Picasso

We have a little Picasso on our hands. I decided to venture into painting with Ellie. We started with pudding painting, fun and delicious. We started by mixing up the pudding together and then I set her all up. I showed her how to do it and she did great until she realized it tasted delicious. Once she tasted that pudding painting was over and eating had begun. I am sure Ellie is looking forward to another painting session in the near future :)

Fireworks

This year we went to the Whitewater Center to see fireworks. Ben spoke at a camp that week and so Ellie and went with him to see him in action and then we all ventured out to see the fireworks. Ellie did awesome. She stayed up super late and was not fussy at all. She loved watching them and was not scared. We had a great and relaxing Fourth and can't wait for the fireworks next year!

Special Visitors

Ben's sister and her family recently moved to Raleigh and we are so excited to have them closer. They cam down to visit us for a few days and we were so excited. We got to hang out a lot. I got to cook lots of meals and use the awesome recipes and training my mom has given to me and I have to say her recipes were a hit! We went to the park, a spray park (which was more crowded than I had ever seen, but Ellie had a great time!) and we went to the Raptor Center. The Raptor Center is a place that rescues and takes care of hurt birds. Ben had been there the week before with the middle school students to do a mission project and was excited to take us all there. We have an awesome friend that got all the adults in for free and the kids were all free anyways! It was great to see all these amazing birds up close and I love to see owls up close, so that was a special treat. Everyone had a great time there! We also went to church and the boys had a great time there! The twins and I had a great time learning our letters and spelling words, it brought me back to my teaching days. It was also fun to teach them all about the things I was cooking or doing. Ellie is interested but can't verbalize her interest like they can. Ellie had a great time playing with Jaden, Jackson and Kylie. Kylie and her are warming up to each other and Kylie will even give her a squeezie now, which Ellie loves to give out freely. We are so happy they came to visit and look forward to seeing them more now that they are so close. Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures, we were just having too much fun to stop for taking photos.

Summer Adventures

Ellie and I have been exploring spray parks this year. Our first adventure was not receptive by Ellie. She was not having it. I knew she just needed to warm up to it since it was a new experience. I would not give up because we want her to enjoy and be exposed to as much as possible. So we ventured to another spray park that was bigger and I could run through with her. We have been twice and she loves it more each time we go. This last spray park was great with a lifeguard and a great playground (which Ellie is a girl with no fear when it comes to playgrounds and the heights they go, she will try any slide she sees!) and even a train to ride. We had a great time and always take Ethan and his mom along for our adventures as well as Seth! I think Caroline and I enjoy it just as much as they do :)

Seth

We are so excited to be spending time this summer with our buddy Seth. Ben and I have known Seth's parents for a few years now and are happy to have him in our home 4 days a week. Ellie loves to help take care of him and loves taking him on all our adventures. He is an awesome little boy and is much like Ellie was when she was 6 months old. He is our Mr. Smiles and is a joy to have with us during the day.

Father's Day 2011

We love to celebrate Ben whenever we can. He is an awesome father and an amazing husband and provider for our family. He is a man of simple wants. This year he told me all he wanted for Father's Day was a dozen donuts form Dunkin Donuts. (Ellie and I also got him a grilling cookbook and of course we took him out for steak.) I woke up at 6 on Father's Day to get Ben all the donuts he requested. He was able to enjoy them before heading to work. (Ellie and I also enjoyed a couple donuts I especially picked out for us. I think Ellie is going to be a donut fiend just like her Dad!) After work he had more donuts, a nice nap and a steak to end the day. Just his kind of day :) We love him very much and can not tell him enough how wonderful he is!

June in Raleigh

In the beginning of June we visited Raleigh. We were excited to spend time with Ben's parents for 4 days and see Ben's sister, Rachel, and her family. They have recently relocated to Raleigh from all the way out in Washington state and we are so excited to have them all living so much closer. Ellie is also excited to have her cousins and aunt and uncle closer. We have seen them a couple of times and all the kids are warming up to be around each other. While in Raleigh we had a great time playing outside in Geep and Gran's (Ben's parents) yard and enjoyed some wonderful meals prepared by Gran. I had also heard of a hands on children's museum in Raleigh and we all ventured there one day. The kids loved it and I have to say I think the adults enjoyed it as well. Ellie and I love to play together and have so much fun, Ben often says that he thinks I like to take her places so I can play too :) Ellie loved each section, especially the stethoscope and struggled to move on to a new section. We have a similar museum here in Charlotte and are planning on taking her there soon. The cousins did lots of playing and Gran also had a great little chair that she had as a child that Ellie loved sitting in. Ellie did some reading with Geep, exploring with Gran, ice cream eating at Goodberry's for the first time and a little firefly hunting. We had a great time in Raleigh!