pretty sunset tonight...

a wonderful day on Harstine Island...

We have relatives, Carol and Bernie, that have a great cottage on Harstine Island. We took a little road trip out there to see them today, and had such a nice afternoon. **Thank you so much Carol and Bernie** The girls are having a hard time deciding what their favorite part of the afternoon was, I think it's down to the boat ride (Kate got to drive!), or the salamaders were a huge hit too. Gracie LOVED the salamanders.























Of course, leave it to Ella to make sure that we've got a dramatic story to tell:

Seattle Rock 'n Roll

Half Marathon pics. I'm glad my dad flew out here to run this with me. 27,000 runners---felt like we were running in a massive crowd the entire 13.1 miles.

drama pics...

Kate and Ella have been taking a little drama class through our local parks and rec. --every Monday night for the past 6 weeks. It really was a mistake; The class was terrible. We were so disappointed. The teacher was not good with children, and pretty much killed any desire my children had for doing a musical play. The girls were dreading the final performance tonight, but I'm glad we stuck it out....Kate and Ella did a fantastic job. The play was called 'Fairy Tales Gone Mad'. Kate was an evil step-sister, and Ella was the big bad wolf. I did not take my good camera. Gracie fussed the ENTIRE time.

This first pic is Ella entertaining the crowd before the actual performance. I'm not joking.




Kate did a great job too, I didn't get a very good video of her though. I might post what I've got later, but I still have to weed through about 10 little video clips I took.

Pics-

Pics from Scott:

Ella's 7th Birthday- a 'cooking party'

The calm before the storm:

We decorated aprons, and then made funny-faced pizzas. :P



The girls could not wait for them to be done-


Then we dipped pretzel rods into chocolate and decorated them-





Time fillers included playing 'Cooking Mama' on the Wii-

The girls decorated their own butterfly shaped cakes, and then we sang to Ella-

Presents-

Overall, the party was a huge success. I highly recommend the 'cooking party' idea for this age. Happy Birthday Ella. :)