Excitement is building...

For Ellie's third birthday. As part of my column this week, I did a short video interview with Ellie on turning 3. Here's the link:

http://www.jconline.com/videonetwork/1757861304001/Ellie-s-Birthday-Interview

Fun run?

After building the anticipation all week for Ellie's participation in her first kids "fun run" this past Saturday, the whole thing fell spectacularly apart. We're not quite sure what happened. Ellie was very excited as she lined up at the start line with Brian (while I parked down the road with Katie to get pics)... but by the time the starting horn sounded Ellie burst into tears and decided not to run. We couldn't get an explanation, but I'm guessing she was either overtired at that point or the horn scared her. I couldn't help taking a couple pictures anyway because who among us hasn't felt like crying during exercise time, right?

At least we got a decent family shot before the race :) Brian was plenty sweaty because he ran 6 miles before start time (to squeeze in his weekend distance despite our busy schedule)... and then he pushed the stroller while I ran near the front of the pack and got a new PR! Beat my last 5K time by about 90 seconds. Woo-hoo!

Sprinkler baseball

At an impromptu BBQ recently we put out the sprinkler for Ellie and Olivia, and busted out a new baseball set. The girls had a great time! (And so did the dads...)

Freeze pops capped off a pretty great afternoon :)

After weeks and weeks of laziness, Katie seems to finally be interested in rolling over on a consistent basis. I was playing with her on the floor Sunday afternoon and she did it a half dozen times! What a big girl :)

Tall

 

Ellie constructing her own Mt. Everest, with the help of her stool :)

Our big girl has had a pretty good re-start at day care this week. Her teacher tells me that she has an answer for everything (no surprise there) and she's making friends quickly. She is a bit clingy with me at drop-off, but I don't think it lasts long after I leave since there are so many cool activities and toys to distract her. I'm missing her (and Katie) during my long days at work, but I've made it home before Ellie's bedtime each of the past 2 nights and will have some time with the girls the next 2 mornings before heading in to work more of an afternoon-evening shift at the newspaper. All in all, we're making this new arrangement work.

Bath+toys

I just happened to get this pretty hilarious progression of shots when capturing moments from one of the girls' baths last week. Ellie doesn't mind sharing toys with Katie at bath time...

... but I almost lost Katie in the mess. She doesn't seem to mind :)

Wrapping up leave

Today is my last day home with the girls before I start work full-time again Monday. As I expected, I'm an emotional mess as I worry about how Ellie and Katie will react to the new day care and how I will acclimate to the new job. But we've packed a lot of fun in this past week — and the past 5 months. Here are some of my favorite pictures of my time with the gals.