Scrambling Eggs

Whenever I cook Ellie wants to help. I told her it'd be easier to scramble the eggs with a fork, but she insisted on using a giant whisk.

Bubbles

Ellie LOVES blowing bubbles... and she's pretty good at it, too. She can even catch the bubbles on the wand again and blow more bubbles from the old bubble. :) Maybe that's a thing only the mommy gets excited about.

Fix-it Daddy.

Franklin is definitely a fix-it man. If anything breaks he can fix it. Well, Ellie's necklace broke the other day, and Franklin being the wonderful daddy that he is, offered to help Ellie fix it.

Shapes and Cards

A year and a bit ago, we were given some foam shapes, and I'm just now getting around to sorting them and trying to decide what to do with them.


Ellie practiced using her scissors with them.


Then we decided to make cards for her friends.


I asked Ellie if she wanted to say anything to them. Kind of in the middle, she started praying, so I wrote the prayers down, too. The girls, who are 5 and 7, laughed when they heard what Ellie had put on the cards. :)

Bubble Wrap

I forget where the bubble wrap came from, but Ellie didn't take very long to learn to love it.

Stickers

Ellie loves stickers and she got into a page full of shiny smiley face stickers recently. So now we find them everywhere. Above are stickers that were transferred from some door or mirror to her knees. I think those stickers have since been adorning at least another two locations.

Illness

By the time this shows up on my blog, it will be an old picture, so you don't have to feel bad (hopefully) for Franklin and Ellie anymore. But this weekend, they were sick, so we boil water with lemon in it. Then they get under blankets and inhale the steam. Hopefully, they get better soon!

The Computer

Ellie's awesome Uncle Matthew and Aunt Susie bought Ellie this computer. She really likes it. Above she is solving something. Below she's clapping for herself because she did a good job.

A tent

This is clearly the reason daddies are cooler than mommies. Daddies make great tents. Mommies are the ones who clean up the tents when playtime is done.

A big girl

One of our purchases in the capital was big girl underwear. We found three pairs of Dora undies. Ellie is thrilled!

The Train Station

We travel by train between the capital and our town. Ellie loves the train and the train station. When we had the chance to travel by plane last month, she called the airport the airplane station. Makes sense to me.

A new hat

Thanks Grandma Dee for the new hat. Ellie (and we) love it!

Play Area

We went to the capital and had our fun time at Pizza Hut. Ellie played on the play area.

Beth

My friend Beth came to visit us last weekend. I guess I really can't just say MY friend Beth, I have to say OUR friend Beth. I once asked Ellie who her best friend was, and she said "Aunty Beth". So, clearly, she isn't just my friend. Another thing Ellie has said about Aunty Beth... she said, "When I grow up, I want to be like Nani Di, and when you grow up, you should be like Aunty Beth." Nani Di is Beth's mom.
We had a ton of fun with Beth. One thing we did was go visit some puppies near a friend's house down the road.


One more important note about Beth. If you haven't heard our infamous story about our trip to India in 2004, you must ask. But you must ask in front of Franklin because he LOVES to hear the story over and over and over. :) Beth and I are always willing to share our adventure.

School

Ellie talks about going to school all the time. One day I set up a little desk for her, she got all dressed up, and went to school.

Excitement out the Window

There was some excitement out our kitchen window the other day. Our neighbor was cutting down one of their trees. Ellie enjoyed the show.

Busy, busy

I didn't get any good pics of Ellie playing like this, but I think it's SO funny. I love that she thinks she's so busy with important things! Fun, fun, fun!

Christmas with the monkeys

On Christmas Day we spent the afternoon at the zoo with Ellie. We spent time with the monkeys, who sometimes stay in the cages and sometimes don't.


Ellie's favorite animal at the zoo, though, is still the giraffe... the statue of the giraffe. The whole time we walk around looking at the other LIVE animals, she just wants to go see the giraffe.



A very belated Merry Christmas from Family Five Leaves. :)

Vaseline

Ellie gets really bad eczema on her cheeks during cold/dry season. Vaseline is one of the tools we use to fight it. Ellie decided that she didn't need our help choosing the amount or applying it one morning.