselves. They spent time cleaning on Sunday morning and Ella was so busy helping and playing that she literally pasted out in her crib.
We are looking forward to my parents visiting for the holiday weekend, and have been prepping Ella. I ask her every morning, "who is coming to visit Ella this weekend?", and she responds, "papa!". Then I have to add "and Grandma" (but she can't say that yet). I'm hoping to get her hair cut this weekend as well, so I'll let you know how that goes. Hope everyone has a great Memorial day weekend!

Mother's Day

It was a great second Mother's Day for me. Marc and Ella made me a wonderful breakfast of french toast to start the day. We were supposed to go to a Cubs game at 1:20pm that day, but it was raining pretty hard all morning and we weren't sure if the game was even going to be played. So, we just lounged around all morning, read the paper and relaxed. About 12:00 or so the rain finally started to slow down and eventually stopped, so the game was on just a little delayed. Ella even got in a little nap before we left and we all got ready and headed over to our friends house to go to the game. We went with our friends Amy Jo and AJ, from church, and their son Easton, who is 5 months old. We walked from their house to the game. We had great seats, they were seats from AJ's work.

Ella and mommy

Once there we had fun and Ella was pretty good. It took her awhile to settle down and sit on our laps, but she finally did and overall was really good. It was fun to hang out with friends and have the kids at the game with us. Here are a couple more pictures from the day.

Outside of Wrigley

So, all in all I'd have to say it was a good Mother's day. Ella was a good girl all day and we got to do something fun. I hope every mom had a good day as well.

Dancing Ella

Ella has been into dancing as long as she was up and mobile, and it is so cute. I love the fact that she likes to dance (taking after her mom!). She loves to listen to music as well, and in her mind most songs require a dance. She has a few moves that she always does, "ba" = bounce and wiggle = wiggling her hands. Marc and I encourage her to dance all the time, but most of the time she just puts some music on one of her toys and starts to dance on her own. Her newest thing has been to try and get Mona (our cat) to bounce with her. Her is a video of her dancing.

Updates

So, it's been a long time since I've blogged and there has been a lot happening in our day to day lives. Ella is learning new things all the time and new words. Her newest word is "no"! Not the word I wanted her to know, but she says it in a very cute way. Also, she is so into dancing and her newest move is "ba" (which is bouncing). She plays some music from one of her toys and comes up to us and says "ba, ba" and starts bouncing. Here's a little clip we took when we were trying to get her to do it.



The other day Ella helped me make rice crispy bars, it was the first time she ever helped me cook anything! I loved having her help me and I can't wait until she wants to do it more. Here are some pics from that.
Another funny food picture we have is Ella eating a dessert a couple of weeks ago. The picture doesn't need any explaining!

Look at my cute mess!

With the nice weather we have been going to the park a lot and Ella loves it! She is getting more and more brave with each trip. She is now climbing up and going down slides all by herself, she doesn't want any help from mommy. Here are a few pics of her taking a snack break while playing.

The last thing I have to report is on Ella's new favorite toy, her Laugh and Learn Kitchen. It is something that I had wanted to get her at Christmas but never got around to it until a few weeks ago. She really enjoys it and has played with it almost everyday since we got it. It's nice because she likes to play with the pots and pans when mommy is cooking so now she can go and cook in her kitchen while I'm cooking. She even found a couple of my little baking pans and they fit into her little oven. She even takes her fake food and cooks it in a pan using one of my wooden spoons.

First Movie

This past weekend we took Ella to see her first movie, Horton Hears a Who. She did so well! Went out to the suburbs to meet John, Johnathon and Katie to see the movie. The theater we went to had $5 tickets if you went before noon, so that was a good deal. Ella did really well the first hour of the movie and the last half hour or so she was a little uneasy. I got her a small bucket of popcorn to munch on and she sat in her own seat for the first 45 min and ate her popcorn and drank her milk. Here is a picture of her, it's fuzzy because it's from Marc's phone, but it's still cute.

She ate the whole bucket of popcorn and then had to steal some from her cousin. The kids were so good. Johnathon was great and sat through the entire movie and didn't talk at all! I think we'll definitely take Ella to another movie, it has to be an hour and an half or less though. I don't think she'll make it any longer than the hour and an half.