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| Where's Abby? We miss Ellie terribly during the early afternoons when I'm home from work and she's at school, but I do enjoy my little one-on-one times with sweet Abby. She's so full of precious personality and wit these days! |
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| Reading to her babies |
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| Sweet smile |
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| Her fake smile! |
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| Fake sad face! |
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| Abby is getting to be such a big girl! She's working so hard on her potty training -- and earning lots of stickers and Skittles (and happy hugs & kisses!)!! |
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| Tim & Abby have a new toy! A bike seat to fit Tim's bike, yay! Now Abby can go for bike rides with Tim and Ellie. So fun! It fits on the front of his bike so she can see everything as they ride, is padded and has special buckles, feet & hand rests. Abby's wearing one of Ellie's old helmets. She thought she was such a big girl in it! |
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| She loves her little perch on Daddy's bike! |
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| Ready to ride! |
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| Saturday, after doing a little shopping at Dogwood, we stopped by Uncle Jeff & Aunt Sarah's for a little visit. The girls had fun playing Uncle Jeff's drums! |
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| Then we went on a little walk to the lake in their neighborhood to see the ducks. This was Abby's first time to feed ducks and she had a delightful time! And she was fascinated by their feet. She kept saying "Their feet are ORANGE!" |
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| It was such a fun afternoon! Thank you, Uncle Jeff & Aunt Sarah! |
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| Yesterday was Ellie's 100th day of school. Time flies!! She's more than halfway through first grade! To celebrate, throughout the day they did all sorts of activities based on 100. In P.E., they jumped rope 100 times. In class, they held their breath for 100 seconds. They did lots of math based on 100. But the best part was at snack time. Each student brought 100 pieces of some sort of snack. Ellie brought her signature candy, Skittles. They received 10 of 10 kinds of snacks (mostly candy!) on a special placemat, counted them and then ate up! Ellie was definitely sugared up when she got home from school but what a fun way to celebrate 100 days! |
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| Ellie worked so hard on her Reading Fair storyboard. It was an optional project at school, but she really wanted to do it. Ellie loves to read and she put so much thought into choosing a book, picking out her supplies and designing the board. We talked about the requirements and she thoughtfully came up with what she wanted to write in each section. She did all the writing and cutting herself. We were so impressed with her determination to complete such a large project and she did a beautiful job! The Scaredy Squirrel books are adorable and full of such fun drawings and details. |
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| And here it is!! Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach! |
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| How cute is this squirrel?! |
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| Ellie's passport! |
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| All the hard work paid off!! Ellie took 3rd place out of the entire first grade!! She is beyond thrilled with her accomplishment! Hooray Ellie!!! Tonight, we got to see her story board on display in the school cafeteria. She was so proud of herself -- and we are very proud of her!! |
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| We let Ellie choose where she wanted to celebrate and she selected Fox's Pizza. YUM!!! |
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| painting pottery. . . |
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| . . .and drinking coffee with hair in a towel! |
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| (that's pretend coffee in her mug!) |
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| Ellie and Abby's favorite play area Papa & Granna's is in Granna's closet. They love to shut themselves in it for the longest time, giggling and playing. Sometimes, Granna will turn off the closet light for a quick second and delighted squeals can be heard from inside!! They play all sorts of imaginative games in their special hideaway. |
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| This week's unusual winter storm brought bad news and good news. Bad news: no fun snow and school was cancelled Good news: no power outages and everyone stayed safe and warm Great news: more time to hang out with Ellie since she was home from school! |
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| We kept warm with big mugs of hot chocolate! Yummy!!! |
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| One of Ellie's friends gave her a stepping stone kit for Christmas. Sunday's miserable weather gave us the perfect excuse to do an inside craft (and helped us think about Spring & warmer weather!). She was so excited to start the project -- she's wanted one of these kits forever! |
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| Ellie did her handprint and decorated it with the jewels & stones included in the kit. She has enough supplies to make 3 more. Now that she has the concept down, she has big plans for the rest, using broken pottery and beads. I can't wait to see them in our garden! |
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| On New Year's Day, we enjoyed a lovely meal with Papa & Granna. Tim grilled the most delicious filets I've ever tasted and Ellie did a wonderful job decorating and setting the table all by herself. |
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| Papa & Granna brought the girls a special treat of sparkling cider! |
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| Little sips of 'bubbly' |
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| We rang in the New Year with a quiet family night at home. Pizza & confetti poppers. Perfect evening! We're looking forward to a fun, joyous year for all our family & friends!! |
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| Abby & Ellie wanted to dress alike -- sweaters & jeans! |
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| Uncle Randy gave Ellie this cool kit for Christmas. We assembled the paper scene, poured a special solution over it, waited about 24 hours and presto! |
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| A colorful winter wonderland!!! |
