Ready to Go

After some funny photo booth-like moments this morning..









...Ellie decided she was ready to go to California -- right then.



"Come on, Daddy. Our taxi car will take us to the airport. You have your suitcase?"


Mine's not ready, but Ellie found the one Ann packed last night and was all set to go. I had to remind her school is first, though.

Once at school Ellie was excited to show me the big painting she did with her friends outside yesterday.



As you might imagine.. Ellie cams home with blue paint everywhere from her face to her feet.. which necessitated a pretty thorough scrub-down.

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No Pants Party?

The unusually warm weather has created some 3-year-old monsters I fear.

Ellie woke up this morning, after apparently having a summit with her friends at school yesterday, speaking of how she didn't have to wear pants under her dress because it's going to be very warm. She was quite excited about it.



On the way to the bus stop: more of the same. Chatty Ellie -- speaking only about how she likes it when it's warm outside because she can wear dresses with no pants.









Princess Minnie also likes it when it's warm, I'm informed.



Sure enough.. upon our arrival in the preschool classroom Ellie, Meara, Kiernan, and Natalie all start yelling, "I don't have any pants on! No pants today! Only my dress!" ... and so on and so forth ... all while kicking their legs up and, at times, lifting their dresses.

It's a conspiracy, I tell you.

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Summer Has Sprung

Yesterday may have been the vernal equinox, but we definitely skipped Spring here in New England. With more 80's on tap Ellie was so excited to head to school and what she knows will be an outside play day, that she offered to wear my backpack in the hopes of speeding me up as I made our lunches.






At the bus stop Ellie kept a pretty constant watch for the bus.. while occasionally mugging for the camera.






Ellie was very excited, also, to see the tulips in bloom outside the Schraffts Center.



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Showtime

Another showing today -- another busy morning of cleaning -- and another shortage of Ellie pictures. My apologies.

Ellie asked to help today and did a very good job of arranging the bar stools just how she likes them.. and she also helped put the accent pillows on the couch. This after carrying her breakfast milk cup and napkin to the kitchen on her own. Thanks for the assist, Ellie!

Our bus ride to school was fun. Ellie said, "I want to sit on the bumpy and warm seat!" So she went to the very back and sat on the seats closest to the engine. I took a seat a bit farther away from the bumpiness and warmness.






At school Ellie and Chadwick and Meara discussed reasons *not* to put toys in your mouth. Because it's yucky, because it spreads germs, because you'll have to go to the doctor, and because you might need medicine. All true.

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Skipping Spring?...

...and heading right from winter to summer? Seems like it around here. Temperatures touched 80 degrees yesterday.. on March 18.. and won't fall below 63 for a high any day this week. Looks like Europe is getting all our snow this year.

Yesterday morning we had our first open house, which the brokers said went very well, so we headed out to the zoo. Ellie enjoyed seeing the new baby kangaroo.

After nap we headed next door to the school for some scooter riding. Ellie is catching on.. getting more used to turning and stopping without crashing into anything.














After that we scooted over to a nearby playground for some monkeying around...



...and to meet up with Ellie's friend Meara from school.

Speaking of monkeys.. Ellie chose to bring her Illini fan sock monkey for Show & Tell today, which she reminded me also takes place on Mondays.. not just Thursdays.



Once at school Ellie and her friends practices writing their letters on little white boards. She is able to identify almost all the 26 letters now. Her biggest confusion comes in distinguishing "I" from "T." Understandable, I think.






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Snack Sneak

This morning I gave Ellie a perfectly healthy and reasonable breakfast -- some toast with cream cheese, milk, and a bunch of grapes. Apparently that wasn't exciting enough for her, though. After she put on her winter jacket and shoes I had to go down to the laundry room.. where we're keeping the adult shoes during the staging of our house.. to get my work shoes. In the few minutes -- maybe not even a minute -- I was down there, Ellie had managed to get her hands on the cup of chocolate chips for baking in our pantry that I thought was *well* out of her reach. Thankfully she didn't get too many.. but here's a shot of her spoils of snack war that she was happy to finish up on the bus.


The chocolate chip cup has been pushed even farther back on the counter.

Once at school Ellie saw Meara and her mom in the hallway. Ellie immediately launched into reminiscing with her friend about the fun time they had at dinner last night. Ann and Ellie headed down to Papa Gino's for pizza while our house was being showed.. and ran into Meara, who had just gotten a haircut next door, and her mom. The girls had a lot of fun having the run of Papa Gino's, apparently -- with Ellie choosing the booth where they would sit.. and then loudly announcing she'd found a good spot.

This morning they took turns "accidentally" falling onto my backpack. Ellie actually tripped the first time, but the two of them thought it was so funny they turned it into a little game.






Quick house update: another showing is set for tomorrow morning.. and the first open house will be Sunday.

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Another Busy Morning

My apologies, again, for the lack of extensive pictures. Today is the broker tour of our house -- which got its very own "for sale" Web site yesterday (www.66schoolst.com) -- and I spent most of the morning tidying up and doing a little cleaning.

Before I forget, though, last night Ellie wanted to show everybody (Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins) a recent art project she made using beads, straws, decorated paper discs, and a string.



"Straw, bead, paper, bead," is how Ellie explained it. She said she had fun stringing all the things together.. and we can only presume it was a project to teach the kids about patterns. If it was it worked because Ellie kept saying that sequence over and over.

This morning Ellie said she wanted to pose for "a cute picture" on the chairs outside the Grasshopper. So.. here it is:


Then, at school, she wanted to show you all her farmer and her goat which she chose to bring for Show & Tell.






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Busy Morning

I'll apologize right off the bat for the lack of pictures today. Ellie and I had a busy morning. As she was eating breakfast (at the dining room table in a "big girl" chair.. no more high chair.. as she's been doing lately) and playing downstairs.. I was out on the patio sweeping up leaves and twigs, stuffing them into yard waste bags, and otherwise getting the outside of the house ready for tomorrow's broker showing. Earlier in the week I replaced and painted some more boards on the deck -- still my favorite outside work I've done around any house that doesn't involve mowing grass.

Once at school, though, Ellie was given the honor of helping her teacher Nicole get some supplies out of the storage closet. To get there you have to pass through the Toddler 2 room.



Ellie was greeted warmly by old friends James, Thomas, and Lilah.

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Quick Shower

Some rain was moving through the area this morning.. much to Ellie's delight.






And rain means jumping in puddles -- one of her favorite activities.






After a nice bus ride Ellie spent our entire walk from the bus stop into school describing to me the animals on her umbrella. "I have lots of colors on my umbrella. The birdie is red and black and the turtle is brown and green and the squirrel is gray and some black..." and so on and so forth. She was also quite happy to receive several compliments on her umbrella from people we'd pass who were heading into work at the Schraffts Center.

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Daylight Saving?

I guess.. but also Daylight Sleeping.

Today Ellie and I both slept in (the danger, I guess, of not setting an alarm because you don't have to work today). So.. because of our late start.. our morning was a little rushed. We woke up just after 8 am.. hurried to get dressed, have breakfast, and get to the bus stop. Ellie did have some fun running away from me and having me chase her one we got down to the Schraffts Center. It's supposed to be almost 70 degrees today.. and for much of the week.







The real fun came Sunday, though, when Ellie and I took off for a fun morning as a cleaning lady came to give our house a good pre-pictures, and pre-staging scrubbing.

Ellie enjoyed her Seuss-inspired breakfast at IHOP of green eggs (spinach in there), ham, and a Truffula chip pancake. Named for the trees in "The Lorax," it had sprinkles baked inside and sprinkled on top, as well as a drizzling of strawberry-flavored pink frosting. Ellie ate almost the entire plate.






After breakfast we made a trip to the toy store to get a present for Ellie's friend Kiernan.. and for Ellie to have some fun playing with the baby dolls and in the ball pit.






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In Search of...

...the perfect pony tail. After several attempts of my own, Ellie decided she would rather ask her teacher Kasey to give her a pony tail this morning.

But.. before that she made sure to show her new "pony band" to her friends Natalie and Meara. She was very excited to put one of her new ones on.












The reason Ellie wanted a pony tail? She wanted to do her hair like Mommy.. and then "put on my work hat like Mommy, too. I fix buildings now, too."



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