the big 1!

Ella's First Birthday!

Well the big day had come! Ella turned one this past Sunday. We had a big party for her on Saturday with all the kids and family.

Ella had a really great time- She ate lots of food and got some really great presents!

On Sunday- Babcia and I took her out to lunch and to pick some apples- Ella got to meet some goats and turkeys.

The best part of the day for Ella was the apple eating part- She loves just munching on them all day. Ella was pretty worn out by all the festivities. She even slept in a bit the day after.

And then she found all my old yarn and played dress up with it- Beautiful!

Did I Tell You How Excited I am about Ella's Birthday Cake?

Big News! We got the new camera!! Its a Kodak Easy Share-

Its pretty cool- its red. Kinda big though- we didn't expect that.

The other big news is that at about 3:30ish Sunday morning- Ella will be ONE! That is so...whoa. We got Ella some birthday dress up stuff- and I made her a special cake today. It came out soooo great.

Its funfetti - so thats why its bumpy- and I'm not really a pro yet- with an oven thats all level and provides even heat and stuff- but maybe someday?

I got some pointers from Chrissy Spencer and watched a bunch of youtube videos- and tada! I also taped Ace of Cakes last night- so

August Pictures

So I ordered a new camera yesterday- only to find the cord to our old camera today-

But its cool- I'm not super mad- just pretty annoyed. So here are some of the things we did this August.

We had a lot of fun. Ella is now into playing dress-up. Its really funny because I never taught her to try stuff on. One day she just found my fuzzy scarf and started wearing around the house. From there, she got in to all her clothes and hats and pretty much anything that fit over her head.

Ella is learning to do new stuff everyday. Today she learned to climb up the couch- I can handle that one- but this weekend when she climbed from her table to the kitchen table and I found her straddled from the kitchen table across to her high chair- I'll admit- I freaked out a bit. How does she get so high up so fast? She can't walk yet. Its her birthday this Sunday-so hopefully she will get her act together by then :)

In August we also threw my mom a surprise birthday party. It was fun we had Swing Buffalo come and do a dance lesson for us.

Can't find the camera cord...

So- I've been dying to blog and I have a ton of pics of the last 3 weeks- but mom and dad's camera is ghetto and requires a special cord to download anything. I can't find it :( I'm really sad about it- because we threw mom a surprise 65th bday party and did swing dancing and I have great Ella pictures with spaghetti O's- classic stuff- and its all trapped on the 1980's camera.

But otherwise we are cool. I started my jobs as a teacher and kid watcher at the chapel- I guess I'm kinda a kid watcher at both.
This week I am doing lectures on the microscope and mitosis- its been kinda lame- I need to make the microscope cool, or come up with some good mitosis jokes- Whats the best way to determine the sex of a chromosome? Pull down its genes!
Pretty good huh?
maybe I just stick some lasers on my microscope.
anyway- so a lot of the students are older then me- so thats weird- and I never see any of the other teachers cause I work at night- but I did get keys!

Mountain Top, PA

Ella and I went to Mountain Top, PA this week. We went to babysit Nathan and Sydney while Jake and Heather visited some friends.

The trip was for a sad occasion- but I think the end result was good and the friends really appreciated that we made the trip.

We got to so see Boulder Field. I guess its where a glacier stopped and hung out for a bit leaving behind a crazy field of rocks.

It was pretty cool looking- and Jake said that if you climb out to the middle there is even temperature changes as the elevation of the rocks change.

These are old pics from the summer. I just thought some of the were cute- and you needed to see them:)

So- we found out today that I got a job. I'm going to teach at Niagara County Community College. I'm not 100% sure what I'm teaching. Probably anatomy and physiology and pharmacology. Its promises to be an adventure because school starts in 2 weeks and I'm a really bad speller. Its kinda fun- like what kinda teacher do I want to be?? I think I'm just going to rent School of Rock, Dangerous Minds, Mr Hollands Opus and all the Harry Potter movies and pick from those teachers...

Olcott and knitting

So today mom wanted to go to a knitting show in the Buffalo convention center. Of course we had to go because as far as knitting shows go, this was...it. No, really, this was the big one.
so we went, sick and all. We got beads.
They were pretty great. I guess the beads kinda sum the whole show up. so ya-

The we had dinner at moms and drove out to Olcott beach. They have the coolest rides there from 50 years ago. And each ride cost 25 cents to ride. So you could spend all afternoon there for 3 bucks.

And it was great. Ella got to ride her first rides ever!
They let her on everything as long as she sat by Sydney. I think her favorite part was us waving to her as she went around.
Driving cars and boats were a close second.

The ski ball was really cool because it was completely mechanical- super antique. I think I got the best score too- Jake says he beat me- but conveniently no one saw his score.

Thats ella's little head in the front of the plane.

Best Picture of the whole night!

We rode the carousel a couple times. Ella had a lot of fun riding with her daddy.

So- if you have kids and no money- you so need to check this place out. It was so fun and just super cheap. Call me if you want to go!