Engaged

This week Ellie went to Vacation Bible School. It was the first camp like thing that she has done, and meant that she was away from mommy each morning all week. Drop off on Monday was sketchy to say the least, and I watched her hold back the tears. I was proud of her. As the week progressed drop off became easier, and it was obvious she was having a lot of fun. However, when I picked her up she was always very excited to see me and always ran to give me a hug.

Friday morning when Clair and I were waiting to pick Ellie up, I noticed she wasn't scanning the room for me as she walked in. And I noticed she was holding hands with the boy. Then I watched her kiss the boys hands. I was gob smacked to use the word David likes. I said, "hi Ellie, who is your friend?" In a very giddy voice she smiles and announces "we are engaged! "

Oh my goodness. You can imagine how I felt. I could not believe this had started so soon. Ellie had not really shown interest in boys, other than Owen from daycare years ago. But she never used words like boyfriend or engaged or kissing or any of those such affections.

I watch them as they ran around the room. Her fiancé ran to her seat and picked up her things for her and was yelling "Ellie, Ellie." It turns out his name was Owen too. They were both very fond of each other and having a good time. I was just in shock.

As the day went on I got the rest of the story. Apparently, in the big room, Owen kissed Ellie on the cheek and then got down on one knee and asked Ellie to marry him. It surprised me was that all the teachers seem to think this was cute. Perhaps I'm an old fuddy-duddy, but at their age I don't think they should even pretend to be getting married.

Needless to say this adventure has sparked many conversations with Ellie Including the one about when she can date, and when she can kiss boys. I tried to explain to her that she should not be kissing boys that she's not related to at this point in her life. She asked me when can I kiss boys mommy. I said, when you are 16. Ellie responds by huffing, crossing her arms and saying, "no way, that's way too old!" What in the world?

Later in the day we also had a conversation about what makes someone special, and how boyfriends and eventually her real fiancé needs to be very special. When I asked her what was special about Owen her first response was his name. We talk to bit more about this concept, and I guess it's hard to understand. As Grannie later said, I guess we better take keep her away from Wales. And so it begins.....

A dream come true

This week we had the driveway redone. It was a dream come true for Max. Ellie really enjoyed it too.

On Tuesday they showed up just after lunch with a big digger to remove the old blacktop. Kids sat glued to the window watching it.  They watched the whole thing. It was about hours worth of entertainment. I nearly took out popcorn for them.

On Wednesday they came back just in time for lunch. Goal of Wednesday was delay the new blacktop. The kids were just as interested. The digger came as well as a roller and a black top spreader.

I ended up fixing them a picnic lunch so they could sit at the window and watch. They enjoyed it immensely.

Angel

Clair fell asleep alone playing in her crib tonight without even a pacifier or a cry! I'm so proud of her!!!! Mommy and daddy sure appreciated this easy night night sleep.

Mornings with Clair

Often I put Clair back to sleep before coming downstairs to start my day. But once in a while she comes with me. She's ready for her sleep and she swings in front of me while I do my chores of pumping and making her bottles. She's a cutie. She swings and chats with me for a good half hour, before dozing off to sleep. She's a cutie pie. I love the way she smiles and talks to me.

Fashion queen

This morning when I wake up I told her I was going to take her to see a movie as a special treat. I left her to dress herself. This is how she came downstairs dressed. At first I wanted to tell her she was ridiculous and to change, but I took a deep breath and decided to just let her go if that's really what she wanted to wear.

We had a nice morning at the movies just Ellie, Clair, and me. Clair let us get through the movie which was all we could ask. Max was enjoying the day playing with his friends at day care.

She is waddling like a penguin in the picture above. We had some Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Butterflies a d Roses

Today we headed to Tacoma Park to visit a garden with roses and a butterfly exhibit. We were all quite excited. Ellie made sure everyone was dressed with colors, but she was the one who wanted a butterfly to land on her most. 

I enjoyed smelling the roses and getting photos on the rose garden first. It was fun. Then once in the butterfly garden, some weren't that interested to stay very long, unfortunately. I thought it was very peaceful. 

The only one to et a butterfly was Max. This wasn't his choice, in fact I think h only appreciated it because Ellie was so jealous. This butterfly stuck to him like glue for nearly 10 minutes. We tried everything to transfer the butterfly to Ellie - her wearing the blue hat ad even having max sit on her lap. Unfortunately nothing worked. 

The day was a lot of work for me as a parent, I hope the kids had fun, but I'm not real sure. We tried. 

Relaxing summer evening watching kids have fun

The kids got some fun cool stuff from aunt Dorothy at Christmas.  They have been dying to try it out. David finally blew it up on the Fourth of July. Tonight we came back outside to enjoy it again. I got to sit here holding my baby girl watching my two big kids giggle laugh and play together. There were barely any tears. It was a great summer evening! One that I would like to remember.