Some Catch-up

I took this picture of Elena with her teachers at the end of the year picnic. They're awesome.

Samuel feeds himself yogurt. It can get kinda messy, but he's so proud of himself.

I love when the kids play together.

 Playing in the inflatable pool

Some moments are just so precious

 

The kids love to play with water

Elena's been taking swim lessons and I'm so proud of her. She did daily lessons for 2 weeks, then started weekly lessons. She's not afraid of the water anymore, and she's able to do so many skills now.

This is from Father's Day. I loved Elena's answers. I think I will save this forever.

Busy Bodies

We've been up to a lot this summer. I've been trying to do more creative activities for Elena. She has fun, and she's able to do a lot more now. 

This was our ivory soap experiment. Ivory soap in the microwave. It's actually really cool.

Samuel finger painting

We made "Frozen" slime. Elena made cookies with it.

We made a pirate ship. She likes "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," so she often says things like, "Yo ho, mateys, away!" and "Oh, coconuts!"

The kids bathed the baby doll

 Elena played with dinosaurs; Samuel wasn't interested for long.

We built a marble run! We used pom poms, though, so Samuel wouldn't choke. He still puts everything in his mouth. I'll be happy when he stops doing that.

Playdough

Elena wanted to show me how well she can balance. She took some strange positions.

He's my little man.

They made sun catchers

 
And kinetic sand might be my new favorite thing. It feels awesome! Samuel was totally amused for an hour and a half, and Elena played with it for over 2 hours.

When it's super hot outside we try to find fun stuff to do inside, and I'm trying to keep them busy enough to not want to watch tv as much. Elena asks me every day when she'll be able to start at her new preschool. We decided to change schools for next year (even though the preschool she attended last year was great) because our pastor's wife has her own program that's awesome and more affordable. Elena met her, saw the school, and can't wait. I'm excited for her. She is so social now and loves playing with other kids.

Elena is 4!

I almost cried today, because in the midst of celebrating Elena's big day, it hit me that she really is 4 years old. I look at pictures of her when she was younger and I'm just blown away by how she's grown. In the last year she grew just shy of 3.5 inches. That's crazy! My little girl is on the tail end of the toddler stage.


How does it go from this

to this?

And in one short school year, from this

to this?

It all goes too fast.

My little sweetheart woke up to balloons. She helped bake a chocolate cake yesterday, and she got to frost it herself today. We went out for frozen yogurt after I picked her up from school, then we came home and she opened a present. Then when Jorge got home we sang her happy birthday, had some cake, and then went to Chucky Cheese for games and pizza. We figured that it was okay to have cake before food today; it is her day, after all! Here are some pictures of her special day.
 

 

Her birthday party is in a week and a half, so she'll get two celebrations.

I feel so blessed to have this little girl.