September Pics

One of those mornings before school when she was just too cute not to take a picture!

Dottie is the little mascot of Ella's brownie troop :)

We ended up with a special weekday sleepover - the girls did great together, and to say Ella was thrilled is an extreme understatement! 

One of Ella's new tricks

At Parent Night for Ella's school I got to read a few pages of Ella's journal - so, so cute!

We had a huge, huge milestone - we dropped off Ella and Dottie at the childcare at the gym, and Dottie had no tears! This was the first time we tried dropping Dottie off at any type of childcare and I was fully expecting the childcare ladies to come find me after about 10 minutes. But we were so pleasantly surprised, she did great and played with Ella the whole time. 

This huge bird hung out on our ladder for a while, he was really pretty and neat to watch. When he finally flew away, he had a huge wingspan 

Adorable sisters

Ella's after school routine

And my favorite part is the "go visit mom" section :)

She loves the mirror!

This cracked me up!

"pot on a tato" = "put on a tattoo" - ha!

Fun at the playground

Grammy with the little ladies

Face-off with Cory

Adorable girl on picture day

Bittersweet -- nursing this sweet baby for the last time

Brownie trip to the Urgent Care

First Aid meeting at the scout house

Even though she missed Clinefest this year, she still showed her spirit every Wednesday

She was SOOOO happy when her American Girl bike from Grammy arrived for Felicity

Helping me get all the food ready for a cooking workshop

Happy girl

Dottie wants to do everything that Ella is doing. Ella was eating an apple and she HAD to give it a try

Dressed up as "the joker"

Precious meaty girl!

Making a "nature stew" after a walk

She made these gel worms during her Spectacular Science class and played with them for days

Dottie pulling up!

Ella mastering her dive!

Family Breakfast at school

And Dottie pushing her walking toy - she's getting so big!!

First Week of 2nd Grade

Ella started second grade on Monday, August 24th. 

These kisses are the absolute sweetest :)

Walking to school

In her classroom, time for us to say good-bye 

They lucked out because her teacher let them pick their seats to start the year. She's got a friend from the bus on one side of her, friend from first grade on the other side, and friend from kindergarten right across from her. We'll see if they manage to stay sitting next to each other but so far, so good!

Second day of school, first day of riding the bus. Even though our mornings are earlier during the school year which means less sleep for all of us, I really do enjoy the time alone with her in the mornings while Dottie is still asleep. 

Ella made this in school -- so, so, so sweet!!

Unfortunately she woke up with pink eye on Wednesday, and missed her 3rd day of school. She felt pretty good though and managed to teach herself a new trick!

Ready for a new year of gymnastics

And giving Dottie a ride on "the tornado!"

Ella's doing great in second grade so far. She has a lot more homework than she did in first grade, and is really learning a lot. She loves her teachers and her friends, and looks forward to every day. Her favorite subject is social studies, and she's really good at spelling. Her reading ability has really taken off and she now enjoys reading to herself, which is awesome to see. I'm so proud of her and so glad that she's had such a great school experience to this point, and I hope it continues.