Ellie's Birthday Party

I seriously waited until the last minute to plan something for Ellie's birthday. When Carson and Macie turned 2, they had lots of little neighborhood friends to celebrate. But, Ellie only has a couple little friends. The week of her birthday, I decided to just have a couple family friends to the play ground to play.

Since I waited until the last minute, I did not ask Brandee to make a cake. Instead I made Elmo cupcakes.


They were not as good as Brandee's, but I thought they looked cute.


Anytime someone would say Happy Birthday, Ellie would say "and Elmo." She was very excited about her Elmo cupcakes.


But, when it came time to eat the cupcakes, she would not eat one. I think she thought she was eating Elmo. Thankfully, I had made some basic cupcake and stuck Elmo and Abby toppers on them. She ate one of those all up.


The other kids loved playing in the sand for the volley ball courts.


But, Ellie does not like to walk in sand. She convinced her friend Nicole to come up and blow bubbles with her instead.


It was a short party since we did it after church. But, she had fun. Maybe next year we will have a big party for her.

Carson's Birthday Party

Carson has said since last year that he wanted to have a skating party for his birthday this year. We decided to have it on his actual birthday. It was a Thursday, but it meant the skating rink was not crowded at all. There were probably only about 10 other people there. He invited a lot of kids from his class this year. It is the first time he has wanted to do that. We also had our life group come because it was at the time we should have been at life group. You can rent little walker type things for kids who are learning to skate. It worked really well for Macie and a few of the other little girls who were there.
This picture is completely blurry. But, it has several of the kids from his class. Of course, they all live in our neighborhood too. I love that Carson has gotten close to kids in his class this year. And, we are very excited that most of them will be looping up with their teacher next year (that post is coming) These boys have been invited to every one of Carson's birthday parties. I don't think they have missed one. They both like in our little section of the neighborhood. But, Eli is moving in about 10 days. Carson making a wish. Brandee made his cake too.

Macie's Birthday Party

Since I have not updated at all this year, I have missed 3 birthday parties. I think I probably missed a few last year as well. Maybe if I get back in the blogging habit, I will go back to the last years. But, in the mean time, I will try to get this years.

Macie's part was the weekend of MLK.  Her Florida cousins, aunt and grandma got to be here for it.  We had it at the gym where she can Carson take gymnastics.




The kids love it. They get to jump on the trampoline


And Swing on the rope into the foam pit.



And some of them just stand around and look cute.

Macie wanted a My Little Pony cake. Our friend Brandee makes the best cakes. She does a fabulous job.
Think about her wish
At the end they pile all the kids in the foam pit to get a picture.

 Macie of course loved a day all about her!

Baseball

I don't know what is going on with the layout, but you will get the idea. Carson is in his second season of coach pitch baseball. He has learned so much in the last 2 seasons. He even got his very first home run. It was even the winning run in the last inning, so it was very exciting. I think he is going to try fall ball at a different place next year. We have been playing at a church, so the two teams meet for prayer before the game. Waiting to bat
 
Up to bat
 
Jeff is one of the coaches and all time pitcher.
 
 Running to First. We are not the best fielders in our league, so he was safe Ready to run to 2nd Waiting to run on 2nd. You can see his swim meet info on his arm on this one.
And now 3rd base
 
 Carson loves to play 2nd base. And the girls like to play in the dirt while Carson plays baseball. He has his last game tomorrow. But, it has been a fun season for him.

Preschool Graduate

Today was the last day of preschool for Macie. I love our preschool, and I am so thankful we have 3 more years there. I imagine when we get here for Ellie I will be a basket case. I am sure it won't help that Carson will be getting ready for middle school. I was a little emotional today. Macie started at Cornerstone a couple weeks after she turned one. Mom was in the hospital after her accident, and I needed some time to be with her. So off to school she went. Here she is on her very first day! Macie loves school and all of her friends. She realized a couple weeks ago that they will not be at the same place next year. She cried for a long time about never seeing them again. Hopefully I will do a better job of letting her see them then I have with Carson's preschool friends. The last few weeks we have had lots of activities. There was a musical about being on a farm. This first picture isn't great, but it tells the story of the musical. The little girl in front of Macie blocked our view for almost the entire time. And the look on her face here is how she was the entire time. This one is blurry, but you can see how much she enjoyed it. Last Thursday, they had a little graduation. Getting her "diploma" from Ms. Carla. I love that Megan is in the background. Megan goes to church with us, so we don't have to say good bye to her! After the graduation, we had a picnic. SueSue, Randy, Grandpa, and Carolyn were there to celebrate with us. The kids got to play on the playground. The school got new equipment in April. Macie's favorite thing is the tire swing. She loves to swing with her friends (Lauren and Lizzie) So, preschool is over. In a couple months, I will be posting her first day or Kindergarten.

2+

Ellie turned 2 last month. She went to the doctor today for her check up. She is 23lbs 12 oz and 35 inches tall. She is talking like crazy. She will repeat almost everything you say. It does not always come out perfectly, but it is cute. A few weeks ago, Macie wanted me to curl her hair. Of course that meant Ellie had to have hers curled as well. I was shocked at how curly it came out. The 2nd picture is equally as unique because Ellie is actually drinking milk. This one is just cute!