The McGuire Family: March 2013

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Easter Festivities

Despite the random snowstorm and cold temperatures, we have been trying our best to celebrate the Easter season. This past Saturday, we actually had a warm day and were able to go to our first Easter egg hunt at a nursing home with the St. Anne Ministry at church. The girls had a great time finding Easter eggs and hanging out with their friends. We have really enjoyed getting to know the families at our church and look forward to a bunch of fun activities this spring/summer. This past week, we made our annual visit to the Easter Bunny with Josh and Cora at the mall followed by dinner at Chick-fil-a. This was the most successful pictures we've had in a long time. Madelyn and Ellie are at the age where they LOVE any kind of dressed up character so they made it really easy and could not stop hugging the bunny. Yesterday, I was able to spend time in Madelyn's classroom and did the Easter party with another mom from the class. It was so much fun spending time in Madelyn's classroom and watching her interact with all her friends. We made bunny headbands, played some games, ate cupcakes and read a book. It was a really fun morning and I have really enjoyed getting to know Madelyn's teacher and classmates!

Heading to the nursing home to hunt for eggs. Madelyn is our "gift giver" and came up with the idea to draw a picture for one of the residents. Ellie made a picture too!

There were a million eggs at this hunt!

Bunny pictures with some of our friends from our church and pool!

Ellie with her friend Kara!

Having a snack with the Schaefer girls!

Love my little Ellie! She was all smiles this year with the bunny.

Madelyn was so excited to wear her pearls from Nana and Pop!

Picture time with Cousin Cora!

Cousins photo. Little Joshua was such a trooper because he got tubes put in his ears that morning and was so brave!

Madelyn's class sporting their bunny headbands!

Madelyn has really enjoyed her last year of preschool!

Madelyn LOVES to play baby doll with the girls in the class!

Madelyn has made a lot of new friends this year!

Madelyn with her best friend from preschool!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Swimming Lessons

Ellie started swimming lessons last week at Aqua Tots and it was a success. Bill and I were going back and forth on whether it was worth the money to put Ellie in lessons. We decided to put her in a trial class and if she liked it, we would move forward and if she didn't, we would scrap the idea. Well, Ellie absolutely LOVES swimming lessons. She has her lesson right after Madelyn and is chomping at the bit for her turn to get into the water. She is all smiles with no fear the entire time. Her favorite part is going under the water to get the ring. Hopefully both girls will be good and ready for the pool when it opens in a couple of months. Madelyn is planning on being on the Fun Team (Pre-Swim Team) and Ellie should be ready to show us her skills in the big pool this year. It should be a great summer!

Build-A-Bear

Nana has made it a tradition to take the grand kids to Build-A-Bear for their 3rd birthday. Actually, Madelyn went at age 2 but for some reason she seemed older back then. Nana decided to take Ellie for her birthday outing yesterday afternoon and was nice enough to invite Madelyn and I along for the fun. We started off our afternoon with a delicious lunch at Nordstom Cafe and then headed over to Build-A-Bear. The girls loved picking out their colorful bears, what they want the bear to say, inserting the heart, washing their bear and selecting the perfect outfit. Ellie liked pretty much everything so had a hard time making a decision. Madelyn, on the other hand, knew exactly what she wanted and was very into the entire process. There is a huge difference between a 3-year old and 5-year old at Build-A-Bear! Ellie's bear was dressed as a fairy with pink sparkle shoes so she named her bear "Fairy". Madelyn's bunny was dressed up for Easter with pink high heeled shoes and named her bunny "Cindy". It was a really fun afternoon celebrating Ellie's birthday. Thank you so much Nana!

Inserting the heart into her bear

Ellie was jumping and doing her little shoulder dance when they were stuffing her bear. She was SO excited!

Ellie washing her bear!

The girls worked on their bears for a very long time!

Ellie with Fairy!

Madelyn with Cindy!

20 Questions Answered by Miss Ellie

Little Miss Ellie had her 3-year well appointment on Monday and it went really well. Ellie weights 34 pounds (80%) and is 37.5 inches tall (62%). You would have never guessed that this was the child that had a hard time putting on weight when she was a baby! Ellie has really blossomed into a little girl the last 3 months. She no longer has separation anxiety and is ready to jump into any new activity, especially her music class, gymnastics and most recently swimming lessons. Ellie is a very calm and sweet little girl with a ton of spunk. She keeps us on our toes and has quite the sense of humor when you get to know her. Ellie will be attending preschool for 3 days a week starting in September. She is more than ready to start school and is so excited for that next step. We've also accomplished potty training, sleeping in a toddler bed and the pacifier is a thing of the past. Our only glitch is that our good sleeper no longer likes to nap in the afternoon. We are lucky if we get 2-3 naps a week out of our little Ellie these days!

I attempted to try my 20 question interview with Ellie today. It works much better on a 5-year old but Ellie still had some cute and interesting answers:

What is your favorite color? Pink
What is your favorite toy? Lalaloopsy
What is your favorite fruit? Bananas
What is your favorite TV show? Dora
What is your favorite thing to have for lunch? Cheese
What is your favorite thing to wear? Tierra
What is your favorite game? Dora Game
What is your favorite snack? Cheddar Bunnies
What is your favorite animal? Lamb
What is your favorite song? Hush Little Baby
What is your favorite book? Woman Book (I think she means the Baby First word book?)
Who is your best friend? Madelyn
What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy during the day? Play
What do you like to do while Madelyn is in preschool? Ms. Nancy's Music Class
What is your favorite thing to drink? Orange Juice
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play
What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Fries
What do you like to sleep with at night? Pillow Pet
What do you want to be when you grow up? Fashion Show Girl

Happy 3rd birthday sweet Ellie! I love you more than you will ever know.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Ellie's 3rd Birthday!

I can't believe our sweet little Ellie is 3 years old. Time needs to slow down! We had a little bit of a rough birthday weekend but were able to reschedule her little party to Sunday morning which worked out because it was her actual birthday (unfortunately Aunt Amy had to work - we missed you Aunt Amy). Poor Ellie woke up on Friday morning with strep throat and then Saturday with croup. Thankfully, her fever went away by Sunday and we had our family over the celebrate her birthday and St. Patrick's Day. Ellie was very tired and still not feeling 100% during her party, but she still managed to have some fun. Ellie is obsessed with Lalaloopsy so was very excited to pick that as her theme when we went to Party City to plan her party. During her party, we also had Lalaloopsy tattoos, jumped in our neighbors bouncy house in the garage, and had a cupcake pinata. It was a fun day celebrating the 3rd birthday of our little leprechaun!