Upside down cake - May 2010

We had dinner tonight with the Nye's who brought pineapple upside down cake for dessert. Ella and Keira weren't too fond of it. Ella said she wanted right side up cake.

Cover My Toes - May 2010

On our way home from grandma and grandpa's tonight I was telling Travis how Keira is saying more and more things that remind me of Ella when she was younger. Right after I said that Keira asked me to cover up her toes with her blanket after which Ella asked me to cover up her toes too. So even though Keira reminds me of Ella sometimes, Ella wants to be like Keira sometimes too.

On our way down to grandma's and grandpa's Keira started to fall asleep. It was late in the day so we wanted to try to keep her awake so that she could fall asleep easily at bedtime later. So Ella helped us out by singing a wake up song to Keira. The words to her song were basically 'wake up, wake up, you gotta stay awake so you can get some milk.'

The girls sang a beautiful Happy Birthday to Clint today on the phone. Keira's nursery teacher said that she's a great singer and focuses really hard to try to learn the songs.

Ella and Keira also played hide and seek with their great grandma. Not many kids can say that they played hide and seek with their great gram. She was hiding when we got there. We didn't know it until the girls had gone to the playroom and then heard gram calling for them. The girls were tickled.

Peroxide Pain - May 2010

Is it horrible of me to say that I like it when my girls get owies because I can be nurse mom to them and be the shoulder to cry on? Ella scraped up her knee today again. She scraped it on the ferry the other day and got special big bandaids from one of the crew members and what they called "happy spray" which lessened the burn of the alchohol wipes. Anyway, she scraped it again today while running around and dancing with Keira and Alara at Triple X burgers. She screamed at the thought of cleaning it because she knows the pain. But she needed a shoulder to lean on afterward and could tell that mom really did care for her.

A 5K, then downtown - May 2010

We all participated in a 5K yesterday at the UW Bothell. Travis finished in 24min. and 55 seconds. Mom, Ella, Keira, Carol, Avery, and Ashley finished in about 50 minutes:) After the run/walk we went to the breakfast and had a snack. Then we spotted a bouncy house and the girls had a great time bouncing around. They managed to hold their own pretty well with three older boys too. There was only one sad moment when one of the boys accidentally got a little close to Keira when she was down which afforded us the opportunity to head out even though we'd be calling at the girls for a while already that it was time to go. Avery took the pictures of Keira and Ella and mom at the 5K.

The Griffeth's invited us to join them downtown for a ferry ride and a roam around Pike Place which we did in the afternoon. We enjoyed honey sticks and chocolate pasta from the market and got some of our favorite honey there too - fireweed honey yum! Then we made the 3:00 ferry to Bremerton where the girls enjoyed trying to make the arcades work and taking the elevator to the top to see the great view. Then we rode back and had Ivar's for dinner before going home. What a great day! Keira is doing the sign for fish in her stroller down at Pike Place. Avery convinced Ella and Keira that the sun's reflection in the water was sparkles from the Barbie movie "Diamond Castle." And Keira screamed her famous super high pitched scream after she had to get off of the carousel ride, poor kid.

Mother's Day - May 2010

Best Mother’s Day ever. Today was a special day because I got my first homemade gift from Ella. A decorated pot that she made at Shorecrest playschool:) Also the best day because I’d forgotten that Ella would sing today in church with the primary kids. I got a little teary eyed when she did. I remember for years (5 to be exact) wondering when I would have a child sing on Mother’s Day. She did a great job. She smiled and knew almost all of the words. I was so proud. She went up with her friend Aubrey and they sat in the seats behind everyone at first, because I imagine it looked like fun, but were re-directed by brother Card to the front. Keira was a bit sad that she couldn’t join Ella and kept saying ‘up’ when Ella headed to the front to sing. But she enjoyed the performance from afar. Ella wanted to sing the hymns today in the worst way but didn’t know the tunes to them. Except for the last one which was ‘Love at Home.’ Ella is quite familiar with this hymn and was excited to sing it. She is familiar with it because mom sings it to keep her sanity whenever the girls are both screaming:) It often calms them down. I was laughing inside when she got excited because she knew it.