Busy days in June

We had a lot going on this June! I'm going to wrap it up in one post here and share some pictures. We went to the Tower Days parade the first week of June, a Spring Lake Park tradition for the last day of school. Caleb was so hyped up and excited for the parade...he was jumping around waving the entire time and collecting candy. Ella had fun too..I didn't hear a peep out of her the entire time!
My mom had surgery on June 15 and we spent many days visiting in the hospital and helping around at the house. She's recovering so well. Her first weekend at home was Father's Day and my dad spent most of his time at the Back to the 50's car show. We did celebrate Sunday night with pizza at their house. Caleb enjoys any excuse for a party so he had fun.
At the end of June, we celebrated my birthday. We had a BBQ at my parents house and then I had the day off from work on my actual birthday..it was a very nice day! Ella is 5 months old at the end of June, too...she's sitting up on her own (for the most part, she falls over sometimes) and she's really acting like she wants to crawl! We can't believe she is ready for that so soon.

Eww..rice cereal

Ella had her first taste of solid food at the beginning of June. We started out with rice cereal and she did not like it. Since then we've tried all the veggies and we are just now starting fruit. She still doesn't eat much but she tolerates it much better. She really likes spitting it all back at me, Caleb never did this trick!

Now that Ella can roll around and just be more mobile in general she is starting to play more on the floor and really interact with Caleb. He loves to entertain her and he gets a kick out of making her laugh. Ella also enjoys the jumperoo, Caleb liked this a lot too when he was her age.

Memorial Day weekend

We spent Memorial Day with Marshall's mom's family this year. His Grandma came down from North Dakota on the train (with his aunt Karen from Montana). It was special to have Ella meet her namesake, Grandma Bernice! We had a busy weekend, complete with a trip to the beach at Lake George, a visit to Grandpa George's fire station (he's a volunteer firefighter), and a BBQ at our house.

Summer!

We have been enjoying our summer so far. There is never enough time to get everything done but we'll try to squeeze as much as possible into these warm months! Auntie Dua is home from school now (well, since May, but I'm behind on my pictures!). The kids just love her and I'm so glad they get to spend so much time with my family. Dua picks them up from daycare when she can, otherwise it's usually Grandma (except for during her surgery recovery!). Caleb is bummed whenever he doesn't get to go to their house after daycare. Ella is sometimes a little afraid of Grandpa (it's because of his mustache, that's what she "told" Caleb) but for the most part she's happy there too!

Here are some pictures of Ella's first trip to the park! She wasn't really a fan, but she likes sitting in her stroller well enough. Caleb would stay there all day playing if we let him. Ella is 4 months old in these pictures. She had her 4 month check up at the end of May and she's doing just great. She's a little smaller than Caleb was at this age, but she is catching up. She was 14lbs 4 oz...Caleb was nearly 16 lbs at this age. The doctor gave us the go-ahead to start solid foods...so we did starting in June (pictures to come!). It's also around 4 months that Ella is really rolling all over the place.