bedtime story

the other night i was nursing bohdan in his room while ted put the girls down for bed. we have a routine of a bedtime story, prayer and a song. ella asked daddy to tell them a "story from [his]head". ted asked "what kind of story" and ella replied, "a princess story!" then ted suggested a princess story with spaceships. and both girls agreed. so ted began the story of princess elayna. i couldn't catch all the details, but basically she is a princess from another planet with 3 arms and 3 legs...this is what happens when your sci-fi loving techy engineer daddy tells you a story "from his head"!

ella's "tangled" 4th birthday party!!

ella has been looking forward to her birthday since before christmas. she kept track by whose birthday was next. finally her day came...

this year she asked to have a rapunzel party. i used a lot of ideas i got from this blog: http://www.supermommoments.com/2011/01/tangled-birthday-party-games/. ella really had such a good time.

one of the activities was to paint pictures. then we taped them on the walls. some of the kids did a pretty impressive job!

next the kids played "pin the pan on flynn". i copied the flynn rider wanted poster from the "tangled" movie and the kids took turns trying to hit him with their own paper frying pans.

i thought i got a picture of the kids decorating their sunburst cookies, but i didn't. for dinner we had fix it yourself sandwiches with homemade artisan bread, grapes, veggies and dip, jello "shots" (just kidding). actually, i borrowed an idea from the above blog, to make floating boats like the movie using blue jello in individual little cups with an orange slice and a purple sail attached by a toothpick. the kids liked them, but it occured to me as i was pouring the jello that it looked like i was serving jello shots to a bunch of kids! i have to say i wish i had taken a picture of the food table. ted was the one who assembled the trays of food and they were beautiful. who knew the man could make veggies look so good!!

ella had so much fun opening her presents from her friends.

she got over the fear of being sung to and enjoyed everyone singing "happy birthday" to her. she was really excited about her rapunzel cake.

i thought and researched for a do-able cake idea for the longest time. in the end i ordered one from safeway and saved myself the stress!

here's the party scene. of course, i didn't think to take a picture till the party was over.

the last activity of the day was lighting a lantern and "sending it off" (which we didn't really do as it was tied a piece of twine to it so as to avoid setting someone's roof on fire). it did float up for a little before catching fire. the kids enjoyed it, though, and it was a good ending to a great day!! i love you my little button. i can't believe you're a big 4 year old now!!

ella's 4th birthday

ella asked for a "REpunzel" doll for her birthday...

love you

yesterday i was rolling out dough to make cookies for ella's birthday party. she came into the kitchen and we were talking about something. and then we had this conversation:

me: i love you, ella.

ella: i love you, too, mommy.

me: i love you as far as i can reach.

ella: i love you as far as the earth.

me: i love you as far as mars.

ella: i love you as far as mars, too!

me: i love you all the way to pluto!

ella: i love you to minnie and daisy!!

where do you go from there?!

you know you have an overachiever when...

last night was cubbies for ella. she absolutely LOVES cubbies club! she started the year late (right before thanksgiving) and is 2 verses away from catching up. she's a bubble of sunshine before and after. ted and i are so thankful that she has so much fun there and is learning of Jesus' love for her. well, last night she woke up around midnight crying. at first we thought she had to go to the bathroom, but was fighting it (being half asleep). she kept crying and arching her back. ted tried asking her what was wrong, but she just kept crying. finally i knelt beside her and asked if she wanted my help. i thought, "for sure this is going to be a long ordeal." but after a few minutes she mournfully declared, "i lost my cubby book." "you didn't lose your cubby book, ella, it's downstairs", i reassured her. she wouldn't believe it until ted went to retrieve it for her as proof that she was just having a bad dream. once she saw the book she quieted down, smiled and lay back down in bed. not a peep after that.