Tree Go Boom, Mama.

How do you explain THIS to a two year old without setting the stage for her to be scared of rain, wind and "funder"? It is delicate, let me tell you.

Friday afternoon we were blasted with a huge storm. We came home from work to this. And, no power. Not only did a large portion of our tree come crashing down across our driveway, but it came down on one of our other trees out near the street.

Ella and Panda got to work surveying the damage. There was an awful lot of "What happened? Tree Go Boom, Mama?"

The trees in our neighborhood make it magical. The trees in our yard are no exception, providing perfect canopies to our landscaping and gardens. Where some might say, "Good - less leaves to rake" we are moping around at the loss. The city tree will be marked for removal. Our big old beast is on borrowed time.

Two days later, and the city crews haven't shown up to start hacking away. We are the reason every car comes to a near standstill as they drive down our street. (Really not how I wanted THAT to happen!)

Ella seems to be pretty tuned in to what we're feeling. We're not surprised she's a Tree Hugger like us.

On the bright side, it has hindered my ability to mow (Reason #458 that Larry married me...I do all the mowing). ~ H, L & EML

Ready to Holler.

It is a scorcher here in Ella-land today. Trying to dress her for church (in our sans air-conditioned sanctuary) takes some thought. Ella selected her coolest footwear, on wrong feet, I might add. We ditched the boots and opted for sandals before heading out. I honestly think they would have hindered her ability to holler Ah-men.

On Thursday, we reconvened our own little United Nations session poolside. This group of kids got together back in late December. They have all grown like weeds! (Click here to check out that post.) Ella was the youngest at our gathering. She is still so reluctant around a swimming pool, while the others jump, swim and play. I have to remind myself that she is still a babe in a lot of respects. It is tough when she talks as well as a four-year old!



Silly mamas. We decided to get the U.N. Group Shot after hours of swimming and sun. It was chaos and cranky and there was cryyyyyiiiing (see Ava). I think this captures it beautifully.

Ella 2; Roz 2 1/2; Ava 3. A force to be reckoned with when together.

Last night, we hit the ballpark for a very special evening. Ella's buddy, Nicholas, threw out the first pitch for our local team.

It was SRO. The place was packed. It was a big deal. A really, really big deal. (Nicholas's mama is Christina. Up until May when she retired, Christina was Ella's Friday care-giver.) We squealed and cheered watching him on the big field! I cried my ever-lovin' eyes out. He's a special guy. And Ella and Nicholas have a wonderful connection.

The hottest week of the year is coming up AND it is Vacation Bible School at church all week. (Without fail...every year this happens.) Ella and I are helping out. Hey, a Panda is the main character. You think we'd miss this??

~H, L & EML

"Ella Have Fun"

Fun is the new kid on the block. There is nothing better than tucking our girl in at night to have her giggle out, Ella have fun! In fact, she had so much fun during her lunch date with Roz yesterday that when I told her it was time for a nap, her screaming, crying response was, No Mama! No night-night! Ella have more of the fun! She slept three hours. Fun can be exhausting.

And speaking of sleep, our girl is rather slow in wanting to get out of her crib. L-A-Z-Y. It is a long process...

...one that has horrible consequences if rushed. Believe me - horrible. (She has a good grasp of our weekly routines; knows which days afford her the slow wake-up.) No complaints, however. She loves her crib and stays IN it.

She digs her little bedroom. She is just tall enough to hike herself into her window seat.  And because Ella's sewing-whiz Grandma created such a cozy spot, she's pretty giddy. In PJ's, squeaky clean after a bath, she put on her obnoxiously huge flower headband and played forever.

It was nice of Ella to allow her Daddy to share in the comfort that is deep shaggy blue squishy-ness but it is obvious from her expression. He's crampin' her style.

We hope to have more of the fun this week, including a pool party tomorrow with Roz, Ava H. and a few other little ones! H, L & EML

Hot Off The Press

Just after our recent photo shoot with NLP Photography, I received an email from AF Magazine asking me (and thousands of others, of course) to submit my favorite Mommy & Me photo. On a whim, I did it. The winner would be plastered across the front of this adoptive parenting-focused magazine.

Well, we didn't win the cover spot. But we took a Runner-Up position and landed on page six of the glossy pages of the August 2011 edition.

Thanks to our shutterbug for making it possible!

Catch Up. Again.

I'm behind in just about everything these days - laundry, emails, downloading photos, editing photos and then actually ordering them. The upside to all this is that we've been busy enjoying the summer. Sitting in front of a computer, when gorgeous weather is enticing me to be outside, is not where I want to be. There will be more on our big July 4th Weekend later. Stay tuned.

Until then here are a few pics of Ella watching the sprinkler.

Of course, there was dancing!