Easter 2013 Recap!

Oh my oh my!  I have been trying to fit in this blog post since Sunday night!  Things just kept happening!  Anyway, hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend.  We enjoyed our time spent with Jay's family on Sunday.  But, let's reverse to Thursday.  Ella got a super cute Easter basket during their Easter event at Sara's school.  She was so excited to show me everything from her basket!

Friday was the BIG Chuck E. Cheese visit.  Jay was able to meet us for lunch (pizza) but then he took off back to work.  When he was leaving, Ella stood up to give hugs and said "thank you for joining us for lunch Daddy"  Too cute!  We've been working on her manners and it is showing!  A few phone pictures from our afternoon

Shopping & hanging out at Chuck E. Cheese sure is hard work!  Ella was out for a much needed mini-snooze before I was hardly out of the mall parking lot!!

Ella wore the cutest outfit on Saturday - it was very Easter-ish so I wanted to snap a picture.  She is really starting to love to wear "pretty dresses"  :)

 Doesn't she look so old here?  Holy smokes!

And of course we did some baking!  Bird nests (chocolate peanut butter chow mein noodle "nests"), Frosted Strawberry Lemonade cookies and Sprinkled blondie bars (not sure what those are actually called).  I meant to take a picture of my treat tray that I brought to Easter lunch, but I forgot.  Boo.

We went to sunrise service on Easter Sunday at St. John's.  It was a really great service and probably one of the top sermons I have ever heard from our pastor.  Ella had an egg hunt BEFORE we left for church so we had an eventful morning.  And, since this "spring" is not conducive to an outdoor egg hunt, we had ours indoors! She had a good time and thought it was really cool to get coins from the Easter Bunny for her piggy bank.  :)  Note: she's dealing with a runny nose so her little upper lip area is all red!

 Reading the note from Mr. E.B. himself about the egg hunt and I don't really know what's going on with her facial expressions in some of these pictures - I think it was a wee bit early!  :)

Checking out her loot

Easter pictures!

 Her dress & the little sweater were so sweet.  LOVE! 

On the above photos - be advised that Ms. Ella insisted that Jay & I hold this Easter basket in the photo since she was holding hers.  HA!

And, of course she was excited to open her Easter basket after church.  

 

She had another egg hunt at Grandma Jolyn's later in the day which she found more coins and jelly beans!

  And, how about these glasses?? Hilarious.

What a weekend! (Spring Break, Annie's Baby Shower)

We have been busy around the Abbas house.  Most of last week "Sara's School" was closed so Jay was off with Ella up to all kinds of shenanigans!  Wednesday there was a library/parks and rec event with a "bunny" theme that they attended.  She had a good time! And they spent the remainder of their afternoon shopping away! 

 Hilarious!

Thursday's event was supposed to be a surprise, but Ella spilled the beans at dinner on Wednesday night.  They came downtown on the light rail train to have lunch with me and meet everyone in the office.  :)  

 

On the train!

She was so excited about it.  And, Jay asked at one point if she wanted to play a game on his phone.  She replied No, Daddy.  We just need to sit here nice with our hands in our laps like all the other people.  So funny.

 We had lunch at Jimmy John's so Ella could have her favorite - ham & cheese!

When we got back to my office she had some work to do and some emails to send.  :)

On Friday, Ella had Beach Day at preschool and here are a few pictures from Mrs. Mills:

Saturday was the baby shower for Annie!  It was a lot of work and I'm relieved it is over, but I think everyone had a good time and Annie got lots of cute baby clothes (and tons of onsies!!)  Thank goodness for Pinterest.  I found loads of fun baby shower ideas!

The motorcycle diaper cake I made.  I found a tutorial via Pinterest so it wasn't hard at all!  I incorporated a crib sheet (the "body of the cycle"), hooded towel & baby socks (the "handlebars"), butt paste (the "headlight") and washcloths (the "fenders" and the "seat").  I think it looked cuter in person (but maybe I'm biased since I made it!!)  Here are a few assembly pictures I took (mostly so I could remember how to do it if I have to make one again!)

 My cute little helper!

 

I made little favor bags with almond bark covered pretzel nuggets that I made & then mixed with mini candy Robins Eggs.  I added a scrapbook paper topper to the ziploc bags which I think made them look so cute!

 

If you search for baby shower punch on Pinterest you will come across a recipe for the punch I served.  Note, I have never made punch before in my life - I don't like it - the sherbet in the liquid grosses me out.  Not that making punch is hard to do or anything, but a first time rookie may note that that stuff splatters ALL OVER when you are trying to pour it all together.   It sure looked cute though! (I wonder how many time the word "cute" will be used in this post)

I made paper pinwheels, since pinwheels are all the rage everywhere.  Next time I will use double sided paper.  The boring white side kind of made these not so great.  Oh well.  It was still festive!  And I also made a paper pennant which went along the patio door in the kitchen.  I forgot to take a picture.  Boo.

 Lunch went over well!

 And we remembered (barely!) to snap a picture of Mom to be with her cake!

 Another Pinterest idea:  Use Onsies to decorate!  Genius!

 A quick photo (with Ms. Ella bombing it) HA!

And Ella got to spend some time hanging out with Grandma Jolyn too!

I can't believe it is Easter weekend.  We will be in the Cities this year.  I have to get our egg hunt organized and wrap up those Easter baskets!  I've got a few fun treats I'm planning to make, so we'll see if I find the time (or make the time).  Ella doesn't have preschool this Friday so I've told her if she's a good listener this week we may make a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese!  She's beyond excited.  Oh, to be a toddler!  :) 

Here's hoping for some more spring-like weather and for a wonderful Easter weekend!

Weekending...

We made some memories this weekend so I wanted to post so I can remember them all!

Friday, Ella had a field trip with her preschool class to Applebee's!  This is the first year the field trip has been to Applebee's, I guess they usually head to the grocery store!  But, they have a parent who manages one of the local restaurants, so they toured the kitchen, got to play waitress with real Applebee's aprons, and punched in an order on the computers!  I think the highlight for Ella was the bus ride - she thought it was really fun, but "really bumpy!"

Saturday was Ella's first day of swimming lessons!  She was so excited and had a great time playing in the water with Jay.  Since it was the first day, they just got to do whatever they wanted - using the noodles, a kick board, etc.  Don't mind the cell phone pictures, we were in a rush out the door and I forgot the camera!

A few cute things happened on Sunday during church and then later in the day that I wanted to document so I don't forget.  We were running late (sense a trend here?) for church so we snuck in just before they were starting, and as it was communion, we were left to sit in the last row - which I dub the "naughty kids or baby row"  We sat there a time or two when Ella was an infant, but for the most part we try to avoid the area.  I was worried that the naughty ones would distract Ms. Ella and give her some not so great ideas about what to do during church.  Was I surprised!  She did awesome.  At one point she whispered to me that we have to be quiet during church.  And, I told her that yes we do and thanked her for being a good girl.  She said, but those kids aren't being quiet.  She was quite concerned.  :)  Then, she found a sticker book in her activity bag.  She decided to share a sticker with the active little boy on the left, and the active little boy on the right.  I almost cried.  It was so adorable and sweet.  She walked right over and put the sticker on their shirt for them.  :)  We've been encouraging her to participate by saying "peace be with you" during the appropriate time for "sharing the peace" during church.  After we picked her up from Sunday School she asked me: "Mommy, why do I always have to say peace with you every time?"  HA!  I think it was a YOU HAD TO BE THERE moment, but I loved it.  She then told me she doesn't want to do that EVERY time just SOME times.  Oh, the rules this child has!

Later in the day, I was in the kitchen getting ready for dinner or something and Ella randomly came up, put her hand on my arm (which means she has something to tell me) and said "Mommy, Jesus loves you"  I didn't even know what to say!  She walked over to Jay and said the same thing.  Stinkin' cute.  I am so grateful Ella is really starting to pick up on the love Jesus has for her through the Sunday School lessons she has been having!

She is super pumped for this coming weekend.  Saturday we are hosting a baby shower for Annie!  We think Ella is the most excited!!

Rambling....

Oh, where have we been?  You know...the usual...but here's a few highlights:

 Saturday, Ella insisted that "baby" wanted to watch her go potty....I found this hysterical!

 I finally (finally!) got my hair "did" with a cut and color - I was there for 3 hours - it was INSANE in my membrane.  But, what do you do.  Anyway, I wanted to send a pic to Kaila so she could see the new 'do but why can't I figure out how to take a picture of myself with a cell phone??  Honestly...I don't know how to do it!  I cover up myself every time. So, I had to switch to the other "self" camera....and the quality isn't great, but you get the idea.

We got Ella's Easter dress over the weekend - it's adorable and I can't wait for her to wear it! 

 She's been singing up a storm again - her new favorite (and mine) Thrift Shop (the edited version!) HA!  She loves it!   

Oh, and she starts swimming lessons on Saturday so she picked out this suit.  

Dora Dora Dora the Explorer....

Coming up:  swim lessons, St. Patrick's Day!!, Annie's baby shower & March Madness.  

Where is SPRING?!?!?

Just some sweet pics!

Hi all - it's been a while!  Nothing terribly exciting has been going on here.  Spent a good chunk of last Sunday in Urgent Care with Ms. Ella for a UTI....and trying our best to avoid all the other sick people waiting there.  Thankfully, the medicine appears to be working!

Getting bombed with snow today !  Long commutes make for a crabby mommy & daddy!  :) 

But, here are a few recent phone pics that I just love and make me smile!

Having conversations with 3 year old Ms. Ella is so much fun.  I wish I could record each one to remember some of the funny things she talks about!  And, her Sunday School teachers are doing something right.  Ella has started to take an active interest in folding her hands to pray.  I captured this the other night before bath.  A little prayer group with George, Zoey and "Baa"  FOR SWEET!  If only I could have heard the prayers....