20/ something

i should have expected this day with ted's eyesight and mine...first trip to the eye doctor. i was so proud of ella. she was such a trooper and did everything that was asked of her. the doctor and all her assistants kept saying how good she was. she only cried when they put the drops in to dialate her eyes. i think she got a big kick our of telling the doctor the shapes on the mirror.

in the end she will be sportin' some glasses soon. one of her eyes is weaker than the other and has become lazy. we'll have to go back another day to pick out her frames. my guess is we'll come away with some pink ones...just a guess.

monterey weekend pt 3

when we made our hotel reservations we had the option of purchasing aquarium tickets for 2-day entry for the price of one. so sunday we spent our second morning there. it was nice to go at kid's pace and not rush through.

this tank was one of the highlights for the girls. look how bright those fish are! guess who's there?! nemo and dory, of course:)

bohdan, of course, all smiles.

besides major bedtime drama in the evenings it was a great trip!

monterey weekend pt 2

one great feature of the monterey aquarium is the play area. both girls enjoyed running around.

ella loved playing dress-up. especially if she could get some of the older girls to help her with her outfits.

bohdan pretty much enjoyed sucking on his finger. he did get a kick out of looking at the swimmy things in the tanks, but, as usual, he was a happy camper wherever we were.

we also had fun at a nearby park called the "dennis the menace" park that tanya had suggested. the kids LOVED this place. so great for them to run around and enjoy some open space to play.

monterey weekend

we took the kids to monterey for the long weekend. it was kind of like a mini-vacation. we were all pretty excited for a change of pace and scenery.

ella absolutely loved the aquarium, but it took corinne a little to warm up to it.

once she got to see the penguins she was sold and was up for looking at all kinds of fish, octopus and sharks. in fact, as we were peering into one of the large tanks that housed a few large sharks she started growling at the biggest shark as it was swimming by. she looked at me and proudly said, "i roared at the shark, mommy!"

the the end of day one all the kids were exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel after lunch.

awana awards night

a few weeks ago we celebrated awana awards night at santa rosa bible church. ella started cubbies in late november and caught up in her book. she earned her cubby bear for completing her first awana handbook!! she was so pleased with herself.

as we were on stage ella was a bit shy, but once she got back to show daddy, corinne and bohdan she was to the moon!!

after the ceremony we went out with the gaffney's for some ice cream at cold stone. ella and collin were so excited!!

my little lady

we went to monterey this weekend. i just so happened to pack corinne's minnie mouse glasses. she kept asking me to put them on her. so while we were in the car one evening she asked me to put them on her. i helped her with them (as best i could while buckled in the passenger side of the car) and then for some reason i started singing tom jones' "she's a lady". well this caught on and she kept requesting it. then ella said, "i'm a little lady, too". corinne quickly said, "no, ella, you not a lady, i a lady". and that's that!

new backyard

here's the semi-finished product of our hard labor a few months back. new sod.

ted turned the back half of the side shed into a playhouse for the kids.

here's our vegetable garden.

the peas are almost ready to harvest.

here's part of the unfinished side of the yard.

mother's day weekend

this was a great weekend. saturday night we spent with our dear friends, scott and april. we went out to eat at la texicana and then headed over to redwood covenant to see phil wickham.

mother's day included beautiful flowers from my sweeties

sweet little ella button

my free-spirited corinney-rinn

lots of sillyness. this was kind of funny. while ted was bringing out the furniture ella said, "should we have music?" next thing i know she's got corinne's ariel boom box playing "be our guest". they started "dancing" around the table.

my sweet family

cuddly bohdan bear

anticipating dessert. as we started eating the cake corinne said, "should we sing 'happy birthday' to mommy, daddy?" of course ted informed her that it wasn't my birthday but they could sing "happy mother's day" to me. he started singing "happy mother's day" to the tune of "happy birthday". ella started frowning and said, "no, no that's not very good, daddy." poor ted.

ella asked for seconds and while she was partaking of her second sliver she sang "happy birthday" with the lyrics of "happy mother's day" to me...it's all a matter of perspective.

easter

this easter was lots of fun. on good friday before we headed off to the good friday service we dyed easter eggs. the girls had fun putting their eggs in the dye. for the last egg we mixed all the colors together to make a brown egg. we sang "mighty to save" while we waited.

our church put on their annual easter egg hunt. all the kids lined up and waited for the word to start.

here's ella getting ready!

bohdan didn't get to participate this year, but he didn't seem to mind much.

that afternoon we went over our friends mark and carissa's house for a yummy dinner. mark hid easter eggs in their backyard for the kids. they had lots of fun searching. corinne wanted to just eat the candy.

it was a great day!