A five year old in OUR house??

It is hard to believe that we have a five year old in the house. Ella fills our days with laughter and challenges us with her independent nature, but no matter how you look at it, she is a blessing to our family. For the past few weeks we have been preparing for the school transition. Last Tuesday we had her kindergarten Open House. For those who don't know, Ella will be attending kindergarten in my building this year. She'll just be a hop and skip down the hallway from me. We are feeling so blessed to have my dear friend Julie as her teacher. However, Ella doesn't know that Julie and I are such good friends. It was precious at the open house on Tuesday. I had to stay in my classroom to meet and greet my students and Scott was managing all three kiddos and taking Ella into her room. She was curious and excited all at the same time. The school had an ice cream social in the gymnasium to top off all the excitement. It was adorable when Ella came running into my classroom demanding I come meet her new teacher, Mrs. Galer. We walked down together and Ella introduced me. Julie and I acted as if we hadn't met before (we'll see how long this will hold up??) During this experience, I had one of those "moments" of overwhelming emotion of 'how did we get HERE?' It seems like just last week we were bringing home our new baby girl and here she stands with her kindergarten teacher. Aww! I am so excited, nervous, and happy for her all at the same time. But for the weekend, we are focusing on celebrating her birthday. I am sure there will be more mush and gush come Tuesday when I see her with her backpack, outfit, and glasses all set to head off to school.



As for the celebration....with Ella it seems like her birthday goes on for at least 2 or 3 weeks. We haven't had a party on the 30th because of the holiday. So we celebrate on her day, then typically the following weekend. Scott and I have been having the great debate about the gift. We are tired of toys and other things that clutter our house that she rarely uses. So in looking at things she LOVEs and things we can live with.......we have quite foolishly decided to grow our family by another member. Yep, we got a cat!

So we have been researching (because as many of you know I was not 'for' pets at our house) not at this stage of craziness. However, we talked and I have seen the light (maybe)! Every time we go to someones house who has a pet Ella disappears. She is found malling whatever pet they have...cat, dog, or anything else. We also figure it will be good for teaching responsibility and maybe she would let off mothering the two boys????

Well we visited local pet shops and did some online searching. Who knew that adopting a cat would be so much work. One might have thought we were trying to adopt a child. We had to fill out an application, with references of course and then there was the half hour phone interview with ME and finally the in person visit. After the cat lady told me over the phone that she was concerned about the number of small children we had at the house, I decided it would NOT be a good idea to take Carter for the in-person- visit. So on Friday afternoon, after the phone interview, Scott and Ella hurried over to the Critter Cottage to meet with three potential adoptees. We hadn't intended for the process to come together so quickly but considering it was the holiday weekend they were trying to help us out. Here are a few pictures of Ella at the Critter Cottage picking out her newest best friend.

Bonding with "Amos" during the in-person-interview.
He was the favorite right from the start since he ran right up to her and let her shower him with her love!

Brewster and Simba were other options. But Amos (whose name we have now changed) was the obvious match for us!

Friends forever!

Ella was more than thrilled to bring him home. While she and Scott were finalizing the adoption, the boys and I rushed to the local Pet Smart to pick up the necessary equipment. It's been a whirlwind (but hey isn't it all a whirlwind at this point??) I will post more soon!