A Girl and Her Shoes

Ella's feet have finally grown; she wore the same size , 6/7, for so long. It was awful...seeing so many adorable shoes and not buying them because she already had 2 pair of pink flip flops and black dress shoes, and cowboy boots and so on.

I waited so long for a girlie and then to be stuck in the same shoes....a form of torture, it really was. Ok, a bit dramatic but you get the idea.

So today we were in our local big box store and I took a quick trip down the shoe aisle. Shane saw them first and he kept say Ella! Which now sounds like Ah LA with heavy emphasis on the LA.

She loved them. We brought them home just in time for nap. I went in to wake her this afternoon and found them lovingly cared for. Is it just me, or do you think she likes them??

Me, indecisive??

If you were hanging out here these past 15 minutes, you probably wondered if you were seeing things or what. Sorry bout that...I was playing with some new blog backgrounds. I'm doubly annoying in that I'm hugely indecisive *and* I have to actually see how something looks - no visualizing here.

I think I have a keeper now; at least for now. Who knows when I'll have an extra 15 to tinker around some more.

Please return to your regularly scheduled programming. :)

1812 Grand Tactical

We headed to Jefferson Patterson Park for a re-enactment of the battles of the War of 1812 that took place in southern Maryland. Grandpop and Lisa joined us.

Group shot

Grandpop and Lisa

In the Colonel's tent

Trying on his hat. shhhh don't tell!

Checking out his dinner table
The surgeon's display

They had all this stuff just laying out. Being the typical homeschooler, Hank ran over to try it all on. Um, that would be a no please. The guy looked at us like we were nuts.

It's so hard to get a shot with all 4 of them looking like reasonable people. I have no idea what Hank is doing.

The boy totem pole

They had a toy shoppe with all sorts of cool stuff for kids

This was like table top pinball. I tried to listen in as Ella walked right up to a table of big boys, told them her name, asked theirs and then played with them. Teeny peanut with some chutzpah

Baltimore Museum of Industry

We went to the Baltimore Museum of Industry last Friday with our Tapestry co-op. We just began the Industrial Revolution and this place was a perfect tie-in.

Shane was with Daddy getting his cast taken off and Jake was doing big kid stuff so it was just me and the middles.

While I miss being with my squishy boy, it really made the field trip a lot easier to have him hang out with daddy instead of me chasing him around.

These are - of course - grossly out of order...

Hank printing

Hank next to the lino-type machine
Hank next to a desk
More printing
Watching the blacksmith demonstration
Wearing stylish protective goggles
Next to some contraption that was used to better the lives of people long ago
Not sure why she looks sad; she had a great time. She's cute and tiny so the bigger girls love carrying her around. I don't think she walked 10 steps the whole time we were there.

They had us do an assembly line to manufacture cardboard vans. Each kid had their specific task...they all loved what they did and agreed to do that task for 8-10 hours a day/6 days a week. I think we'll incorporate learning about time into our day because they clearly didn't understand!

The cast

The cast came off on Friday afternoon and he will be gimpy limpy for about a week. My poor little guy. One more week until he can play soccer; no trampoline or playfort for two weeks.

The Red Hats

Car Grammy is a Red Hat and she sent Ella two of her old hats. Happy girl with some new, very fun dress up hats.

Thank you Car Grammy!!!