A busy past two weeks has led to this combined version of the weekly happenings of our lives!  The week before last, we had the opportunity to see my nieces and nephew (Brooke, Cassidy, and Bradyn) compete in an academic competition for their school.  They all did very well in their respective categories - Bible facts, spelling, and math.  Afterwards, we went back to their house for another crack at the Wii!  Two weeks in a row - how lucky can you get?!   My mom took a turn this time and ended up liking it!  We had a lot of fun making cute little, grey-haired Mii characters with glasses for her and Dad.  It was a great way to spend a snowy day.

 

I've included a few pics of Ella's first attempts at drawing people.  I think they're pretty good for 3 1/2!  Especially since I didn't do much coaching on them.  She really did it pretty much on her own!  She's also very into letters and "reading" right now.  She can recognize 24 of the 26 letters by sight now and is always pointing at words and signs and asking me, "What does that say?"  I have a feeling she's going to be ready to do some "real" reading before she goes to kindergarten, but we'll see.  I'm not going to push her.  A friend of mine introduced me to a neat piano teaching curriculum for 4, 5, and 6-year-olds called "Music for Little Mozarts."  We plan to buy it for Ella's birthday in May and I will begin teaching her this summer.  We're all very excited about it.  It is already evident that she has a good sense of rhythm for her age.

 

Last weekend, the girls and I saw "Cinderella's Glass Slipper" at the school where my brother, Troy, teaches.  Troy did the sets for the show, complete with a chandelier made from packing peanuts!  The picture shows the queen's throne at the palace.  Ella was so excited when the Cinderella character told the prince that her real name was Ella, but that she was called Cinder-ella because she slept by the fireplace to keep warm and got dirty from the ashes and cinders.  She is still talking about that.

 

This Sunday was a busy day at our church.  In the morning, we had a groundbreaking ceremony for the new addition to our existing building.  It will be a multi-purpose worship/recreation space, plus several new classrooms.  Then Sunday evening was our Easter cantata.  Jeff had a solo and some narration.  It all went really well.

 

And finally, I included a picture of our little climber, Lucy.  Saturday night, she climbed onto Ella's bed by herself for the first time.  It is a toddler bed, and she can get off by herself okay, so it didn't worry me too much.  Then on Monday, Ella yelled from the other room, "Mommy, Lucy's on the chair!"  I went in there and found her standing on one of the small folding chairs!  I let her know I was not pleased and got her down quickly...but I did pause to get a picture real quick first. Then later that afternoon, I walked into the family room and she was sitting on the couch!  I soon found out, though, that Ella had put her up there.  We're not quite ready for that one yet, but I know it won't be long!

This past weekend, we enjoyed celebrating two family birthdays.  My nephew, Bradyn turned 11 on 2/27 and my Mom's 65th birthday is today, 3/4.  So, as we often do, we celebrated them on the same day while we were all together, though they each had their own cake, plates, napkins, etc.

 

The main source of entertainment for the day was Bradyn's new Wii video game system.  Most of us had never seen one up close, let alone tried to play.  Bradyn was gracious and shared with all of us.  We all had a blast trying our hand at bowling, dancing with the stars, golfing, etc.  It was so much fun!  We look forward to the next time we get to play!