Best Buddies

Ella Catherine's best buddy from daycare is Reese Sams. They are always together when we go to pick her up. Within the first month of attending TodayCare she would start chanting his name as we approached the daycare. Matt and I have gotten to know his parents, Kirsten and Billy, and enjoy meeting them for playdates when we can. Our first outing was the Christmas Parade in Franklin. Unfortunately, we have both been busy and battling illnesses, as you do with children in daycare and so we didn't get together again until this past weekend. Kirsten is also pregnant but she is delivering this Friday. So, we wanted to all get together again before their new little addition, Erich joins the world. We went over to their house and we had a great time. Ella Catherine and Reese play so well together. They had a ball! It definitely made Matt and I happy to have met such great friends. We look forward to many more fun get togethers in the future and I know that Erich and Baby Lynch #2 will be great friends too!
Reese chatting on his cell phone

I got to go man, I just got stopped by the po po!

Reese enjoying his new tricycle.

Reese pulled Ella Catherine over for speeding on his new tricycle. :)
Best Buddies!

Curious Valentine

Valentine's day one of the local bookstores had storytime with Curious George. So, we decided to take Ella Catherine as she is a big fan of Curious George. I was a little concerned about how she would like seeing a life size curious george. My experience working with kids is that life sized characters scare them to death. They are used to seeing them small on the TV and in books and in person with a costume they are larger than life. Well, my concerns were warranted. When she saw George she started shouting "GEORGE" and was soooo excited! However, the closer we got in line for the photo op, the more I knew the photo op wasn't going to happen. Matt decided to try to take her up to see him and stand with her for the picture. Well, you can see how well that went below.
After storytime we went out to lunch and then to the park. Matt has found a group of men that train their hunting dogs on the weekends. It is a family affair. They all bring their children and their wives. The men train the dogs and the women and children take walks in the parks and the kids play etc.. Unfortunatly, it was a little cold Saturday and so the kids didn't get to play much. We watched the dogs from inside the truck. It didn't stop Ella Catherine from having a ball. She loves dogs and would cheer for them when they picked up the dummy and then say, "run dog run". We all had a lot of fun and I know we will enjoy these outings as the weather warms up.
Sunday we were supposed to meet up with Sarah Ella And Roger Cole for brunch, but unfortunately they had to leave town early. We had a sitter already and so Matt and I went out and enjoyed a nice lunch and some fun adult time. When we got home, Matt and Ella Catherine made homemade salsa. She loves to help cook and is always in the kitchen with one of us helping to cook dinner or breakfast. She obviously had a big weekend because we caught her in a rare moment curled up on the sofa Sunday evening.

Ella Catherine LOVED curious George from a distance but not so much up close.

Still keeping her eye on George!

Helping daddy make some yummy salsa

Pooped after a long day.

Mimi's visit

Matt's mom, "Mimi", came to visit this past weekend. When any of our parents come to visit or we visit them, Matt and I become invisible and Ella Catherine only has eyes and time for her grandparents. This weekend was no exception! So, we took advantage and had some adult fun while Mimi and Ella Catherine played. Matt and I actually had time during the day to go run some errands and to take a long walk in the nearby riverpark. It was nice to be able to spend that time together. Thanks Mimi!

We also decided to enjoy the beautiful weather together and so we all went to the park to feed the ducks. When we got there we realized we weren't the only ones taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Seems the ducks had already had their breakfast and were all sleeping under the brush on the banks, but the geese were more than happy to have our stale bread. Ella Catherine had so much fun that she took a 3 hour nap when we got home. She was one pooped little girl!

Playing with the alphabet magnets and sporting the new hair clips Mimi brought

Here goose! Come and get it!Sitting with Mimi anxiously waiting for the geese to swim over our way
Feeding the Geese the last of our bag of stale bread
Running with daddy in the park! So fun!!

3D fun

Last weekend was a low-key weekend in the Lynch Household. Ella Catherine came down with yet another cold and so we stayed around the house most of the weekend. We had a surprise visit from our friend Jeff, which we were excited about. He hung out with us some on Saturday before he headed back to Memphis. He reminded us that we were going to need 3D glasses for the commercial during the Superbowl. So, we went on a hunt for the glasses and found some at Kroger. This was a first for 2 members of our family. Ella Catherine and believe it or not, Matt. Matt had never seen anything in 3D before. So, we were all excited Sunday night in anticipation.
The first timers all excited in their 3D glasses

Ella Catherine and mom in our 3D glasses

Playing with Mr. Jeff

CONGRATULATIONS MATT!!!

Just a quick post to let everyone know about Matt's new career opportunity. He has accepted a new job with Cogent Healthcare as a Human Resource Training Specialist. He starts Monday 2/9/09. Ella Catherine and I are very proud of him!