Just Bella

Since the last post was all about Jacob, I thought I would share this awesome picture of Anabel from last weekend. We went to a birthday party and there was a guest there taking pictures with a really neat camera. Sadly she didn’t get one of Jacob but this one of Bella is crazy good, maybe my favorite one of her ever.

Bella loves pink, she only wants to wear pink dresses or pink tops with denim skirts (any guesses where she gets the denim skirt thing from???)

Bella is very articulate. She expresses herself very well and does funny imitations of people.  She is very playful and joyful.

Bella is fine to play on her own for much longer periods of time than Jacob, she loves to be outside in her playhouse, daydreaming in the sunshine or playing on the slide.

Bella loves to draw and color and in general has a longer attention span than Jacob does.

Bella has a sweet tooth, she loves juice, chocolate, and candy of all kinds. Thankfully she also eats most any food you put in front of her. Her favorite is green beans, cold, straight from the can.

With the warmer weather her KP (skin condition on her legs and arms) is much better, the exposure to the sun and not being chaffed under jeans and long sleeves and the frequent use of thick lotions like sunscreen all help it be more in control. She will have it all her life although it might be less noticeable as she ages.

Bella is still working on being potty trained. There is no bathroom at the soccer fields which is, as they say, an accident waiting to happen. On the upside she is staying dry at night and during naps now.  There are still plenty of days when lets just say I’m thankful to have tile floors!

Bella loves with her whole heart. She runs towards us and throws herself into our arms when we pick her up after school each day.  If anyone is hurt or upset she will hug them and she is quick to offer a word of comfort or a healing kiss.

She is the light of our hearts, not a single day goes by that she doesn’t make us laugh.

Go Go Gators

Jacob is #8 on FFPS Soccer Team #109 this Spring. We are so proud of him.  Although it is all new to him, he has approached it with a winning attitude.

Here is Jacob at his first ever practice, his coach, Coach Becky walked them around the edge of the field so they could learn when the ball is “in” and when it is “out”.

 

Bella watching through the net, she wants to play soccer so badly!

Coach Becky gives lots of High Fives. She is awesome, infinitely patient and has fun with the kids.

The following Week, Practice #2 – practicing stopping the ball by placing your foot on top.

Then it was Saturday, April 10th – our first game.  First of all, let me just say I love how FFPS (Fun, Fair, Positive, Soccer) is set up. It is 8 practices and 8 games. They don’t keep score (although goals are tracked to help build future teams fairly), every kid plays, every position, every game. The games last less than an hour and criticizing and negative comments aren’t allowed. It is all about having fun and learning how to play.

To make the first game special all the parents and coaches meet up in a nearby parking lot and decorate their cars in team colors, then we drive together to the game, honking and waving.  This parade was so fun and the kids all loved it.

  

Each team is assigned uniforms and gets to decide their team name, since our uniforms are green, the kids decided to be the Gators. Which is fun because we yell “Chomp Chomp Chomp” – very fun for 5 years olds (and 37 yr olds too).

Coach Becky introduces each player out onto the field.

I love it that there is a mix of girls and boys and that our coach is a woman.

The teams play 4 on 4 so, Jacob rests with his Dad while he is out of rotation.

 

It was a fun first game! Jacob isn’t super aggressive, he’s not right in the thick of things during games but he definitely got a few solid kicks in and he runs right along with the others and seems to be getting down the basic mechanics of the game.

I hear some Moms saying they couldn’t wait until their kids were playing competitive soccer instead.  That’s great for some, but this is perfect for us right now. I’m so thrilled that my son is out there, having fun, running and playing and making friends.

 

And yes, I do believe the Gators made a couple more goals than the Dragons, but who’s counting? ;)

Easter Continued…

On Easter Sunday afternoon Will’s parents came over and we had a big dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, green beans and salad. Then we headed outside for an egg hunt.

 

S  

It was such a warm, sunny day. After finding eggs (Theresa and I hid 80 eggs!) we stayed outside playing and relaxing.

When we came back in it was time to dye eggs.

  

Next is was time for cake. I worked hard on this cake, it was a from scratch yellow cake with from scratch chocolate icing. It was perfect, until I had the not very good idea of trying to add a whipped cream bunny on top to decorate it.

 

It melted and just looked gross. So sad! Oh how I wished I had left it alone!

 

However, the cake itself was really tasty and no one complained although I did hear Ghost Bunny jokes the rest of the day.

After my inlaws left both kids fell fast asleep. I think the early church service plus playing outside plus the sugar all wore them out.  I went up to the playroom and found Bella curled up asleep, without a stitch of clothing!

And that was our Easter!

Day of Rest

Today I declared it a Day of Rest. Of course for me that is more like a day of not going anywhere and doing things I enjoy like baking,blogging, napping, making laundry soap, and for a treat we will be making homemade ice cream later this afternoon. Oh and meal planning and going to the grocery store. OK so that tells you how busy we’ve been lately that the above list sounds restful by comparison! So in between tasks I am rewarding myself with blog time. I just finished making laundry soap so here is the first post, going back to last weekend…

Good Friday

I worked from home and Will took the children to the zoo for a few hours.

Bella loved the flamingos because they are PINK.

In the evening we had an early supper and then went to services at church. We were actually early, we had time to stop and get Starbucks and then were still early enough to get Bella to nursery, visit, and get spots up front. I just want to document that it happened, once you know? The Fishers were early to church! :)

Easter Weekend

Whoo boy, I think it’s been Palm Sunday on my blog long enough don’t you? Well, at least Easter in one day that you can never be “behind”  on because our Savior is risen, not just last Sunday, but everyday for all time! He is Risen Indeed and has been so good to us lately.

Here is Bella with her Easter pail at the church egg scramble.

This next series is sponsored by Starburst Fruit Chews. Note the yellow one about to be popped into Bella’s mouth…

Love it! Both girls had a mouth full of chewy candy and couldn’t smile – hilarious!

Jacob was there too but I literally couldn’t catch him on film because he found his good buddy Aidan and they were running and running. I did manage to snap one as we were in the car about to leave. Note the big smile and skinned knee (sure signs of an eggcellent time)

That night we had a great family dinner at Pappacitos!

Bella signs the check (she looks so grown up here to me!)

Easter Sunday

The next morning we went to the sunrise service. Well, except it was raining so there wasn’t really a sunrise to see, so we had the service in the gym.

I didn’t take too many pictures that morning, it was very early!

 

Bella’s dress was puffy and wonderful and these are the only pictures I got of it!

Back home, we all changed back into PJ’s and went back to sleep until 10:30! Then we got up to get ready for dinner (AKA lunch on Sundays) and Will’s parents coming over.

[OK, time for me to get a little more work done then I’ll hop on and post some more, I took LOTS of pictures that afternoon!]