Ella's Third Birthday

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I have been a little neglectful of the blogging lately, so I have decided to catch up periodically. Ella turned Three on Oct. 1 and had 2 wonderful parties. On the day of her Birthday we went to Gattitown and had pizza and cake and played fun games with our Friends and Family. Ella also had her traditional Birthday party at home complete with a bounce house, pinata, burgers and hot dogs, cupcakes and most importantly, all of her friends and family to help her celebrate. She was very surprised at how many presents she received and kept asking if they were all hers and if she could open them all by herself. It was very cute.

Ella's 1st dance Recital

Ella began taken dance lessons at Dance Unlimited in Buda this Fall. She takes a one hour combination (ballet, tap and tumbling) Class. She is lucky to have her friend Bristol in class with her. She looks forward to every Wednesday when she gets to practice her moves. Here is a video from the mini-recital they had last night to show off their Christmas Dance.

Wursfest

(Posted much much later)

We went to Wurstfest in New Braunfels for the first time. I didn't know what I was missing. It was a lot of fun. I might even start to like Beer. The kids had fun on the rides and games, and we all enjoyed the weather.

Above Left: Beck on the Super Slide
Right: Ella and Bristol on the Ferris Wheel

Left: Maddy and Brennah on Super Slide

Below: Group- Jessie, Jeff, Ella, Maddy, Beck, Kels, Sam, Holly and Bristol

Ella's Political Training

UPDATE....
On Sunday at the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure Ella's (and maybe mine a little too) Dream came true. She got to meet her President... Bobby Bones. He was very nice to her and she was very happy to meet him. She is more convinced than ever that he is cool enough to be the President.

To recognize the political atmosphere and in trying to teach Ella new party tricks I have been teaching her who the president is and who the next one will be. So every once in a while I quiz her... "Ella who is the President? and who is going to be the next president?" The other day we were watching the Obama-mercial and so I asked, Hey Ella who is the President?" And with a wry smile she looked at me and said "Bobby Bones"* and then just started laughing like she new how funny she was. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time.



*Bobby Bones is a local radio DJ that we listen to every morning on the way to school/work.
Maybe I should start listening to NPR.

Halloween I'm Back.....

Here are some preliminary Halloween Pictures. I dropped Ella off at Daycare this morning dressed as Cinderella so, needless to say we were both big hits. Ella's Pink hair was very confusing to some of the Kids. They wanted to make sure it would come off, and she wouldn't have pink hair forever. She is Dee Dee Doodle Bop in case you can't recognize her. We also carved a spooky spider pumpkin on Tuesday Night.

The Beach

Schlitterbahn

San Antonio- The Zoo, The Alamo, The River Walk

Monday Brandon and Laura and I took the girls to the zoo. It was a lot of fun. I haven't been to the zoo with Ella since she was about Abbie's age, so it was exciting to see her actually excited about the animals. The zoo also has a pretty great kids area, where they have created a "riverbank" for the kids to plat in. I think this was definitely the highlight.





Abbie playing in the water. Abbie checking out the lizards.


Ella posing with a Lion. Ella posing with some animal.

The girls took a little snooze while we headed to the Alamo and Riverwalk to meet up with Josh and Kristen. We saw the Alamo first. It is a good thing they had a brief info tour because I was having a hard time remembering my Texas History and why it is exactly that we are so proud of a lost battle. We headed over to the Riverwalk to take the boat tour and have some dinner. It was a long hot day, but we had a good time.




Ella Crockett


Checking out the artillery.

Friday thru Sunday

We took it easy the first few days.

On Friday we floated down the San Marcos river. This was Ella's first time to float down the river (Abbie's too, of course). Ella rode in her own tube with a bottom. She was of course disappointed that she could not use the rope swing or go over the waterfall at the end. Maybe next year.







(These are not actually pictures of us. It is pretty difficult to take pictures while tubing and not get the camera wet.)



Saturday was difficult for me to remember. I think it might be because I spent the first few hours of the morning getting New Kids on the Block tickets and everything after that just doesn't compare.

(Also not a picture I took but check back after October 17th and maybe I'll have the real thing.)

We went shopping on Saturday to prepare for Abbie's 1st birthday party on Sunday. We had pizza, cake and party hats. Abbie got her first piggy bank from Aunt Sue and a xylophone. Her Uncle Josh made her the necklace she is wearing in the second picture. He even made the chain!! Ella even got a present, Aunt carol got her a folding yellow chair to match her play table. After all the excitement everyone went to see the bats in Austin.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE...

Family Fun

Aunt Carol, Laura, Brandon, Abbie and Josh came all the way from Pennsylvania to visit.
They were here for 10 jam-packed, fun-filled days in the Texas sun. Here are some random pictures to identify everyone. (No pictures of Aunt Carol, sorry I will see if I can fix that.) We had a great time and are very happy they were able to come visit. It is never to early to start showing Abbie how great Texas is. The trip was filled with a lot of first's for both Abbie and Ella. Abbie even celebrated here 1st Birthday while she was here. I will elaborate in later posts about all of our adventures.


(l-r) Abbie, Ella and Laura


(l-r) Abbie, Brandon, Josh, Ella and Kristen

Headline News: Our very own Bee Movie

Well I have officially had my fifteen minutes of fame. Let me start at the beginning.

This was just supposed to be a blog about bees. We have had a issue with bees for a while now. They found a crack between the window trim and the siding and were able to build a hive inside the wall of my house. After many failed attempts to spray them with bee and wasp spray, I found these guys who come out and remove the bees and the hive. This seemed to be a great way to go, the bees are gone for good and there is no rotting honey inside the wall of my house.

Well when the guy called to tell me they would be here on Tuesday he also mentioned that a news crew would be out as well. Here is the link to the news clip. Ella and Maddy can be seen in the window. And of course there is me and my wonderful soundbites. Feel free to laugh.

http://www.keyetv.com/content/news/topnews/story.aspx?content_id=e026cf25-54e5-42da-a792-1a662abb84f2&articleID=18909

Here are some pics of the bees and the news crew. We were total dorks and stood outside while the did the 10 o'clock news live in the front yard. That was totally unexpected, they finished up the interviews at around 6 and then left we thought for good, but they showed back up later to film live. I have to admit it was pretty exciting. (Don't forget I live in a small town, we don't see this kind of action very often.)

Above: The bee wranglers are hard at work.

Below: The bees in their new temporary home.

Michael was interviewed, as well, but didn't make the cut. Either I am just fabulous, or they took the dorkier of the two interviews.

Here is the reporter putting on her make-up and practicing her lines, before they went live.

Slip-n-Slide Lessons

Slip-n-sliding is not a basic human instinct. It requires parental guidance and example, as demonstrated below.


1st a drink for courage. (No need to take your socks and shoes off.)


Get a running start and then... JUMP!!


Run...


Here is the slip.


And the Sliiide.

Riding A Tricycle

Ella finally stopped pretending that she doesn't know how to pedal her tricycle. She has grasped the concept for quite sometime now, but knew if she held out some one would just push her. Well the gig is up. I witnessed it, photographed it and won't push anymore.

I guess now that she can officially ride it she has already moved on, because today we were out for a walk and she told me she needed a little car. I told her that she didn't need a car because she had a bike and a 4-wheeler. She disagreed. She says she needs a pink car with doors and seats that she can drive around. I told her she should ask her Daddy and she said no I'll ask Papa.

Side note: How 'bout that kool-aid moustache?

ROCKBAND

You all already know how much I love rockband. Ella has learned how to play now also. She takes after her Mom, she likes to be the singer. Uncle Amos plays the guitar. She is surprisingly good at it.