FebLUary and Friends

This is the last full month Ellie aka 'Lu' will be six years old. I keep telling her to enjoy every last day of age six because she will never get it back. I'm not sure at what age it will stop, but I will be sad when toys are no longer played with like this and my shoes are no longer cars for Barbies. In all likelihood, it is me that will miss six.

Although...Ellie and I have discussed seven not being sassy like six was. (Wish me luck!)



FebLUary was still cold so we were pretty much hibernated at home. We played games, put together puzzles, made treats, Ellie took orders and played waitress and started a small spoon collection (she has a total of two).






AND were lucky enough to have friends to hibernate (and play) with us.

This friend is Catherine. Ellie met her at school and played at her house one Saturday in January. We enjoyed having her at our house this time, and hope she will visit again. I don't think Ellie plays with her at school much, but I'm not sure why. They get along wonderfully at home and they both still "play" - it was so fun for me to watch and to play along when they'd let me.


This friend is Abby. Abby lives nearby and is our carpool partner this year. Sometimes after school we get to have Abby play for a bit. It's funny to watch the difference when Ellie plays with Abby. Abby is one year younger than Ellie in school. Ellie takes care of Abby in the car, looks at her homework, helps her with her coat and generally cares for her. On the flip side, Ellie pretty much dominates their play time and sweet Abby is just happy to play along.




These little cuties are Paige, Reagan, and Brooke. I have been friends with their mom since high school. We had them for dinner and they enjoyed each other as much as I enjoy their mom. They had such a great time that we hardly heard from them all night.


These fine friends are Sage and Taj. I've known and been friends with their dad since high school as well. We are lucky to see them often but usually we get to see them on their turf at their house. This month we were lucky to have them at our house for dinner and some tart lemon dessert.



We also invited them out the first Saturday in FebLUary to see The Emperor's New Clothes at the Children's Theatre. We were excited that Sage and Taj could join us and I was glad the girls liked it. (Not my favorite play.)


Of course, we did make it out of the house for a few other events in FebLUary, but I think I'll make a second entry for them.

Looking over the pictures in this post it seems we also did a bit of 'treating' this month...which reminds me of this cute little cupcake shop Ellie and I found one afternoon when we had to make a quick run to downtown Salt Lake City. The entire place was decorated with vintage tables and chairs and couches and was as inviting as a grandmother's house. The one picture I took is much better in person but it shows some of the fun things they had. And of course the cupcakes were tasty too!



It was great to enjoy time with my friends and pass on those friendships to Ellie. Many of my best friend relationships go back double digits. I hope in life Ellie finds great friends she can enjoy that long. I hope she is good to them and they are good to her. I don't look forward to the years when the girls are catty and fighting and hurting one another. I hope those days are short and the days where they enjoy each other are long.

Something one of my favorite friends often says, "Here's to friends that are family and family that are friends." I'm so blessed to have both and hope Ellie will always be also.

January (not my favorite month)

January was a slow month. Ellie got used to sleeping in over the Christmas break, so it was a fight most mornings to get her out of bed for school. Several mornings she tried to make her case that she didn't NEED to go to school. What I didn't quite understand was every weekend she was up at 7:00 ready to play.

We have been spending a lot of time preparing for the house. We met several times over the month with the architect. One afternoon I had a version of the house plans in the car and Ellie was explaining it all to her little friend Abby. It was cute to see how many of the items she had picked up from the meetings with the architect. I think Ellie is as excited as we are.

Also in preparation for the house we have been saving money. One of the "luxuries" I allow myself is a pedicure. I cut pedicures out when we decided to build the house, so we did home pedicures instead - I gave Ellie one and then Kevin and Ellie gave me one.

They didn't turn out as spectacular but they were a lot more memorable!





Grandma helped us get ready for Valentine's with a couple of crafts. The first Sunday craft was Valentine card holders, the second was a Valentine flower patch. We are happy to report we have decorated with both of them. (Along with her Chia pet she's been growing.)





Ellie also got ready by addressing all of her cards. I love how excited she gets and how she always wants to do them weeks before she actually needs them.


Grandma Linda and Grandpa Mickey (Kevin's dad and wife) had sent Ellie a Toys-R-Us gift card for Christmas that she was saving, but by mid-January she was ready to spend it. This was the first time she had a gift card to that store and couldn't believe all of her options. She walked down the aisles carefully looking. At first she was pretty sure she was going to spend part of it and save part of it. But then she got to her usual toy aisles and found several things that she wanted and had just the right amount of money for.

She left with two Barbies, twelve Whimzey pets and two large packs of candy. It was so fun to watch her, but my favorite part was once she knew what she wanted, she knew. She was done looking around and more than excited and happy with her choices. She played all the way home and continues to play with them all the time. (Thank you Mickey and Linda!)


On the 22nd Ellie went to a birthday party at Build-a-Bear for her friend Kalya from school and then we met up with Grandma and Uncle Jed for a couple of games of bowling. We used to bowl almost every week but realized it had been more than year since we went last. We had a great time, except when Ellie ran into my elbow and gave herself a little bruise on her eye. Thank goodness Grandma was there to help make it better!




Kevin and Ellie are slightly addicted to games on my phone. Kevin's work gave all of their employees new phones and I am pretty sure Ellie was more excited to get it than Kevin. Kevin ordered his phone on the 17th and Ellie asked every day when it would get here. It FINALLY arrived on the last day of January and they spent the night waiting for it to charge and get set up so they could install games and have a phone to play on when I wasn't here!


January is not my favorite month (or time of year) and I had an especially hard time this month as Ellie is showing signs of growing up.

I got to enjoy one day of school lunch with Ellie. She was not quite as outwardly excited to have me there this time. (Oh no, it's starting!!)


We went shopping for purses one day (to spend my Christmas gift card) and she just HAD to have this purse. Instead we came home and I gave her one of my old bags similar to this one, but one she could also use as a bag for school. She was so excited that she could hardly wait until Monday to use it. She has been using it every day since. It's killing me that she wanted an "older" style of bag.


But alas, all is not lost. She still does cute things like this that I hold onto dearly.

Ellie came walking into her room after the bath saying, "I don't even know why they make clothes like this!"

In less than two months ---she will be seven!!

On oldie but a goodie

"This is my only chance for everyone to think I'm a real hippo"


December, 2009