Summer pictures

We had a great summer and I'm now finally posting photos. Here are some from our trips to Michigan. This one is my favorite of Rick and his surfer girls.

Most of the time was spent hanging out on the beach.

And of course a beach cookout complete with Drier's hotdogs, corn from farmer Dingis and s'mores.

Rick decided that being on vacation also means a vacation from taking pictures so I don't even have his famous "candids" of me doing random things from the angle of him sitting in a chair. I promise I was there for all of the fun. :)

Blonde moments with Sophia

I made some delicious Ethiopian meatballs last night for dinner and told the girls it was North African food.

Sophia: I wish I lived in North America.

me: We do live in North America...do you mean North Africa?

Sophia: Yeah, right. North AFRICA.

Rick: Maybe you'd rather live in North AMERICA.

Sophia: Well, actually, I wish we moved to England.

me: Why England?

Sophia: So I could speak two languages.

Walking Home II

Ella: One big difference between kindergarten and preschool is that we don't pray at kindergarten.

me: Well, you can always pray quietly to yourself. You just don't pray out loud together.

Ella: Maybe I can pray to God to not make me so shy at school.

It was so sweet.

She is loving Kindergarten and making new friends. One mom came up to me at the park and asked if I was Ella's mom. She said that her son Charlie is obsessed with her and drew a picture for her and he was so nervous to give her it to her it took a couple days to get up the nerve. Ella showed me the picture which was an adorable drawing of Ella and Charlie playing legos.

She said: "He walked up to me with a piece of paper in his hand and said. 'Take it if you want'. Then walked away."

Walking home

Walking home from school with Ella yesterday:

Ellla: Was I adopted?

me: No. Do you remember seeing pictures of when you were in my tummy? Do you know someone who was talking about this? Do you have questions about it? Why are you asking?

I was prepared for a long conversation about something that had been on her mind.

Ella: Just checking.

mom: Huh? "Just checking?????" Are you sure you don't have any questions about adoption or any friends of yours?

Ella: Nope, just checking.

And that was that. Ella is really turning into a funny girl.

Happy Birthday Ella

I finally downloaded all the pictures from our camera and can post the ones from Ella's party back in June.

Ella turned five and was very excited. Since she's a summer birthday many of her school friends are already five so she was very anxious to finally be five herself. We had her party before her actual birth date and she was disappointed to find out that she wouldn't turn five at her party but have to wait until June 13th to tell everyone that she's five years old.

It has been a big year for Ella. The end of preschool and kindergarten in the Fall. Her teachers loved her at school and everyone at St. Joe's will miss her. She is such a sweet girl and has lots of friends. Whenever I'm at school or camp with her all sorts of kids are saying hi to her. She can still be shy but once she warms up she's a true friend. Last week we were taking a walk and talking about how if she's nervous at school she can say a little prayer and know that God is with her. She said "and if I'm shy I can pray to God to make me not so shy." It was so sweet. I've watched her grow up so much this year. She is amazing with Katie and Ceci. Always including them and coming up with games to play together. She loves puzzles and has gotten really good at solving hard ones.

Here are some pictures from the big party:

We had an incident with the cake. Katie dragged her finger from one end to the other before the candle blowing. She's learning from Sophia the master cake sneak. Sophia knows to hit less obvious spots though. Katie just went for it.

I'm pretty sure that's Sophia's handiwork on the backside.

We had a balloon guy come who did big balloon people for all the kids. Here is Ella with her Ariel:

Memorial Day

We had a busy Memorial Day weekend with three barbecues and a parade.

The highlight was marching in the very large parade in Arlington Heights with the Dold for Congress group. Sophia got to sit in the classic car with Harper Dold and practice her Miss America wave. I asked her if people were waving back:

Sophia "No, mostly just throwing stuff at us."

me "Like candy?"

Sophia "No, like garbage"

They were probably reacting to Katie who was at the front of our pack cruising on her scooter coming within an inch of the crowd sitting on the sidewalk. She may be following in her father's footsteps as an expert in crowd control. She had this grimace on her face while buzzing the spectators. I was cracking up watching the expressions and hearing the comments from her victims while yelling at Katie to slow down. I got lots of bad mom looks during the two mile parade route. Cecilia slept in the stroller through the entire parade. This was a role reversal since Katie is the one who usually sleeps through events.

Here is Katie's patented scowl. She was probably bitter at the lack of candy which was rightfully deemed not appropriate to toss in a parade honoring fallen soldiers. I'm sure there will be plenty at the 4th of July.

Ice Time

We spent a lot of time at the ice rink in May. Ella began hockey and Sophia and Ella both were in the Centennial ice show which is quite a production.

During Sophia's skating class Ella would go watch the hockey teams practice in the large rink and she asked if she could play hockey. I signed her up for it the next quarter and she really loves it. The first night she slept with her new hockey skates in her bed with her. She's the only girl and could not look cuter. Here she is in her jean skirt and pink tights keeping up with the boys:

The ice show ended up being a huge commitment when each girl was on the ice for approximately 3 minutes in the actual show. They each had multiple rehearsals leading up to the big show which was really shows since there were three performances and a dress rehearsal. Ella's group was first and they were adorable. Ella did not have patience for the slower future olympians and just skated around girls who were slowing her up in the routine of skating across the ice and back flapping their arms like little wings.

Sophia and her buddy Maggie jockeyed for positions once they were on the ice to be next to each other while trying to do the routine which was more complicated than Ella's group of munchkins.

During all the time spent sitting at the rink Katie and Ceci ran around the waiting area while I tried to keep them out of trouble with Polly Pockets, Barbies and various snacks. All in all they were troopers. A low point was when Katie walked up to me and said "Look what I found!" holding a piece of chewed up gum in her hand. When I screamed "Where did you get that!" she proudly pointed to the underside of a railing. She was pleased with her discovery and about to stick it in her mouth when I made her throw it out.

Here are some pictures: