You're Not Swinging?

Ellie responded "It's not swinging, its toe swinging!"

Hanging Chair

Ellie now has a hanging chair in her room.  She hides, reads or plays with dolls in it. Her chair is normally well stocked with her favorite books.  We can take down the chair when she has many friends over.  We have also discussed that it is a chair for sitting not a swing.

Our Apples

Our poor little apple tree finally has some small apple on it.  The birds have eaten most but there was one that was untouched.  I didn’t think it was ready to be picked but Ellie wanted to get to it before the birds did.

The second picture is blurry because I wasn’t ready and the apple was so sour Ellie made a very funny face.  I took the picture as fast as I could.

Stacking Lunch

Ellie has been a big help in the kitchen.  She enjoys preparing item for cooking or picking out what we are going to eat for our meal.  Here not only has she decided what we are going to have for lunch, she made it into a tall tower.

Ellie's Spinach

Ellie grew spinach and sweet corn at school from seeds.  Now with school over for the holidays, she brought them home to plant in our veggie garden.

Hanger Art

Once again Ellie surprised us with more hanger art.

Practicing photography – Ring Light

I wanted to try something a little different for a head-shot of me that I will use on the web later on this year.  I’ve had a ring light adapter for my flash for a long time but never really had the chance to learn how to use it and how the subject should pose.

With it raining outside, Ellie and I got right down to business.  She placed the freshly charged batteries in the flash and I went to get the tripod.  My idea was to set the camera up and with the timer just take a few pictures of myself to see the differences with my position and the camera’s position.  Ellie didn’t want to use the timer; she wanted to be the one taking the pictures.  We than took turns taking pictures of each other and every so often I was able to turn the timer on and get both of us together in the shot.

First Sleep Over

Ellie had her first sleep over at a friend’s house in December.  She packed her own bag and was very excited that she was going to have breakfast there.  We were told that the girls stayed up late talking and Ellie was very tired when she came home.

Stand Off

There is a path in our paddock that I cut for Ellie, which now also being used by the alpacas and the wild bunnies.  Ellie was going up and the alpaca was coming down and neither wanted to move off the path.  In the end, the alpaca was hoping Ellie had food and followed her back down to me.

All Dressed Up

Ellie likes to dress up and while we are not going anywhere special, Ellie was ready for anything.

Colouring with Ellie

Since it has been raining here all day, Ellie and I needed to find something inside to do.  We chose colouring and I thought I would grab “Beginners Guide to Drawing Cartoons” off the bookshelf to attempt creating something Ellie would recognize.    After a few attempts at drawing a baby dinosaur in an egg and it turning into a dragon, Ellie said to me “Next time can you do the proper one?”

Bringing Pets Home from School

Every kid brings items home from school and Ellie does also.  The difference is most kids bring paintings, pictures, and assorted craft projects but Ellie brings home a snail she caught in the school Veggie garden.

Scarecrows

In Ellie’s book “The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything” the old lady gets chased by shoes, pants, a shirt, gloves, a hat and a scary pumpkin head. In the end the lady tells them that she is not afraid of them and they are unhappy because they don’t have a purpose anymore.  So the old lady gives them an idea of what else they could do and the book ends with them being a scarecrow in the lady’s garden and scaring all the crows away.

Ever since we started talking about a garden, Ellie has talked about having a scarecrow to scare all the crows away. Now every morning we can look out our windows and see the scarecrows doing their job.

Not Sleeping - Red Bull

Last night I went to check to see if Ellie was sleeping and when I peek in her room I saw her reading the Red Bull Magazine I had given her.  Such a proud Daddy moment.

Fairy Spotted

Once again a magical fairy was spotted in running around our paddock.  This fairy’s name was Ellie and she loves to run, explore, and pet horses.

Shopping with Grandma

Ellie is out for another fun day!

Garden - Part 2

Finally after all the hard work and preparation we were ready to plant and Ellie was ready to get her hands dirty. We planted many different things this time to see what grows and what doesn’t.  Ellie has had a garden at each of her schools and has shown interest in gardens, we will see if that extends to a home garden.

Garden - Part 1

Creating the veggie garden took help from everyone and Ellie played a big part.  She helped take care of the worms, climbed the fence and tested the strength of the wood. On the first day we created the planter boxes and filled them with dirt.

Ellie created a home for “Wormy” which consisted of dirt and grass in the alpaca’s treat bowl.  She left him out in the sun during lunch and he wasn’t looking to good when we went back to work.  So Ellie filled his home up with water, not just a little water more like a pool, and put coffee grounds in to give him some energy.