Gardening Day

We planted almost 200 plants over three days this month. We thought the landscapers were going to bring us the plants in two trips, but they didn't. Ellie likes to eat dirt, so we couldn't let her help. She was not happy about being left on the deck, but she sure was cute.

Storm Damage

All that open space in the yard, and the tree drops its trunk right on the swing bar. The tree was hit by lightning two weeks ago (I saw the fireball), and then as I looked out the kitchen window, Fay smashed Phil's playset into toothpicks. We think it can be fixed. This was the only major damage we had, though, and we never lost electricity, so we count ourselves lucky.

Snuggly baby

Ellie has learned how to cuddle. She cuddles stuffed animals, baby dolls, and of course, brothers.

Alex's Return

Alex was in Denmark for the month of July. He had a wonderful time at CISV, but we missed him a lot. This is Ellie's reaction to his return. She let him hold her, so clearly he wasn't a stranger, but she is trying to figure out who, exactly, this handsome young man might be.

Techno-girl

Ellie likes to copy what we do. She bangs on the keyboard, wondering what the attraction is. She also tries to talk on the phone, and somehow figured out that the toy phone is a phone, too.

Mama's birthday picture

While we were on the road, I turned another year older. We stopped at the American Folklife Festival in Washington, DC as a special treat. The festival was pretty lame (NASA??!!!), but we had fun anyway. Bhutanese food was pretty good, we all agreed.

Ellie had her first carousel rides, one each with the boys.

Ellie and her Teddy

Ellie loves the teddy bear that the boys gave her.