whales

at lunch today i asked ella to take one last, really big drink of milk before she cleared her place at the table. she quickly filled her mouth up with milk and then after holding it there for a few seconds, cheeks puffed out and all, she gulped it down and said, "i did it just like a whale. i drank my milk just like whales fill their mouths up with water." then the thought process went a little further, "that's how whales get the fish and then they eat 'em. we eat fish with no eyes just like whales. we get the fish and then we cook them and they turn into chicken!" ...umm, not quite.

ella talk

i keep meaning to start a list of all the cute ways ella says things. so here's all the ones i can remember for now and i guess i'll just add more from time to time:

redult=adult

uncation=vacation

author of summation=author of salvation (from "mighty to save"; although now she's got it right and is in the process of correcting corinne)

macaroni=pepperoni (used to be "smackeroni" lol)

clo=as the singular form of the word "clothes"

bike ride/ nature walk

one of the activities in the girls' awana book was to take a nature walk and talk about all the things we saw that were created by God. so, friday afternoon we got the tricycles and the stroller out for a ride. i thought we'd go a few blocks and be home in time for me to make dinner (it was only 3:30, after all). well, we went a few blocks, 3 to be exact, walking around one cul de sac and one u-shaped street then headed home. we got home at...5:30! yes, it was a 2 hour bike ride.

cubbies

awana started back up again a month ago. i have to say it's been really wonderful having them in cubbies learning bible verses. not to mention that ted and i are left with just one kid every wednesday night for 1.5 hours!

corinne has been looking forward to going to cubbies since last spring. she was so proud of herself when she earned her vest last week. i was looking at these pictures thinking why is she making that face? then i realized- she's proud of herself! this is her first real sense of accomplishment. and she earned it by putting God's word in her heart.

the difference in personalities between the girls always amazes me! ella learns verses by just repeating them, but i have to put them into a song for corinne to even be interested. once she hears the song, though, she's hooked.

i love these sweet babies!

dr. porkchop

corinne turns 3!!

yes, after many months of waiting corinne turned three, had her jessie party and...got her tall, tall jessie doll! sunday morning before breakfast we let her open her presents from us and my aunt and uncle. i think the expression on her face says it all:

that afternoon we had her party. my mom had made her an outfit some time back and so she and my dad got her the had and boots to finish it off. you can't see the boots in this picture, but they are so cute; red glitter with gold trim. (they remind me of wonderwoman.)

for the first activity we had all the kids don their party favors: cowboy/girl hats bandanas and sheriff stars. they were going on a posse to catch dr. porkchop.

they found him, rounded him up, chased him...

and put him in jail.

the second activity was "square" dancing. let's be realistic, i was not going to attempt teaching a bunch of 2-5 year olds how to square dance, so we just bought some kids music and let whoever want to dance dance.

we got the cake from safeway and i think the gal did a great job. corinne loved it!

she thoroughly enjoyed the experience of everyone singing to her and then blowing out the candles. i am constantly amazed at the difference in personalities between our kids.

at the end of the night she was whooped, but she'd had one memorable day!!

ella's first day of preschool

for ella's first year of school (preschool) we decided to enroll her at bethel children's center. we visited the school with ted once and after deciding this was the right choice for her, ella and i went back just before our vacation, for a visit going through her day. she officially started september 13th. she goes two days a week for 4.5 hours.

this has been a big change for us, but she is enjoying it!!

i had to get one with the two girls together! here's ella standing outside her classroom- yeay sycamores!!

bohdan wasn't sure what was going on, but as usual, he was a good sport.

here's corinne giving her big sis a kiss goodbye:

once she got there she couldn't wait to go in. she put tigger in her assigned cubby (yes, tigger goes to preschool, too. thankfully, he's free) and got started on a puzzle.

she had so much fun that it was a little difficult getting her off the playground and into the car.

but the kids and i were happy to have her back and hear about her day.

we rounded off the night with a game of ladybugs with daddy!

orlando

after our time at my parent's, we packed up our rental mini van and headed over to orlando. we were able to use our timeshare points to book the resort for our little getaway to ormond beach and this one in orlando. this one was newly renovated and it was huge. immediately, once we walked in ted and i were so excited. this place was nicer than our house! everything was brand new AND there were 2 bedrooms and bathrooms! we started our time at "the fountains" with the girls emptying a bottle of bubbles on the balcony. there was music playing on the pool deck next door and they were dancing and slipping in it. we found that there was a pirate/princess party going on that night in the "kids zone" area so we signed them up. there ended up being ella, corinne and another little boy, so they got lots of attention. i was a little apprehensive about leaving the girls so we went over to the restaurant next door for dinner. it was pretty nice, there was live music and the food was pretty good.

i had ted take some pictures of our "room" with his phone before we all messed it up. the one below is the girls room. as beautiful as that bed is, they ended up sleeping on the pull-out couch right next to it. the bed was too high for corinne and ella didn't want to sleep up there all by herself.

this was our room. it opened out onto it's own balcony with a view of the lake behind the resort. on the other side of the bed was the master bath.

here's the master bath:

ted has this panoramic-morph app on his phone so this is the kitchen/ great room/entry room:

ok, so back to my timeline. the next day we headed off to disneyworld. corinne was totally into meeting all the characters, especially rapunzel and jessie. ella was pretty shy and didn't want to take pictures with any of them until we were having lunch and i explained to her that we just wanted her to have fun. then she warmed up to the idea (once all expectations were off.)

we had lunch in cinderella's castle. being a florida girl myself, i visited disneyworld growing up. i would always wonder what was in the castle. well, they finally opened up a restaurant in there and my curiosity was satisfied. the meal was pretty tasty, the kids were entertained and it was air conditioned-huge!

we ended the day by the tea cups (which ella rode about a dozen times!) i think the next picture says it all. we were all tired and hot and it had started to rain. it was nice to see tigger and pooh right before the exit. we grabbed a chicken dinner from the grocery store and called it a night.

the rest of our time in florida was spent here:

we would wake up, eat breakfast, head to the pool, eat lunch on the pool deck-then swim some more. the resort had two pools, both with a kiddie section. this was the pool right next to our "room", so we spent most of the time at this one. it was really cool. you could go on the deck behind it and sit on the lake or you could go under the structure for the indoor pool:

a typical florida sunset:

this was the evening we found the pavillion and grilled our dinner.

there was a tennis court right next to it and the girls literally just ran laps around it. i don't know how they had the energy because we had just spent the day in the pool, but well, they are kids!

that's it, our summer vacation. this was, so far, one of the best we've taken. i feel like we got to fit everything in: family visits, time with ted, and family time. after we got home i felt well-rested and ready to start in on the fall. thanks for bearing with me through all the pictures. i just want to remember this time, it was so precious!

pink!

cutest little hands! my mom, my aunt and i took the girls with us when we went for pedicures. they felt so special!! i just love how chubby corinne's hands look in this photo.

first friday, more cousins and nona and poppop's

every first friday of the month in my parent's town they have a street fair and it's seems that for the past few years we've gone to visit them we've gone to "first friday". since the first friday of september was around labor day the town put on a fireworks display, too. i think every time we go ella gets her face painted. this was by far the most elaborate one!

bohdan enjoyed eating savory and sweet crepes and mooching whatever other foods he could from various members of the family.

before we left the house corinne had decided she wanted a pink dolphin on her cheek. of course she fell asleep during the 5 min car ride there, so she got her face painted when she woke up and my mom (nona) got in on the fun, too.

it really was a lot of fun. i can't wait till the next "first friday". i have to admit that i look forward to it, too.

my favorite part (besides the chocolate and nutella crepe) was watching the girls dance. corinne is definitely the little dancer!! and ella had the time of her life.

a few nights later we went to ted's oldest brother's house. they also have 2 girls and a boy! it's always a blast to see rick and carolyn. ella and corinne were looking forward to spending some time in their home!

the girls adore their cousins! victoria and caroline play dress-up with the girls and richard is just so cool to them.

we celebrated richard's birthday that night with grandma and grandpa, too!

this picture was one in a series of MANY. it was difficult to get a picture of all 5 of them looking at the camera without someone crying or making a goofy face (this last statement includes my dad!) we had such a wonderful time in eustis with my mom, dad, aunt and uncle (which sadly i don't have any pictures of from the trip!!) wish we didn't have to wait so long till we're together again!