91 & 19

While in Toronto, we celebrated my grandfather's 91st birthday and my cousin Natalie's 19th birthday. We had a BBQ picnic in the park, on the lakeshore...

Lunch in Toronto

Still going through files from our trip to Canada. Ella and I joined my grandfather (Great-grandpa), dad (Papa) and brother (Uncle Andrew) for lunch on August 6th.

First Day of School

Today was Ella's first day... can you tell how excited she is????

Family Photo

Met Ron at work for lunch and took a couple of family photos for Ella's preschool.  Not sure if they want them on file, or have the kids display them, but here is the one we put in her folder.  Though, I like the B & W better...

Signage

Ella made this sign, it means: "No people in my room because the babies are sleeping".

Hilarious that she knows about the "Do Not" symbol... I don't know how she knows this stuff, but as it stands, there is no going in her room right now until the dolls wake up :)...

Preschool Orientation (August 13)

Still catching up....

Ella had her preschool orientation last week and she will have her first day of school this Monday. She's only going 3 mornings a week for 3 hours so I'm not sad because it doesn't feel like "school". Though, we'll see on Monday morning when I drop her off. :)

So last Friday, all 3 of headed to the preschool to meet her teacher, Ms. Valerie.  Ella's going to the preschool at the local Lutheran church. It's sort of associated with the church, but not religious, if that makes any sense, or at least that's what I gather. On Fridays, the kids attend chapel for 15 minutes in the morning so that should be interesting for her. (We've been talking about going to Temple possibly so it'll be nice to expose Ella to a little church too. - more on this if we actually get around to going. Ron and I are open and want to explore a lot of avenues in the hopes that Ella too has an interest in other cultures, countries and religions)... anyway, I digress...

Ella will be in the same class as Mia, a friend from ballet, and, if you can't tell from the photos, is super excited to start school.  She couldn't stop grinning and I hope come Monday I'm at least able to get in a few photos and even a goodbye hug before she bolts for the playground... it's Ella so I'm betting she'll bolt with a wave of her hand and an almost forgotten, "bye!"    Yeah, maybe not so ready for this school thing....

Canada - Part Two

Ella and Oscar were in love for the majority of the visit but towards the end they became too comfortable with each other and began to act more like siblings. These are a couple of my favorites photos of them, when they still liked each other... the last few days were a bit more trying: they wanted to sit next to each other but would then bicker; they wanted what the other was playing with but didn't want to share; and constantly played a game of opposties... siblings indeed :)