{Time Flies}

Time really flies.  Whether you are having fun or not, time flies!  But we have mostly been having fun.  Brandon and I have had probably the most social summer of our lives together.  We started out by getting our first babysitter (outside of family) back in May.  And I do have to admit that this babysitter is practically family since she is my cousin's best friend AND first cousin.  So I have known her all her life.  But anyway...
My cousin in getting married so we have attended several pre-wedding parties.

This past weekend my parents had invited the kids to spend the night Friday night and we got an invite to go with some friends to concert in the park.  We had a great time!  Then my (much younger) cousin send me a message to meet her and her friends down at a bar on the square.  Oh Lawzy.  Let me just say that I am SO GLAD I am no longer single.  And I am actually a little bit glad I am no longer young.  I just do not have the energy to put into being young and worrying about guys and clothes and all that.  It has been YEARS since I was in a bar and while it was kinda fun for the hour we were there, it was just so not me.  I felt like everyone was going "WHO is this old lady???"  And to confirm that, my cousins friends asked me if I graduated from a local high school.  I said no and told them that it wouldn't have been possible because I am OLD.  They laughed and said "The first graduating class was from 1995.  You totally could have!  You're not that old."  Well, actually, I AM since I graduated before 1995!!!

Saturday night, we had our Backyard Barbecue group from church over.  Brandon and I learned a lesson about having kids we don't know very well over and our responsibility in supervising.  Let's just say we knew it was going downhill when Lucy, our dog, came running upstairs.  Why was this odd?  Well, because my dogs don't come inside.  Ever.  And I'm not even sure I would know how to coax them inside.  They don't like to be inside. At all.  But here was Lucy running upstairs into my foyer.  And there was Ellie running around in the yard with her shirt off.  Yeah.  Fun night!

I am counting down the days until Ellie starts Kindergarten.  YIKES.  She is so excited.  For that, I am so happy.  I. Will. Not. Be. Sad.  I will, however, worry if she will know how to get to her classroom, know how to unzip her lunchbox, open her own water, not eat her snack for afterschool at lunch, and know to go to afterschool.  I am sure I will find more things to fret over.  But I won't tell Ellie.  And I am sure she will be fine.  I'm also sure that other children have gone to school before her and have survived.  But you know, Ellie is different.  Because she's MINE.

Happy Birthday Sweet Ellie!

My sweet baby girl is five years old today.  Wow!  Five years seems like a lifetime and a blink all rolled into one.    I can't remember what life was like before Ellie.  But it certainly doesn't seem like she has been around long enough to be starting SCHOOL!  I'll refrain from telling you all the reasons this birthday and is hard for ME and talk about my sweet girl.
She is smart.  Have I said that before?  Sorry if it seems gushy but this is my blog and today is her birthday.  Ellie is SO SMART.  As in, I know there will come a day when she actually will know more than I do, but I hope I can instill in her the idea that she should just can it and make me feel smarter anyway.  I have no worries about Ellie's ability to do well with the work in school.  She is going to excel and she is going to thrive.  She truly is one of those kids who "needs to be challenged".
She is sweet.  She exceeded all my dreams when she become a big sister.  While she and her brother have started to get into a bit of sibling rivalry lately, when he first came along and for his few couple of years, for that matter, Ellie was never mean to Mason.  She willingly shared and has always been the best big sister.
And she's sweet to everyone!  At her party this past weekend, her favorite part was not playing games or eating cake, it was passing out token to all of her friends so they could play.  Ellie gets along with just about everyone.  Unless they try to take her toy.  Then she decks them.
Did I mention she is spunky?  I also don't worry that Ellie will get run over in her new public school life.  She fends for herself.  Teachers at her preschool have laughed about her being the smallest girl in her preschool class when she was 3 but she was no afraid of anyone and she would dare them to try to take her toy or sit in her seat!
Ellie says she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.  If she does pursue that dream, I know she will be great at it.  Ellie loves animals.  She has tamed our cows so much that they come when she calls and lick her hand.  She is the only one they will get that close to!
Ellie loves to play.  She will go in her room and play babies or play with her dollhouse for hours.  She loves her baby dolls.  When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she started off my naming 3 things for her dolls:  Shoes for Bitty, clothes for Itty and a stroller with a carseat that snaps into it.  I had to remind her that this was not their birthday!
Ellie is funny, but she doesn't really know it and she certainly doesn't try.  We had VBS last night and I asked Ellie if she made any new friends and she told me "Yes!  My teacher is my new friend!"  And then of course there is the time she told me about Bob, her baby's daddy.  Ellie had no idea what "Baby's Daddy" actually meant.  She was using the term literally.  And then there is the fact that her favorite new song is "Rain's a Good Thing".  The lyrics go something like "Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey.  Whiskey makes my baby...feel a little frisky"  And Ellie crooning it from the back seat is pretty hilarious to me.
Ellie stayed home with Biz and Charlie today as a little special birthday treat.  She has been riding her new bike and enjoying her day.