Ella is 6!

Interview with our 6 year old:

Are you happy with the name Mom and Dad gave you?
Yes

What do you love about each person in our family?

Mom: Because she gives me food (makes me sound like I am still breastfeeding)
Dad: That he gives us piggy back rides.
Laney: Sharing with her (mom inserts the question--really??)
Matthew: I like that he tackles me

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A fireman

How many kids do you want to have when you grow up?
100

What is your favorite thing to do at home?
Play outside

Favorite Color?

Pink

What was your favorite thing about school?

Learning math

What is your least favorite things about school?
Recess (???)

What is your favorite:

Book: The Princess and the Frog
Restaurant: Peanut Place (aka, Logans Steakhouse where you can throw the peanuts on the floor)--same as last year
Animal: Polar Bear
Toy: Barbie
Vegetable: Carrots
TV show: Sponge Bob (interesting since I don't let her watch that)
Holiday: Easter (probably because it's right before her birthday) & Christmas
Fruit: Strawberries and blueberries
Treat: Cake
Breakfast Food: Pancakes
Lunch: Tortilla with cheese

What is your lucky number:
10

What are you most excited about now that you are 6?

Riding my bike with no training wheels

Favorite place in the whole world?
The Zoo

Favorite activity (dance, gymnastics, etc)?
Tap Dancing & gymnastics (HANDSTANDS...all.the.time!)

Favorite thing to do (in general)?
Play with my friends--barbies & cowgirls

What are you most proud of about yourself?
Just being myself. I also ride the bus really well.
.

Ella's 6 year stats:

Weight: 48lbs
Height: 48"

The nurse said that made her a box. We thought that was funny :) Ella is 75th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. She remains tall and thin for her age and if you see her with her peers it is very obvious that she is tall!

But with that height I think comes some disadvantages. We have noticed that she has low muscle tone (like in Tae Kwon Do when she punches, it is more of a throw out the arm without force sort of movement instead of a movement done with force...if that makes sense). The doctor said there is no concern and to just keep her in sports/activities that she likes. It was funny to see her in Tae Kwon Do as her stance was more hands on the hips rather than with force. Too cute!

I met with the speech therapist and Ella's Kindergarten teacher last week and both were very excited with her progression in school/speech. She is very confident and actually helps other speech kids with their sounds. She is slightly ahead of the curve for reading and continues to sound many words out but often would rather just say the word "poop" when she doesn't know what a word is--imagine that!

Ella has seen an eye doctor every year since her birth due to the family history of poor eye sight. The teachers and I have noticed that Ella has started to read out of her left eye (at times). I talked to the MD and he thinks it will be worth revisiting the eye MD early as she might need glasses. Our eye MD had told us at her last visit that he would think first grade is when she would need glasses and looks like that prediction might be right. Off to the eye MD we go.

Ella has fallen into the big sister role with no problem. She loves to be the mom (even when I am around) and loves helping Matthew and Laney out. She is an easy going kid who adjusts well to change. I am so proud of our little lady and couldn't be happier with her progression this past year. She is such an independent soul and I can't wait to see what this year brings. We love you Ella!

Rainbow

During dinner a few weeks ago, our neighbor, Jackie,

called saying there was a rainbow outside.

We immediately stopped dinner and ran outside to see its beauty.

Ella said, "Hurry, let's get in the car. There is a pot of gold at the end of it."

Given the current housing situation, I said let's go...mama wants some gold!

Funny comments

1) Ella has really been working on her speech (her speech teacher says that she has advanced beyond her expectations and is even helping some of the other kids in her class).

2) But Ella is working on not only her speech but also Matthew's. I often see her giving him speech lessons. Ella says, "Matthew, say di-no-saur." It is hysterical! Matthew can repeat pretty much any sound but hasn't put too many words together yet.

3) Jason and Laney's conversation:

Jason: Do you know Jesus loves you?

Laney: Yes, Dad, and Jesus loves you too.

4) Speaking of funny Laney moments, Laney and I were grocery shopping the other day. We were having a great session of good food choices verses not so good food choices. We got to the frozen vegetables and I asked her if frozen veggies were a good choice. She said, "Yes, they are mom." I asked her, "Why?" and Laney responded, "Jesus made the vegetables and everything Jesus made was good."

5) Ella & Laney finished up gymnastics a few weeks ago. I was so glad we sent them to Devous. I was very impressed with the actual skills they worked on (not just, go jump in the foam pit but rather would jump off the vault into the foam pit). It was fun to see them progress.

6) But unfortunately for Ella, she inherited my bad knees (but really, I can blame that on my dad...right, dad?). They timed the kids running from the back of the track to the foam pit. Most kids were 4-5 seconds (Laney was 4.5 seconds) where as Ella was 6.2 seconds. She was sure trying her best, but no worries El...running fast hasn't gotten that many people further in life than others (unless you want to be an Olympic athlete or something).

7) Anybody that has a kindergartner can relate to this but I still can not believe how much Ella has grown this year. She is one of the youngest and has been in a certain reading/writing group that was not as advanced as the others (reading group A). Well, she has really advanced quickly , is reading quite well and now is in reading group C (ahead of the curve). We continue to work on writing (spacing of words, when to capitalize, punctuation) but the teacher says she is right on track. So between her kindergarten teacher and her speech teacher, I can see her hard work paying off.

8) Our house is still on the market. It is frustrating to say the least and we are up to 43 showings. The feedback is great but we always seem to be the #2 or #3 house (we have been the #2 house 3 times). We dropped the price a few weeks ago and activity has picked up. We got our first offer this week (ironically the offer was from a Troy Powell. Our great friends and neighbors are Troy & Jen Powell). It wasn't a great offer and since we aren't desperate (yet) we turned it down. I know once the leaves come in the back yard people will see why we love our house so much but right now it is tough to see the beauty. Come on spring!

9) With that being said, we are hoping to move to Cincinnati by 4th of July if not sooner. We have some painting and small remodeling to do before we move in so hopefully the timing will all work out.

10) For anybody who reads this who orders AdvoCare, check your AdvoCare shipments. Jason and I will be in the AdvoCare pamphlet for pinning Silver which means we currently are at $1000 a month income. We are so excited!

11) I find myself telling the kids that I am a gentle sole. Like if they are yelling or talking sassy to me, I will say something like, "Kids, please don't talk like that. Mom is a gentle sole." Well the other day Laney and Jason were talking and she turned to him and said, "Dad, please don't. I am a gentle sole." )

12) Matthew has a pronated left foot so I took him to the MD. He suggested that we take him to get xrays although feels an orthopedic doctor probably wouldn't do anything about it at his age. We have some foot braces from Laney when she was Matthew's age, so I might get those fitted for his feet but first, to get xrays.

13) Laney's new trick? Whistling. In fact, she shines at whistling while using the restroom :)

If you made it to the end and are still awake, A+ to you!!!

I think he liked it

I think Matthew likes blueberries....what do you think?

Redecorating

Last week a few of my friends were here to help me redecorate. We had gotten some negative feedback about the basement being in a U shape vs one big room. We always liked that our basement was divided so Jason could use half for his office and still have half for the kids. But while our house was on the market, the half for the kids looked undefined (in the Kelly Weseli terms). Kelly and Kristy offered great suggestions on the basement/living room so away I went.

Jason didn't get home until 6:30 one night but by the time he came in, I had moved the train table and toys down to the basement and rearranged the living room. Although the living room looks a little bare, at least it is defined as a living room (as opposed to one big play room).

We wouldn't normally keep the living room like this as with three young kids, who sits and talks, but I think Kelly & Kristy were right with their suggestions. It looks great! Thank you so much ladies!

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I don't have any pics of the living room before but
there was a train table and the kids kitchen set.

Now:

An actual living room
It would be better if we had a couch like we
used to (before kids) but I think it is at
least defined as a living room now.

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The basement before:

Although I think it looked nice and clean, we never used it like this.



So I moved the futon and brought the train table down.
We have sold the TV, and it will be picked up this weekend
so not quite sure what to do with that table in the back.

I brought down some of our nicer kids' toys
down to the basement and put them by the steps

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Another negative comment we have gotten a fair amount is the odd shape of one of the bedrooms. I know a few people who have our house layout and we all liked the little nook but I think the way we had it decorated worked for us but people couldn't see past the bed in the corner. So we decided to switch the girls' rooms around.

Here is Laney's room before:

It is now the guest room below.
This is exactly how this room looked 4 years ago before we had Laney :)

We kept the girls' dresser on the other wall.
Ella sleeps in this room now.



Here is Ella's old room.
I thought the bed in the corner was cute but apparently I was the only one :)



Now it is Laney's new room.
We made the little nook look like a play area and added a Pottery Barn chair,
a few cute touches and moved the polka dots in.



I did need to get new window treatments but all of this redecorating only cost me the cost of the treatments (not bad for $40). Even Design to Sell would be happy.

Thanks again to Kelly and Kristy for giving me the motivation to update our house.

Master Yoo

The girls had their first Tae Kwon Do lesson today. Ella had gotten an invitation for Valentine's Day for 2 free weeks of Tae Kwon Do at Master Yoos from 2 different boys. So Master Yoos let me use one pass for Ella, one for Laney.

Both were very excited about their first lesson. It was a private lesson so the girls could learn the basics before being in a large class. Punching, kicking, focusing, etc was great. And having a cool new uniform didn't hurt anything :)





Laney getting her belt on.
He wrote their names in Korean on the top right collar.

My favorite part (BY FAR!) is when the master was telling the girls there are 3 areas of focus. Now, he is Korean so it wasn't said like our focus, it was said like fo-coss (put your Korean accent in there). He asked the girls to then state the three areas of fo-coss. Ella repeated " eye fo-coss, brain fo-coss, body fo-coss" with a Korean accent. I was cracking up (inside) because she wasn't doing it to mock him but rather she thought the word was fo-coss not focus.

Ella really did well with the punches, kicks, concentration, etc. Laney lasted about 20 minutes until the instructor started doing hi-yas. It was too loud for her, and I think it just scared her. She was in my lap the rest of the session (no matter how hard the Master tried to get her involved).

Our next class is on Thursday so lets hope Laney enjoys it a bit more. Two of their friends will be in the class with them so I am sure that will help Ella "fo-coss."

A final farewell

This past weekend we headed to Cincinnati for two big reasons:

1) To clean our new house. My mom always had a clean house but when you move furniture and see baseboards, everything could use a little love. Our moms were a huge help and even our dads pitched in. We cleaned the whole house (baseboards, fans, bathrooms, etc) and then tackled the basement. I was amazed how good the basement looks and of course, realized after the fact I should have taken before and after pictures. But believe me, it looks great :)

2) The elementary school I attended, Terrace Park Elementary, is being torn down for a bigger and more advanced school. Although there is something very special about a building that has been there since 1913, it is time for something more up to date. An addition was put on in the 1950s which never seemed to flow with the old brick building so it will be nice the new elementary will all look like it belongs.

The girls were excited to see the school where I went, my mom went, and my Great Grandma taught. My 6th grade teacher, Mr. Fleckenstein (not surprising, we called him Mr. F), is retiring so it was great to see him. I was his first 6th grade class there and what was the first thing he ask me? How old am I. When I said I was 32 he said that did make him feel old :) He was probably my favorite teacher of all the teachers I had, and I feel very blessed that he loved his job so much.

I also used this time to take pictures of the school before it is torn down. I ran into classmates of mine who I hadn't seen since high school graduation. We have fun reminiscing about our elementary years. What is very unusual about our school district is you go to school with most of the same people Kindergarten through your Senior year; families rarely move away. So we have lots of blackmail if needed :) Being back home is just plain comfortable. No, I don't know many people there anymore, but I know it is going to be a perfect move for us.

Here is the elementary school.
It is very picturesque--kids ride their bikes to school and at lunch time, you often see Moms & Dads having picnics with their kids.

Although blurry, Mr. F and myself.
Gosh, he was a GREAT teacher!

I didn't want to put this on here other than to make you chuckle.
See that hottie in the neon pink shirt, poofy hair (somebody needed a flat iron) on the top right?
Yep, that's me.
The year is 1990. Wow!

Our lockers outside the 6th grade classroom



Ella sitting at my desk in Mr. F's room.
You can see the character of the building in this picture:
The old desks, the large windows, huge baseboards, real hardwood floors (creaking and all)

At my old desk (and based on its appearance it probably is the exact same desk....lol)

As the new elementary school goes up, classes will all be moved to trailers.
I have to say, I was shocked that the trailers were so nice.
Although I know the kids would rather be in a building, for the next year they will be in a series of trailers. If you haven't seen one of these "trailer parks", they are really cool. I thought each trailer would be separate and kids were just "stuck" in one all day unless they went outside. But there is a hallway that connects all of the trailers and even one larger trailer for the cafeteria.

Stan and Dean walking Laney to the playground
She wasn't so into this school stuff
The building in the background is the "newer part" of the school (and my third grade classroom)

This was my music room.
Now it is a 5th grade room.



My Kindergarten room
It is still a kindergarten room but it has been split into two different K rooms.
Our desks were in rows in Kindergarten but now the kids sit at circular tables.
I have so many memories in this room (using these huge headphones to listen to books on tape, learning to write my name, looking out the huge windows, seeing Sarah E pee on the floor by the door...yeah, those are what I remember).

Although I didn't take any pictures of our new place or my parents' new place, I got a few from their deck (thanks mom for loaning me your camera for the weekend):

Through the trees you can see Grandpa Mike & his side kick following (Matthew)



Laney & Grandpa Mike looking for fish.

Although we are exhausted we got a lot accomplished.
Thanks again to our parents who helped us!