Lots of stuff

Well- as with most weeks- Ella was very busy. On Wednesday we played with the Arnold kids and went to Sydney's soccer practice. But first we played for a bit with Nathan in the pink sandbox. I did try to find a picture where she was not scowling at Nathan- but even with a freeze pop- she was just not happy with him.

Sydney's practice was super cute. Jake is her coach- and its pretty funny to see about 12 four year olds running all around after soccer balls.

When we got back to the Arnold's house we made cookies! Poor Nathan's apron is a hand-me-down.

Ella got to wear the whole baking outfit. I think she liked holding the rolling pin the best.

The next night I gave Ella some shaving cream to play with because it has been raining sooooo much and we have been bored. Ya- I totally got yelled at for that one...but we had fun- and learned how bad shaving cream tastes- that's an important life lesson- right?

Andrew's birthday was on friday. All the kids had fun playing with the Milleville's toys and jumping on the trampoline.

Dad and Aunt nancy even sat by eachother.



Ella got to eat a lot of junk food and garlic bread.

We played boccie ball- and I thought it would be more fun if we played drunk boccie ball.

Kelly wasn't very good at the game. I think she only did like four or five shots-

She was asleep by the time I left.

On Saturday- Heather and I ran the big race! it was a charity 5k for Chet-

of Chet's dog house in Lockport.
I got to say Heather and I did great.

Heather cheated and ran the whole time.
I took a few walks and sprints...and walks. Either way- I caught up to Heather about mid way- and we ran in the end together. Once we saw the finish line- we did a sprint to the end and had a big finish at the exact same time. And let me tell you- the crowd went wild! I wish I had a picture to better show you that momentous moment when we defeated this treaturous race...

Still before the race-




After the race-

After the race - we had the best pancake breakfast ever. like, ever. yummy.

Later we went to a graduation party and smelled some flowers. Ella is so funny.

Playing and Aunt Heather and Uncle Jake's

Its been crazy raining lately- so instead of the usual Friday night outside movie- we just had dinner with my brother and sister in law-Jake and Heather. So for probably the third time- we stayed late and Ella had to wear her cousin's Nate's PJ's to bed. She looks like such a little boy in his clothes. I should just bring pajamas with me- but I like living on the edge.
Sydney and Nathan have a ton of stuffed animals-and Ella loves loves loves them. Joe and I decided to play some ET with Ella. We put her in the basket with all the toys- and she just thought it was great...so cute!

Jake taught himself to juggle recently-with tennis balls. Then Jake had the great idea to juggle plates after the kids went to sleep. It went as well as you would imagine. We only broke one plate :) Joe juggled stuffed animals first to practice- then he tried the plates- ya it was pretty loud- maybe we should have used paper plates.

Newish- old camera!

So- you may have heard- I, yes me (not Joe), left are super cool new camera out in the rain at the beach two weeks ago. Which means that I have been keeping up posts with file footage...sorry. But since then! I stole mom and dad's old school camera. I kinda miss how long it took for my pics to load to my blog- these pic were instant! yay for bad quality? Whatever- you guys will just have to get used to it. That is until I do enough dishes to work off my debt and get a new camera.

So like I said - we got some old pics here- I don't think mom and dad knew how to delete stuff- or download stuff for that matter...

So here are some graduation pics- which I guess is appropriate since I finally got the school to sign all my papers just last week- Yep, thesis is over!

Then we got some pics of Joy feeding Ella ice cream at Bob Evans on the way to the airport 2 weeks ago. Ella loved loved loved it! She ate so much ice cream she decided she did not like food anymore. Luckily her tummy got the better of her when we got home- she now is back to eating yummy peas and such.

This past weekend was the big street sale over on Baer Rd. If you didn't come- you missed out. Ella got a kitchen set, a helmet, a mini crock pot for dips...and I can't remember what else- either way we totally just went with a stroller- a pocket full of $5 in nickles and a dream. The people even delivered Ella's kitchen set because it was too big to put on the stroller.

Kelly also had a garage sale- so we visited there too- Ella liked playing with all the toys- and may have swiped some of the toys for herself. She must get that stealing gene from her dad.

Kelly's garage sale was fun- the best part was probably that I was playing catch with Josh- but then I saw Ella was being cute- so I passed the ball to Heather Spencer to take over the auntly duties- Like two mins later...CRASH! The tallest aunt of them all- missed the ball! I think its kinda a milestone in every little boys life to break there first window- So I thought I would document this for them.

That was all Friday and Saturday- So then on Sunday we met up with Aaron and Elyssa for Shakeskpeare in the Park. We saw the Tempest. Ella was kinda into it, kinda bored. She created an audience all her own. When she started singing right before the end- we took a walk down Hoyt lake. So we missed the last 10 mins.

We had pretty bad seats anyway.

This week promises to be just as busy! Pray I find a job!

The Beach Yo!

Ben was in town this week!

Since it was the last week in June- we all headed out to crystal beach - in Southern Ontario, Canada.

All the kids had a blast at the beach- Ben brought his beautiful wife Joy and his two super cute kids- Hayden and Serenity-

Hayden is 6 and Serenity is 2. Hayden comes up to me and says- "Your baby is really cute. We wanted to have one, but instead we had Seri. Can we trade?" His mom said no- but I'm pretty sure he cornered me about 3 more times and was like "no seriously, we could trade!"

Dad even came up the first night and enjoyed all the festivities and stress- he didn't last long :(

Ella Loved the beach- even more then I thought she would. The sand was all over her and she didn't care- she loved knocking down all the sand castles and finding gross stuff to put in her mouth- wow did she take a good nap after each beach session.

Joe came and put up the big screen so that the kids could play Wii.

And Ella hung out too and like to wear Uncle Ben's hat.

Ella and Nate had a few good walks in the Bob- its the only way to nap on the beach!

Ella and Joe got a good view of the surf the first night.

Ella had to take baths in the sink at the cottage to get all the sand off her every night.

We took lots of walks down the beach.

There were many squirt gun wars- Uncle Jake is explaining that the table is "safe"- but you can't just sit on the table and squirt the other kids!

Ella crawled all around every inch of our cottage-she is playing peek-a-boo with the kitchen table.

Seri really had fun on our walks- she is showing me the waves.

I think all the kids were buried at least once-

This is Ella's first sand castle- she had a ton of fun knocking it down.

Poor Hayden.

Seri got in on the fun.

We had a really fun week- We are all missing Ben and his family already.














Yay for the Beach!