Conversations with Ella

The other day I was making hamburgers and Ella was "helping" me. I told her a number of times, don't put your hands in the raw meat. I turned around to do something and when I looked back, of course she had her hands in the raw meat...

Me: Ella, I told you not to do that. Why did you do that?

Ella: The serpent made me do it.

Me: WHAT???

Ella: The evil serpent made me do it.

Oh great. She's already blaming the devil.

(the day before she was making Matt play "sunday school" with her and he was telling her the creation story....)

A few nights ago as we were saying prayers....

Ella: Hey God....(pause)....I love you.

What you can't hear was the sound of my heart melting.

She pushes me to the edge of my sanity pretty much every day but she is so full of love - it was wonderful to hear that expressed towards God rather than Diego or ice cream or pancakes! Here's a picture of her giving some love to her little sister. Not sure how well it is being received.... :)

April Fool's!!

So this is what I saw when I looked out the front door this morning.

















Fun fun fun.....

And this is what I saw when I looked out my back door
















double whammy!!!

(In case you can't see clearly in the picture - a rather large tree has fallen across our backyard.)

On a positive note now we don't have to worry about the tree falling on the kids when they play in the back yard. That was from Matt. I didn't know we were worried about the tree falling on the kids.

Along with I'm sure most of the people in the Mid-Atlantic region, I am pretty desperate for Spring. We've had some glimpses - a few days in the 70's - only to be replaced by two weeks of 40's and 50's all topped off by a rain/snow storm! Perhaps it's time I watch An Inconvenient Truth?

On a side note- Elizabeth's blog (from A Groove Slightly Tranformed) has disappeared! Beth - if you check in here ever, just wanted to know that you're alright.

It's Official...

I now join the ranks of thousands (dare I say, millions...) of women who have gone before me. I am officially a Soccer Mom! I bet you were expecting something a bit different, right? It's just that you hear the description "soccer mom" so often and I have a vision in my head of who that is describing. Today as I took Ella to her first day of a six week soccer camp I realized, oh my goodness, I'm a soccer mom! Now I'm not running a carload of kids to and from games with a stash of gatorade and oranges in the trunk, but I've taken the first step in that journey. Kind of scary. As much as I love soccer I never saw myself as the soccer mom. I always saw myself as the coach. Which, hopefully as the kids get older, I will be. First and most importantly, one or hopefully both of my girls will have to like soccer enough to warrant me being their coach.

Today reality hit when I realized that Ella was not going to step onto the soccer "field" and be transformed into an instant star. I don't think I really thought that would happen, but deep down a little tiny part of me wondered if when she got the chance she would prove to be a natural. Not a natural. At least not at age three! I don't think I was brave enough to play soccer until I was in third grade. Ella has inherited some of my tendencies towards shyness so I was very proud of her for getting out there and not crying (I imagine I would have at age three) and being excited to go back the next week. She was definitely timid and nervous and had a hard time listening and was usually pretty far behind everyone else. I'm sure it was a number of factors - the big truck that was digging and spreading dirt 30 feet away that made Ella nervous, being in a totally new situation with kids she'd never met before, or having two coaches with English accents (who knows, maybe she couldn't understand them!). Even though she may never have the interest in soccer that I did, it's exciting for her to be at the age when she can start to try new things.

As for Catherine, I had to drag her off the field. She wanted to be out there with the rest of them. Maybe she's the natural....hmmm...just a few years till we find out! Just kiddding!!!

Sorry no pictures to post - Ella looked quite cute in her soccer gear but I can't find the camera....bummer.

More to come...

Today was a beautiful Spring day. Sunny and in the 70's. Tomorrow looks to be more of the same. The next day we have an Easter egg hunt and Ella is supposed to start soccer "camp". So of course it will be in the 50's and raining. Go figure. After that it's in the 40's and 50's for the rest of the week and weekend. So today we had to take advantage of the weather and spent the majority of the day outside. We spent the morning at the zoo with some friends and had a picnic lunch there. Then more outside play time at home until Catherine napped. Ella watched a little tv and then was back outside again until dinner time.

Did you catch that Ella is starting soccer? I'm so excited- it's a six week program that meets for one hour each week. I have no idea if she'll like or how she'll do, but I'm glad that she'll have a chance to try it at an early age. Of course I'm hoping she'll love it as much as I do and I'll get to be her coach at some point. This summer, she is also going to do a worship dance mini session with one of her favorite people, my friend Renee. She's always been very interested in dance, despite not being really graceful or anything. There's no chance that I could be a dance teacher, so that's why I'm hoping she'll enjoy soccer as well. I'll keep you posted.

I'm experimenting with uploading videos and then posting them on this site. So bear with me if you end with alot of viewing opportunities that aren't too interesting....until then, some candid pictures of the kids taken by our friend Joe -