sweet

so, i'm sitting in my kitchen on the computer. the girls are playing in their little "house" under the stairs and i hear ella, "sit down, corinne!" corinne sits down quietly and i hear ella say, "dear lord jesus, thank you for this day, thank you for loving us and daddy going to work, amen". what a sweet little moment.

sonoma county fair

once again our church band played at the sonoma county fair. originally i didn't think i'd be able to sing. but as it turns out with the help of a stool i was able to hold up for 3- 45 minute sets. it was a lot of fun to see all the kids dancing on the dancefloor.

i have to admit, however, that by the end of the night i was so exhausted!!

vbs

this was ella's first time at vbs. actually, it was the first time i've ever left her anywhere like this. at first i wasn't sure how she would do. i was prepared for some crying at first and as it was three hours each day i thought even maybe a phone call. but she did so well. she didn't even seem to mind when corinne and i left her the first time with her group, the "clippers".

i have to say how impressed i was with the program our church staff and MANY volunteers put on! ella learned so much in just one week.

it was really cute to see the kids singing praises and doing the motions with the worship team. ella still enjoys listening to her vbs music and doing the motions.

the is a picture of ella on her last day. she took tigger with her every day.

every morning ella was excited to go to church. one morning she gleefully told me, "mommy, i love vbs!!"

corinne got some really good independant playtime with any toys she wanted. i think she really missed ella, though.

the theme was "high seas adventure". here's the pirate ship in the lobby. our children's pastor was capt. cruel, the pirate. ella said her favorite part was the pirate.

here's a look at the stage set up.

my baby looking so grown up! i can't believe how big she is getting. this week she grew up even more! she really impressed me by her independence and enthusiasm this week. i loved listening to her rendition of the bible story at lunch every day. she even got corinne interested in learning one of her bible verses: open my eyes so i can see the wonderful truths in your instructions!

10...9...8...

with just a few weeks away from the baby's arrival, i decided it was high time i blogged about his finished room! we decided on a "rocket" themed room. it's not perfect, but it's complete. i don't think he'll mind that the rocket it slightly uneven. the girls got a big kick out of the room. for about a week after it was completed the girls loved running around the room singing the theme song to "little eintsteins".

ted got involved in this room. before he left for a business trip (the night before i started painting) he drew jupiter and saturn so i had an idea on how they should look. he was pretty specific about the red mark on jupiter. i thought this was really cute. maybe he's hoping this accuracy will encourage his son to become a fellow sci-fi lover!

new countertops

ted surprised me with new countertops for my birthday. i was pretty shocked because we haven't really talked about redoing anything in the kitchen for quite a long time (i mean we've been pretty pre-occupied, right?) anyway, we found a really good deal through a local company and they turned out beautiful. here's the before, during and after shots:

nice faux green marble laminate

the demolition!

the finished product

company picnic

ted's company picnic was today. it was held at six flags this year. about 6 years ago they held the "picnic" at the same place. ted and i were reflecting on how different the experience was then versus now.

the girls had so much fun! especially in the little water things. corinne played until she was shivering and i finally took her out. they were running around like crazy.

ella got to pet "liz" the elephant and feed her a cookie. i was really surprised she was up for all this, she's definitely getting to be a big girl:(

after getting slushies we headed over to this playground in the shade. it was such a hot day and the girls enjoyed the opportunity to get out of the stroller and run around.

corinne really wanted to meet sylvester the cat or "kitty cat" as she kept calling him. you would have thought it was pooh bear or tinkerbell the way she cried when ted had to finally pull her away.

here's the gang at the first animal show we saw today: the bird show. we got to see dolphins, elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, pumas...a lot! it was a great day out and about with the girls. now we're all baked and exhausted. the girls were so giddy on the car ride home. they were tickling each other, having fun ripping up the map, and singing songs. ella even made up a song about all the animals she saw. unfortunately i couldn't catch it on camera!

pee-pee tee-pees

my friend jenean leant us a whole bunch of baby boy clothes, blankies, etc. in one of the boxes there were some pee-pee tee-pees. ella was looking through the socks and found them. she thought they were socks and brought them over to me.

"are these socks, mommy?"

"um, no, ella."

then i told her what they were called and what you use them for. she looked really puzzled and put them back in the box. a few minutes later corinne comes up to me with one, puts it on her head and says, "hat mommy". we're all in for a few surprises...