Ellie's "Self" Haircut

Well after 8 yrs it happened..........Ellie gave herself a haircut....yikes!!!! It happened on Tues night after soccer. We had gotten the kids to bed later than usual because of soccer and I heard Ellie get up out of her bed (I was in my room). I told her to go back in her bed and I thought she did...well evidently she didn't and had gone downstairs and got the scissors and cut her hair. I fell asleep without knowing and Dave came rushing in our room a couple hrs later yelling "Ellie cut her hair". He had found it when he went to check on her before he went to bed. What a mess. She literally cut about 7 inches and all I can think of is that she cut her ponytail out because it was pretty much cut across the entire back and there was clumps of hair in the bathroom trashcan. When she got up in the morning and I asked her why she did it she said "a bobby pin was stuck". What????? Are you kidding me???? So anyway needless to say the hair was chopped and I was devastated. She didn't seem to mind! I got her in to the hairdresser today and she was able to cut it and style it. It is so short. I keep saying it took 8 yrs to get it to the length that it was and then she chopped it off. She has literally only had 2 other haircuts her entire life because it is so curly and just shrinks up as it grows. Oh well---there are worse things in life and it will grow up. Let's hope it doesn't take another 8 yrs and let's hope she learned a lesson!!!

"Before" shot--she was at the hairdresser getting ready for her haircut

Spring Soccer Season

Jack's 1st day of soccer

Soccer! (not sure why the pic was taken so far away??)

Learning skills from the trainer!

Spring soccer season has started!!! Ellie had her first game last Tuesday and Jack started on Monday. Ellie is playing with the same team that she has played with for the past few seasons (Team Lightning). It is the same group of girls and they are really getting pretty good. Ellie really enjoys soccer and is more in it for the fun than the competetiveness. It will be fun to watch the team develop this season! It is always amazing to watch the progression from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. GO LIGHTNING!!
Jack is playing for OFC for the 1st time so we now have 2 soccer schedules which gets busy. He was so excited to start because he has been watching Ellie play soccer since he was a baby! It was so fun for him to have a turn now and Ellie watching on the sidelines. He is just doing more of a training program where they have 6 consecutive training sessions where they work on different skills, etc. I don't think they actually play any games at this level but he has a team and it will be fun to watch them grow. I still can't believe he is old enough to play sports---where has the time gone :) Please stop growing up both of you!!! Looking forward to a fun but busy soccer season!

Ellie's First Communion

On Sunday Ellie celebrated her First Communion at St. Leo's Church. Even though we are not actively raising our kids Catholic because I raised in such a devout Catholic home it is very important to me that the kids participate in sacraments of this faith so that they will be aware and can possibly choose that when they are older. Ellie loves going to Religous Ed classes on Wed so I am definitely not going to discourage that. I always say she has got to be one of the most well-rounded spiritual girl because she attends Religous Ed classes at the Catholic church and Sunday school classes at our church. One day she may be confused about it but right now she is just loving learning about God and faith and I love it!!! We had a great day for her First Communion. Ellie was nervous about it so we had practiced with tostito chips--just like I remember practicing with pickles when I was a little girl! We got her all ready in her beautiful dress and veil and to be honest it took my breath away because she looked like a mini-bride! The mass was at 1:30 so we had a family gathering afterwards at our house with my parents and Dave's family. Times like that I wish my siblings lived closer so they could participate in these things :( Overall we had a great day and Ellie was so excited to be able to participate in the sacrament of Communion. She has learned so much from her Religious Ed classes this year and I'm thankful that I decided to have her make her First Communion!

My beautiful girl

Opening her gift from us--a cross necklace and bracelet

Ellie and her friend Gigi

Ellie's felt square that she decorated

All of the squares on display at the church

Enjoying time with Grandpa Joe

First Communion cake

Ellie and Rachel

Ellie,Jack and Grandma Janet--it was super windy that day!

Ellie with Grandma and Grandpa

Easter 2012

I am WAY behind on updating this blog so I am going to make these short and sweet! We had a nice Easter a couple of weeks ago! The Sat night before Easter we had dinner and an Easter egg hunt with Dave's family at Aunt Julie's house. The kids had fun searching for eggs and seeing their cousins.The weather on Easter Sunday was perfect and we enjoyed the day. We started the day with the kids finding their Easter baskets in front of the fireplace as always. They enjoyed looking through their goodies! We then got ready and went to a wonderful service at church. Then we came home for a breakfast with just the 4 of us and then had our Easter egg hunt in the backyard. During this time I also attempted to make "Resurrection Rolls" for the 1st time thanks to the recipe from my friend Jill. For some reason both of my kids were not really interested and didn't want to help but that's OK. We'll try again next year when they are a bit older and see if it goes better! Jack was having a "mood" during that time so he opted to not participate in the egg hunt so it was just Ellie searching for all the eggs. Poor Jack--he had had enough of Easter at this point so we didn't push it! After that we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a lovely Easter dinner! All in all it was a beautiful day to celebrate that our God is alive!

Egg hunt at Aunt Julie's

Egg hunt

I found one!

Easter morning 2012

Eating breakfast after church out on the deck!

Solo egg hunt---Jack did not want to participate!

Easter 2012

Age 7

Age 4

Family pic on Easter

With grandma and grandpa

So excited to wear his "Wigi" jammies that the Easter Bunny brought!!

Brownie Fishing Activity

I set up a fishing lesson for our Brownie troop last weekend. The NE Game and Parks office offers free fishing lessons to groups with volunteers who donate their time/talents to help kids learn to fish---so cool! So we took advantage of it and went to Walnut Creek lake for a fishing lesson. We had absolutely perfect (almost hot) weather for the event. They taught the girls how to cast (sp??) and pull the rod back in. They also learned how to thread the line and put bait on it (I politely declined to help with that part---not a fan of worms!) Then each girl got a brand new fishing pole/rod and got to practice off of the dock. Several girls in the troop caught fish and it was so cool! I think everyone had a great time and learned a lot about fishing. And now since we have our own brand new fishing pole we have no excuse not to take Ellie out fishing when we go camping!!

Ellie age 7--"Duck park"

"Duck park"--Jack age 4

Throwing bread to the ducks

Sitting by the lake

At the zoo with friends

Zoo (he has his Easter shirt on from Aunt Julie!)

Learning about bait at the fishing activity

Learning how to cast

Brownie Troop learning how to fish!

Fishing off the dock

Fishing off the dock--no fish for Ellie--maybe next time :)

On Sunday we took the kids to the "duck park". It is a cute little lake that has a lot of ducks with a walking trail that the kids like to go and feed the ducks. I captured a few really good pics of the kids!
Today Jack and I took advantage of another gorgeous day and went to the zoo after school. The new aquarium was opening today and it was completely packed (should have known!) So we ended up just seeing the baby giraffes and the gorillas. I love spending my afternoons with my little man and I can't imagine how much I will miss them when he goes to kdgt in a year :( But until then I am going to enjoy every minute of it! We are all getting ready for a fun Easter weekend! It's the busy time of year where we have soccer, school events, Easter, graduations, etc. Such a fun time of year but so hectic! Both kids start soccer next week. It will be Jack's 1st experience with soccer. Should be very interesting to watch!! Will post next week on that and Easter! Happy Spring!!