Happy Arbor Day

I'll get to the Arbor Day thing in a few minutes. :-) We had a nice week. We visited Grandma Betty on Wednesday for a little bit. Ella's speech was cancelled on Thursday but Andrew said I should still take her out. So we went out for lunch and visited the library where she picked out her own books. She picked Curious George Takes a Train and How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight, among others. It was fun to go out with just Ella. It's funny to think that's how I used to spend my day before Lily came along.

Ella is obsessed (or should I say she's very nurturing) with her Wilbur pig. We take it EVERYWHERE. She has to tuck it in for naps and bedtime. She shushes me when its "sleeping". She feeds it. Worries that the sun is too bright for his eyes. She puts him in the doll stroller and Lily's booster chair at the table. I've never seen her so attached to anything. It's very adorable in some respects. He's filthy as, well, a pig. She's not aware, but the Easter bunny purchased a second pig from Target and its hiding in our closet should we need to "replace" Wilbur due to unfortunate circumstances.

One of her favorite things to do lately is play zoo. She found our play yard baby gate and decided to set it up in the living room. Then she set her pig and various other animals outside the gate. Found a piece of her train track roughly the size of a digital camera and proceeded to tell me she was at the zoo and taking pictures of the "animals." (Okay, maybe I take a few too many pictures). ;-)

I know I tend to post more Ella stories, but really Lily is at the "Monkey See, Monkey Do" stage. So mostly whatever I say about Ella, Lily tries to do the same thing in her own limited manner.

The girls spent last night with Grandpa Gary and Gramma Clare. While they were there, Andrew and I made a trip to Menards. We filled our cart with a hose, a fashionable hose "box" to hide it, various cleaning supplies, and a deck box to hold our chair cushions and the kids folding chairs. We were standing in the check out line and an older couple behind us said, "So, how long have you had your house?" I laughed and said, "Since December" and Andrew said, "Is it that obvious?" They laughed and said they could tell it was our first "season". :-)

Andrew mowed the lawn for the first time today. And we had Grand Tom and Grand Pat come in for a visit. We spent the evening playing with the girls in the backyard. (Okay here's where the Arbor Day greetings come in.) In honor of Arbor Day, Tom and Pat brought us a pine tree seedling to plant in our backyard. So we dug a little hole, planted the tree, and took the girls first picture by it. I have a feeling we'll be taking the girls picture there often to see how they grow along with it. :-)

I've add a new April album to the pictures website, so enjoy!