Father's Day 2010

What a busy Father's Day we had, and of course we don't have a single picture to show for it :(

It started off early with 9 am service at Willow creek church. We typically go to the Saturday night services as it isn't easy to get out of the house by 8:30 am, but we managed this weekend. Church ended around 10:15 and we headed out to the parking lot where they were having a "dadfest". Popcorn, hotdogs and ice cream for the entire family. We also walked around and looked at the cars they had on the show and some RVs that we thought would make for a fun family vacation someday. We ran into quite a few people from Goddard (Miss Amy and Kendra seemed to be the highlight for Ella).

After church we stopped at my parents to wish my dad a happy birthday and happy father's day (since both fell on the same day this year). Our visit was only about 10 minutes long since we had to get the girls home for lunch and nap. Once family nap time was over, we fed the girls a small snack (since dinner was going to be later than usual that evening) and got them dressed for the swimming birthday party. Got to the party just in time and the girls did not waste a minute getting into the water. Taylor is a true fish. She headed right to the water and was putting her face in every chance she got. Ella took a bit of warming up to the slides and water features, but after about 5 minutes....she couldn't stop smiling.

The girls ate dinner and cake, we showered them and put them in jammies so that we could get them right to bed when we got home. Taylor is typically in bed at 7:30 pm and Ella at 8:30 pm, so we knew that this was going to be a slightly later evening than expected since the party ended at 8 pm (but we also knew that they would sleep great after playing in the pool for almost 2 hours). We stopped by the hospital and J went up to see his dad and give him a card and two art projects that the girls made at school. Unfortunately they wouldn't allow kids to go up there because Ella was going to give Grandpa the flag that she made at school, but Papa just had to go and deliver it for her.

We were really fortunate to spend some time just the four of us on Father's Day since J has been working the past few Saturdays and we had a great day together!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Birthday Meena

Saturday we celebrated Meena's 30th birthday. Papa had to work, so I took the girls with me for a while and he met us up in the early evening. He was able to spend about 1 1/2 hours with us and then took the girls home for bed while I got to stay up and celebrate the milestone birthday for Rebecca.

Here's a picture of Nina and her 10 week old daughter Addison...


Taylor and her baby doll.....she couldn't part with the doll all day long


Meena and Taylor


Meena and Ella


Me and my girls...

Ella's swimming lessons

We decided with the warm summers coming up, that it was finally time to get Ella enrolled in her first swimming lessons. So she goes on Tuesday and Thursday nights for four weeks. We forgot the camera on the first day, but she did amazing. Ella walked right over to the teacher and did not hesitate leaving us behind. We were able to take pictures of her second lesson....

Ronnie's graduation party

Papa went to the Cubs/Sox games on Saturday to celebrate Saif's engagement, so me and the girls headed out to Genoa to celebrate my nephew Ronnie's graduation from high school. Just another moment that screams in my face "you are getting old" :)

Taylor is still a tad bit addicted to me, so there was plenty of time that she stuck to my side, but she did hang out with Meena, Oma and reached out for my niece Victoria to hold her. Ella found a new friend and she loved playing with her. Victoria's younger sister Sophia is five years old and they were really cute together.

Congratulations Ronnie, we love you and are really proud of you!

Ella and Meena...


Oma and Taylor (and Opa cooking in the background):


The high school graduate....


Taylor on the rocking horse....


Ella on the rocking horse....


Ella and her new bestie Sophia (and Uncle Joe with Vanessa)...

Ella's stitches update

About two weeks after Ella got her stitches, the Dermabond (superglue-type covering) peeled off and with it came the dissolvable stitches. It was hanging on just barely for two days and Ella did not want us to take it off, so we distracted her one night and gave it a little tug.

I think it looks pretty good and I'm hoping that it will continue to fade and leave a very minimal scar.

A bit hard to focus on the scar with all the surrounding and swollen mosquito bites, but it's the first time I thought to actually update and take a picture of it.

Mosquito Attack

Turns out Ella had two friends spend the night in her room with her last night.....mosquitos! When I got her up for school this morning, I noticed a couple of bites on her face. By the time I picked her up at the end of the day, there were at least 10 that I counted all over her face and neck. It was upsetting to see, but then one of her teachers said that there were other kids in her class with even worse bites (one little girl had a bite so close to her eye that it was almost swollen shut).

I managed to find the two mosquitos and killed them (def the biters as they were full of blood), and we went mosquito hunting before bed tonight to make sure that she doesn't get more in her sleep tonight.

Here is a picture from just before bedtime. We ended up giving her some benadryl b/c the one by her eye was swelling....looks like she got into a fight.

Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Can't say that it was a very exciting Memorial Day weekend, but we did spend some great quality family time with just the four of us. We went to the park, Ella rode her scooter, played chalk on the sidewalk, played baseball in the backyard, played in the pool and make pinkalicious cupcakes when it rained on Monday.

Out of all these events, we managed to capture pictures of only one....swimming pool fun!