Elle turns 3!

Someone turned 3 yesterday! We celebrated with cake and ice cream in the evening, and opened gifts with Grandma and Grandpa and crew. Elle will have a 'real' party on the 11th that she'll share with Grant, but it was nice to focus just on her last night and celebrate 3 wonderful years with her! One of her favorite gifts was from Uncle Wyatt - a tiny coffee mug and coffee creamer. Hah! Such a coffee connoisseur at the age of 3!



The 'terrible two's' were anything but terrible. Elle is a sweetie who loves to entertain and make us laugh. She is the queen of funny faces and random statements. She is great at helping Mommy with baby Ivy and is super protective of her! Earlier this summer we took the family to Shakespeare of the Green and decided to leave at intermission. As we were walking out, Ivy(who was in the stroller) dropped her pacifier and a nice gentleman picked it up for her. As he was giving it to Ivy, Elle apparently thought he was trying to steal her, because she quickly ran up to him and started clobbering him with her shoes, screaming, "NO NO NO." The poor man(who was already slightly intoxicated) was so taken aback. Elle was genuinely distraught and we really had a lot of trouble convincing her that he wasn't trying to take Ivy. It was one of the funniest things I've seen her do. Hilarious, and good to know that she is so protective over her siblings.

Apparently 3 is the charm, because this last week Elle has decided on her own to stop using diapers, and today there have been no accidents so far! It might have something to do with the princess underwear Grandma bought her for her birthday yesterday. :)

I am excited to see Elle grow and mature this next year. So many fun things for her to experience this year, including starting AWANA cubbies next week!

Bible Pictionary

This week has been so hot that even the kids don't want to play outside for more than 15 minutes at a time. I can hardly blame them. I love summer, but 110 degree heat index is a little much for me too. We've had to find activities to do inside, and tonight we played a sort of Bible Pictionary. Rylan and Bree drew their favorite Bible stories(with a few helpful hints from Daddy), and I got to guess which story their art portrayed. We awarded candy prizes. Here are a few of my favorite pieces of art from the evening.

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 3

Exhibit 4

Exhibit 5

(1) - Daniel in the Lions' Den - by Rylan

(2) - Eve, in the Garden of Eden - by Bree

(3) - David and Goliath - by Rylan

(4) - Jonah and the Big Fish - by Bree

(5) - I have no idea...Elle called this a "stroll-ba"

Elle Marie - Our cutie bug!

Elle-Bellie is 2 1/2 and up to plenty! Pretty much anything that Rylan and Bree can do Elle tries to accomplish. She loves to try and quote their AWANA verses with them, sing the alphabet song with them, color with them, build tinker toy objects with them. You get the picture. Basically, she is turning into a big girl overnight and it's very bittersweet. Last week she started speaking in the first person and now it's, "I need a drink," as opposed to, "Elle needs a drink."

Elle is a singer. She is always humming or singing a tune! She has an awesome sense of humor, even at the age of two and is always entertaining the rest of the family! Her favorite person is Aunt Michelle. I think it's because she makes her so many sock monkeys!

Elle is the queen of funny faces!

Busy Bees

The kids have been doing various fun projects this morning to keep them busy and distracted. We're taking a trip to Kansas this weekend for Grandma Dawn's birthday and it's going to be a surprise for the kids. We aren't going to tell them until we're on the road! I can't wait!

So, I'm packing this morning and the kids are happily distracted.

Super Sick Super Bowl Weekend

'Tis the season to be sick! We're on day nine of quarantine at the Pennington house. We had a nice quiet weekend watching movies and the Super Bowl on Sunday afternoon . Yeah Packers!

Ivy: Started with a dry cough on Wednesday. She was coughing constantly, so Friday we took her to see Dr. Jones. He said to watch her carefully for breathing problems and sure enough, by Saturday she was having pretty severe chest retractions. Sunday morning, after being up at night with her 3 nights in a row I took her to the ER. She was having a lot of trouble breathing. They tested her for RSV, which returned positive. After a nebulizer treatment we were able to come home. She's been doing better since then.

Here she is sitting up in her car seat so her chest doesn't get congested.

Elle: Caught the flu at the doctor's office when we took Ivy in. Poor girl. Throwing up and miserable for 4 days. Here she is "enjoying" the Super Bowl

Grant: Sick with a cough on Thursday, and then the flu yesterday. Here he is with a piece of toast that he threw up shortly after I took this photo.

We're just waiting around to see who else catches it here...

The Dark Ages

Grant apparently would have fit right in during the Dark Ages. The way he screams when he takes a bath gives you the feeling that he thinks he's about contract the black death!

Elle, on the other hand, has to be coaxed into getting out after about an hour.

It's so shiny!

Look who got a major black eye this week! It was the result of a collision with Rylan at the mall play area while we were at a playdate. She's such a big girl. Hardly cried at all. :) That's our little miss adventurer!

A 'crispy' sort of day

A cool and crisp Fall day! Aaron's working so the kids and I made mini apple crisps. We used tasty new crop Jonathan apples. So yummy and tart!

Getting ready to bake them!

...and after much anticipation(seriously, there were tears during the LENGTHY 20 minute baking time)....Ta Da!

Happy birthday to our sweeties!

Last night we had a double birthday party for Elle and Grant. It was such a beautiful week so we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous Fall weather and have the party at the lake. Grandma and Grandpa, Michelle, Wyatt and Chase came, along with the Mike and Leia, and The Mackeys. Aunt Marilyn stopped in too!

Michelle made adorable little cakes for Elle and Grant

Our theme was ice cream!

Elle was not too sure how she felt about everyone singing to her.

Elle and Isabel - the Frenemies. Playing together very nicely, actually! They had a blast running around and playing in the sand.

Rylan and our big One Year Old!

What we've been up to

Rylan: The artist of all things monster

His current obsession is drawing monsters and robots. They are all very colorful and have a serious amount of sharp teeth. Last week we bought school supplies, and with all the new crayons, colored pencils, scissors and glue, he probably spends up to 2 hours a day creating paper monstrosities. His summer has been filled with all the typical boy things: swimming, making mud, building forts, playing with Daddy's hammer and nails, and collecting bugs.

Miss Bree

Bree has been busy being Rylan's best friend this summer. They are pretty much always together in whatever they are doing. She still enjoys the girly side of things though. It's rare to find her without some article of princess dress-up on. She gets a major kick out of getting her hair done and is constantly asking to wear lip gloss. She is really excited to start doing some pre-school work this Fall. Bree is a BIG help with Grant. She is always available to entertain him or give him a bottle when I need her to. She has a very cheerful spirit and a helpful heart.

Elle: Our almost 2-year old!

Elle's 2nd birthday is next week. We measured her last night and she was almost exactly where Bree was at the same age. Elle is loud. Very loud. She loves to talk at the top of her voice. Keeping Rylan and Bree in line by yelling "Ryo" and "Bee" is one of her self-appointed tasks. She is definitely a 'busy' girl. Some of her activities this month include: dumping out a tube of black paint on the carpet, coloring with a red crayon on the couch, drawing on various walls, and trying to have a tea party with toilet water(Don't worry, I caught that one really quickly). She is constantly singing and dancing. She loves to sing the theme song to Calliou, her favorite cartoon, and she is quite the entertainer.

Grant: Mr. Funny Faces.

Grant's been up to the most of anyone. Crawling, pulling himself up on furniture, trying to stand on his own, and biggest of all.....getting some teeth! It's about time! He has two of the cutest little teeth in the bottom front, and he loves to bite with them! His favorite activity is trying to sneak up the stairs. He's made it up five before I could catch him at it. At his 10 month check-up he was weighing in at 16lbs, 4oz.

Bad Blogger

Wow, I'm a bad blogger. Did you see the date of my last post?!?

So, I started keeping a list of funny things the kids say incorrectly.
This past week....
Grant: Won't laugh. He just growls.
Elle: She calls any food item "cookie." Doesn't matter what it is.
Bree: Calls her toenails "ponytails." (Think about it, it kinda rhymes).
Calls pop cans "trash cans"
Rylan: Calls croissants and biscuits "casseroles"
Calls shampoo "cream soda"(I really don't get that one)

Cuddlebug

Elle is our cuddlebug. She just loves to give hugs!