Ella's 11 Years Old!

My Ella girl is 11 years old today! 

Let's see what Ella's been up to this last year....

Ella's 10th Birthday was held at The Secret Garden Tea House. It was such a fun afternoon with her friends. 

I'm so thankful that we were able to have her birthday party. This was just about the last outing we had prior to COVID. 

Logan just happened to be in town the day after Ella's birthday so she was able to come hang out for a bit. 

Ella wasn't thrilled with having to do school at home, but she loves a good craft project!

Ella loves to write! She has really nice handwriting when she doesn't rush! Her and Kendra have been experimenting with writing songs lately. They are hilarious the lyrics they come up with. Things about boys breaking their hearts and them crying and being all sad. We told them they might have a future in country music! 

Even though we weren't meeting at church they still tried to get the kids involved. They had a coloring contest one Sunday. Ella didn't win, but she did get an honorable mention! 

Ella and I loved to hang out and chat in my hammock last spring! It's the best place to be on a sunny day! 

While schooling at home I introduced Home Economics. Ella decided she wanted to learn how to make French Toast. She did a great job! 

Another fun art project we did was these chalk mosaics.

Ella loves that she gets to sit up between Michael and me in the truck. We might have to tell our sweet chatty girl that we're done talking every now and then, but for the most part it's been fun snuggling with her on our trips. 

My sweet Easter girl! 

Ella is such a sweet Daddy's girl! 

It doesn't matter what the boys are doing...Ella is usually right there. She loves to be active and have fun! She also tries her very best to do whatever it is the boys are doing....better. She is quite the pool shark and it absolutely drives the boys nuts! 

Another fun craft with my girly! 

For one of Ella's school assignments she was learning all about bridges. I watched the lesson with her and then we got to construct our own bridge with paper and then test it with pennies. She had one amazing bridge! 

Anything to do with the truck is so fun! 

Ella had been wanting to dye her hair forever, but I didn't want to bleach it. We decided to try out the Kool-Aid hack to see if it would work. She wasn't going to let this get in her way of having lunch though! 

The color wasn't as brilliant as I hoped it would be, but she loved it so that's what matters! 

Ella can be such a sweet helper! 

Ella has definitely gone from little girl to young lady this year. She got such long legs and that tiny bit of baby face that she had is all gone now.

Ella is still our best eater! She actually heavier than all the boys. She's quite proud of this too! Everything is a competition in our house! 

Saying goodbye to her last public school teacher. We love Miss Inoue, but I am so thankful that my kids will not be going back to the public school system anytime soon. I won't say never, but as of right now the plan is for that to never happen. 

Ella has the best group of girlfriends. She's just like I was in regards to friends...she can never have too much time with them. If she was with friends all day everyday she'd be a happy girl! 

Ella can be very determined when it comes to her choices. Like for instance when she didn't want to participate in the water balloon fight. She made up her mind and there was no talking her into it. Even when her friends joined in she was just fine sitting on the sidelines. I actually love that dogged determination! 

She also does not lack in self confidence. She knows she's beautiful, but even she will say you have to be beautiful on the inside to be truly beautiful on the outside! 

This year all the kids realized that they could earn extra money if they asked Ga-Ga & Pa if they had any jobs for them. In this case the kids were earning money for our Wyoming Road Trip! 

Ella Bean loves her Charlie boy. Recently Charlie had been scratching at her door at night and waking her up. I asked if she just wanted to start leaving her door open so he could come and go instead. She's been sleeping with her door propped open for a few weeks now. She says that when Charlie comes in he usually wakes her up by scratching on one of the posts that hold her clubhouse up. She doesn't mind though because sometimes he'll come up and visit her in bed. 

My sweet sunglass wearing girl! 

Ella loves leggings especially Cat & Jack leggings from Target. I did tell her though that once she starts developing more and gets hips it's going to be time to start wearing jeans. At first she was not happy about that and I'd say she's still not thrilled. We did find a pair of jeans from Cat & Jack that she liked. She's worn them around the house so far. 

It took her forever to finally wear her jean shorts, but now that's almost the only thing she wears all summer! 

She also is so cute when it comes to shoes. She wants to have tons of different options, but then she usually just sticks with the same pair of shoes over and over until she's worn them out. 

Ella loves to get her hair done pretty. I am not the best at French Braiding, but my cousin Tiffany is so she indulged Ella when we were camping in the Big Horns! 

I simply love this girl! 

I had so much fun taking these reenactment pictures when we were in Wyoming. 

I swear it was just a moment ago she was this cute, chubby toddler! 

I love this picture of Alli & Ella. They get along with each other in small doses. They are both so used to getting their way since they only have brothers so it can be a lot for them to be with each other for super long periods. I feel like they did great on this last trip to Wyoming. It was just the perfect amount of time! 

Ella has always loved a good walking stick. We actually brought one home from a beach somewhere and we had it in the yard for years. She came inside crying her eyes out because it split. We did tape it back together, but I don't know what ended up happening to it. 

Ella loves to paint and do most any art project. Whenever she gets to pick a prize at church she always picks the crafty things. This last year she has....painted a ceramic bunny, made two different kind of squishy balls, made sand art, painted pins, painted rocks and made her own slime. She has a hair beading kit that she hasn't used yet, but I'm sure she'll get around to it soon.

Speaking off hair....after having the Kool-Aid dye in her hair for awhile it started to fade. A classmate had "accidentally" cut Ella's hair so we decided to go ahead and take a lot off the length to match the rest of her hair with the cut section. It was a bit shorter than Ella wanted, but it was a good choice and now her hair is just as long as it was prior to cutting it. 

She's definitely a shoe girl! 

She's also a make friends anywhere girl! I just love that about her...there's always room for more friends! 

I absolutely love Ella's curly hair! 

I'm honestly surprised how curly it still is. I had really curly hair when I was little, but by the time I was 10 or so it had just a slight wave to it. I hope she keeps her curls and more importantly...I hope she continues to love her curls. 

Beautiful sunshine baby! 

Ella loves animals.....she told me recently that when she moves out she's going to have both a dog and a cat! 

Ella may have struggled a bit in school, but that has not stopped her one bit. She will push herself and push herself. She is such good example! 

Her favorite subject is most definitely Math! She LOVES numbers! She has also improved by leaps and bounds with her reading. I am so proud of her and she's proud of herself. She still isn't going to go over and pick up a book in her spare time....it's just not her, but she could do it and it wouldn't make her as frustrated as before. I keep telling myself that I hated to read when I was younger, but now I love books....I'm hoping that one day she'll enjoy them too! 

Ella has such a good artistic eye. Whenever she colors pictures or paints she's always so good at choosing the right colors. She was really happy with how well her bunny turned out! 

Ella was definitely the most vocal about not wanting to be homeschooled, but now I can say she really does enjoy it. She usually gets done with school prior to lunch so I'm sure that's part of it. Plus she has seen how much she has improved. We've talked a lot about how being a teacher at a public school can be so hard because you have 20-30 kids that need you and you can't give each kid your undivided attention. I only have 4 kids to teach and I'm always telling them there is only 1 of me! I am able to give her what her teacher at school would have loved to give each of the kids, but just physically couldn't. It's most definitely what she needed and it's been the best thing for her. 

Ella's light board that she got for Christmas in 2019 has been probably the most used gift EVER! It's made for hours of entertainment. Ella and Anna love to do art together! 

I love these girls and I love that they are basically growing up as cousins! 

Ella and Zeke when through a period of time where they weren't really playing together much, but thankfully they are back at it now. They love to play with their stuffed animals together and I love it too! They are so sweet! 

This cute girl would just love it if she could wear shorts and tank tops all year long. A long time ago gave up on trying to get her to wear a coat. She just runs hot like her Daddy does and he very rarely ever wears a coat! 

Ella and Zeke had the best time catching frogs when we were camping in Ephrata. They even named them!

Lily and Ella Bean...these girls have strong emotions that for sure. They have had such an up and down relationship. Ella was actually closer with Lily's older sister, Kendra when they went to Kindergarten together. At that point, Lily and Ella didn't get along at all. Once Ella and Lily when to Kindergarten together then they became inseparable. Now they are hit or miss. They love each other, but like I said...high levels of emotions. What we've figured out is they can have a great time in small doses at our house or longer doses at Lily's house. 

Ella is just like her Mama....she loves pizza! 

She has also gotten really into her dolls. In fact her birthday part this year is a Doll Party. We are having lunch and each of her friends were told to bring their doll with them. The dolls will have a place setting at the table and each girl will get to go shopping for an outfit for her doll. 

My sweet active girl! 

She also a flexible girl too! 

Ella has missed going to Gymnastics, but she does not want to have to wear a mask so we'll just wait to sign up again until this is all over and maybe then she won't even want to go anymore...who knows...we'll see! 

My fierce pirate girl! 

Ella loves getting her nails done and she loves fake nails. One day her and I went to Fred Meyer's where we saw these pretty nails. I let her get them and we got the paint on nail glue instead of using the glue tube that comes with them. She ended up wearing them for over 2 weeks. Whenever one would pop off she'd just go get her glue and glue it back on. 

Ella isn't a really big strategy game player, but she does enjoy card games. I bought her Skip Bo for Christmas and she actually really enjoys that game. 

This girl LOVES jewelry! Ga-Ga went through a bunch of her jewelry and gave it to Ella. She especially loves dangly earrings! 

Ella likes to wear make-up although she knows she has to ask. Most of the time her make-up just includes a little blush and some lipstick. She knows that Mama doesn't like it if she has too much on. In this picture Addison had done her make-up for her. ;) 

For years Ella's been talking about getting her fake teeth. The two small teeth on either side of her two big front teeth are actually already full grown....they are called peg laterals. We've been waiting for more of Ella's adult teeth to grow in in order to get braces on. Her teeth do need a bit of help...especially her bite, but the braces are also going to help hold a place for the verniers that she will eventually get to cover up those peg laterals. 

Currently she only has braces on the top...come March she will get her bottom braces as well. It's been a bit of a difference experience with having Ella have braces than Jack. Jackson never complained about pain at all. Ella has a much lower pain tolerance. She could barely chew anything for the first 4 days after getting them on. Thankfully after her first wire change she was only sore for around a day. 

Ella is so fun to watch open gifts. She's always so expressive! 

Ella got a special early birthday present this year. Logan came to visit! She got to spend the night and go to church with us. It was such a nice visit. 

They get along so well. We never even have to deal with any issues. I love their friendship so much! 

 

My Ella Grace LOVES the snow....it was such a fun treat for her to get snow just a few days before her birthday! 

Ella my sweet girl...I would say you are officially a preteen now. Although you have had the emotions of a preteen for a couple years now. You are such a sweet chatty girl...get you in a car and you will talk and talk. You enjoy watching your Disney shows, painting on your tablet, coloring, playing with your dolls or Calico Critters, riding your bike, playing at the park and with your friends. You get upset with your brothers quite frequently...there's usually enough fault to go around...it's very rarely one sided. Overall you do so well in a house filled with mainly boys. You and your siblings are with each other all the time there is bound to be disagreements! 

You are HUGE about being heard! You hate it when people won't listen to you or let you finish talking. It is most definitely the fastest way to make you angry. There's been many times where I've known what you were going to say and I finish the sentence for you or answer your question before you've asked it and you get SO mad. I need to be more mindful of letting you talk....you are just like me after all! 

This year has been an adjustment for you. You missed going to school the most and I still feel like there are aspects you miss....mainly seeing all your friends. We have our small group of friends that we do get to see and I think you cherish those friendships even more now. 

Ella it's such a joy to watch you grow and mature. It's been so fulfilling to see the improvements you've made in regards to reading. It's not always been easy and we do get feisty with each other, but you've persevered and you've done so well. I'm so proud of you sweet girl! I'm also so so SO thankful that I have you....feistiness and all! I could live with out the eye rolling though! 

Ella Grace I pray that you have a wonderful year ahead. I pray that you will continue persevering and pushing yourself to grow. I pray that you will keep that dogged determination and not let people around you sway you into doing things you don't want to do. I pray that you will always cherish the friendships you have...even those friends that you don't get to see as often as you'd like. I also pray that your smile continues to light up a room. That you continue to be a joy and bring joy to those around you. God has given you the gift of dazzling people. You meet someone and you talk with them for just a moment and they already love you! You are my precious girl and I'm so blessed to call you mine! 

Happy 11th Birthday Ella!