Waiting

In an attempt to capture a little more of the ordinary here is a normal sight around our house. The girls, ready for bed, eagerly awaiting Daddy's arrival home from work. For some reason they feel it is such a treat to be allowed to go out on the front porch on their own and watch for Daddy.

Preschool Pictures

I have never liked the fake studio portraits (the whole reason behind me figuring out photography on my own was so I would never again have to take me kids to get pictures taken at Sears, JCP, kiddie kandids, etc. and pay too much for the fake, posed shots they were so proud of).   Brad managed to convince me to buy one set of preschool wallet pics and one class picture so Ella would have them to look back on. 

I'm glad I did--these pics are fun to have around even if they don't show Ella's true personality as I would like to capture it

Preschool Graduation

We had Ella's preschool graduation this week.  It was a fun event, but Ella was very sad about it all.  She had a great experience at Cross of Hope Preschool and she is going to miss her teachers and friends very much.  We decided to put Ella in a preschool away from home this year since we felt she needed the opportunity to branch out and be on her own a bit more before kindergarten began.  My main hope was that she would overcome some of her extreme shyness and gain confidence in herself.  While I would still consider her "shy", she has really branched out a lot and learned to stand up for herself and is no longer afraid of being in front of groups.  We are very proud of her!

Ella's cheering section

Ella and Natalie--Ella's favorite friend she made at preschool this year

Ella and her teachers---Miss Donna and Miss Janna

In the last few weeks as her teachers discovered her reading abilities, they began giving her the chance to read a book to one of them each day and get a sticker for it.  I was really glad that they changed the curriculum a bit and gave her this opportunity.  After the first time they commented to me that the early reader books they had were just too easy for Ella and that they would get some more difficult ones next time.  The last week of preschool they again expressed their amazement with her reading abilities and said that they think she is already at least at a 2nd grade reading level!  I knew she was reading well, but this comment even surprised me.  I hope we can keep up with her interest in reading and continue to challenge her as well!

Ella and Mommy

(I really am trying to get better at making sure I make it in a few pictures too :))

Solar Eclipse

All last week we heard about how Albuquerque was going to be one of the prime spots in the US to watch the solar eclipse on Sunday and that if you could get to a high spot with view of the western horizon you would be able to have an awesome viewpoint of this rare occurance.  Since we live on the western-most part of Albuquerque just a few hundred yards away from the Mesa, we decided to hike up the petrogylphs across the street from our house and check out the view.  We only had one pair of "eclipse-viewing glasses" (people went after the ones available like crazy and every place was out of their supply), but we had plenty of time to take turns and we were all able to see the eclipse.   The pics are a bit fuzzy since Hads, who was on me in the baby bjorn, kept grabbing the camera but we were still able to capture the night's events. . .

The girls were super excited when they realized they could see our house from atop the petroglyphs. They wanted me to take their picture in front it (ours is the house in the background facing the girls with the red-tile roof and the red and white cars in the driveway, right behind Maggie's head)

Half-way there, with the reflection of my camera lens with the glasses

Ella discovered this ladybug on a plant while exploring and waiting for the "ring of fire" and wanted me to take a picture so she could remember.  :)

The Ring of Fire

We then watched the moon leave from it's place in front of the sun, and headed back home.

**Just as we were leaving the petroglyphs and back on the street Ella fell, and her hand landed on a catcus.  A first for anyone in our family and we spent a whole lot of  time plucking the cactus spines from her hands.  It was no fun for any of us!  Poor Ella. . .

May Staycation

Brad was on vacation this last week.  He gets 3 weeks a year, and has to take them a week at a time--we can't split it up to spread it out more throughout the year.  Usually when he has a week off we end up going to Utah to visit family, and sometimes we will use it for a vacation of our own.  We decided this time around we would stay home during his vacation, partly because we didn't have any extra money to travel with, partly because we have a lot of house projects we needed Brad to work on, partly because we didn't want Ella to miss more preschool, partly because I wasn't up for another camping trip quite yet, but mostly we made the decision because we feel like with Brad's schedule we just never seem to get enough family time together in our own home, doing the everyday things and just hanging out together. 

We decided to fill the time with fun family activities as well as working on some house projects. We took a day trip on the RailRunner (the commuter train) and headed up to Santa Fe for our first outing. We went to the Farmer's Market, danced to a Mirimba band (they were awesome), visited Historic plaza, had some New Mexican fare for lunch at Tomasita's, and had fun wandering around the capital and riding on the train.

Later in the week we enjoyed some backyard camping (a first for us), including a campfire, roasting hot dogs and making smores, along with bedtime story-telling which seemed to be the highlight of the experience for the girls.  Our one night camping adventure ended up being two when the girls begged to sleep in the tent one more time and their extra nice Daddy agreed.  (Mommy "had" to sleep inside so that I could hear the baby, just in case she woke up!)

We also visited the Aquarium and the Botanic Gardens (two places Brad hasn't had a chance to go to with us yet) and then just enjoyed the luxury of having Daddy around.   And yes, Brad also tackled a bunch of projects for me including getting all the baseboards up around the house and building me a vegetable garden! 

Bottomless Lakes

We went camping for 2 nights this past weekend with some friends. We went to Bottomless Lakes State Park here in New Mexico, about a 3 hour drive away. We had lots of fun.  We went on a hike that ended up being a hike to nowhere, but the kids ended up having a grand old time building rafts out of grass and reeds, placing them in a little stream and sending them under the bridge.  It was one of those unplanned things that ended up being such a fun adventure for the little ones.  The lake was great for the kids. It was clean and cool and perfect for swimming and rafting. Although we always come back dirty and exhausted, our family really does love the chance to get out and go camping and this time was no exception!

(The group--minus two moms who stayed back with napping babies and myself taking the picture and holding Hads in the Baby Bjorn)

All of the men are residents---however, the others chose better specialties in that they always seem a bit more rested than Brad. . .and they make it to church more often!)

 

                 

         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Maggie, who hasn't taken a nap for a year, fell asleep on this duck in the middle of the lake.  Brad had to wake her up by rowing to her on the raft and giving her a nudge with the oars!

Maggie's Birthday

On Maggie's birthday she woke up to a room filled with balloons.  She was so excited!  It was nearly impossible for her to wait for the hour or so when Daddy got home to open her presents.  When he finally arrived home that morning he surprised Maggie with a giant donut cake just for her--she was in heaven!  We then got to open presents with her and she was thrilled with the gifts she received from grandparents and cousins.  Ella gave her an aquadoodle, Hads gave her a new hooded bath towel, and Mom and Dad gave her a sandbox built by Daddy.  She immediately wanted to go out and play in it, and Daddy was nice enough to join the girls even though he had been up all night and was exhausted!

After Daddy went to bed the girls and I got ready for the day and met some friends at Hootz (a bounce-house place nearby) since that is what Maggie wanted to do for her birthday.  We went to McDonald's for lunch, came home and had a quiet afternoon, and then finished off the day with Maggie's request for dinner:  Puffed pancakes strawberry syrup and whip cream.  We then topped it off with her birthday cake.  She requested a pink flower cake, so I made her one out of cupcakes with 3 pink flowers in honor of her 3rd birthday.  If you can't tell, most of her requests involved sugar, which is of no surprise to us--she was blessed with or cursed with her Daddy's sweet tooth!

We hope she had a great day and that we were able to show her just how special she is and much we love her!