Ellie and James had a great time visiting with family and friends while we were home in Buffalo. They liked visiting Grandma and Grandpa's apartment and Ellie even put on a show while we were there (see second photo from the bottom). We had a fun Saturday night dinner with our family. James enjoyed brunch with Ruby while Ellie was skiing at Kissing Bridge. We're already looking forward to our next time home!
Ellie's looking forward to being the flower girl in Meghan and Mike's wedding in October. We went to a bridal store so that she could try on flower girl dresses when we were home in Buffalo last weekend. Her only request was that they be "fancy." Ellie was quite pleased with the dress that she's going to wear. The big disappointment for her was that she didn't actually get to bring the dress home the same day. The top photo is one she took of Kathy, Meghan and Mimi. As you can see from the other photos above, Ellie loved trying on the dresses.
The photos above are of E&J in their jammies on Valentine's Day evening. They were so happy to be snuggling together.
This has been the year for Ellie to try out different winter sports. First skating, then sledding and now - skiing! We traveled to Waterville Valley, New Hampshire this past weekend to get her on the slopes for the first time. We stayed with John's dad who watched James for us so we could take Ellie skiing for the first time together. It went great! Ellie rode both the j-bar and the real lift and made several runs with us. Her little skis were the cutest things and she did great managing all of the equipment necessary (no poles for beginners). Ellie loved it and enjoyed her big hot chocolate at the end of it all. We are thrilled that she had such a great first skiing experience and we're looking forward to spending more time on the slopes with her.
Ellie went to her friend Zachary's 4th birthday party at the Audubon Society. She loved checking out the sea creatures and learning about the animals.
It was a treat to see our friends Maggie and Michael (who live in London) briefly while we were home over Christmas. Maggie and Michael had never met James and James was quite taken with Michael especially. They brought E&J fantastic presents from the UK. The top photo is of James watching the Peppa the Pig dvd they brought for them. I usually don't let them watch dvds in the car but I made an exception for the ride home from Buffalo. They both love Peppa and her little brother, George. The bottom photo is of James snuggling with his Paddington Bear that they brought him. It's so nice to have some British playthings in the house.
Ellie has been taking Saturday morning ice skating lessons this winter and has come a long way in a short time. The first three photos above are from her first lesson and the bottom two are from her second lesson. I haven't been to her past two lessons but John reports that she's not really using the crates anymore. The best part of all is that she's enjoying it.
Adam came up to visit us last weekend. Ellie and James were both very excited to have him here!
My Grandma knit this hat for Ellie a few years ago for Ellie to grow into (she also knit a matching sweater which we love). Ellie proudly wore it to school recently and liked the hat so much that she was willing to pose for a photo on our way out the door in the morning. Thanks, Gram!
We had another day and a half off at the beginning of February due to snow. We were dismissed from school at 11 am on a Tuesday and had no school the next day on Wednesday. This was when I realized I was really over snow days for this school year. I'm fortunate enough that I don't have to make up days over any school vacations or at the end of the school year but I had enough of the weather and being cooped up indoors. Ellie and James made up their own kind of fun, putting the slide on its side and pretending it was a fort. Ellie chose her Christmas dress from last year and a snug fitting rainbow fleece as her snow day attire that day. Clearly I had lost the wardrobe battle of that day.
