Celebrating Grannie's birthday

We decided to stay in for Grannie's birthday and tried to make it a special family night. We had appetizers while Max played in the playpen. Then, Ellie gave Grannie her gifts. One of these gifts was hand picked by Ellie - a cute little colorful summer dress full of bright blues and pinks. I tried to talk her into one that had more colors that Grannie may pick - but Ellie was convinced this was the one. Turns out, she was right and it looked pretty good on Grannie. She's my little fashionista.

We had kabobs on the grill for dinner and followed it up with the original Carvel ice cream cake for desert. An overwhelming agreement that the Carvel one beats Baskin Robins hands down - suprising. Everyone really enjoyed it - especially Max. I decided it was as good a time as any to allow him to expirement with a spoon! He did a nice job painting himself.

Home coming

This week I went to FL alone for a conference for work. I knew it would be hard to get away, but it was also a good time to do it with Hazel here. I was so ready to come home. I miss the kids so much!

As I was getting closer to home, I was so ready, I was clapping! I didn't bother with my bags, but ran in to get Ellie. I snuggled her from the couch. I was so happy to see her!

She had a hard time me sweeping in. I know she doesn't understand why I was away. I am sorry little bean, I wish I could always be with you!

After spending a long time with ELlie, I also had to sneak in and get Max up to hold him. He was a little confused, but just snuggled into me. I held him, kissed him and sung to him. I put him back after a few minutes, but he wanted a little more mommy time. I love my boy. I am anxious to see how he will relate to me in the morning!

Off for my business trip

Having to leave for a week wasn't easy. Luckily Ellie was off to spend the night with Gramma right before I left. That made our goodbye a bit easier and more exciting. She had a blast at Gramma's too. She stayed up late and caught her very first firefly!

I knew I could talk with Ellie, so that made it a bit easier to plan for as well. However, saying bye to Max made me feel so sad. I just didn't know how I was going to be apart from my baby at this young age for 5 days. I felt like I needed to take him with me, and nearly did. I carried him out to the car with me and gave him loads of snuggles. David took a few photos of us before I left.

At first Max was pretty solom, echoing my feelings.

Finally, David was able to get him to smile.

I pulled out of the court with a few tears in my eyes as I watched Max and David wave bye. I know my little boy was a bit confused becuase Mommy goes on errands all the time and there has never been a good bye from the driveway!

I can't wait to return little Max!

Family Time

The night before I left for my trip, we had a family cookout on the deck and then played with some of Max's new toys - mainly, the bubble machine.

It was a relaxing evening (minus the masquitos) and the bubble machine was surely a hit.

Family Cookout

Tonight we decided to relax and let the kids play with some of their new toys. They were both excited to be outside on the deck and to play in the new yard area we have created.

We had a picnic outside - just some simple food. We have the fans now which are a great help keeping the bugs away. Max thought it was pretty cool, but just kept eating like normal. Ellie enjoyed her sandwich and some conversation.

After dinner we opened the sandbox to let them play. Max wasn't interested at all, which was suprising. Instead he wanted to play with the balls on the empty water table and crawl around on the deck (I cringe with every crawl about how that must feel on his knees, but he is one tough cookie.)
Ellie enjoyed the sand, the bikes, the push cars and just being around us all.

We even tried out the new bubbles machine outside. It took only about 10 minutes for a whole thing of bubbles to dissapear. Both kids were midly amused. Ellie did a nice job running back and forth in them. Max was a bit confused and having a hard time doing much about these interesting bubles, as he's still trying to get this walking thing down.

They each played outside until their baths. It was a relaxing evening. I leave tomorrow for my week long training trip. I will miss them and am glad to have had a chance to relax this evening with them.

kisses

I was putting Ellie to bed tonight. We had finished prayers and songs and were on to kisses. She gave me my normal kisses and then kisses my nose, then was kissing around my face and said, "I am trying to kiss your chin."

So I let her kiss my chin.

Then she proceeded to kiss my ears - each - twice, then my head. She was so cute and maticulous about it, looking at me and smiling with each little good night kiss.

She's a sweat little girl my Ellie Bean!

The perfect summer evening

Tonight Ellie and I went up to The Holtzople's in Gettysburg for swimming and an ice cream social. Daddy stayed home with Max, becuase it was quite a late start time. Plus, Ellie and I need some Mommy time in preparation for my week away.

We were the first to arrive, so Ellie had some special time with her cousins - swinging and looking around. I enjoyed talking with Vicki, Jerred and Dad for a while.

There were about 20-30 people there - many kids and just a relaxing group. Ellie and I swam with the group for about 1 to 2 hours - hard to know as I lost track of time. Ellie is such a big girl in the pool. She even enjoyed jumping into the deep end while Shawn caught her. She had fun playing with the other girls and is showing no fear of the water. It was fun watching her play with confidence and enjoy the people and kids.

We had a nice bunch of junk food upon getting out of the water. It was very dark and it was a special treat for Ellie to be up this late. She was very interested to see her first fire flies. We tried to catch one, but couldn't. That's a goal for us this summer.

After ice cream she played on the swing set with the kids for another good 30-60 minutes before we finally headed back down the road at nearly 11pm. It was a late evening and she was such a big girl. She didn't fuss or complain and said it was her favorite thing - getting to swim at Aunt Vicki and Uncle Jerred's. She likes their pool.

She stayed awake the whole way home. We sang some songs and then listened to Gino's songs for a while. When we made it home, she even admired the stars and looked for the moon. She is growing into such a little girl. I can imagine lots of fun summer evenings ahead of us. I like being able to keep her up late and spend long periods of time doing grown up things with her. She really is such great company!