Monkey Girl

As the two year anniversary of our blog is coming up, I'm going to quickly update so I can get another blog book made (as you all know, I abhor scrapbooking).

Gymnastics was followed by an award ceremony and her very own trophy. Grandpa was able to attend while I dashed to meet with the second grade teachers for next year.

P.S. I know the leotard looks tight, poor thing is built just like her mother...long torso, and short legs!! Oh well, she'll always have bikinis!!

Mmmmm...Dirt.

As we were driving home from dinner, we saw some baby cows. I reminded Ellie that Great Grandpa had some new calves at the farm. Being cheeky, I also told her we should go visit them before we eat them.

Ellie: Does grandpa kill cows at the barn?

Me: Grandpa doesn't kill the cows at the farm, he takes them to a place that does it.

Dan: They slaughter the cows.

Ellie: What does slaughter mean?

Dan: That is what it is called when they kill cows before we eat them.

Ellie (wailing): I don't want to eat animals!!

Dan: Ellie, Heavenly Father gaves us animals to eat.

Ellie: I think I'll just eat dirt.

Me: Dirt?

Dan: Animals aren't bad for you Ellie.

Ellie: I know, dirt isn't either.

Tender-hearted

On Friday, my kids from student teaching had their first grade program, and Ellie came with me. We arrived a little later than planned, so we stood in the back of the gym. I stood next to a grandma and some grandkids. I put Ellie down, because let's face it...she's gettin' heavy!! I looked down at her and I saw she was fixated on something on the floor. I got a better look, and I realized it was a potato bug (rollie-pollie). The only problem, a little boy was playing with it.

Ellie watched the little boy continually run over the potato bug with his toy car. As soon as he walked away from the potato bug, Ellie hurried and swooped it up. When he returned he demanded that Ellie give him the bug back, because he had it first. Ellie hid it behind her back, but reluctantly gave it to him when he grabbed her hand. Not wanting to intervene, I just watched. The little boy continued to hit the potato bug with his car. I looked down at Ellie and her eyes had welled up with tears, so I picked up that heavy girl and hugged and love her while she cried about the poor potato bug.

I thought the one occasion was just a fluke...sure she's sweet and all, but she's a kid, right? Well, last night Dan was gone at an RSL game. Ellie and I decided to make some Muddy Buddies. She was being so good that I decided I would let her stay up a little later than planned.

I was channel surfing and stopped on Little Women on the movie channel. We were just catching the tail end of the movie when Jo returned home to be with her ailing sister Beth. Ellie was asking me lots of questions like "what's wrong with that girl in bed?", "why is she sick?", etc. When Beth died, I looked over at Ellie, and she was crying!! She looked at me and said, "This show is making me cry!!".

And I thought she only cried about going to her room!!

The Disneyland Positive/Negative Summary

Negative: People
Positive: Grandma's wearing tube tops around their waists, and still covering their parts.

Negative: Lines
Positive: Fast Passes

Negative: Ellie was too short for some of the rides.
Positive: She wasn't too short for tower of terror, and yes...we did. :)

Negative: The kiddie rides.
Positive: Ellie preferred the roller coasters.

Negative: Temper tantrums
Positive: Ditching the temper tantrumees, and shopping by myself.

Negative: Long, hot days
Positive: A good night's rest

Negative: Tired and cranky
Positive: Did not contract Swine Flu ;)

Negative: Swarms of people during fireworks
Positive: Saw Angie after the fireworks...hooray!!

Negative: $5 popsicles
Positive: Eating outside of Disney, and meeting a new friend and her two kids...hooray!!

Now that you've graduated what are you going to do?

Nobody asked me, so I thought I'd tell you anyway...

I'm going to Disneyland (well I did)!!

For the happiest place on Earth, there sure were a bunch of temper tantrums. I expected a couple from Ellie, and was surprised by Dan (apparently lack of sleep and no dramamine can make a motion sick person cranky)!! In fact, Ellie may have thrown less...just sayin'.

It was a nine hour drive for us. I bought a ton of activities for Ellie to do while in the car, but in the end, I'm glad we had a DVD player and silly putty.

Ellie made this hat:

First full day at Disney, can you see the excitement?

Ellie rode most of the rides like this (hiding behind one or both of us), she finally got over it once we rode on "It's a Small World".

One of Ellie's favorite rides:

Ellie at Playhouse Disney (she's cleaning up the confetti...OCD):

Dan and Ellie on one of the rides:

Another of Ellie's favorite rides (Monsters, Inc.):

Isn't this a scary thought?

Have you tried watching your 3D movies from this angle? You should totally try it.

Lovely trick:

Graduation

Graduation was...well, graduation. In a nutshell it was boring, but I did get my diploma while hanging out with my friends from school (they're kind of clique-y :P ). I'll have to get some more pictures from my Mom's camera.


Photo of the Coolest Cohort (some were missing):



Steph and me (her hubby probably got a ten times better picture than mine, but it isn't a competition), and Mike in the background. Luckily I sat by those two, because they're funny, and Stephanie would fix my hat and hair, and then she would ask me to fix her's, and I would mess it up...sorry about that. :) :




The Fam, well at least Dan and Ellie. I neglected to take a picture with my mom and dad. I know, I'm horrible...they showed up to boring graduation, and have nothing to show for it. I do think I could go through everyone else's pictures and find them there.

Highlights from graduation:

• Lacey brought Ellie a rollie-pollie playground.


• Melodie really did wear a tiara:
  

• Marie made me a pretty (and might I add delicious smelling) lei.
• I'm officially done for the time being.
• I have a job...Hooray!!

The Dress...

I know you've all been anxiously waiting to see what my dress looked like, right? :P

It was a tough decision, and I appreciate everyone's input, I decided on this dress:

No worries for fans of the red dress, I found one very similar for Ellie (including gold peep toe shoes). I have pictures from graduation day with her wearing them, but she likes my shoes because they make her tall :) :

I had the green dress made for Dan, but he refused to wear it (WTH?). ;)

More on graduation later...