First Swimming Lesson

Ellie has attended her first swimming lesson with Miss Maggie. She did OK. Miss Maggie is great with kids and has been doing this for quite a while. She works with the little ones at one of our church campuses and Ellie loves her. At swimming however Ellie wanted to voice her opinion and would often tell Miss Maggie "No" when asked to do something. At one point Ellie was whining so Quinn and I left and that seemed to be better. Next time we are going to drop Ellie off for her lesson so she can be totally focused. We are looking forward to some more lessons as Ellie loves the pool and is turning into our little fish!

4th of July Fun

We had a very relaxing 4th of July. We went to the park and Ben made his excellent ribs. Ellie and I also made our 4th of July cupcakes and this year she did the sprinkles (a little messy, but totally worth having her do it). We then of course went to fireworks. Ben and I have gone to fireworks every year we have been together and it is the one thing we pack up the kids late at night for. Ellie did a great job staying up and as you will see in the pictures Quinn didn't crack an eye. We were so happy to spend the time together as our summer has been very busy and it was nice to have Ben home from work for the day!

Buzzy the Bumblebee

My friend Kellie told me about a great story time at a place called the Author Squad. It is an awesome store full of literary tools for kids and tons of books. They also do a story time twice a week with a craft to follow. Ms. Kirsten, the storyteller, does an amazing job and remembers the kids names from week to week. This week it was all about bees. I have a book called Buzzy from my teaching years that I read to Ellie occasionally and when she made her bee she told me it was Buzzy and we of course have had to read that story multiple times since making our very own Buzzy. She did a great job with the craft doing all the glue by herself and after I showed her how to draw his stripes she added several more on her own. We look forward to our new story time every week.

Of course she requested a picture with Buzzy when she got home!

Visiting Geep and Gran

Every summer we like to go visit Geep and Gran in Raleigh. This year we went at the end of June and had a great time! Gran made us some of our favorite foods and they both spoiled all of us with yummy treats. We went to the Nature Museum there, which Ellie was a little interested in, but mainly the adults were and we had a great time with bubbles and the pool as well as sticker time with Gran and coloring at their house. They also bought Ellie a great puzzle which she loved putting together several times and we have done at home too several times. Ellie also slept on a blow up bed for the first time and did a great job! We had a great time playing with toys and Gan and I got to have some fun girl time at the coffee shop. Ellie loved getting showered with attention from them and Quinn enjoyed the love too. Ben and I also enjoyed relaxing and visiting with them. We look forward to seeing them again this weekend!