Science Lesson

Ella's science lesson :)

 

Whew!!

Afternoon at the Boardwalk

Steve has been working very hard lately with lots of long days, evenings, etc. After we got past all the business of Christmas, New Years, and Ella's birthday, we finally had a quiet weekend with very little planned. 

Steve decided to do a special day with Ella just the two of them, and they headed to the boardwalk.

They had so much fun and came home with lots of stories about the afternoon.  And even managed to take a few cute pictures!

6th Birthday

Ella turned 6 on Sunday, January 5th!

My annual wake-up shots of the birthday girl :)

We went to church in the morning and then out to lunch and bowling with friends. 

At the arcade

That night the 3 of us went out to dinner to celebrate 

Ella's last day of Christmas break was Monday January 6th. She has had a pedicure on the top of her wish list for many months now and so this was her final birthday treat, a manicure and pedicure.

She was so excited and it lived up to her hopes! The ladies were so nice and even gave her a piece of chocolate cake. She got blue sparkly toes and pink sparkly nails. 

It was quite a birthday extended weekend celebration, and hard to believe that our little girl is now 6 years old!

6th Birthday Party

Ella's birthday party was Saturday, January 4th. I think she's one of the few kids who isn't sad when Christmas is over, because she has her birthday just ten days later. And she told me that she likes her birthday even more than Christmas because it's a day only for her (Sigh. But at least she's honest…).

Every year I get Ella a birthday shirt that has her age on it and says "I'm the birthday girl" or something along those lines. Ella told me she is too big for a birthday shirt this year! So I let her pick out a 'birthday outfit' instead. Her birthday party was at 3pm but she was dressed and ready to go by 9am! She was all decked out in her outfit, complete with gloves and a wrist full of loom bracelets she made. Quite the little fashionista :)

Ella wanted to have her birthday party at Jumping Jungle and she had so much fun! I love watching her have such a good time and enjoy herself with her friends. They were like a moving blur of energy, just running and jumping at top speed all around the entire time. She had such a ball!

And some videos of all the fun!

Then it was time for pizza, cake and ice cream!

And my friend took a great video of everyone singing Happy Birthday and Ella blowing out the candles

Such a fun party!!

The Burtons came over after so we could continue the fun. Ella had a great time playing with Jake and the twins.

She loves holding Lily :)

After a big day and night, we finally got the birthday girl down to bed and all set for her birthday on Sunday!

Moody Gardens

Ella and I went down to Moody Gardens in Galveston for the day the Thursday after New Years. The Festival of Lights was still going on in the evenings, so I was hoping we'd luck out and there wouldn't be a crowd during the day, which is exactly how it turned out!

 

We got there right after they opened and headed to the Rainforest pyramid.

 

Ella loved this sea lion. He swam right in front of her and did a little show for her 

 

 

 

 

 It was so neat inside the rainforest. We saw beautiful birds, flowers, plants, butterflies, and even some monkeys who were really active

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later we came to a photo booth and Ella wanted us to take pictures. For some reason the camera caught a glare on my tooth and gave me a completely green tooth! Ella found this hysterical, hung the picture up in her room, and even brought it into school to show her class this week.

 

 

And a good one!

 

This is her "I'm so surprised because I just got turned into a frog!" face

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon we went over the Discovery pyramid which has a hands-on music exhibit with a bunch of sound-proof booths

 

Singing into the microphone

 

This was really funny. These are Whisper Pipes that you can talk in to. Ella got a big surprise when someone on the other side of the museum started talking back to her!

 

We had so much fun there, it was a great outing and really fun day together.