Lamens Family: 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...