mommy a special message just for you

happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday to the bestest mommy in the world, happy birthday to you cha cha cha! we wish you a day filled with all things that make you smile & we love you so so so much!!!

tools for school

at our church we are always looking for ways to do good. so all this month we have been helping a school in north rosenberg pack their supply closet. you see jackson elementary really needs pencils, glue sticks, notebook paper, spiral notebooks & hand sanitizer so the students can have school supplies... we're going to help do that. to really get us motivated to help, all children from k-5th grade  at our church are in competition to see which class can collect the most supplies because whoever wins gets a donut party. the real thing is we don't want a single child to go without this year & we're going to make sure they don't! remember our virtue this month is responsibility which is showing you can be trusted with what's expected of you! as soon as livi & i heard about this we went shopping right after church to get started!

we bought lots of things because since school had already starred everything was on sale so we went crazy. then some friends of ours heard what we were doing & wanted to help too. so they were bringing us bags & bags of supplies too.  every sunday this month we had school supplies to bring in, it was awesome! i think livi & i each brought in about 300 supplies so that was 600 together. it'd be great to win a donut party, but we can get donuts any time. the most important thing is knowing that all of the children of jackson elementary will have school supplies & i think they will!

did you know you can help change the world with just a few simple items?!?!?! so go out there, find out how you can help your community & DO GOOD!!!

my mustached pampering party

yesterday i celebrated turning a decade (that's a fancy word for 10 years) with my besties by getting pampered & filling up on my favorite foods. since i was turning double digits mommy said we could splurge & really spoil ourselves. i've been looking forward to this day a long long long time! we started out at the sweet escape nail lounge getting manicures & pedicures. when we all first got there it took us ages to look through all the nail polish colors... we had never seen so many. we all finally narrowed it down to 4 colors each, 2 for our fingers & 2 for our toes. we all felt like princesses getting the royal treatment, we got a sugar scrub with lotion massage on our legs & feet... it was awesome! everybody that walked bye wished me a happy birthday, it was so nice.

after we were completely relaxed it was time to head over to grimaldi's for some amazing pizza for lunch!

mommy got us all cute mustache straws to drink out of

this was so funny. i sneezed & my headband flew over my eyes!

i know it looks like we ordered a lot of pizza, but don't worry we saved room to have dessert at the cheesecake factory!!! it took us 30 minutes to decide what flavor cheesecake we wanted, i went with chocolate chip cookie dough... it was so nummy!!!

mommy made our cake toppers, we loved them

livi's ordered a bowl of ice-cream & look how big it was

after we stuffed ourselves, i decided it was time for the girls to open their goodie bags so we could get our silly on!!! mommy & i worked really hard on putting together the goodie bags because i wanted them to be perfect.

mustache tissues, mustache finger tattoos, mustache pen, mustache buttons, mustache straw, mustache mood bracelet & of course mustaches to wear

i loved picking everything out & matching colors to my friends favorite colors. my friends loved them & we had so much fun being goofballs... let me tell you we got a lot of funny looks!!!

you could say this was the best birthday celebration ever. i had the perfect day & i couldn't have asked for anything more. i can't wait to see what this year will bring & all the adventures that await me!!!

a very special birthday message to me

happy birthday to me cha cha cha, happy birthday to me cha cha cha, happy birthday dear meeeee, happy birthday to me cha cha cha. i'm gonna have grrrreat day!!! can you believe i'm a BIG 10yr old?!?!?! i'm finally double digits... whoo hoo!!! 

best thursday ever

today was the best thursday ever & i mean ever!!! the day started out with us celebrating the fort bend county fair at school by all of the students getting to wear western clothes & boots.

then as soon as i got to school i took an ar test on the latest book i read & i got 90%! then mommy came by & brought my whole class minion donuts to celebrate my birthday. so i got to see her in the middle of my day & that was great... plus the whole donut thing. my friends were really really excited about the donuts, most of them have never seen minion donuts before & they were so delicious!!!

i didn't say anything earlier in the week because i was super nervous, but i decided to run for student council in my class this year. only 2 people get picked out of each class in 3rd & 4th grade, then those who get chosen have meetings they attend & are the chosen representatives & speakers for their class. i was to scared to run last year, but this year i really wanted to do it. each person running makes a poster to hang in their class hallway & has to give a speech about why they want to represent their class. i worked really hard on my poster figuring out how i wanted it to look, what i wanted it to say & making sure it was attention grabbing.

this is how my poster looked when i was finished. i know it's kind of hard to read all the slogans i came up with so i'll type them here: "be a pal, vote for this gal!", "the girl with the smile will go the extra mile", "ella is trustworthy", "ella is helpful", "peace. love. lead", "keep calm and lead on", "ella is awesome", i may be small, but i've got it all. i'll fight without rest, put me to the test!", & my favorite "i may be small like a mouse, but i'm a power house." i'm so happy with how it all turned out & my hard work paid off because... 

these were just a few of the posters

I GOT VOTED FOR STUDENT COUNCIL IN MY CLASS!!!! i couldn't believe it when my teacher called my name at the end of the day. my friends really believe in me & want me to be a leader for them! so jackson & i will be the representatives for mrs. heikkila's 4th grade class!!!  i can't wait for my 1st meeting & see what our 1st project will be!  this was the best day ever... whoo hoo!!! for an added bonus we don't have school tomorrow & i'll be celebrating my birthday with my besties... yay yay yay!

nonie a special message just for you

 happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday dear nonie, happy birthday to you cha cha cha! we wish you a day filled with all things that make you smile & we love you so so so much!!!

holly

this past week our nonie & help have been on a fancy cruise to jamaica & we've been put in charge of taking care of holly. holly is their adorable 13 year old toy pomperanian who only has 1 tooth & weighs barely over 4 pounds. we love holly & were so excited that we got to have her for a whole week!!! at first sadie was really excited too, but finally she calmed down & now is just jealous of her. i think sadie thinks holly is here to stay & isn't to sure how she feels about it. it's like sadie is the big sister & is always getting in trouble for picking on the little sister. holly is so small we forget that she can protect herself. when holly first got here, she did not like sadie in her face so she started growling & tried to bite her hind legs. let's not forget that holly only has one tooth & sadie outweighs her by almost 20 pounds... it was hysterical!!! no they're pretty tolerant of each other & hang out together. holly has got momo wrapped around her paw the worst out of all of us. we'll hear momo talking & think she's on the phone... nope she's talking to holly. momo knows that holly likes to have the tv on & even though she doesn't believe in wasting energy she'll leave it on for holly... we would get in trouble if we did that! holly is just so precious none of us can say no to her. tomorrow our nonie & help get back & we'll be really sad to see holly go, but here's a look at all she's been doing since she's been here.

getting to know our front yard

getting to know our back yard

riding with us on the way to school

having reading time together

taking over sadie's bed & blanket

livi didn't want to go to school, she just waned to cuddle with holly all day

look they're together 

helping me plan out my student council board

having fun watching livi make a mess

aren't we cute

international day of peace

today at school we celebrated international day of peace by participating in the pinwheels for peace project. this project was started in 2005 as a way for students to use peace day to express their hope for peace around the world, in our communities & in our schools. all week we've been having discussions about how to create a more peaceful planet beginning with our school. we discussed the importance of respecting differences & caring for each other. it was also a way to introduce our efforts to once again be named as a "no place for hate" school. all of the students at our school were able to create a pinwheel as a symbol of our unique contributions to the world & our desire for peace. today we were supposed to "plant" our pinwheels in the front grassy area of the school to create our own peace garden, but because of all the rain we had to postpone until monday. we were invited to wear clothing that expresses peace & love though. i wore one of my school spirit shirts that have a peace sign, heart & dolphins in jewels. since livi's spirit shirt hasn't come in yet, daddy & mommy made her a peace shirt!

the puddles trapped us

geez louise, did it storm today!!! it rained so much it flooded our entire playground & walkway... it was CrAzY!!! this year the after school pickup is a lot different & only the car riders can be picked up in the front of the school. the walkers & bike riders have to go out the side of the school through the playground to the bike racks. well this was not an ideal day because it had rained all day & i mean ALL day! mommy & another parent were the only ones with rain boots on so when all of us came running out of the school they stopped us until a teacher could get to us to determine what we should do. we had no idea a lake had formed where our walkway usually is. so while the teachers were trying to figure out some sort of plan mommy & the other parent were carrying the little ones through the water & to the other side. mommy even gave me a piggy back back ride to dry land, she's a lot stronger than i ever thought! some of us 4th graders did find a very creative way through most of the lake except we had to go through the deepest part for a few feet. then once people made it through the water another problem came up (literally) the fire ants rose with the water & were on full force attack. so then mommy was helping kids, teachers & some parents take off their socks & shoes while trying to get the ants off them & drying their feet on her jeans... it was one hot wet mess! my good friend rayne was bitten so many times her foot & ankle were swelling so instead of her putting her shoes back on to ride her bike home, mommy drove her home instead. the rumor is we are going to have a wet winter & if that's the case our school need to come up with a better idea on how to get us out of the school because this was not the funnest way to end our day.  i mean we love jumping in puddles but this was a whole new ballpark.  thank goodness mommy came to our rescue!!

500 bags update

we did it, we decorated all 500 bags (of course with lots of help from our friends) for Lunches of Love... whoo hoo!!! last saturday we had a beautifying brown bags party where over 20 of our friends came over to our tia liz's house for snacks & turning plain jane brown paper sacks into beautiful creations of art that will make any child who receives them smile & feel loved!!! we had two tables covered in stickers, crayons & markers so there wouldn't be any empty hands or people waiting on someone to finish with something so they could use it. we also had ipads & phones if people needed help coming up with ideas they'd have it right at their hands to look up. then if people still needed help on how to decorate the bags we put up a gallery of already beautified bags all over tia liz's house for people to look at. our party was only two hours long & at the end of it we had over 150 bags done... i'd say it was successful.

then after the party some of our friends had so much fun that they took even more bags home so they could keep decorating. we also had some friends that weren't able to make it to the party but still wanted to help so mommy dropped off some bags at their houses. we also had a lot more friends at MDO that wanted to help too! i tell ya we have some of the best, loving & most supporting friends you could ever ask for!!! if you would still like to learn more about Lunches of Love please click here!

these are just a few of some of our favorite bags