It’s that time of year again…

…high school football season!

Chris’s school always has a big football kick-off celebration with free dinner included, and their first home game of the season was last night. With both of us being high school teachers, we like to support our kiddos and attend such events. Since all of the parents of Elodie’s friends from her babysitter work in the same school district as Chris, it was especially fun for the babies to hang out some more.

We were all joking about how different these kiddos were the same time last year. Here’s what Elodie looked like this time last year:

Elodie @ the football kick off in 2011

Elodie and a friend last year

And this is what she looked like this year–sporting the same tshirt, probably for the last time.

Elodie cheering on the team, 2012

More cheering

Playing with friends

Elodie had a blast running around with her friends, listening to the band, watching the cheerleaders & watching a little bit of the game.

We will definitely be attending more football games this season! Especially when my school & Chris’s school play each other!

xoxo

Ash

Gymnastics

Elodie has been taking gymnastics classes at GAA since June. Our former babysitter works there & one of my friends from work takes her kids there for parent/tot classes. We thought we’d give it a try and we’re super glad we did! At first, Elodie didn’t love it; she wandered off and cried when we tried to get her to do what she was supposed to be doing. We took a few weeks off for our road trip up north, and started back 2 or 3 weeks ago. This time around, she’s doing great! We love the parent/tot aspect of it, because we can run around and enjoy everything with her.

Her class takes place in a real, GIANT gymnastics gym. There are dozens (maybe a dozen… probably closer to 2 dozen) of other classes going on of all ages/genders/and skill levels. Her class is 45 minutes long and is broken up into three 15 minute stations. The first two stations are usually in the back corner of the gym, in a little kid-friendly area, and the last 15 minutes is spent on two giant trampolines and a foam pit! Needless to say, the last 15 minutes are our favorite.

Her teacher is so wonderful and Elodie loves her! I’m hoping when she moves up to the next class, to a non a parent-tot class, I’m hoping she can stay with the same teacher.

Here’s the first station from the other night:

Elodie hanging on the bar. Her second favorite thing to do.

Climbing up a “rock” wall

Sliding down the other side of the rock wall

Walking on the balance beam

Hopping from color to color with daddy

The second station is in the little room in the back corner:

The room with some of the other kiddos

Jumping & Climbing

Elodie swinging with her teacher

And the last station is our favorite with the trampolines and foam pit. Gigi even came to visit for the last little bit of class this week.

Foam Pit

…we all fall down

More foam pit fun

Then it’s all over! Time for hand sanitizer & stamps.

All the kiddos gathered around for their stamps

We’re really hoping Elodie enjoys this for years to come! If you can find something like this in your area, I really recommend it!

xoxo

Ash

Videos

Here are some videos of Elodie.

I tried to get two of them tonight, but Elodie never wants to cooperate when the camera is rolling. One of them shows her little stubborn self & in the other one she shows off the Itsy, Bitsy Spider & her Wheels on The Bus moves.

 

In this one, she is jamming out to iTunes on my phone. She has good taste in music and her dance moves aren’t too shabby either! I don’t know why this one is so fuzzy.. but she’s still cute!

 

And this last one is old, I can’t remember if I’ve ever shared it or not, but she’s showing off the flipping skills she learned in gymnastics. By the way, Chris and I feel like Elodie’s gymnastics class is one of the best things we’ve ever done for her. It’s so great & I really hope she chooses to continue doing it when she’s old enough to make the decision for herself. I may write a post just about this soon. We have it tomorrow night, so I may try and snap some more pictures of it 🙂

xoxo

Ash

Lately: iPhone Photos

It’s that time again… time for my iPhone pics (+ some of daddy’s). Sorry for the lack of blogging–the first week of school is one of the craziest, so we’ve been trying to survive!

Here’s what we’ve been up to lately.

Chris and Elodie came to my classroom to help me hang something before school started.

The Other Miss Watson–Elodie sitting in my desk chair @ work

My Favorite Student 🙂

My Classroom, all ready for the kiddos.

Needless to say after just a week of 4 classes a day with around 30 students in each, my room looks far less neat now. You can’t even tell that I have 35 desks in my room, can ya? This is much improved from what it looked like a few weeks ago during pre-planning.

Our lives haven’t entirely been revolving around work.

Daddy + daughter = love

Elodie trying on Gigi’s different shoes & cheesing for the camera

Elodie-Sock-Hands

Yesterday, we went to one of Elodie’s friends Elmo themed 2nd birthday party. They had a little inflatable bounce house and the kiddos had a blast. We’re so fortunate to have such sweet, fun parents & babies to share all these fun times with. Finding our babysitter & getting to know all these wonderful people was a wonderful blessing!

2nd Birthday Party Present

The birthday girl & Elodie taking their shoes off so they can bounce in the bounce house

One of the kiddos that used to go to Elodie’s babysitter, who is now in Kindergarten

Some of the kiddos bouncing

He’s so handsome.. he & Elodie would make a cute couple. She likes younger men 🙂

Having Fun

Bday Girl & her daddy

Saying bye to a friend

My Party Favor from the Bday Party!

Have a great week!

xoxo

Ash

Foody Friday: Garlic Baked Shrimp

I’m a day late in posting this, but here’s the recipe I mentioned in this post a couple of days ago.

Garlic Baked Shrimp

I followed the recipe, except I didn’t add white wine, because I didn’t have any. I just added extra lemon-y flavor. Serve with a side of rice and a big green salad full of veggies, and you have a delicious summery meal.

This one will definitely be added into our regular recipe rotation. Delicious!

Enjoy!

xoxo

Ash

Lately: iPhone Photos

Here’s what we’ve been up to since coming home from our vacation.

I made 2 skirts using this tutorial. They were so easy & I made both skirts in less than 2 hours for about $10 each.

Shorter skirt #1

Longer skirt #2

Both skirts

Chris went back to work Wednesday, so I kept Elodie home with me one last day before we thought we needed to send her to her babysitters & get back in the groove. We had a fun day together.

Our usual hang out spot: the park

Elodie “taking a picture” of herself & saying ‘cheeese’

Being a little goof

When we sent Elodie back to her babysitters, I spent my last couple of days off getting a long a workout in, cleaning the house, running some errands and hanging out with my BFF for lunch and some shopping.

What I was planning on being a 3 mile run, turned into a 6.5 mile run/hike/walk because the trail I chose went on much longer than I was anticipating.. and then I had to turn around.

Elodie cuddling with mama after her first day back at her babysitters. We missed each other.

We spent some time with my mom. Chris and I finally saw The Dark Knight Rises (which was AMAZING, by the way–I was really skeptical & didn’t want to see it), while Elodie hung out with her Gigi.

My mom gave Elodie an empty make-up container & she loved “putting” make-up all over her face. Diva girl 🙂

Finally, this weekend we ran some last-minute errands as we prepare for our students to come back to school. I go back this week, FULL TIME, by the way (as opposed to my half-time status last year). Elodie and I had some fun this afternoon before my schedule goes crazy like daddy’s.

Master bowler

This was our delicious dinner tonight. Check back on Foody Friday for the recipe.

Summer is officially over for us! I can promise that our blog will not be updated nearly as often as it has been this summer. I’ll try and keep some updates going on a regular-once-a-week basis, but we’ll see. I love back to school time & I’m super excited to get back in my room & plan for my students. Brand new curriculum for both Chris and I this year, so it should be interesting.

xoxo

Ash

Light Show in AC

When I posted about our time at the beach and trip to Atlantic City, I forgot I had this video to share. It’s a video of a light show being projected onto a large building on the boardwalk in AC. It drew quite a crowd, and was pretty fun to watch. Enjoy the short clip!

xoxo

Ash