Ella's pic made the school website

Ella walking into school with her friend, Emma

For the record, I think she has worn this outfit 3 times already since school started :)

Creation Museum

On Saturday we went to the Creation Museum with Bettye and Stan. After the girls threw fits in the morning and weren't able to go to the Lowe's craft (boo! It was the cutest little locker) I was unsure what the museum would bring. Thank goodness the girls turned things around and by 10 o'clock I had a much happier crew on my hands :)

I have heard a lot about this museum and the controversy surrounding it. Yes, it is obviously very religious, but I just hated seeing armed police men and police dogs on this beautiful property. It was a lot of fun to explore this with our children and also fun to see how much of the bible has been sinking in!

We also used the happy moods the kids were in to snap as many family pics as humanly possible. I bet there was over 100 (yes I was hoping for a Christmas Card pic)

One of our favorite parts was the Noah's Ark exhibit. The workers came to life and told the story of what they were doing to build the ark. The characters looked so real and it was very interesting to learn facts about the bible I had not heard before. They had described the animals' feeding system which was around so Noah didn't have to feed every animal everyday. It was a pretty awesome depiction of the buckets, ropes, and crates used to feed the animals their dry food.

Inside the Ark.
There was a 13 question quiz. Ella got all of them right except for how many levels were on the ark. She chose 6 and it was 3.

She is all into posing these days.

After the ark we walked through the forest. It was full of animals and posing girls.

I really enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit. I always wondered about the dinosaurs' timeline vs. Adam and Eve. It was stated that dinosaurs lived when Adam and Eve were alive but the word dinosaur wasn't created until 1841 so that is why dinosaur is not mentioned in the bible.

I also found out that yes, dinosaurs were on the ark.
Noah just took them as babies.

Don't know if Noah would have taken these three crazy kids with him ;)

Just wanted to see if you were paying attention :)

Then we headed outside to the petting museum. Ella was so excited to ride the camel but the camel was resting until 2 pm. We weren't able to stay that late so hopefully we can go back and let her ride the camel.

The grounds were just gorgeous and it seemed everywhere we turned there was a great place for a picture. Once again, there were so many taken and some of the mistakes were hysterical but in lieu of keeping this post from being ridiculously long, I narrowed it down :)

Another pose by Ella
It is tough to get a pic of her NOT posing in some funny position

Phew you made it past the family pics....
Now back to the petting zoo.
Matthew had.a.blast feeding the animals. I wish I had taken video but he would feed the animals, scream with laughter, run away and then come back. It was hysterical!

I forget the name of this animal but I remember it was a raccoon kinda thing. Matthew thought it was a hoot!

This was actually a scream of joy.
He loved these crazy alpacas.

We found Ella talking to another girl, feeding little goats.
Both of the girls said the alpacas were too big :)

And who doesn't love one of those jumpy bridges? It was a lot of a great time until Matthew thought it was fun to jump on the bridge and then fall down. The adults were worried his fingers were going to get squished. Leave it to a 2 year old to turn something fun into something dangerous :)

Thanks for a great day, Nana and Pappy

A box of fun

Kids just love playing in boxes!

Here is Laney's tribute to the book I am almost finished with: The Help. Have you read it yet?

These pictures remind of this picture:

This was Ella's first day of preschool in 2008.

I remember Laney and I having so much fun that morning. She had no idea what to do with just Mom and no big sis around :)

A confident little Lady

Ella is ready to go for her second day of school! I love her confidence :)

She told me the green in the striped shirt and the green in her crazy patterned shorts matched.

And yes, this is what she is wearing to the bus stop. You can't fight fashion. Love it!

First Day of School for our favorite 1st Grader!

Today was Ella's first day of school at her new school, Terrace Park Elementary. We had her lunch ready and were headed out the door by 8:15am. The doors opened around 8:30 for the students to shuffle in. My biggest fear is that she would have no one to talk to, no one to have lunch with, etc. Throughout the summer we had a few playdates with other first graders so she would know a few faces; she was so excited to see these new friends. Some of her friends went home for lunch (they have 50 minutes where lunch and recess combine and many kids do go home for lunch) but many stayed. She told me she sat next to some new girls (whose names she forgot) but she said everybody was very nice. Once again, moms worry about the little details and the kids just don't worry :)

Ella wanted to stop and pose by the ball fields :)

Ella outside of her modular room (fancy name for trailer).
The new school will be ready for the beginning of the next school year.

Laney wanted to practice her smile for Kindergarten next year!

All the parents were waiting.
In Fishers, the first day of school was so anticlimactic but here it was fun to walk the kids to their classrooms and visit with the other kids/parents.

Laney quickly became unsure about this situation.

Ella's class and teacher, Miss Bimm

The other side of the festivities

Around 3:15 we headed to the bus stop to get Ella off the bus.
Ellie and Laney couldn't wait to see the girls.

The bus is here!

Jill and Ella were the only kids getting off today since the school is phasing in Kindergartners (we have 2 on our street) and Ella's classmate was sick.

Usually there will be at least 5 kids getting off here.

Jill and Ella enjoying their happy 1st day brownies :)

Ella said her day was great and talked to lots of really nice girls. I haven't gotten many specifics out of her (except that in music class she had to stand next to the boy with stinky shoes) but I am glad my nervousness was for no reason!

Thanks to the before school visit from Nana and Pappy and thanks to the Happy First Day card from Nana and Grandpa! Such wonderful grandparents she has :)

Here is to a great year!