For hot summer days

Just before we left on our trip one of our neighbors gave us a new toy!! It is a big one but a great one too. I will just show it to you rather then try to explain it. The boat can be used for a pool or a sand box. We have chosen to use it as a pool. Here is Elsie and daddy enjoying a lazy summer day by the pool.

We are back!!!

Well we have finally made it back home from the east coast and so now I will be posting like mad!! We had a great trip and have been having fun since we have been home too! Life is just rushing by. Elsie turned 3 while we were away, it just does not seem possible. Other then that there is no big news! So sit back and enjoy the following posts.

A cold weather picnic

Elsie and I had a picnic the other day. It was really fun for her even though it was a little cold.

My new haircut

Well here I am the day after my haircut looking pretty cute if you ask me!!! I have bangs all be it long ones for the first time in around 20 years!!! What do you think??

Sidewalk chalk

Here is a photo of Elsie playing with sidewalk chalk. We love to practice our letters and numbers with it. The other day I was showing her how to write the letters H and E. And she sort of wrote them. Of course they has extra long lines that crossed over each other but they resembled the letters...its a start I guess.

Ducks

We have a canal and a small pond that are close to our house so we are always seeing ducks and geese around. Elsie loves to go to this one spot and feed the ducks but mostly her grandmother takes her there. Well a while back there were several days in a row that the ducks actually landed in our backyard. I think they were searching for a place to nest but luckily they did not choose our backyard. Though we know a girl from Church that has had them nest in her backyard for the last two years.

Spring flowers

Well I know it is a little late but I wanted to post some of our spring flower pictures. We were lucky enough to move into a house that already had some bulbs planted. So here are the beautiful flowers all of which have fallen to the ground now!!

Easter 2010

We had a fun Easter this year. It was really low key but it was great to spend it with family. I made a ham dinner and had Will's mom and siblings over. Before dinner we did an easter egg hunt with Elsie. She really got into it this year...maybe next year I will hide them a little better. She loved opening and closing the plastic eggs and loved getting the surprises inside too. We did not do an easter basket this year and I am not sure how we will do it next year either. But I am sure we will figure it out when we get there.

A sad day

I am very sad to announce that our good friends and neighbors have moved. It was so fun having them live so close and watching their daughter and ours become great friends. We would hang out a lot and Elsie was always asking if she could have them over to play. We wish them the best!!! Despite our sadness we are happy for them because this move is good for his career and beings them closer to family.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Well I decided to try dyeing Easter eggs this year. I was even so adventurous as to invite another 2 year old over to share in the fun. We had a great time and I think the kids liked it too.


Befor the egg coloring began Elsie was doing this.

Watering the Grass

Elsie has come up with a new activity, watering the grass. She started it one day with her father and now wants to do it all the time. She uses a little tea pot. She does have a real watering can that we got last year from some friends so we have to pull that out so she can use the real thing.

A few new things

We went to a playground and found this fun toy there. Unfortunately this playground is far away and the ones near our house don't have these fun bars that are small enough for Elsie.



Elsie has been talking about pregnancy a bunch lately. It is probably because our neighbor was pregnant and has just had her baby. Also two of our best friends in Kansas just had babies. Don't get excited I am not pregnant but Elsie thinks she is sometimes. She likes to put things in her shirt. There has been everything from a baby doll to a small plastic pig in her shirt.

Lessons

A little while back it was brought to my attention by a neighbor that Elsie will be old enough for preschool this fall!! YIKES!!! But I am still undecided if I should send her...lots of conflicting feelings and ideas. This information still got the wheals turning and I thought I want to do mare teaching at home now. So I looked back at some posts I saved from an on line mothers group I am part of. There were lots of ideas of web sites that are helpful and have great free info on them. One of these web sites actually has a curriculum to follow. Now I don't think it is perfect and I am adjusting it to fit our needs but I am doing the lessons every day. Bascially there are 26 weeks in the preparatory curriculum the one that gets you ready to get ready to learn to read. Each week has a theme, a vocabulary word, a color or shape, a letter, a number and a nursery rhyme. On Monday you introduce the theme and vocab word and then each day you introduce one more thing. You leave each thing up on a poster for one week and then slowly change it out for the new theme, letter, shape and so on. It seems to be working quite well for us so far. Elsie likes her lessons and participates pretty well. She is not into the number flash cards I made but I think that is because she has never liked flash cards...numbers are hard for her right now. But she knows most of her letters (she knew them before we started these lessons) and she is great with colors. If you want to check this out or look at there more advanced curriculum here is the link. Here is our poster with all the things we are learning about right now.

Cutting paper

I am not sure when this began I should have written it down but I guess I am getting lazy. Elsie can cut with scissors. She uses these super cool scissors of her grandmothers that are completely plastic no metal edge or anything. So there is no way to get cut. They cut pretty well though you can't get too close to the edge or else you loose the ridged surface to cut.

Stoller Backpack

Yes you read it right...a stroller backpack. After we perchased the hiking backpack Elsie came up with this...

Hiking backpack

We love to go for walks and also like to hike...though we have not done very much hiking for a while. But we are planning on doing some soon and so we made a somewhat big purchase for us...a frame backpack to carry Elsie in. It is a very nice one as far as I can tell. You can even detach the straps and reattach them to a lower height so it can work for both of us. Though I can't stand up off the floor with Elsie in it with out a hand to help pull me up. So our plan is to go on lots of walks with it to get Will in shape for the hikes we will be taking too. Since we live in such a beautiful area now and with so many mountains we thought we should take advantage while we can.

Treasure Hunt

We have a tradition of making treasure hunts for each other on special occasions. It started a long time ago when we were first married and there have been many of them made (especially by Adah for Will) for birthdays, fathers days, mothers days, anniversaries and valentines day. This one happened to fall on Valentines day. I ordered some BBQ from our favorite BBQ restaurant in Kansas City and had it shipped to us. I hid it in the fridge and took Will through the house looking for clues only to end up where he started the kitchen searching through the fridge for his supper. He loved it and so did I!!! I think this is one of the best presents I have come up with in quite a while. Here is a link to the web site for Jack Stack BBQ if you are interested in ordering any. The baked beans are awesome!

Just a few photos

Here are a few photos to keep all of you happy!!! I know I don't post that often but life is busy and it is a pain to download the pictures!!! But I do try to keep current photos of Elsie up so you can all see how she is growing.

Decorating Cookies for the first time

Here is a shot of Elsie decorating cookies for the first time. It was also my fist attempt at making sugar cookies from scratch. Over all I think it turned out really great! We got a huge thing of cookie cutters for Christmas. So we spelled out Happy Birthday Grandma with cookies. Then Elsie's aunt, uncles and grandma came to decorate with us. Luckily we were able to send some of the cookies home with people...there were a ton of cookies even with I cutting the recipe in half!!! The only thing I will change for next time is to try to take the cookies out before they brown so they are softer.

Not up to too much

I am writing to say we are still alive. We have not been up to very much so that is why we have not posted anything for awhile. Elsie and I have been having lots of fun having play dates and getting to know more people out here. Will has been working hard at the resort and increasing his eBay sales on the side. I will have to look though my current photos to try to post some of Elsie soon. She is growing bigger and learning more and more. She knows most of her letters and is not working on her numbers. We try to have lessons on these things during the week and are liking it a lot. We still go to play group each week and might start going to a second play group soon. That is all for now. We hope all of you are doing well.