Sunday, May 27

What I Have Been Reading

Ever since I got my Kindle for Christmas I have been reading away.  I just wanted to share a few of my most recent reads that I really enjoyed.  If you are interested in seeing more of what I read, you can follow me on Goodreads.


Source: goo.gl via Tracy on Pinterest

Source: c.grippr.info via Tracy on Pinterest

Source: amazon.com via Tracy on Pinterest

I enjoyed all of these books thoroughly and I recommend each one of them.  I notice each time I finish a book just how back and forth my tastes on reading are!  I never know if my next book is going to be a memoir, dystopian fiction, or some other strange genre that doesn't fit with anything else!

Happy Reading!

Friday, May 25

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Teacher Appreciation Week was May 6-11th and since Ella's teachers spend more time with her than I do I thought they deserved a treat everyday that week!  Thanks to Pinterest I had lots of great ideas on what to do!

Since photography is definitely not one of my skills I am posting the links from Pinterest on where I got my ideas...

Thank you cups


 Thanks a 'latte' Cards


Beach Towels

Funny thing about this was my mom who is a Kindergarten teacher also got one of these during Teacher Appreciation Week!

I also did little baskets with "munchies" for one of the days and then giftcards to Olive Garden with cards for the last day.  I got great feedback from Ella's teachers that they loved all of thier gifts!  They do such a great job with her that it was the least I could do to spoil them for 5 days out of the entire year!
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Thursday, May 24

Brookshire's World of WildLife and Picnic

The last weekend in April my parents came up for a short visit.  EK loves when Granny and Papi come around and will continue to ask for Papi well after he leaves... as my friend Amy says, she knows whose got the checkbook!

We decided to take Ella to the Brookshire's World of Wildlife Museum.  This is a free museum in town that has a great playground.  We didn't know how interested she would be in doing anything so we figured hey it's free so at least we won't be out any money if she only wants to stay inside 10 minutes (which is what happened!)

Ella is huge on holding hands when we walk right now.  Her favorite part though is to have two people walk with her and she holds both of your hands!

The museum is full of 'stuffed' wildlife that the original Brookshire's killed during their safari's in Africa and animals that other people have donated to the museum.  I had to take a picture of these monkey's they have dressed playing Monopoly.  I thought it was hilarious!

There is a great playground right outside the museum where lots of people have birthday parties (Hello it's FREE).  Ella had a great time checking it out!

Of course she refused to leave until she could go and see the baby elephants in the parking lot.  We tried so hard to get her to sit next to Granny for a picture but that never happened.  I am pretty sure my child laughs internally when I ask her to pose.

When I had asked Papi and Granny what they would like to do while they were here for a visit, Papi said he wanted to take EK to the park and have a picnic.  Though Papi's idea of a picnic involved KFC fried chicken, I decided that Chick-Fil-A was a way better idea so we picked it up and headed over to our favorite park to eat at the picnic tables. 

Ella thought this was just the greatest thing... not sure if she loved it so much cause she got to sit on Granny's lap and eat or because she was eating her favorite meal and Granny was even letting her dip her nuggets into BBQ sauce (as you can see the remnants of the sauce on her lips below!) 

Granny and Papi are headed her this weekend so we will have to think of something else fun to do while they are in town.  Though the pool opens this weekend so that might be where we are headed.  It's topped out at well over 90 already a few times this May so the pool sounds mighty refreshing!
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Monday, May 21

Weekend in Houston

I am super behind on posting and am doing my best to catch up.  I took a new job at work two weeks ago and Keith has been super busy working so I am spending my weekends chasing after EK and passing out exhausted during naptime when I normally do my updating.  Oh plus I have been reading away on my Kindle and have finished probably 4 books in the past few weeks!  Keith golfs and I read... we all need a hobby!

These pictures are from almost a month ago when we made a quick trip down to Houston before Keith's work schedule got to crazy!

Ella got to do a lot of firsts that weekend...
She got to play in Granny's classroom

Her and Granny took lots of trips down the big kid slides at the park... 

She spent lots of time on the swings

She got to wear her bathing suit for the first time this summer
 
She got to play at her first splash park... and if you can't tell by that face she LOVED it

She got to try out a big kid swing for the first time...
 
And even daddy joined in on the fun!

As usual we had a great weekend in Houston but I was so disappointed not to see The Aberdeen Wife before she took off to her new home in Scotland!  Guess I will have to catch her on her next visit to the states... I hear she might be in LA for Christmas!
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