Play School

A friend from Ellie's music class started a little "play school." It is a co-op of 5 of us with a total of 8 kids. We meet once a week... and we alternate teaching each week plus an additional "helper." It was the second week of class and my first day teaching. We focused on the letter B today. It was so much fun:) We had story time, singing time, craft time, snack time and then play time! Ellie had such a fun time having her little friends over. The Kid Crew

Her Shadow......

So Ellie discovered her shadow this past summer while we were at Cannon Beach. It is a pretty funny story..... too long of a story to write about. But it continues to be a bit of a problem for our family. The problem is... she doesn't like her shadow. She gets pretty upset when she sees it. She starts yelling at it and saying, "No Ellie." This means she doesn't want to see the shadow (which she calls Ellie) and doesn't want the shadow following her.

Fortunately, we live in Seattle. It isn't sunny all that often which means we don't see an overwhelming number of our own shadows... but when it is a sunny day... as it was today at the zoo... we have a bit of a problem. Today Ellie decided to sit down on the path at the zoo and have a bit of a fit at her own shadow. It is a bit of comedy for me and the rest of us... but Ellie has such a problem with it. Poor thing.

An afternoon at the Zoo

We took a trip to the Zoo this afternoon. Ellie was so excited when she saw that the petting zoo was open. We normally go to the zoo in the morning and the petting zoo is only available in the afternoon... Ellie was SO excited to pet the goats... she kept on calling them sheep.. oh well close enough. She was very concerned when the goat would stop eating and she would move the goats bowl of food closer to him so that he would eat more. Then she would tell the goat to drink from its' bucket of water and wasn't satisfied until it actually did! Sebree, Ellie and James
Ellie ooooing about the sheep
Trying to convince the sheep to "come ere"
On her tippy toes in order to get the best view of the sheep

First Day of Preschool!

Today Ellie had her first day of preschool! She loved every minute of it! She is going to a little a preschool at a church in the eastgate area... since she isn't three yet the program is set up so that all the parents stay but alternate everyother week. One week you help in the classroom and the next week you get to listen to a lecture on some aspect of raising a two year old... I am SO excited because I need to learn everything I possibly can!

Ellie had such a great time. There were so many choices as to which station to play at... she took her time at each....until something else caught her eye. She played with the rice station, the indoor slide and climbing station, next was the play dough station and then on to painting. Next she decided to give the baby dolls a bath and then spend some time in the little loft castle with some of her new found friends. When later asked by Brandon what she did at preschool she simply said, "Friends." So evidently her favorite part was making some new little friends which is no surprise to us as Ellie is definetly a social butterfly. There are so many other toys and activities she did at preschool.. I am so glad we decided to do it. We were actually really lucky to get in! I didn't find out about this program until August and upon looking into it in greater detail learned that you were supposed to sign up in March and even then it was a lottery as to who was to get it. When I sent in the application and a letter hoping to be put on a wait list or something... and heard from them in September that we had been accepted.. yeah! We are looking forward to this year of preschool!

Trip to the park= meet the firefighter

We met some friends at the park today. While we were there a big firetruck pulled into a nereby parking lot. As the truck was leaving the kids ran to the edge of the park and were waving goodbye to the firefighters. Well the truck pulled around in the lot and parked again. A firefighter came walking over to us with these cute little hats for all three kids and sticker firefighter badges. I would have loved to have taken a picture but hadn't brought me camera... but here is the memorabilia Ellie recieved from her first contact with a firefighter.

Joe & Rachelle's Weddding Day!

On Saturday, September 15th, Rachelle (Brandon's little sister) and Joe were married. It was a beautiful day! Ellie was a flower girl so it was big day for her! It was a big responsibility for her but she did such a good job. I was so worried that she wasn't going to walk down the aisle but she did it!

Our little girl!
Family photo

GO HUSKYS!

This weekend we were determined that we were going to paint our kitchen. We have been planning on it for some time but have put it off... so this was the weekend. Brandon was even going to sacrifice watching the BYU vs. UCLA football game so that we could accomplish this goal. Well... Saturday morning started off great and we did our first coat of yellow.... it is actually the third coat.... the first two attempts of yellow failed miserably (as in neon yellow looking) so we finally went with Hawthorne Yellow... part of the new Benjamin Moore line in association with Pottery Barn. Anyway, we see our neighbor from across the street walking over to our house... and temptation was standing at our door..... two tickets to the University of Washington Huskies vs. Boise State football game. We caved in and went to the game. It was worth it! We had a great time. And we even finished painting the kitchen on Saturday night (while listening to the BYU game of course!

Labor Day

On Labor Day we joined our friends, the Karrens, on a hike. We had planned on hiking Mt. Si. It is about 4,000 ft and a four mile hike. With three kiddos and four adults we hiked Mt. Si... we just didn't make it to the top. But we had fun along the way :)