4 1/2 Years Old

It kills me that we're closer to five than four now!! Ella really continues to be such a sweet, kind, and loving little girl.  We definitely hit the jackpot with her.  She is so sensitive, empathic, and aware of other people's feelings - sometimes to a fault that she wants to please everyone else and make everyone around her happy.  She's been on a roller coaster of emotions lately and sometimes cries for absolutely no reason that she can remember! I'm already dreading the days of having two teenage daughters ;).  I wanted to remember a few things and pictures of Ella at this age.

She celebrated her half birthday with half a cupcake...

 

She found a baby picture of herself on one of Cody's old phones...

She continues to be very into ballet class and loves dressing up and dancing at home.  She puts on extravagant concerts and dance recitals for us.  She loves doing art and requests to do some sort of coloring or art project pretty much every day.  I love that when she does art, she usually incorporates some sort of writing.  She can write quite a few words on her own now and usually invents words that she wants me to read to her. She loves drawing pictures of our family, animals, mermaids, princesses, etc.  I often come get her out of quiet time to find the playroom has been decorated with all her masterpieces taped up on the walls.  A few of my favorite of her recent drawings I don't want to forget...
"This is me and my unicorn"...

 Her birthday card to Uncle David included a picture of Auntie Sheena (at her upcoming wedding, hence the veil and mermaid body).  Love Tom and David's beards ;)...

A few pictures from a recent parent observation week at Ella's ballet class...

Ella is really so sweet to her sister and Lucy looks up to her so much.   Of course they fight over little things on a daily basis and Lucy tends to dominate Ella most days :). But, I love seeing their relationship grow and blossom and seeing how much they love each other..

We had Ella's conference with her teacher in January, and we really couldn't be prouder of how she's doing in school.  I know it's just preschool, but it makes me so happy that she loves going to school.  Cody and I both want her to succeed academically later in life, but more than anything right now, we just want her to enjoy going to school and nurture her becoming a life-long learner. Her teacher had great things to say about her in regards to her academic, emotional, and social learning.  It was so fun to get her first report card and be on the parent side of the table rather than the teacher side.  She is currently in the 3-year-old's class, and goes three days a week in the mornings.  She is registered to start Pre-Kindergarten in the fall going five days a week in the mornings.  I realized I hadn't included her preschool pictures on the blog back in November when we got it.  Better late than never...





Love this picture of Ella and her daddy...

 What most of our afternoons look like (especially with the spring-like weather we had all winter!) - I absolutely love that there are other kids in our neighborhood and cul-de-sac that the girls go out and play with.  Ella tries so hard to keep up with the big boys and just adores them :)...

 Ella has really started enjoying riding her bike and it's fun to see her gaining confidence, going up and down hills, and having fun with it...

 Lots of family walks to burn some energy...

 Ella recently counted her piggy bank money - she had $300 in there! Cody took her to cash in her coins for bills and plans to start her savings account with that money.

I love the nightly chats Ella loves to have before she goes to bed.  She usually requests for both Cody and I to snuggle with her at separate times before we turn off the lights.  We were talking one night and she was so animated that I asked if I could take her picture to remember our nightly chats.  I showed her the (below) picture, and she said, "Wow! I look really pregnant!!"  Ha! We discussed what pregnant means after that ;).

A few of my favorite pictures of her when we recently took a ferry trip across to Kingston...

 Ella had Sophie for her first "friend" slumber party.  They just happened to have matching princess jammies and couldn't have been more excited about it!

Happy slumber party dance! Lucy cracks me up...always trying to keep up with her big sister and being a tag-a-long!

 Great grandkids with my grandparents when they were over to celebrate my grandpa's birthday...

Ella wore this little leprechaun house ALL day on St. Patrick's day.  I'm not sure if she was more terrified or excited that a "leprechaun" had visited and left a few surprises...

We love you Ella and are so proud of the beautiful young lady you are becoming! xo

Suncadia

During Ella's mid-winter break, we took a quick family trip over to Suncadia and stayed in the Lodge.  We've only been over in the spring, so were excited to see what it was like in the winter.  We were hopeful there might have been a little snow to play in and go sledding, but there was absolutely none!  Despite the lack of snow, we had a great time.  It was fun just spending time with our family and relaxing in a new place.

Ella was so excited to try ice skating - I'm pretty sure she imagined herself twirling around in a dress like one of the Disney princesses on ice.  I had a feeling it was going to be one of those things that we'd rent the skates, and then she would last all of five minutes because her feet hurt, she would be afraid she would fall, or she'd be too cold.  She's not real adventurous about trying new things ;).  However, she pleasantly surprised us by getting right on the ice and LOVING it!!  She was so cute pushing her little helper to stay balanced and she actually out lasted both Cody and I (our feet hurt so we took turns with her! Ha!).  Ella pretty much had the ice rink to herself for the first hour we were there!

 Poor Lucy had such a hard time standing on the side lines just watching.   Unfortunately they didn't have ice skates small enough for her, so she didn't get to try it out.   It's so hard to be a little sister and watch your big sister do all the fun stuff!   Cody took her for a quick spin on the ice to feel like she was part of the action...

After ice skating, we had a beautiful dinner in the Lodge...both girls were so tired by that point...

As tired as we all were (Lucy hadn't napped all day), the girls rallied and wanted to go swimming after dinner...

 We pretty much had the whole pool to ourselves too (worth it to go mid-week!)...

 All tucked in for the night...we thought the girls would be so tired they would crash and sleep hard all night, but they both ended up waking up and crying in the middle of the night and Lu ended up in our bed for most of the night.  Oh the joys of hotel stays ;)...

 Watching Frozen in the morning so mommy and daddy could get another hour of sleep...

 Ella's faces crack me up lately...

 Before leaving, we went for a walk and then stopped at a great playground...

 Lu complaining about he sun in her eyes...

 Ella's eyes closed because of the sun...I give up!