Catching Fire Flies!

A couple of nights ago, we were walking around the neighborhood and noticed that the fire flies were out...lots of them. So, we decided to play a game of "Who can catch the most fire flies" boys against girls! I had two jars that we poked holes in the lids and then the kids decorated them with stickers...red and yellow for the girls and green and blue for the boys. They filled them with leaves and sticks and grabbed their bug nets that the Easter Bunny had gotten them and we headed outside. Luke actually caught the first fly but it got out of the net before we could get it in the jar. He was so proud.

Oh...if you are wondering why Ella is wearing a sweatshirt during summer...she thought the fire flies might think she was one if she wore yellow and would come to her....I wonder about her sometimes.

In the end, both teams had caught four. Ella wants to do it again soon so we can beat those boys! At the end of the night Ella said, "Mom, that was really fun. What do you have planned for us tomorrow?"

No more preschool for Ella

This post is a bit late but I still wanted to share. Ella finished her last day of preschool June 1st. They sent home this little note along with a billion other pictures and arts and crafts. I liked it and thought I would take a picture to put in the blog to look at later down the road.

Her teacher (Mrs. Bright) measured the kids' heights and weights on their first day of school and then again towards the end. Here is how much Ella has grown. She will be a big Kindergartener!

Since school has been out...Ella and Luke have really been soaking up summer. They are out by our pool or in the sprinklers almost every day. We actually just got membership to a neighborhood pool recently so I am hoping both of them will learn how to swim really well this summer.

A Girls' night with guests!

As I have told you before, Ella is a huge fan of girls' night and has been wanting to share the experience with her cousins for a while now. So, we invited my sister along with her three girls to spend the night and have girls' night with us.

My sister and I got it all set up while they were playing "Shark Boy and Lava Girl" in the back room. We pretended they were special customers coming to relax at our spa. Those girls were loving every minute of it and played right along.

Especially baby Maya ( She is almost three so I think I better stop calling her baby Maya). She loved to exfoliate!

The best part...mud masks and cucumbers.

And the grand finale....snacks and milk in fancy glasses....Ella and I really need to change up our routine:)

Golf'n buddies

Last week, we took the kids golfing. At first, they thought we meant putt-putt so they were disappointed when we pulled up to the big golf course. Ella said it looked boring...but that was before daddy pulled up in the golf cart. A special little surprise that made them squeal with excitement.

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

This is a rather special Memorial Day for us....it's our one year anniversary of being in this house! Here is what we were doing last Memorial day. We can't believe a year is over! It has been awesome!

We were very lucky this year to have Lyle off the entire weekend...plus the week after...it was his vacation. It was spoiled by his Step 3 exam but he was home...that is what we have learned this first year of surgical residency...stay focused on the positive!

Saturday we grilled out in the backyard followed by some delicious watermelon. First of the summer!

On Sunday, we went to Grandma and Papa's for some fishing. We bought the kids new poles on the way down...Ella of course had to have a pink pole and Luke was very happy with a little Spiderman pole. He was very proud of it...and it actually worked which we doubted.

The pond we were fishing on had been stocked with catfish a while back so the kids caught a ton of little catfish. Ella felt like a pro by the end. Luke wasn't so sure about it all but did enjoy holding his pole which got tangled about a million times!

My little adorable nephew Landon joined in the fun too! He just got his glasses about a month ago... so cute!

As expected though, the kids got tired of fishing after about an hour so that is when Lyle really got to enjoy himself. I think he caught about 10 fish!

On Monday, we really wanted to go to the lake or do something really "Memorial Dayish" but didn't have the energy so we did the next best thing....pretended we were at the lake in our backyard! Lyle blew up the pool and cooked hamburgers and hot dogs while the kids splashed and I relaxed! It was wonderful!

We finished the weekend off with a little T-ball outside followed by a pretty serious game of football! Why did the weekend have to end???