Ellie Growing Up!

Ellie seems to be growing up before our eyes lately. She's hit a few fun milestones and has one more week of 4K before officially proclaiming herself a kindergartener. She's so excited to go to kindergarten and doesn't really get that there's a whole summer break that'll have to come first! We have lots of fun stuff planned for the summer, so she won't mind the break, but she sure does love school!

The first fun milestone - losing a tooth! And then a second! Back in early April Ellie was telling us her tooth was loose. We didn't believe her thinking she was too young to be losing teeth - I thought that happened in like 1st grade. Well sure enough it was loose, and just a few days later the Tooth Fairy was visiting for the first time. Her second bottom tooth then fell out about 2 weeks later. She had a dental check-up shortly after that and the dentist said kids teeth usually come out in '4s', so we can probably expect the top 2 to follow suit sometime soon. So far, they're still in tact, and new bottom teeth are coming in.







The second fun milestone - riding without training wheels. When we were home for Easter, Ellie's cousin Maxwell was riding his bike without training wheels. Ellie tried it out a couple times in the garage, and then a few weeks later asked to take her training wheels off too. She was a little wobbly at first, and still has a little tendency to look around too much (not where she's going!), but she's riding her bike like a champ now. We've taken several rides around our neighborhood, and she's getting braver and braver - we pretty much need to run to keep up with her! Bike riding is one of her new favorite things to do now.





Here are a few more pictures of Ellie lately. Modeling her dress for Auntie Stephi's wedding. Just over one month to go!



Ellie's hair is growing better now too, and she likes when I braid it =)



Taking a picture before school one day.



Ellie had her first lemonade stand recently too. It was a very hot day, and she was determined to have a lemonade stand - this was on like a Monday night. I didn't think people would just be walking by with money on a Monday night, so we made it a 'free lemonade' stand. She still got a number of 'tips' though =)



Another morning before school - a little hula hoop while waiting for the bus. Ellie's also all about her 'diva' glasses lately!



I found these next two pictures on my phone. Looks like Ellie cleaned up her room and then took pictures to document the occasion =) All of her animals arranged neatly.



And an afghan/table cloth and even a candle on her table =)



All the way at the top of the jungle gym - no fear!



A picture she drew - Ellie, Grant, and Ethan. She has been friends with these two boys ALL year. The school she'll go to next year has seven different kindergarten classes, so hopefully they can still see each other if they're not in the same class.