Ellie is now six (!)....

...and she is sooo proud to be six!

Ellie's actual birthday fell on a school day this year so we had a small (just the four of us) celebration after school on her special day (her party was on the weekend).  We went to her favorite restaurant (Italian) for dinner and then came home and opened her gifts (puzzles and a robotic dog---below).

 For her party Ellie wanted a green (???) dog cake for her birthday so of course I made it.  But...I used fondant again and that just tastes sooo icky that I made super yummy cake pops in addition...

...we are going on the 4th (!) year of (great!) use from the Big Bouncy Thing.  The girls still love it!  It was definitely one of the best purchases we have made for the girls....

Ellie wanted to wear her new "six" shirt for her party....Quincy, on the other hand, wanted to wear a "beautiful dress that twirls" (???).   The whole day she walked around holding her dress like she was Cinderella going to a ball.  She is sooo girly.

Her FAVORITE gift was from Uncle's Mike and Eric---- the Lego Space Shuttle (my dad was an engineer on the Shuttle).  Love love love her love for all things engineer-y.

When it got dark outside, the girls put their glow-stick bracelets on and went back in the Big Bouncy Thing.  Above is Tim's (fun!) photo of it.  Kind of neat, huh?

It was a great day...that ultimately ended at 11 pm.  We were all very tired the next day....so what did we do when we woke up?  We went to the Greenway and ran next to the girls as they biked the path (Tim finished his PhD comps so he was mentally "free" the WHOLE weekend---yay!!!)

Easter!

I was busy sewing one day (read that as not paying attention to the girls) and noticed (only kind of noticed...again, I wasn't really paying attention) the girls kept running up and down the stairs with tape, envelopes, and pages of paper. What were they doing? Making a shrine to the Easter Bunny on our window ledge.

Ellie's note....

Quincy's note...

This was the first year that we gave them zero direction on how to color the eggs.  Due to this we got a lot of "brown" colored eggs....and hands!

The girls got to sleep with each other one last night (everyone had to go back to school the day after Easter).

The Easter bunny was kind enough to leave the girls a nice note for all of their hard work in making his shrine.

Getting the girls mentally ready for VBS----this will be their first year. 

I love Otis.  And I miss Cosmo. 

Spring Break Part Two: ....and...A Day in the Backyard!

We had such pretty weather all spring break but the pool doesn't open up until May...soooo.... we used a hose instead!  Sometimes I think they have more fun with the hose.... 

Ellie is always very quick to kink the hose to prevent Quincy from using it to spray her....

Spring Break, Part One: A Day at the Beach....

We went down to Savannah for a few days at the beginning of our break.  While we were there we were able to take a short break in activities to play on the beach (and collect a zillion sea shells!)......

Now we have two on two wheels!

Yesterday was a milestone for both girls:  Quincy learned how to ride her bike without training wheels.....

(although she would still rather run than bike!)....

 

....and Ellie learned how to start her bike on her own! Yay!

(Ellie's knees after the last week of activities....she is our little adventurer and has no problem doing anything that has the possibility of injury in it---kind of makes me nervous!)

Ellie

Ellie's kindergarten class has a pet (stuffed) octopus name Holly.  Holly goes home with the kids on a rotating basis and the kids are asked to write in Holly's journal what they did with Holly that night (her teacher uses it as a writing prompt to encourage the kids to write...genius of her!). 

Yesterday Tim picked the girls up from school.  When I got home, Ellie was dressed up as a pirate and was hula-hooping with Holly stuck in her pirate shirt.  Of course I took a photo of it.  When Ellie sat down after dinner to write what she did with Holly, Ellie chose to write about hula-hooping.  I love love love her...she is her own person in every way.