The smile that melts hearts
The second quarter of 2020 has been… different! We’ve been in lockdown for most of it because of COVID-19, so we haven’t had much opportunity to get out and do much.
We’ve been making the most of our time at home though. Both Ellie and Jack have helped me to till and reseed the lawn, Ellie has been busy doing remote learning, and we’ve ventured out of the house a handful of times.
Continue reading “Pictures from Q2 2020”Once again, I’ve fallen behind with putting Ellie’s pictures online, so enjoy this little selection from late 2019 and early 2020.
Continue reading “The end of 2019 and into 2020”For Christmas this year, Ellie got a nice little array of gifts.
She had asked for lots of books, since she’s really getting into chapter books at school.
Hands down her favourite gift was something that Santa got for her. Ever since going hiking with Daddy, she’s wanted a hiking backpack with a bladder in it for drinking water on the go. Well, Santa delivered and Ellie was over the moon.
Continue reading “Christmas 2019”Ellie gave herself a manicure, which is adorable in and of itself, but then, while speaking to aunty Shelly, she was showing off each finger in sequence. Well, she didn’t quite understand why she found it so funny when she showed aunty Shelly her middle finger.
Continue reading “Ellie showing off her painted nails”The other day, Ellie and I went to this charity event. Ellie got her face painted and the venue was so beautiful that I had to snap a picture of the two of us and it came out so nicely.
Continue reading “I’m a beautiful butterfly!”As Ellie continues to grow, she’s looking more and more like a young girl every day. This was especially true when Ellie put on this new outfit and she just looks like a small version of a teenager.
Continue reading “Looking more and more grown-up every day”Ellie got her Halloween outfit the other day and she settled on being a mermaid (again). She found this dress at Costco that she fell in love with and she can’t wait for Halloween now.
Continue reading “Ellie trying on her Halloween outfit”Ellie had an amazing first year at school. She learned so much and it’s astounding how well she can read and write now.
She had a great summer of relaxing, while keeping her skills up to scratch.
Now she’s back at it and having a great time. She’s got a wonderful teacher, excellent classmates and is loving getting back to learning.
Continue reading “Ellie starts 1st grade”This summer, we finally had the equipment and the support to do what we’ve wanted to do since moving to Portland: go camping.
We were invited by some friends to go car camping with a whole bunch of families, which sounded ideal because there would be plenty of confident hands assisting us, and lots of other children for the kids to play with.
So, off we went. We went to Barview Jetty Campground on the Oregon coast, which was flush with the amenities that would make Martina in particular comfortable, such as running water, flush toilets and hot showers.
Continue reading “Our first family camping trip”Ellie held on to her baby teeth longer than most of her peers. Today, she lost her first tooth, and it was quite an eventful affair.
After a week or two of it being really quite wobbly, to the point of even being able to lay down on its side, we went to Starbucks, as we do on the first Saturday of every month before our Home Depot Workshop, and Ellie ordered a bagel as usual.
At the conclusion of the meal, Martina stared at Ellie confused and asked Ellie where her tooth was. She reached into her mouth and was equally confused.
Yep, she had swallowed it.
Continue reading “Ellie lost her first tooth”
