Ella turns 6!!!

Waaay behind on this post. Ella turned 6 years old on August 5th! We started the day out here at home opening a few gifts from us and people had sent to her.


She's looking for her "big" gift from us....
There it is! I new bike! (So she doesn't look like she's riding a clown bike anymore!!)

Trying it out in the house! And then taking it outside for a spin.

Then we met B-pa at the Pancake House for breakfast. He surprised Ella with a mylar cupcake balloon and the waiter brought her a muffin with a candle in it. :-)


We spent a good part of the day cleaning up the house and getting ready to have four of Ella's school friends and one of Lily's over for a pajama playdate! We decided to have a big joint birthday party for the girls this year for family and neighbor friends we would invite to both parties anyway (that was August 29th). But we wanted to do something to make her actual birthday special and be able to include her school friends. So we invited Jentina, Emma, Riley and Kayla over in the evening to play, do arts and crafts, have pizza, and open presents. We invited Lily's little friend Hannah along too so Lily would have someone her age to play with.

Judging from the decibel noise of the girls everyone had a fantastic time!! At dinner they all sat around the table eating pizza and making up silly little jokes. The giggling was nonstop and infectious. They all brought stuffed animals or dolls with them so we had them make crowns for their little friends. And they also had the opportunity to make beaded jewelry or have their nails painted. We opened presents and had cupcakes, then it was time for the girls go home! All in all, I think Ella had a really great time! She had been asking about sleepovers all year in preschool (not sure where that came from--older siblings maybe) so this was our way for her to have a pajama party, without the sleeping over part.

My homemade version of a cupcake cake for Ella. :-)

Jentina, Riley, Ella, Emma, Kayla, Ella and Hannah!





Ella is turning into such a wonderful little girl (not that she hasn't always been wonderful). She's so thoughtful and nice to others. She plays wonderfully with kids older and younger than her. She is soooo artistic and I LOVE that! She does a great job of taking an art assignment and going beyond the directions to make it her own. I hope she never loses her artistic vision. We will do everything we can to help foster that love of art in her.

She's come along great in soccer too! She knows the rules and gets the positions for the most part. If she could just build up the endurance to get all the way down the field without stopping, she could be a force to be reckoned with!

She LOVES school and was so excited to start kindergarten. She's been talking about kindergarten since last spring! And she could hardly stand to wait the last few weeks of summer for school to start!

All righty, I just had to get a few of the fun things Ella is into recorded here on the blog for posterity. :-)