Happy Birthday Dan!

We made Daddy a cake for his birthday. While Mommy was trying to get it in the oven, and help Ellie make a birthday card, and get lunch ready, I snuck some licks of the batter. It was YUMMY!

Labor Day

We had a fun weekend at my parents new (to them) cabin in McCall. We walked to town, played on the beach and in the lake, had some ice cream in ice cream alley, checked out the old little town of Roseberry, napped, read, ate, ate some more, and spent some quality time with family. We sure are going to enjoy spending weekends at the cabin. Come see us sometime!

Preschool!

Ellie's first day of preschool was today. After I picked her up from school we met Dan at McDonalds for lunch. I think she was more excited about having lunch with daddy than going to school...BUT...she also had a great time at school and said she wanted to go everyday. Sorry babe, only 3 days a week.

Roaring Springs

One of our goals for the summer was to go to the water park with Lanae before she left for college. Colton had fun in the toddler area and also in the wave pool with Lanae. Ellie had fun on a BIG slide where she slid down on a mat all by herself. Her other favorite was the lazy river. It was pretty $$$ but probably a fun thing to try to do once every summer.

Huckleberries

We love huckleberries, and yesterday we were able to stop and pick a half gallon on our way home from McCall. = )

The kids had fun "picking". I think they enjoyed stomping and sitting on the huckleberry bushes even more. They didn't do this on purpose but it seemed like every time I started eyeing a bush full of large berries one of the kids would come barreling over to see what I was up to. We all had fun though!

creative girls

Ellie was playing outside with her neighbor friend and they came running in the house to show us what they had been up to. They found some tape and made these cute little costumes. They said they had a show for us but then ended up being too shy to perform.

Lewiston

From Wenatchee, the kids and I drove to Lewiston with my parents and spent a few days before riding back to Boise with Charli, Ethan and Clayton.

Here's a few pictures from the ranch...

Ellie had fun picking some of the tulips that mom and dad planted around the barnyard.
Colton was wondering why the horses weren't coming to greet him

Ellie and Grandma Kristy taking a stroll

Wenatchee

I'm finally getting around to blogging about the rest of our Mother's day weekend...
After a night in Richland we drove up to Wenatchee for a night. We went to celebrate my cousin Natalie's, daughter's 1st birthday. The party was at Uncle Danny and Aunt Heather's beautiful house where they had a little RV park all set up for the out of town guests. Ellie and Colton had fun sleeping in the camper and running around on their beautifully landscaped acres of grass.

Cousins Ellie and Maddy digging in the Horseshoe Pit

Birthday cake is SO much fun!
Jake, Peighton and Natalie

Colton LOVED giving Peighton kisses

Richland

The first stop on our round-about trip through Central Washington and Idaho was Richland, WA, where Dan grew up and where his Dad lives. We were only there for about 15 hours but we had a great time! Ellie and Colton LOVED staying in the hotel. They were so wound up, loved climbing on the beds and swimming in the pool. Ellie felt like a princess sleeping in the big bed. Dan and Colton even got to have breakfast with NASCAR driver Kyle Petty who was on a cross country charity drive and happened to be staying at the same hotel.

We had a fun little visit with our friends, Ruth, Katie and Rob...why didn't we take the camera?? = (

Saturday morning, before heading to Wenatchee, we stopped at the SpudNut shop for doughnuts with Grandpa Dallas. Dan said our kids were 4th generation SpudNut eaters! It's a quaint little doughnut shop that has been around since the 40's. http://www.thespudnutshop.com/

dance class

Dance class is almost over for the school year so Dan took a few hours off work so he could come and watch Ellie dance her little heart out. He wondered if he should just surprise her by showing up, or if he should give her a little warning. I recommended not surprising her for the sake of the teacher...I think she would have been just a little too excited and would drive her teacher crazy!
It was very cute how thrilled she was to have him there watching her. Every chance she had to "dance" by the big observation windows and BEAM, she did. It was cute watching her try to pay attention to the teacher but also look to see if daddy was watching so she could smile at him. She actually did her best job paying attention to the teacher than she has ever done. I'm sure that was partly to show off to daddy and partly to be able to go to McDonald's after dance class!

The class recital is at the end of May and I will be sure to post some pictures of the dancer in her tutu. = )

pictures

Should you be talking on your cell phone while you are riding that horse?? quite the get-up, pink saddle and all!

feeding the ducks for the first time...I think Dan was about to smack that goose with the bread bag.

he would not put his hands down so I could take a picture of his messy face!

getting daddy's boots on all by himself

Cartoons and Cuddling

I've had enough

Just thought I would let you all know what a mean mommy I am...or am going to be. I have been trying to teach Ellie to respect her toys and put them away when she is done playing with them. When she plays in her room she DESTROYS it. Toys are everywhere, chairs are upside down, her little kitchen is piled high with food and dishes and all the cupboard doors are open. I know she can pick things up, on a rare occasion I've seen her do this. Although usually when I ask her to clean it up she either goes into hysterics and whine about it or she will just find her blankie and pout. The other day I asked her to pick her room up before she went outside to play and she literally stayed in her room laying on her bed for 2 hours...just because she didn't want to pick up about 10 little toys off of her floor. Today I asked her and her neighborhood friend to clean up a little bit before they stopped playing. The neighbor girl right away started cleaning up and Ellie just started whining and wouldn't help. So that was the last straw.
I've decided to clean out her room of almost all her toys. I don't want her to get "overwhelmed" with how big of a mess she can make. If she only has a few things in there to play with maybe she can learn to put them away when she is done. If she does well with those few toys for awhile then I will let her have a few more.
Sorry no pictures this time, just my ranting...I feel a little better now.

4 years of Ellie!

Dan has made a tradition of making Ellie a sign on the chalkboard for her birthday. I thought it would be fun to get them all out and see how she has grown. = )

We had a nice little family dinner party to celebrate her birthday. Here are a couple pictures of her with her grandparents...Uncle Nate and Aunt Linda were here too but they don't like their picture taken so I thought they would appreciate if I didn't post it for the world to see. = )

Happy Birthday Ellie!!! We love you!