Chalk for lunch?

Laughs are abundant at our house these days! Ella keeps us laughing! Cory and I were both off work today so we spent the day cleaning up the garage getting ready for a much dreaded but necessary yard sale. Ella tried her best to help us. We tried to occupy her with toys and side walk chalk but she was more interested in dragging out the items we put in the yard sale pile. She liked playing with the chalk but we ended up having to take it from her when she decided to make a meal out of it. She had chalk all over her hands and face! Thank goodness it was labeled on the container as being non-toxic! We had to take bath #2 of the day after the chalk incident. This afternoon we went to Denise's, for yet, another attempt to get Ella's picture made. I am SOOO happy to report that Ella was such a little ham and smiled the whole time today! Denise got some really great shots!!! I was so happy considering last time I left in tears. For those of you that haven't heard my photography nightmare story...here goes. A couple of weeks ago, Cory and I took Ella to get her 1 year pictures made. Denise takes really cute shots of the little ones with cake and balloons. I decided that I would bake and decorate the cake to match Ella's outfit. I never realized how time consuming this task could be. 5 hours after starting, I finally finished the cake! We went the morning of the photo shoot and got balloons to help get the perfect birthday shot. To make a long story short, Ella didn't cooperate at all! She cried the whole time we were trying to get family shots. We thought the cake and balloons would do the trick and we could get some good pictures. But NO!....when we set the cake (5 hours of hard work) in front of her, she KICKED it!! I looked at Cory and wanted to cry! She wouldn't have anything to do with it! All I can say is that Denise is the most patient person I know! She told us we could come back later and try again. Ella has been going to Denise for photos every 3 months since she was 5 days old and has always cooperated and allowed Denise to get GREAT shots!! But not that day! We realized later that Ella was getting sick and wasn't feeling good so she just wasn't in the mood for pictures. But today was a different story and she did FABULOUS!

This is a picture of the cake before Ella put her foot through it! I was so proud of it especially the fondant bow on top! I ended up making another cake for today's photo session but instead of the bow I put a big "E" on top--less work in case it too got the foot!

Here are some pictures from our day...

Snackin' on some chalk

Our driveway art work