Postpalooza #3 - How in the world is Ella 4?! (and weekend wrap-up)

Yesterday was Ella's 4th birthday!  How in the world is that even possible?  I can't believe it!  My mom, Randy & Chase were still visiting us, so we were all able to go out for birthday breakfast!  They made Ms. Ella the cutest little Mickey Mouse birthday pancake - she was loving this special treat!

I guess the whipped cream mouth was a little crooked!  HA!

Ella had such a blast with Chase all weekend long, they kept themselves very busy!  Friday afternoon after they arrived, we had to open Easter Baskets! (yes, it's been that long since we've seen them!)  Ella was super excited to get Cat in the Hat and Chase got new Batman shades - hilarious!

I forgot to tell you about the Nabi tablet gifted to Ella from my mom.  She got a tablet before me - UNREAL!  But Ella loves it already.  Listening to Laurie Berkner music on her new Minnie Mouse headphones is her favorite!  She seems so grown up with headphones on - but I think the Minnie Mouse ones are ADORABLE!  She spent time playing on the Nabi both Saturday afternoon & Sunday morning before breakfast!

Before everyone headed home, we snapped a few pictures.  Too bad not everyone's eyes are open!

And then we headed out for Ella's inaugural bike ride.   (See her baby bringing up the rear!)

More birthday gifts on her actual birthday from Paul & Jolyn!

We had some fun with the GIANT birthday bag!

We played some soccer outside - Ella's a decent shot!

And we had to capture the annual picture by the birthday balloons!

Last night Jay & I sang Happy Birthday to her (again)!

Happy Birthday Ella!  I can't believe how much you have grown this past year.  You're still tall for your age and are wearing 4T mostly, but pants have to be a 4 for the length.  You have new sparkly silver sandals in size 10!  You are writing your name now and asking TONS of questions about all kinds of things (you're so curious!)  :) You LOVE to sing, even making up songs about random stuff, which I love to listen to!  You like to play "mommy" and take such good care of your "babies"!  I am so proud of you for finally conquering the potty training and now you are even riding bike!  There's been big changes this year with preschool, Sunday School and going to Sara's school and you adjusted really well! You love to learn new things and are a great helper at home with making your bed & even helping me with laundry & cleaning!  I look forward to making lots of fun memories this summer and hopefully decorating a new bedroom for you soon!  You've certainly outgrown your toddler bed!!  We love you!

Postpalooza #2 - Ella's Fourth Birthday Party - CURIOUS GEORGE!

Saturday we celebrated Ella's 4th birthday with a Curious George themed party.  It was a lot of fun to put together, although I didn't invest as much time planning this year, and thankfully it still all came together just fine!  Here's a recap of the fun day!

A pre-party picture of Ella & Chase - they were super excited for the day!

 Waiting for everyone to arrive with Grandma Deb!

 I saw a Pinterest idea showing George hanging out with balloons above the main table.  We used beach balls with primary colors (to match the decor!) and Curious George hung out up there for the party.

Another Pinterest idea:  We had everyone who attended sign a birthday note to Ms. Ella in the Curious George and the Birthday Surprise book!  LOVE IT!

 Party favors for the kiddos included containers of candy, monkey stickers and

a Curious George book to take home!  I also had printables of Curious George from pbskids.org, but we didn't even have time to use those!

 Of course we ordered a balloon bouquet for the party!  The large balloon on top is so huge that I couldn't even get it in the picture!!

 I made these "Man with the Yellow Hat" hats for the tables outside.  Cute right?  I lucked out on finding the cones at the Dollar Store in the graduation section (random!) and then I added black electrical tape to make them fit right in for the Curious George decor!

 I made a banana dessert (we call it Banana Delight) and we also served frozen banana slices covered in chocolate and ordered Curious George cupcakes (I didn't bake the cakes this year).  I think the cupcakes turned out super cute! 

See her big smile?  She was super happy to have everyone singing Happy Birthday to her. :)  And she blew out the candle all by herself this year!  She was very proud of herself to turn off the fire!  :)

She got TONS of gifts! (and kept giving us this cheeseball smile!)

High five for new PJs!!

And the grand finale gift from Jay & I was Ella's first bike.  She needs some pedaling practice & her legs are too big for the little red trike now, so it was time for a big girl bike!  You guys, it was HILARIOUS!  Jay brought the bike down as we were opening the other gift from us and she looked up, saw Jay coming down the stairs with the bike and goes quietly "oohhh mmmyyyy goooshhhh...."  It was so cute I wish I would have captured it on video.  She loves it.  :)

It's got a seat for her baby in the back.  Hilarious!!

This year's photo op included photo booth Curious George props (found them on Etsy).  It was really fun!

Did you notice Ella's new pigtail bows?  I wanted to get Curious George bows on Etsy but I failed to place an order in time to arrive for the big day, so I decided to make my own.  I think they turned out really cute and I plan to make more of this style bows!

It was a fun party!!  

We were all pretty worn out and Ella finally crashed for a SUPER late snooze after 4 o'clock!

Postpalooza #1 - Ella's Last Day of Preschool 2013 (Age 3)

Happy June!  We've gotten some sunshine in the past 72 hours so I'm feeling MUCH more optimistic about the weather, and frankly, life in general!  I NEEDED some sunshine.  :)  This is going to be a postpalooza people.  I haven't been that great at posting as of late (I'm blaming the weather).  But this past weekend included all kinds of fun happenings that I can post about!  

Friday was Ella's final day of WeeTigers preschool for the year.  She attended just one morning session per week as a 3 year old.  She is the absolute youngest out of all of the kids, which we've been told by her teacher was evident.  Some of the kids turned 4 the first week of school!  But, I think she grew a ton and got to experience the preschooler lifestyle (ha!) I'm not confident she'll be attending this program next year though.  We want more.  So, we'll see what happens.  So many variables will play a factor on what we decide to do!

Here's a comparison of Ella's picture on the first and last day of preschool!

 With Mrs. Mills, the lead teacher

With Mrs. Weiher, the assistant teacher

Ella was so excited for the ice cream social and program, which took place during the last hour of class on Friday.  She talked about it all week, almost more than her upcoming birthday party!  The kids put on a little singing program for us which I caught some video which I'll post separately!  She even got a little "diploma" certificate for completion of the 3 year old program.  I think she enjoyed her time at preschool and will probably miss it this summer.  I'll have to get creative with fun things for us to partake in on Fridays!!

Mother's Day 2013

I can't believe it's mid-May already!  Our spring has really shortened up since the weather people are calling for our first 90 tomorrow!  We had an uneventful Mother's Day 2013 and just 2 pictures.  A far cry from last year's visit the MN Zoo!  The weather was "ok" yesterday but still windy and chilly.  So it goes this year!  Plus we were all a little crabby.  It just didn't start great when the line for coffee takes 45 minutes!!  We did end the afternoon with a trip to Cherry Berry (apparently even though it's Mother's Day Ella still had to choose the restaurants for the day!)

Love her to pieces!!

Well Spring sure was fun while it lasted!!

See above?  Oh those were taken over the weekend when it was actually finally SPRING here in MN.  We took advantage of the warmer temps and sunshine.  Unpacked the lawn furniture, took out the sandbox and indulged in a little Cherry Berry on Sunday night!  :) 

It was fun while it lasted....another Winter Storm Warning is upon us.