The Schmidgalls

I am having too much summer-time fun to bother with blogging! Lets see if I can do some recap…

The big news is that Ella has been taking swim lessons!  She has always had some apprehension about the water (okay, she doesn’t even like me to wash her hair!) but we want her to learn to be safe and comfortable in the water.  Joel and I are both adventure seekers and neither of us has really let fear keep us from experiencing fun…so we are learning how to be patient with her.  Here she is on her first say of class with her two buddies, Joshua and Sam.  They are both a year older and adventure seekers so we hope they encourage her!

Her teacher, Mr. Bobby, says she is one of his best at swimming on her back.  Maybe she will be a superstar at the backstroke like her cousin Summer!

Here she does the crabwalk along the side of the pool and the ever-important kicking!

We bought her a froggie floater and, once she learned it keeps her afloat, she has LOVED swimming with it!  By plan is to just put her in the water as much as possible!  So far, that is working!

In other exciting family news, our nephew Parker graduated middle school!  Okay, truth is I LOVE this kid.  He is smart and engaging and gives GREAT hugs.  I could just talk with him for hours - he is an amazing conversationalist.  I have seen him pound on his brother plenty of times but he is so gentle and patient with my kids.  He knows way more trivia than I can ever hope to know.  Oh, and besides all his sports success, he also plays guitar.  I told you, the dude is gifted!  Watch out high school, this guy is going to blow you away!

Here is he moving his tassle.  He won the award for religious studies…love it!

Proud mama and papa.

Just as proud Aunt and Uncle!

More to come…

When Joel got back from Haiti, we knew we needed some family time.  We decided to take the kids to the Playseum in Bethesda.  It was so cute!  They had all these little rooms for hands-on play - a kitchen, construction room with sandbox, grocery store, dressup room, art room, etc.

Ella LOVED the dressup room with a typewriter!

The craft area was a blast too!

Even with that small family break, things were really busy with work.  We missed Daddy!  Joel was awesome and planned a get away to our friend’s little cabin in the woods.  We realized it was the first time we have EVER been away just the four of us!  Typically, we are going to visit family or hang with friends.  We had an amazing time family bonding!

Big sissy and lil’ brother

When Ella was younger, she would say “straw-be-airs” instead of “strawberries.”  She has pretty much grown out of it but we still say it for fun!

Joel has been gone this last week, leading a missions team to Haiti.  I saw the forecast for thunderstorms most of the week so I packed the kids up last Monday and took them strawberry picking!  I had no idea what a perfect event this would be, especially for Zeke!  The berries are right at his height so he went to town!  We had some friends coming to meet us so I called to beg them to bring baby wipes out to the fields - my son was covered in strawberry mush!

“Yummy!”

“Sweet!  These are right at my level!”

Everything is more fun with friends!  Miss Kate and Joshua…

Gracie and Owen…(Violet was picking too!)  Grace said that Owen refuses strawberries at home, doesn’t like them.  Um, riiiight….

The fellas…

I love these kids!

Friends!

“Wait for me Mom!”

Praiseworthy Note:  Later in the week, I even made Strawberry Freezer Jam!  Yay for Domestic ME!  Well, I actually don’t really care for strawberry jam so I haven’t actually tasted it yet.  We will let Joel be the judge.

Ella finished up her second year at Little Learners Playschool.  We have both LOVED the experience and Ella has learned so much!

The little graduates, singing a song.

My favorite Little Learner…

Yay!  Another year well done!

Classmates (16 total)

More classmates…I love Giovanni and Sam in this picture.  So tragic!

Best buds…

We love this guy!  (It must have been a rough day!)

Our Violet!  She is a year older than Ella so this was her last year in Little Learners.  Boo!

Our friend Simona moved away right after our class party.  We will miss her!

Mommy and Ella do school together!

We try to have some adventures on our day off, otherwise known in our house as “Daddy-stay-home-day.”  A few weeks ago we went over to Roosevelt Island for a little picnic and hike.  Amazingly, I have never been there even though it is just minutes from our house!

It was a gorgeous day!

Ella was doing some exploring of her own.

“Um, sweetie…”

“Hey, where did she go?!”

Oh dear!  Monkey see, monkey do…

Little man LOVED hiking!

“Hey, get back here!”

Daddy taught the kids rock-throwing skills.

Ella was ready to try fishing with Daddy!

Not the most successful fishing attempt but it was fun anyway!

This last week, we spent Daddy-stay-home day at the house and then went to the Nationals game that evening.  We could not have asked for a better family experience at the ball game.  The weather was gorgeous!  The kids played in the play area and then we found a row of seats where they could play…I mean, watch the game. And, of course, snacks, snacks, snacks!

Zeke in the play area

Joel and his sports fans.

We love Daddy days!

Family Tradition - year FOUR!!  When Ella was first born, Joel decided he wanted to start a tradition of taking our kids to opening day of the Washington Nationals baseball season each year.  So far, he has let me tag along.  We have a great time…mostly eating snacks and playing in the kids area!  Last year Zeke was just a few weeks old.  But, this year, he was on the move!

We have no idea how she remembers this from last year, but all Ella wanted to see at the game was “the lizard” - that is, the Geico Gecko.  We managed to find his statue in the kids area right away.

We had some time to kill before the game started.  The girlies…

The boy-eeez

It was a crazy-packed game because President Obama was there to throw the first pitch.

The experience pretty much went downhill from there because Ella was scared to death of the fireworks that kept going off.

We were able to turn things around by tracking down…the Gecko!!  This seriously made her day!  She kept telling us he was glad to see her.

Yay for family traditions!

We have family in town to help us celebrate Easter! We learned a new trick when coloring our Easter eggs.  A magazine said that brown eggs make the eggs a deeper color.  It was right!

The best craft partner!

Ta-Da!!

Before bed, we spent time explaining the resurrection of Christ to Ella.  It is a lot for a three year old to comprehend!  She was very concerned about Jesus though!

On Easter morning, we had baskets before church.  Mimmy sent the kids on a hunt for their baskets.

Joel told Ella she could have ONE piece of candy before church.  She is a smart girl!  She chose the chocolate bunny!

All dressed up, getting in the car for church!

My handsome boy!

He is happy anytime he is outside!

We had all the extended family over for a feast after church.  The older cousins hid Easter eggs for the little ones.

My two favorite fellas!

Happy Easter!

Easter season around here means…Easter EGGstravaganza!!!  This was the NINTH annual egg hunt hosted by our church.  And this year we had events at three different locations - Kingstowne, Ballston, and Capitol Hill.  We attended all three, of course!

At the Kingstowne hunt I was nervous that Zeke might be a little scared of the Easter bunny…but he LOVED him!  He snuggled right in to his cuddly lap!  It was so cute!

Ella had a blast playing all the games!

She was a master egg hunter this year!  She filled her own basket and then came and traded for Zeke’s and filled his too!

The Capitol Hill hunt was a blast because our NCC Dance Crew performed!

One of my favorite dancers - my rockin’ nephew Josiah!

Ella and Violet - happy hunters!

Zeke liked Daddy’s hat!

Game time!

This was Ella’s favorite activity!

I didn’t get any pictures of the actual hunt because there was one child that broke through (not naming names…ahem, Giovanni! haha! ) and sent the kids into a frenzy, starting the hunt before it was time!  But here are the kids with their post-hunt loot!

Ella’s buddy Aiden has a little crush on her with think!

Are you having a blast buddy?

Ella with her best pal, Easter Bunny!

Ella had her first visit to the dentist!

This photo is deceiving because as soon as he came near her to clean her teeth she freaked!  I had to sit with her on my lap and even then it was a rough ride.  The dentist says her teeth look healthy and well taken care of!  (Note the remote in her hand.  Dentists are getting smarter!)

This pic is just for fun.  We have been having a bit of confusion with the weather…as you can tell.  She put this little outfit together on her own.

And, my favorite story…earlier this week, I was dropping her at school and she didn’t want me to leave so I sat down to color with her for a few minutes.  I was trying to distract her so I said, “Lets practice writing your name!  I will write it and you can copy the letters.”  Before I could do that, she grabbed a crayon…and proceeded to WRITE HER NAME on her own!  My jaw dropped!  I had no idea she could do that!  I was so proud!  She is barely three years old!

Her full name, Eloise, hangs in letters above her bed and each night she points to each letter and says, “E-l-o-i-s-baby one”…baby one means a “baby e” which looks different than the “E” she is used to.  Ha-ha!

Ezekiel’s actual birthday just happened to be Joel’s day off.  It is known in our home as “Daddy Stay Home Day!”  We had an awesome family day!  The Lord gave Zeke (all of us, actually) a great birthday present…a warm and sunshine day!  We started the morning at the zoo!  We saw the pandas and elephants for mama and Ellie requested the bird house and the monkeys.

Unfortunately, these two monkeys are the only animals that made it into the photo.

After naps, we drove out to Virginia to Tysons Corner mall.  The kids went crazy in the play area and Zeke got a free ride on the train.  We met Grandma Schmidgall and Aunt Amy for dinner and final present opening.

Choo-choo!

Birthday call with Mimmy.  He holds the phone to his ear - so cute!

Ella has already opened everything for him!

He LOVES his choo-choo from Grandma!  (Disclaimer:  This photo was Daddy’s idea.  Yes, he is on the couch.)  I love his little brown big-boy shoes and blue rainboots!

St. Patrick’s Day is now a pretty special holiday in our house!  Here is the walking man!

Once the kids were in bed, Joel and I watched the video of Zeke being born.  What a year of happiness!  Happy Birthday baby boy!

Addition - First birthday stats: Height 30 inches (58 percentile - the lowest my kids has EVER been!) and Weight 22lbs 7 ounces (45 percentile).  Four ouchy vaccines for the poor kid!