Ellie turned four!

What a busy week it was for us! Ellie's birthday was this past Tuesday...it's hard to believe she's already four years old! On the morning of her birthday....(regular school day for the other two kids)...I got the kids up and announced that if we could get ourselves ready for school in 15 minutes that we would go to Denny's for a birthday breakfast before school. Amazing how every other school day we have an hour and a half to get ready and we are still running to make it before the last bell rings; yet when I dangle Denny's pancakes as a bribe....everyone brings their A game and they are dressed, teeth brushed, clothes matching, hair done, backpacks ready, seated and seatbelted into the car within 14.5 minutes. Ellie of course got to wear her princess dress complete with plastic princess shoes and furry purse.
On Wednesday I was invited to bring Ellie to the apple orchard with her friend Riley. When I told her where we were going it was completely clear to me how important it is to do these kinds of trips when her response to me was, "APPLES??....DO WE PICK THEM??? YAAAY!!! I KNEWWWWW APPLES REALLY GREW ON TREES!!" It was priceless. On Friday we had a pizza and cake party at the park which concluded the almost week long turning four celebration.

Ellie's "just the fam" birthday with sour cream chocolate cake

looking for apples

found one!

then she found a stick

the big kids at the park party

'we have too many what'?!!

gal pals are so fun!

cutie girl.

daddy's so handsome!

cake #2 (with molly's assistance again)

'I wanted this'!!

Jeffrey gave brief but clear descriptions of each gift.

Well...being a "first time blogger" I decided to start slow. Recently I purchased a very nice (not to mention pricey) camera....with the idea that I needed to be better at recording the bits and pieces of life so that our memories aren't always coming from the more responsible, always up to date, never late, generous friends, family and acquaintances around us who always seem to have a camera....and always get double prints (for those Harrisons). Thanks to all of those people by the way. Getting the camera and starting to take pictures was not hard at all (thanks to my camera wizard friend Jessica Baldwin). I did however have a terrible fear that I would NEVER be able to figure out how to download pictures onto my computer....much less send them to people! Who knows where this terrifying (ridiculous, retarded, ludicrous, irrational) fear came from...but to make a long story short...I had put off running the "big bad scary camera software" for about two months....and it was time to face my fear. Happy to say that I am still alive and have not only successfully downloaded pictures onto my computer....but managed to figure out how to create a blogger account. Good grief.....there's got to be a pill for all of my issues. Without further ado....I am beginning this blog with pics of my kids and their activities for this season.

Jeffrey decided to try roller hockey....different, fun, aggressive and what a workout!! Molly learned the basics of cheerleading and loved every minute of it. And even though she was the youngest one there...she kept up! She wants to move on to gymnastics now....Lord help us. Ellie is sharpening her "leaping" skills in a ballet and tap class. She's slightly sassy (is it possible to be competitive at ballet or tap?) but she loves it!