Ella's 11th Birthday!

After a very busy weekend of attending all three of Lia's "Honk" performances, I turned around yesterday afternoon and hosted Ella's family birthday party.  Unfortunately, my dad had come down with a bad cold and canceled last minute, so only my mom came to the party after watching Lia's final performance with Ella, Emmett, and me.  We came home in time for me to finish up making dinner before we gathered around the dining room table to celebrate Ella and her 11 years of life.  We spent a pleasant evening eating dinner, opening gifts, and enjoying dessert.  Ella loved all of her presents and was most excited about receiving the horse and stable set from the collection of her newest AG Doll, Lila.  Ella felt thoroughly loved and spoiled, and I am so grateful for the chance that we had to spend this evening celebrating this spunky, fun-loving, and happy girl in our family!

Ella posing with her gifts before the party started.

Sitting around the table before eating Ella's birthday dinner.  She requested ham, mac 'n cheese, strawberries, carrots, and dinner rolls to eat.

Ella opening up her card from grandma and grandpa.

Ella happily showing off her new American Girl horse named Hollyhock.

Holding up the necklace that Sarah made for her and sent in the mail.

Ella standing next to her new bedside table that daddy put together for her.

Smiling for the camera before we sang, "Happy Birthday" to her.

Ella dramatically singing along with us.

And blowing out her eleven candles on the chocolate cream pie.

The four kids posing with grandma before she headed home.

A family picture that grandma took of us.

Although we celebrated Ella's birthday on Sunday, her actual birthday was today on Monday.  Although I had to work, I was able to make her birthday breakfast of waffles with whipped cream and strawberries thanks to the hour late start.  Here are Logan and Emmett posing with Ella before she blew out her breakfast candles.

After school, Poppy came over to play with Ella and her new horse stable.  Since Poppy already owns an AG horse, the girls had so much fun playing together.

I treated Ella to Chic-fil-A for dinner that evening.  Since she was the only one who got to eat this for dinner, she felt quite special.

And we finished off the evening with Ella eating one more slice of her leftover, birthday pie.

Lia Performs in "Honk"

A few months ago, Lia chose to audition for NWTL's musical instead of her high school's winter play.  She auditioned back in early January for the musical, "Honk," which is the story of the Ugly Duckling.  She found out at the first rehearsal that she was cast as Penny Swan, who is the beautiful swan that the Ugly Duckling falls in love with at the end of the show.  In addition, Lia had convinced her boyfriend, Jared, to audition for the play.  They were both thrilled to learn that he was cast as the lead role of the Ugly Duckling.  The two of them had a great time being in their first NWTL production together.  After 2.5 months of rehearsing three times a week, they performed three times this past weekend in the lab's small theater.  Although I knew nothing about this show in advance, it turned out to be one of my most favorite musicals that NWTL has ever put on.  The storyline is so darling and the costumes were amazing.  The dancing numbers were so fun to watch and Jared was just the perfect person to play the Ugly Duckling.  Lia was such a graceful and beautiful swan and it was so cute to see the two of them "fly off" together at the end of the play.  Well done, you two!

Lia's picture posted on NWTL's Instagram page a few days before the show performed.

Lia performing in the opening scene when all of the farmyard animals sang "A Poultry Tale."

Lia dancing in the front row in her darling costume.

My favorite picture that I took of Lia in this show.

Jared meeting his duckling siblings for the first time.

Jared meeting Lia for the first time while untangling her from the fishing line.

Lia begging Jared to migrate with her swan family.

Lia also performed in a few other ensemble numbers.  Here she is dressed up as a goose in the song, "Wild Goose Chase."

Lia flapping her legs as a frog while singing, "Warts and All."

Lia swinging a fan as a snowflake in the song, "The Blizzard."

Lia meeting Jared for the first time as a swan.

Jared following Lia's swan family as they flew off.

Lia and Jared returning back to find his mother duck.

Lia meeting Jared's father and family and the rest of the birds for the first time back at the farm.

Singing in the final song of the show.

A close-up of Lia and Jared at the very end of the show.  They remind me so much of Donny & Marie in this picture with these costumes on.

Ron, Ella, and I went to see Lia in the 2 pm show on Saturday, March 29th.

I returned with the boys to see Lia in the 7 pm show on Saturday night.

Several of Lia's church friends came to see her show on Saturday evening.  Here she is with Hope, Alyssa, Ainsley, and Suzette.

A happy Emmett posing with Jared and Lia.

On Sunday, March 30th, my mom came with Ella and Emmett to see the show.  We also brought Lia's friends, Rian and Sienna, and our neighbors, Daisy and Poppy.  It was so much fun to cheer her on for a third and final time!

A Final Daddy Daughter Dance for Ella

Ella and Ron headed out tonight to attend Ella's last Daddy Daughter dance put on by our stake.  Emmett and I were not able to go this year since I was helping out with Lia's dress rehearsal last night for "Honk;" however, I didn't feel so bad about missing it since we still have many more of these to come.  Since this was Ella's last year that she was able to go before turning 12 and moving on to YW, I was grateful that the two of them were able to go.  Ella and Ron dressed up as best as they could to match the 1960's theme and headed out the door to go to Chick-fil-A for dinner.  While eating dinner in the car, they drove around downtown Puyallup to see as many cool cars as part of the "Cruise Puyallup" that happens once a month in the spring and in the summer.  They then headed to the Stake Center for dessert and dancing.  Overall, they had a great time together!

Ella posing next to one of the cool, photo backgrounds in the Stake Center.

Daddy and daughter posing inside the VW bus.

Ella Competes at the State Gymnastics Meet

Ella wrapped up her Level 4 meet season today by competing in the State gymnastics meet at the Tacoma Convention Center.  This was her third year competing in this important meet and I truly love attending it and cheering her on.  Unfortunately, Ella was assigned to the last session which meant that she would be competing from 6 to 9:30 pm on Sunday night with an award ceremony that would last until 10 p.m.  Since it was so late, Ron decided that he couldn't go as it would mean that he would get to bed too late with work the next morning.  Luckily, I was able to convince Logan to go with me and be my videographer while I took pictures of all of Ella's events.  It was so nice to have his company throughout the evening and to get his help recording all of Ella's events on video.  

As for Ella, she had the meet of a lifetime!  She PR'd in all four events and got an overall score of 37.275.  Her individual events scores were:  Bars 9.5, Beam 9.0, Floor 9.225, and Vault 9.55.  This was such a huge accomplishment for her, and also so wonderful that she was able to do this at the most important meet of the season.  Sadly, she came in 13th place in her age group which meant that she didn't receive a medal at the ceremony since only the top 10 gymnasts placed in each group.  What is so frustrating about this is that receiving a medal depends 100% on the scores of the other gymnasts assigned to an age group, and Ella happened to be with an extremely competitive group of girls.  After looking it up online last night, I discovered that if Ella had competed in three other Level 4 sessions that day, she would have medaled and gotten either 5th, 6th, or 7th place.  Sadly, that was not her reality and so we are just choosing to focus on what an amazing job she did.  Well done, Ella!  We are so proud of you!

Ella and the rest of her Level 4 teammates waiting to be introduced to the crowd at the beginning of the meet.

Waving to the crowd after their gym was announced.

Ella's first event was the vault.  Here she is jumping off of the springboard.

Going into her front handspring...

and over the vault.

Ella landing it,

and saluting to the judges.

Ella's second event was the bars.  Here she is doing a cast...

and an undershoot.

Ella doing a tap swing.

Ella's third event was the beam.  Here she is going into her cartwheel...

and landing it!

Ella going into her handstand.

Doing a scale.

Doing her dismount!

Ella's final event was on floor.  Ella doing her back extension roll...

and a high kick.

Coming out of a dramatic pose.

Ella in the splits.

Landing from her round off, back handspring.

Ella's team came in second place for her session.  Here she is with her teammates receiving the second place trophy.

Ella and two of her closest buddies, Harper and Ava, after the meet was over.