Ella planted some secret unknown seeds with her kindergarten class, which we inherited. Well, I have zero - ZERO - experience with gardening, so we started out July trying to figure out what is growing in these pots! (Some of them we still have no clue!) I think I will leave gardening to others. This is why farmer's markets are great - they label the veggies or I can ask someone for help! :)
Here is the pot of mysterious items
We figured out one of the plants was peas (kind - unknown) and another we thought was carrots, but then later this summer they bloomed marigold flowers - so there you go! Good thing I didn't start promising anyone blue ribbon quality carrots!
Speaking of carrots, I pulled this one because I thought it was a weed! So confusing...
Fourth of July weekend was pretty eventful! The Thursday before the big weekend, when it seems the entire country headed out of work early to start the celebrating, I met Ella and the crew from Sara's at the beach! It was a perfect day for enjoying the lake, and a nice way to start the long weekend!
We were in Worthington for the remainder of the holiday. It was a fun time and we even got to enjoy fireworks at the lake this year - two nights in a row! Hurray! The first night, Ella freaked out so her and I sat in the car to watch (she thought for sure those sparks were going to fall on her) Weirdo!! The second night, she was much better and enjoyed the show from her little lounge chair with all of us!
Grandma Deb with all of the grandkiddos!
Ella also worked on her basketball skills with Papa Gary while we were in town. She's not too bad with a lowered hoop and shooting from the trailer! Now we just need to get her to ride her bike without training wheels!!
It was a Minion crazed July in our house! Ella thinks the Minions are hilarious. She got to see them at Best Buy during an event. Those Minions also showed up in other places during July too!
Lipstick taser!!!!
We had a cool waiter at Red Robin who drew a Minion on Ella's balloon! She thought this was sweet and needed a picture of herself with it! :)
Ella also attended a Minion event at Barnes and Noble. She got her own pair of Minion goggles.
And they gave the kids a sheet of Minion word translations.
She's been having a good time learning these words and Minion phrases!
A few random July pictures!
All dolled up for Harrison's 2nd birthday!!
Hanging out with Harrison on his big party day!
Hanging out at Pan-O-Prog in Lakeville for car cruise night!
She made a sun visor with Sara and was so proud of her design!
Big milestone for July - Ella lost her first tooth!!
She wiggled that tooth out in the middle of the night of July 18 and surprised us with it!
I still can't believe she pulled it out all on her own. She was SOOO excited!
I hadn't anticipated the loose tooth to come out so quickly, so I had to improvise a tooth fairy holder - I whipped up this tooth pocket. It's not perfect, but works for now!
The tooth fairy arrived! $5 for that first one! Lucky girl!
It's been a pretty mild and warm summer, no complaints here! Ella has been able to spend time at the pools around town and also enjoy the sprinklers in our backyard!
Quesadillas are a common meal at our house. I came across an idea on Pinterest to make them in the waffle iron, so I wanted to test it out. GENIUS!! And, delicious!!
I don't recommend making them with loads of toppings because the toppings leak all over and it's sort of messy to clean up. But, plain cheese ones turn out perfect! Quicker to make and clean-up was simple too.
Ella had a few doctor appointments in July as follow-up to her 6 year well visit. We met with Children's regarding her strep throat occurrences (she got strep 6 times during the school year!) Since our appointment, Ella had strep again in July so now we're lined up for surgery to remove her tonsils and adnoids. We also met with Gillette Children's Physical Therapy regarding Ella's fine motor skills. We learned that Ella's finger/hand strength is lower than average, but not low enough to engage therapy. So, we've been incorporating certain exercises and fun activities to help strengthen those muscles to hopefully help with the fine motor skills. One of the items is a tennis ball that I made to look like a person/puppet that Ella can use. The motions to make the person/puppet talk helps to strengthen the muscles of her hand and fingers. thanks Pinterest!!
The end of July we experienced the burgers at Dan's Bar, a small-town bar and grill that Jay has had on his "must try" list for a while now! He went big and tried a doughnut burger! That's right people, the burger was sandwiched between a glazed doughnut. Let's not judge or count calories, mmmmkay?
It also had a fried egg along with maple syrup drizzle. It was a crazy messy burger!!
And, we celebrated Jay's birthday!! Ella made a giant card with reasons she loves Jay. It was super cute so we all took photos with it - ha!
Ella and Jay
Ella and Jay and Baby (Side story: Ella has become obsessed with babies and constantly talks about having a baby sister). She insisted that this baby (whose name is Starfire, by the way!) be included in the birthday photos!
Family Selfie - HA!
