9/26 etc.

Wow! Perrin let Warrick and Elena get on the bed with her? Crazy. We tried to get Whitto up there with E too, but he wasn't having it. For a fatty, we were surprised he beat the flash...
Elena got a new puzzle today! Princess Fiona! 150 tiny pieces, wow... She was able to do the Princess Fiona part, but had help on the rest.
Elena had homework to make an "All About Me" page for her classroom. She picked out the pictures, paper, embellishments, stickers, and even narrated what to write. She's not too skilled with scissors, but did help with the glue. You can click the picture and it should get large enough so you can see all the things she likes.

Salmon Return!

Today we went to the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery with Aiden and his family. It was a beautiful day for it! And the salmon were swimming hard upstream. We got to see a special treat today, the sorting of the salmon. Elena and Aiden really enjoyed watching the salmon flop around in the bins.

The salmon are sorted male/female and then sent through a metal detector. The detector signals if they are hatchery fish or not (hatchery fish have a wire planted in their heads that track their travels). Hatchery fish get to have their heads lopped off and sent to Olympia for wire extraction and data collection. The fish bodies are filleted and sent to food banks or the prison system (we learned a lot today!). The video below shows the fish being sent through the metal detector and sorted. Hear the funny noise? That's a fish without a wire. Reminds me of Veruca Salt on the egg detector...

Anyway, we've been going to the salmon hatchery for 3 years and this has been the most exciting and informative. Hopefully we can catch the sorting next year too - it was fascinating to all.

Langendoerfer wedding

Congratulations Tracy and Jeff!All 3 of us made it to the wedding at Larkspur Farm in Mt. Vernon. It was beautiful and wonderful and had amazing food.
Elena kind of caught the bouquet, but she really didn't want anything to do with it. Poor little sick kiddo...
She enjoyed the gelato and wedding favors though! And even got a kid favor box with a blue car and bubbles! Also, a baby pumpkin that was part of the table centerpieces.
Thanks for having us at your wedding Mr. and Mrs. Langendoerfer!

Long weekend at Grandma's

Mommy and Daddy had lots of parties to go to this weekend so I spent time at Grandma's. Friday night Mommy and Daddy went to a bachelorette/bachelor party and had lots of fun and I had lots of fun at Grandma's! Saturday Mommy came to Grandma's too and Grandma took us to her new pool. It was chilly and I was too little to go down the big yellow slide. Afterwards we went to Flower World and saw the animals. There were chickens and sheep and peacocks, bunnies, and goats. The bunnies were so cute! Mommy bought me an ice cream and some golden raspberries - yummy!
I started to feel sick, but I still had energy to play. I played Peep games on Grandma's puter. I helped Auntie make snickerdoodles too. Mommy helped too before she went to her high school reunion with Ria.
I got even sicker but Mommy gave me cold medicine which helped a bit. Mommy and Daddy then took me to a party with them (finally!). I like parties with cake and ice cream.
Love, Elena

Silly E

Elena definitely has a silly side! She's started sticking her tongue out when she does her puzzles. So much concentration...She's started wanting to wear Mommy's shoes - the fancier the better. Silly E keeps asking for her own pair like Mommy's.
Who knows what she's doing here - just putting on a show perhaps?

Fashion E

What a sense of style! Elena got her Princess Fiona costume for Halloween yesterday. She just wants to wear it everyday, all the time. This is a jumper from Auntie Tracy. She's got Grandma's little digi-pet, Moshi, in her hands.
Eating her dessert last night got her Princess Fiona crown all wonky...
Today she paired a blue strawberry dress with lavender leggings, orange and pink striped socks, red sparkle shoes, and a pony print sweater. WOW! She just likes to show off what people buy/make for her - Nana made the dress, Grandma gave her the sweater, Aunt Tania and Uncle Edi sent the socks.
She got to go shopping with Daddy this morning. They had fun at the Lexus dealership and Lowe's and came home to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. Silly Whitto got into the box to watch too.
What will happen tomorrow?!?!?

Yay! Bounce!

We met Aiden (and his mom and sister) at KidzBounce today. We hadn't been since June and things had changed! There were new small inflatables, different furniture, and a new basketball court bounce house. There was a princess ball still, but Elena says it's a different one.
Elena had to wear something that covered her knees to prevent rub burns from the plastic, so she picked out the cute butterfly outfit Grandma got her. Or was it from Aunt Sandy? Tomorrow she has school and will be back in a dress for sure. Actually, today after bounce we went shopping and she got a new dress which she wore out of the store over her butterfly outfit! Dress-aholic!

Whew! What a tiring day - 30 minutes of hard swimming (she is the only one in her class and Laurel moves fast!), then straight to bounce, followed by a shopping trip. No wonder she fell asleep in the car! We have a new car by the way. We've had it for 2 weeks now, I can't believe a picture hasn't been posted...

Elena swimming

Wow! Blogger keeps making life easier and easier! They now have a video upload option so I don't have to upload it somewhere else and hope that it transfers to Blogger glitch free.

Elena was much better at swimming today. No crying at all - she was even laughing with Laurel! Here she is doing hop-hop-hop-glide and hand swimming.

New swim lesson session

Ugh! What an awful morning! Elena would not stop crying at swimming today. She cried for 25 out of the 30 minutes. Poor teacher Laurel... Then all of a sudden Elena couldn't stop smiling and had a great time.
She's the only one in her class so she gets teacher Laurel all to herself. Next time she better be a good girl...

Visit at Nana's

We went to Nana's house for the weekend because Aunt Amy was visiting. PopPop wasn't home because he was in Taiwan for work.I love spending time with Nattie and Ruby. We celebrated Ruby's birthday and had cake and ice cream!
We went to a park to take some family pictures. But there was time to swing, balance, climb, and go down the slides.
Nana loves us all so much! I love you too Nana!
Love, Elena

Puzzle fun

Elena has become a huge fan of puzzles. All of sudden she wanted to do her pony puzzles (good thing she knew where they were!).
Before when she had done the puzzles, she only pulled them apart and had no interest in putting them back together - BIG MESS! Now she sits and does the puzzles over and over and over again without any help at all.
Guess we should get a few more puzzles in the house...

In bed with Warrick

My Warrick was sleeping in my bed! He is very cuddly!
I love crunching Warrick.
Isn't he cute?
Daddy is worried that Warrick hasn't wanted to come inside or visit us since Friday. Don't worry Daddy, Warrick loves us!

Love, Elena

Elena's school work

Elena is so proud of her school work! When picking her up, she runs to her folder and pulls out her papers for the day to show them off.Coloring is a great way to start the day! Elena was so excited to find a picture of a horse to color yesterday.
Miss Sarah had Elena practice writing her name. Elena talked and talked about writing her name on the dots. Looks like she did some free hand too! She still spells her name "E - E - lena."

First Day of School!

Yesterday it was raining, but I still had my first day of Montessori preschool!

I get to go on Tuesdays and Thursdays and and sing songs, color, and learn!
My teacher Miss Sarah is really nice. I like her. There is also Miss Andrea who helps out in my class.
I got to take my kitty lunch with me in case I got hungry. But I was way to busy to eat yesterday!
I have my own folder where I put my work that I get to take home. I colored a pretty chicken for Mommy. She loved it!
I can't wait to go back tomorrow!

Love, Elena

Sophie The Poodle

Great Grandma came to visit and brought her poodle, Sophie. I love Sophie so much! Aunt Sandy visited too and she and Mommy played on the swing set with me. Of course Sophie came too.
Grandma thought it was funny that I called Sophie "The Poodle" instead of by her name...
Everything we did we did with The Poodle. Going to Grandma's house meant seeing The Poodle!
The Poodle came to our house too. She scared Warrick so bad he ran up the screen door and got a huge fluffy tail! Auntie gave The Poodle a haircut and I helped.
I miss you Sophie!

Love, Elena