Theme dressing

Recently, Elena has been dressing in theme. She's done blue, purple, ponies, and Ariel. And she's very thorough... the theme makes it all the way to her panties and sometimes even her hair style! Here's Elena in pony themed clothes - pony shirt, pony sweatshirt, pony tights, pony panties, pony tail.

And here she is in an Auntie Tracy theme - all the clothes were bought by Auntie Tracy (except the panties). Auntie Tracy has been on Elena's mind a lot lately and we look forward to her visit at the end of the month (hopefully we'll last that long...).

Now here's Elena in a lovely Ariel ensemble - notice the underclothes are matching purple and blues.

Surely Elena wishes everyday could be pony day with the Ariel dress on top, but Mommy doesn't do laundry that much for it to be a possibility.

Event @ Redmond Town Center

Last Saturday we went to a kid's event at Redmond Town Center. Boy was it wet! The event was to celebrate the grand opening of the new play area called the sensory garden. Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie and Rai met us there and stood in line with us. While we waited we blew bubbles, played with the free balloons, and colored with the provided sidewalk chalk. All this so Elena could get a cool backpack filled with coupons and coloring supplies. After standing in line, there were booths to visit - Elena got her face painted and made a pin for Rainey's jacket. E was pretty tired though, so we didn't play on the structure, or enter the coloring contest, or stay and listen to the band.

Thanks Grandma for taking pictures!

Painting!

When we were at the dog park yesterday, Elena collected some sticks to paint. She painted one for Rainey because it's almost her birthday, and also one for Grandpa, Daddy, Auntie, Pit, Maven, and herself. They'll make lovely yard art! There was still paint on the plate to use, so she asked for paper and proceeded to paint people and animals. And she did a really good job! The animals have tails, the people have arms, and everyone has 2 eyes, a nose, and a smile.
Here's Elena painting a family portrait. There's Daddy (light blue), Mommy (hot pink), and Elena (darker blue at the top of the picture). We will definitely be framing this!

Tattoo artist

Elena absolutely loves to decorate her body with tattoos. Auntie found tattoo packages that include fingernail tattoos, hair tattoos, and body tattoos. We'd never heard of hair tattoos and were really skeptical, but the things are amazing! They are not only really pretty, but they keep her hair back better than barrettes! And even after washing her hair last night, they're still in good shape.

Just so you know how much Elena loves tattoos, she has 3 in her hair (butterfly, fish, flower), 10 fingernail tattoos (all birdies), and 10 body tattoos (fish on her cheek, butterfly and heart and birdie on her hands, pony on her belly, ponies on her feet, and pony and Nemo and Marlin on her leg). Thanks Auntie for adding to our supply!

Dog Park

Finally a break in the rain... We met Auntie and Rai at Marymoor Dog Park.
Elena had fun watching Rai jump and swim (reach and pull Rai!). And since we were stopped for Rai, we could throw rocks in the water!

And a trip to the park isn't complete if you don't get so wet your pants need to be changed! Elena loves puddle stomping. Cody enjoys a good wade through the water too. Unfortunately he also likes the mud...

Snow?

Can you believe we have about 2" of snow??? And it's the first day of spring!

It started with a storm of hail which left a layer of white on the ground, then it became snow! Elena couldn't wait to go out and play (once the hail stopped because ouch! hail hurts!).

She put on her hat, coat, boots, and mittens and went to the deck railing to eat snow.

Then, she raised her mouth to the sky to catch the snowflakes. Yum.

And it was snow good enough to pack. See her snowman? That mound to the right of Cody at the edge of the deck.

But snow is chilly, so she came inside to eat popcorn, have hot cocoa, and play a Dora game on the computer.

Happy Snow Day!

Guess what...

WE LOVE AUNTIE TRACY!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope you're wearing green - otherwise E will tickle you (pinching hurts!). To make sure everyone was wearing green, we put on tattoos. Elena has a nice glitter shamrock on her face. We went to the outlet mall today and E picked out a few things for her birthday and got two pairs of new shoes.
Our little thug... we're so proud...
E helped Daddy make beer bread for dinner. And she helped Mommy make St. Patty's Day brownies (they have green mint chip topping). She was super excited to go outside with Daddy, which explains why she was wearing her outerwear a good half hour before actually going outside.
She got to "drive" Daddy's big big truck. It had to be moved out of the tent so Daddy could move another car in to change the tires. Elena was very happy to help (and honk the horn).
Have a happy green holiday!

Elena at Kidzbounce

Thursday we went to Kidzbounce and took video! Enjoy!

We had fun, but Elena kept asking if it was time for her birthday yet. Poor thing has another month of waiting.

There's more video than this which will eventually be edited together and spruced up with special effects. And that horrible background sound from the air generators will have to go too. Got a good song suggestion to replace it with? - Leave it in the comment section!

An afternoon at Auntie's library

Thursdays we go to Auntie's library. I love it there! And I'm a super big help!

During lunch time, we go in the back room and I like to hide things in the armrest of the big chair. I left secret surprise pictures this week!Then Auntie and I collect books and movies. I know just where to find the pony and turtle books. Auntie is nice and carries the big stack to the library bag.
I get to help Auntie beep the movies and books so we can take them home. She even lets me put the movies in the cases (something Mommy Daddy don't let me do at home).
I always get a sticker for being a good helper. I'm only supposed to take one, but I'm sneaky! I like the pony stickers and the scary stickers. Mary tries to always have pony stickers around for me, she's nice (she's even ordering more pony movies since I like them so much!). There is also candy at the library, but I only get that if I use the potty. The library potty has handles - I like it!
I'm the best at getting the books out of the book drop. Probably because I can fit all the way in! I pull them out and we stack them on a cart which I get to wheel over to the check-in station. Lisa lets me use her special cart for this!
See you next Thursday!

Love, Elena

Nurse ‘lena

About 1 ½ years ago Elena’s good friend, Pit, was very sick. She wouldn’t eat ANYTHING so the nice doctors had to put in a feeding tube.

She recovered from that ordeal but she still needs to get medicine. Elena is very helpful giving medicine to Pit—and usually a very good shot to get the little pill into a moving cats mouth. Pit isn’t always appreciative to have a pill shoved down her throat.


But, she’s always very forgiving. She voluntarily climbed into the chair with Elena while she was watching “Flushed Away.”

In addition to Pit getting medicine, recently Elena’s other good friend, Maven, needed to start getting medicine. In this case, Elena is a much better holder than medicine giver.

And, just like Pit, Maven doesn’t like to get medicine but she, too, is very forgiving.

Another weekend at Grandma’s House!

I love going to Grandma’s house to spend the night. We do so many fun things together. When I wake up in the morning we always play hide-and-seek under the comforter on Grandma’s big bed. I always jump on Auntie’s bed while listening to Cars music—Mack’s song is most fun to bounce to. And, if the weather’s nice I also like to help Grandpa in his garden—digging in dirt is good!

Last time I was there we walked to the park with the little swings.

Grandpa (with a matching Rainey) pushed me on those swings. (I fell off near the end but a piece of chocolate cures all).

Then Grandma and I played on the bridge and slide part. I climbed up the bridge by myself but I like going down the slide with Grandma.
While we were playing, Grandpa’s friend, Roger, drove by with his horse, Redhawk. They had been playing Western games in Monroe. He opened the window and let me pet Redhawk.

After playing hide-and-seek the next morning Grandma and I put on some make-up. I really like my lipstick!

Now I’m ready to start the day. (Well, at least I will be once I get out of my pajamas.)
Love, Elena

Acrobatic Elena!

She does hopscotch!



She tumbles!



She jumps!

It's a PRINCESS PARTY!

We had a princess party with Aubrie for no reason other than it was Friday! Aunt Kiki made special snacks that we ate at a private table. And Mommy and I picked out special favors for the party.We all wore crowns and watched a princess movie and tumbled and had lots of fun. I was Ariel, and I told Mommy she was Cinderella, Aunt Kiki was Sleeping Beauty Princess Aurora, and Aubrie was Belle. But Aunt Kiki wanted to be the maid and bow to the rest of us. She's silly.
We dressed up in pretty necklaces and dresses. And we made more necklaces with candy.
We also got to go outside and play with princess sidewalk chalk. Mommy drew my feet. I put eyes on the sun - see?
We danced to princess music and the Black Eyed Peas. Aubrie liked the hup hup song too (it's really called Pump It)! Look how good I am at the Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear song!






Love, Elena

Fun Friends Tuesday - bonus: sunny weather!

I got to play on Aubrie's play set. It has swings and a slide. Aubrie and I are fast so our bums got wet before Mommy could dry the toys off with a towel... I like blue and Aubrie wears hot pink! I'm tall too.
I also got to see Aiden's sister Maddie! She was tired and cried.
Then we played with sidewalk chalk in Aiden's driveway. It was so sunny! This is a picture of me and the bee I drew on the driveway.
Mommy drew a hop scotch for us to play on. Look at me jump!
Love, Elena