Ella's 3 year photos!

A little delay in this post, as my beloved computer of 8 years (sigh) has given me the fateful black screen.  I'm hopeful that the geeks from GeekSquad will be able to revive her this weekend!  So, I've finally gotten pictures uploaded from Ella's photo shoot this past weekend.  Here's a few of our favorites!

Couple things about this weekend

A couple things about our weekend.  Friday morning:  pedicures with Ms. Ella.

 Here she is relaxing and enjoying the bubbly bubbles!  HA!

Saturday - Ella's 3 year pictures (hence, the pedicures)  Pics arriving soon, and I'll upload the blog with a few (or more) I'm sure!

Saturday night - Sara is SICK!  I think it must have been a 24 hour flu thing or something?!  I haven't felt that sick in a long time.  I had a FEVER for crying out loud!  I finally got the fever to break mid-morning Sunday....it was a LONG Saturday night.

Sunday - recovering from illness, we packed up and headed to Canterbury Park for horse and wiener dog races!!!  Lucky for us, the Father's Day wiener dog races were postponed until yesterday, so we were able to catch those.  HI-LAR-I-OUS.  Totally fun.  Go if you get the chance.  They also have ostrich bird races (the jockeys RIDE the ostrich bird) and camel races too (check schedule - it's in July sometime).  And, little Miss MINOR Ella bet on the first 2 races - and picked the winners!  She walked out with $20.  I lost, Jay won one of the races, but still walked out in the hole.  Oh well, it was still a good way to spend a few hours outside yesterday.  I was feeling a little more like myself towards the end of the day too.

Sunday night - Jay and Ella tackled some dishes together.  Ella is really loving to help out with boring household stuff more and more.  Like, laundry, dusting, sweeping and now dishes.  Jay took these last night in the midst of the dishes duty!!

She's so awesome! 

Summer Solstice & Father's Day!

Happy Summer!  We've had an interesting week so far!  Monday night big storms moved through the metro and we lost power at about 4 a.m. It was out for roughly 12 hours (and it was 90+ degrees out), so Ella & Jolyn made a impromptu trip to Chaska for Tuesday night, leaving Jay & I sans child.  The storm - insane!  Huge trees down all around our neighborhood, landing on homes, garages, etc.  I was not expecting to see this kind of damage when I left for work on Tuesday morning - what a shock!  So, I was all worried about our food in the fridge & freezer.  I had been grocery shopping Monday night so it was fully stocked.  Thankfully, everything is fine.  But Tuesday night - it sort of felt like a weekend night since Ella wasn't around.  We went out for dinner and even rented a movie!  On a school night!  :) 

So I never got around to posting pictures about Father's Day.  We intended to go to Canterbury Park for horse & weiner dog races!  But, we were stuck in traffic for 20+ minutes trying to get from one exit to another on 169 and then it started to rain, and it never stopped, so we had to skip.  We'll try again another weekend. 

Yesterday, Summer Solstice!!  What better way to celebrate summer than with "healthier" corn dogs and cake?!?  Ella was back and Jay was going to be late, so we had some time.  First we made Corn Dog Muffins for dinner.  Um....delicious!  Ella was loving them too (whew!)  Here's a link:  HERE if you want to try the recipe.  We used a regular size muffin pan (not the mini pan). 

Then, we made Strawberry Yogurt Cake using this RECIPE.  It is fantastic. It is super moist and really a great summer recipe using fresh strawberries.  Plus - it's so pretty!  I love bundt cakes.  I haven't made one a long time, so I am just in love with how pretty it is!!  I'll be counting down the hours today until I can have a slice tonight!

See the tiny bitty slice out of the cake.  It came out of the oven at like 8:45 and after the required cooling, it was well after 9 before I could transfer it.  I had to taste it!! Hey, it was the Solstice - longest day of the year, so I think that made it okay that I was eating cake after 9 p.m. on a school night!!  :)

Weekending

So our weekend was fantastic and we had tons of time in the pool and enjoying the warm weather!  We capped off the weekend last night with our first trip to DQ for the summer season.  It was delish!  I grabbed  a few pics of Ms. Ella enjoying her ice cream.  She was loving it!

Ella's 3 year stats

We survived Ella's three year doctor visit this morning.  Per usual, Ella hated the weight check, height check, ear check, etc.  She didn't really cooperate.  Thankfully Jay was along today, so between the 2 of us we were able to semi-sorta keep Ella pinned down for the check up!  So, here's her stats.  Weight: 33.6 pounds (75th percentile).  Height: 40 inches (97th percentile).  Everything looks great! 

This afternoon we spent time in the pool for the first time this summer.  It's amazing (and great) how much more comfortable Ella is in the pool this year vs. last year.  Have a great weekend!

And Ms. E is 3

So I've been writing this post in my head for days, but just never got the time to sit and type it out.  Of course, the words won't be as eloquent as they were at midnight lying in bed thinking of what I would write to Ms. E on her 3rd birthday, but here goes:

Ella, you are THREE!  You are the light of our eyes and we love you so much.  I love how excited you get about the most simple things.  Your laugh is infectious and your smile is beautiful.  You love to play with your baby (who remains named "Baby") and bring her to "Target" for groceries.  And now you love to check out those groceries and say into the grocery mic "clean up in aisle 2" (thanks to Daddy!).  When you ask a question, you have started to raise your voice at the end which is hysterical.  You say a lot of adult phases and you use them in the correct context which surprises us every time!  You say "NOOO" really silly.  And you are in the "why" phase, asking "why" all the time.  I have started asking you "why" back, and you like to reply "yeah" which makes us both giggle:  Ella:  why?  Me:  why?  Ella:  yeah.  HA!  You are growing tall and wear 3T clothes and size 8 shoes.  When you wear a dress or a shirt that isn't tight fitting you MUST twirl.  You sing all the time, especially at the dinner table.  If You're Happy and You Know It is your favorite.  You love to dance (alone or with mommy or daddy).  You sing along with us in the car (Red Solo Cup, 1234 dance song and even Moves Like Jagger song)!  You are extremely cautious and it takes quite a bit of coaxing to get you to play at the park when other kids are around.  You are afraid of the lawn crew and insist on sitting on Grandma's lap when they are around because "it's too loud"  You love to help with laundry, dusting and baking.  You are a great helper and so sweet.  We love you!

We spent Ella's bday at Como Zoo in St. Paul.  It was the first trip there for all of us, and we had a great time.  It was TPT Kids day, so we enjoyed a breakfast with Curious George, Arthur, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Martha Speaks.  We sort of anticipated that Ella may be a little afraid of these characters, but I didn't think she would completely freak out.  We didn't get one picture of her looking at the camera when posing with the characters.  What a stinker!  But we still had a good time, and Ella is still reminding me that we saw George (Curious George) at the zoo!  

First up - Martha Speaks - as you can see, Ella was trying to get out of my arms.  

She was scared of Martha!  And we laugh b/c Jay is holding our Starbucks!

 Next up, Curious George!  I was so excited for Ella to meet George, she LOVES George.  We did a little better - she was willing to give him a High Five!

 But she didn't want to be next to him for a picture.

Clifford the Big Red Dog.  Again, can't get her to look at the camera!

Lastly, Arthur.  See how I was trying to get her to be next to the character?  Still wasn't looking at the camera!  These pictures were a LOT of work to get!

 At breakfast checking out the characters with Daddy

 Still not sure about those characters!

 Flamingos and Ducks!

 The Giant Turtle - surprise!  Ella isn't looking at the camera!

 Sparky the seal.  So cute!

 Watching the seals - Ella thought they were great!

 Penguins - they were really active and were singing, but no swimming

 Isn't this lion cool?!

 See the lion?!

 Giraffes!

 Ella really liked the giraffes too!

 Here's Ella testing out her new camera from Grandma Deb, taking a picture of the giraffes

 Waiting for the seal show - yeah!

So much for pictures with Ella looking at the camera!

 The giant Orangutan who seemed really sad

 The younger Orangutan being silly

Ella's first ever amusement park ride - the Tea Cups with Mommy.  See her fear?  It got better once we started going, but she was scared at first

 She had fun on this ride, even though the pictures don't show it!

Next up - the choo choo train with Daddy!

 Ella cried after they got off because she wanted to keep riding the train!

 Another trip to see the seals - they were THAT cute.  :)

And the Puffins were hysterical!

Another photo op with Mommy!

Ella's first Merry-Go-Round ride.  It was FAST!  I was a stressed mess because I didn't realize how fast it would be going and I was holding on to Ella.  AHHH!!!

 Happy Birthday to you.....Happy Birthday to you.... 

(store-bought cake - didn't have time to make one)

 Enjoying chocolate cake and ice cream.  A great way to end a busy THIRD birthday!