Ellie’s Art Gallery

Ellie and Adelaine are colouring machines. I often come home from work to the faint smell of burning crayons as the girls have been busily creating new art. Ellie has especially gotten much better the last couple months (some of her early works). Something finally clicked and she now is getting quite good at her colouring and drawing. We can now usually tell what it is that she is drawing. Sometimes she will take a little pad of paper and whip out a bunch of quick drawings. I may even consider selling my camera and just take Ellie along with her art supplies!

Two versions of Ellie standing on a rock among the trees.

Here is a collection of her recent work:

Ellie has been so prolific lately that we decided that she needed her own place in her room to hang her favourite pictures. So I put all my new construction skills to work and Ellie helped me hang a magnetic board for her new art gallery. I think it is almost level too!

Thumbs up!

Easter

“What? A pink comb?!?”

The kids’ aunts and Nanna sent out a ton of new clothes for the kids with Auntie Stacy for her visit, including new Easter Sunday outfits. After church we headed out to get some photos of the kids.

Later on we had some friends over for lunch and we took the kids outside to find their Resurrection Eggs, little plastic eggs with little visual aids inside to help teach them the Easter story (i.e. strip of leather to remind us of Jesus being whipped, nails to remind us of the cross, etc).

After the egg hunt we came back inside to review the Easter story.

It was a really nice day for us. The girls were really into the day and understood the importance of Easter, with Adelaine repeatedly saying excitedly that, “Jesus died on the cross for our sins!” We also got to spend the day with family (Auntie Stacy) and some good friends. Thank you Lord for a wonderful day of remembering your love for us.

The Big Birthday Party

Take two 5 year old birthday kids, add a bunch of friends, mix in some sugar, stir the whole batch thoroughly, and presto, you have a fun, chaotic party! We commandeered Papa’s house for a big combined birthday party for Ellie and Evan (whose 5th birthday was three days after Ellie’s).  Joe and Suzanne looked after making the wonderful cake and preparing the fajita meat tex- mex style. Thanks to everyone for coming and making it such a blast!

(NOTE: Papa, that is a figurative blast. No pyrotechnics were discharged in your house.)

Ellie is Five

Today was our big girl’s fifth birthday! Sometimes I look at Ellie and think I am too young to be the father of such a big girl, then I remember that my dad had three teenagers by the time he was my age…

Ellie has been asking about her birthday every week for at least 8 months. She looks forward to it sooo much each year. For the last several days as she has been counting down, every few hours she would proudly say that she will be five. Finally the day has come and she was almost vibrating with energy.

We had just a small family celebration tonight and have a bigger party planned for her with one of her friends, Evan, whose fifth birthday is only a few days later. It was so much fun for us to see her excitement for her special day. Today she also started the countdown to # 6 when she asked how many days were left until her next birthday. For us, we are hoping that sixth birthday doesn’t come too fast.

Happy birthday Ellie. We love you!