Ella’s sixth birthday

Well this about a month after the fact, but better late than never right?

For Ella’s birthday, at her request, we had a party at our house, and had a balloon artist and face painter come. Steve and I were hoping for a magician, but strangely she didn’t want that!

I think we can say we have run the gamut now on birthday themes … we have had a dress-up party, It’s Funtime (local play place) party, an ice cream sundae party, a movie theatre party …

I think we may revisit the dress-up party for Eva this December too. She loves dress up and we already have the clothes.

We love to make our own cupcakes. And I think I’ve finally mastered using the frosting bag without getting frosting everywhere.

Ella picked out a simple craft – foam boards for all the kids and markers and stickers to decorate with.

Our balloon artist and face painter were busy the entire hour they were at our house. Glad we hired both of them!

I’m back and did you know there is a bee in Ella’s tummy?

I don’t know why I just haven’t wanted to blog lately. Part of me felt a need to just be private for awhile. Unlike me. But whatever, I’ve decided I needed to record this story for posterity though.

Ella revealed one of her “darkest secrets” to me yesterday morning. And that’s what she called it. I have no idea where she has even heard that phrasing before. My guess is Scooby Doo. Usually when she talks about something strange, like Zombies, and I ask her where she learned about that, she says Scooby Doo.

Anyway, she told me that when she was little (she’s  6 now, so I guess she feels like she can say that) she accidentally swallowed a bee and so when her tummy is grumbling or upset, it is most likely due to the bee buzzing around. She thinks she was 3 when this happened. Poor girl has been living with this big secret for 3 years.

So I explained to her that there’s no way it would be alive but she probably didn’t swallow it anyway. Hopefully she can rest easy knowing a bee isn’t buzzing around her tummy. Maybe I should not have read that book The Lady Who Swallowed The Fly so many times to her.

Anyway, if you see her, please don’t ask her about the bee. I don’t want her to keep any more “dark secrets” from me. She says she has one more that involves her cousin Finn. I’ll keep you posted.

Around here lately

Darn it all the girls got sick again this week. And I thought we were done with that business for a while. Ella actually threw up at school. Luckily she is still young enough not to be totally embarrassed. Or at all embarrassed. Anyway, we’re back now. Healthy again.

I have become Ella’s Girl Scout troop leader. I have got through this by telling myself that this is not a huge undertaking of time and may go on for years (so if you tell me this I will sing la dee dah so I can’t hear you.) I’m taking baby steps. And so far, we’ve had two meetings. The girls are super sweet and super excited. And last week when I realized I hadn’t planned enough we played musical chairs, which they were thrilled about, and sat in a circle to talk about what they wanted for Christmas. They are easy to impress. I like that in people. Also, I have met really, really sweet people involved with the organization. And the best thing was when I ran into the director of Ella’s preschool the other day … she told me she was the leader of her daughter’s troop and she looks back and is glad she did it. She said she sees how her daughter turned out and is very proud.

Anyway, super excited about Eva’s birthday coming up and all the Christmas celebrations we have planned. Please don’t remind me that I still need to wrap a million gifts and prepare all my Christmas cards to send out (la dee dah, la dee dah …)

Good things

Honestly, last week was a really, really tough week and maybe one day I will write about it, but not today. So I guess it’s kinda ironic that I titled this post good things.

I’m focusing on the good though now, and trying to treat us all especially nice. I hope that a DeBrand’s sundae and shopping can be in my near future. For now though, I am relishing some other good things:

I bought Ella some cowgirl boots yesterday. She’s been wanting some. She’s barely had them off her feet since. I love that they make her so happy. Photo to come.

I bought Eva a Hello Kitty thermos. It’s similar to Ella’s nice thermos she takes to school everyday and Eva is extremely jealous of. I wish I had Eva’s squeal recorded when I gave it to her. Then she said I was her best friend.

I finished up a project I worked very hard on at home too. A photo wall and shelves underneath. It’s beautiful. And makes me so happy. I have to say I’m very proud of myself for doing it all myself too. I selected and ordered the photos, chose a nice layout, picked out and bought the frames, and carefully hung it all – which involved cutting paper the size of all my frames, hanging them on the wall, measuring … I will give my husband credit for taking the awesome photos, and assembling our shelves underneath. And of course, having the good sense to marry me.