Fun Summer Saturdays

Our Saturdays during the summer seem to be very busy and filled with fun adventures. I wanted to take a second to remember some of the fun things we have been doing these last few weeks. Let's see two weekends ago Nana came in town for a quick trip and we had a fun weekend including a trip to White Water and our neighbor Tommy's 3rd birthday pool party. Ella Kate absolutely loves White Water and this is her second trip already this summer. She loves everything about the water and swimming. That Sunday Ella Kate also moved up classes in Sunday School to the 2 year old class. There were definitely some tears when I took her to the new class but last week the teacher said she is doing better. Hopefully this week will be "Best" as Ella Kate would say. The little class is so cute and she even has an attendance chart. Each Sunday morning that she comes to class she gets to color and glue a brick on the wall of Jericoh. So cute!! They are already singing songs helping them to learn the books of the Bible, etc. It is just amazing what there little brains can learn.

Last Saturday we had another fun day which started out with a trip to the Atlanta Farmers Market. Dave and one of his co-workers signed up to purchase 12 weeks worth of organic veggies from a local farmer and we pick them up each Saturday at the Atlanta Farmers Market. His co-worker who lives in Atlanta normally just brings our half of the veggies to work but she was busy today so we went down to pick them up. Since we were already in Atlanta and have a zoo membership we stopped by the zoo for a few hours and Ella Kate had a blast. I think her favorite thing today was the elephants. Each time we go she has a new favorite animal. After the zoo we headed home for a quick nap and then met Casey, Ruth, and sweet Harris up at our neighborhood pool for some swimming and dinner. Dave and Casey grilled out by the pool and we ordered a small pizza for the kids. The kids swam for a good 2-3 hours and were so tired that at one point they both got out and layed on a towel together and said "Night Night." They play so good together and are just precious! I know that they are going to be life long friends. Dave and Casey grew up across the street from each other and have been friends since Kindergarten or maybe even a little before. Needless to say it was a piece of cake putting Ella Kate to bed tonight. We read one story and Ella Kate told me she wanted in her bed.

Ella Kate has always been a great sleeper and so easy to put down for naps and bedtime until this past month. We went through about 2 weeks of her screaming, making herself throw up, and just pitching a fit about going to bed. Well I think it was probably a little to do with her starting to understand more and more about baby brother on the way and also the fact that she figured out how to climb out of her crib. It was quite a challenge b/c you can't let them cry it out when your child is making herself throw up and then climbing out of her bed. The past 2 weeks has been drama free at nap and bedtime and I think we have our good little sleeper back. In the past Ella Kate has always insisted on having a sippy cup with milk to drink while I read her bedtime stories. We finally figured out that b/c milk is hard to digest when she would get hysterical about going to bed, the belly full of whole milk was quite easy for her to throw up. We have now switched her nighttime story sippy cup from milk to water which we needed to do anyway. After the switch to water Ella Kate and I had a mother daughter discussion at naptime one day that went something like this.... Ella Kate would scream at the top of her lungs and start climbing out of her crib and totter on the front rail, I stood at the front rail took lots of deep breaths and calmly layed her back down again saying, "Ella Kate is a good girl and wants to go night night.", we repeated this cycle for a good 30 mins before she finally layed down and said, "Ella Kate good girl go night night." Every since then we have had no issues. I love that little angel but she is a stubborn little thing. I just can't imagine where she gets it from. :)

Ella Kate and Daddy at Tommy's B'day party! The birthday party was at the amazing Oakton house on Kennesaw Avenue where Tommy's Uncle lives. The pool and the surrounding gardens were just amazing. The tile in the pool was done in dark colors which fit in with the cool feel of the gardens and area. It was so very neat.

Ella Kate's favorite part of a birthday party - eating ice cream! The child loves vanilla ice cream.

All dressed up waiting for Daddy to get home from work on Thursday of last week to take her for a quick swim before supper.

Ella Kate had a perfect view of the elephant show at the Zoo on Daddy's shoulders.

Miss Priss wanted to walk by herself at the zoo to go see the Alligators. Dave brought her back a book about Alligators after his most recent camping trip to the Oakefenokee Swamp! (sorry can't spell that) She now loves loves alligators.

Checking out the gorillas. One of her favorites.

She looks to find the Mommy, Daddy, and Baby for each of the animals.

Since the month of June is her birthday month she got some birthday ice cream at the zoo for being such a good girl. Besides it was really hot that day :)

Sweet Harris!

Ella Kate and Harris play so good together. I did not snap the pictures quick enough but 2 seconds before I took this picture they were both laying down on the beach towel together saying "Night Night." They were exhausted. Unfortunately I did not get that many pics of them at the pool but that is b/c they kept us very busy :)