Buggin out at Daycare

Ella Catherine is really enjoying her new daycare. They have been learning alot. Every week they have a theme and each days activities revolves around that theme. Last week the theme was buggin out. Every day they learned about a different bug. The art time, music time, story time etc all revolved around that particular bug. The bugs were ants, bees, fireflies, walking sticks and lady bugs. They have displayed them outside their classroom and they are all so cute I just had to take pictures. This week the theme is earth day and they have learned about air/clouds, the earth, soil, rain, and trees. In art time they made clouds, painted paper plates to look like the earth, made homemade plato trees and baked them into necklaces, made rain sticks and today are making soil collages. She is always very excited to show off her work when I go pick her up. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that she is enjoying her new daycare.

On a completely different note, she can now sing the entire alphabet song without missing any letters, can count to ten ( sometimes 15) without missing any numbers and she knows all her colors (although red and blue occasionally get mixed up).

I can't believe how fast she is growing up!

Below are the pictures and some of the fun facts that she learned last week.

The Honeybees' (her classroom's) artwork from buggin out week.

Did you know Bees have 5 eyes?

Or that Ants never sleep?
Did you know that walking sticks can grow to 33cm long?

Or that Fireflies are actually beetles?The artwork from Earth week so far. Looks like the H in Earth had an untimely demise. :)

Ella Catherine's classroom/ the Honeybee roomThe playground. She looks like pigpen everyday when we pick her up thanks to the red dirt from the rocks on the playground. Small price to pay for her having so much fun!

Happy Easter---- a little late

This post is a little late, but last week was busy.

A little backround information: My parents were kind enough to take in our canine kids when we moved the Nashville. We initially moved into a 2 bedroom apartment and although they allowed dogs, it was a little tight with 3 people and 2 large dogs. So, in September we dropped them off at the grandparents for an extended stay. We were very anxious to get them back now that we have a little more room for them. We knew if we didn't get there soon we wouldn't get there at all. At Easter I was 35 weeks pregnant and my OBGYN didn't recommend traveling after that.

So, we headed to Macon, Georgia for Easter this year. We left Nashville after work Thursday evening. The Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon has a contract with Cogent Healthcare. So, Matt had arranged for a site visit that Friday. He worked Friday morning and learned more about the program while mom, Ella Catherine and I shopped. (seemed like a fair trade :))Then we all met up for lunch with Dad, Becky, Kelly and Cori at Keith's new restaurant, The Nowhere Cafe. I would highly recommend it if you are ever in Macon, Georgia!

Saturday morning started with a training session for our 2nd born Canine, Elway. During his stay in Georgia, my father has been training him for Duck Hunting. Let me just say, he has come a LONG way!!!! He is actually still in Georgia completing his training. We will not pick him up until he passes Cassidy Duck Hunting training 101. :) After the training, we all went to go see Cori play softball. She played well, and they won. However, it wasn't a very exciting game as the other team was not very good. We still enjoyed cheering her on! I do enjoy getting to see her play atleast 1 game a year. My oh My have things changed throughout the years. I can still remember her T-ball years when one of her teammates laid down and took a nap in the outfield.

Saturday afternoon we all met up at my parents house for a family dinner. My godparents came too and it was great to spend time with them. They hadn't seen Ella Catherine since she was very little. Ella Catherine had a little Easter Egg Hunt and fun blowing bubbles before she retired for the evening. The adults stayed for a while and played Mexican Train Dominos. Now a favorite past time of Matt and I. Sunday we went to Easter Mass and then had a fabulous breakfast before hitting the road with Baylor for Nashville. We had a wonderful time in Macon, but after 5 hours in the car we were happy to be back in Nashville. Baylor seems to have adjusted well. I know she misses Dixie, Mac and Elway but she loves the attention!

Shortly after we arrived home, Beth McCrate, was knocking at our door. I couldn't be more excited that she has come to stay with us for a month (April 13-May 8th). She is doing her last clinical rotation here in Nashville at the clinic I work in. YAY!!Ella Catherine and her Cousin Cori
Ella Catherine, Matt, and Elway heading down for Elway's training session

Bubble fun with daddyMore bubble fun!Me and my favorite Niece, Cori. I can't believe how tall she is, I can remember when she was Ella Catherine's size. Time does fly!!The family after Easter Mass. ( Matt, Amy (with baby Lynch #2), Pop, Becky, Nana, and Ella Catherine)

Ella Catherine's first Easter Egg Hunt

Sunday our church had its annual Easter Egg hunt. They divided it into age groups so that the little ones wouldn't get run over and would actually get some eggs. Each family brought 12 filled eggs to church that morning and dropped them off in the appropriate box for your age group. Then with the hunt you were asked to restrict your child to 12 eggs. This would ensure that every child went home with some eggs. It was way more politically correct than the easter egg hunts in my day!
Ella Catherine was very excited and ready with her Easter basket. I was a little concerned about her being able to find the eggs and told Matt one of us might have to go along and help her. However, when we got there we realized that was not going to be necessary! They just had a big square blocked off and filled with eggs. No problem finding those eggs!!! :) When it was time to go, she was slow to start but finished with a bang. I think she was so interested initially in watching the other kids that she didn't think about getting any herself.
After the 0-2 age group went, everyone scattered up the hill to a different area to let the 3-6 age group have there hunt. Matt and I noticed there were still some eggs left in the square. So, we let Ella Catherine go pick them up. Well, there was another family that had the same thought. There little girl was disabled and unable to walk yet. So, Ella Catherine without any prompting picked up an egg and went and put it in her basket. It made Matt and I so proud of her!! She really is such a sweet child.


The Big Squareof Eggs for the hunt!! Not a real challenge but it did get her used to the concept for this weekend.

Posing with daddy but anxiously awaiting the start of the hunt.
She is off!
Hunting eggs makes a girl thirsty.

A family shot after the hunt. Next year we will have 1 in the 0-2 group and 1 in the 3-6 group! So hard to believe!!! Only 6+ weeks until Baby Lynch #2 makes his/her debut.

Reunited

We met up with our friends the Sams at the zoo Saturday morning. Ella Catherine had not seen Reese in about 6 weeks. Kirsten had the baby, Erich, and Reese has been out of daycare. So, they were VERY excited to see each other Saturday morning. They picked up like they had never been apart, running and chasing each other. It was sooo cute. It was also our first time to meet little Erich. He was a doll! We wouldn't have even known he was there if it wasn't for the baby carrier. He slept most of the time we were at the zoo and when he was awake he didn't make a sound. Such a good little boy.
Jamie, a friend and coworker of Matt's and her daughter Jallen also joined us at the zoo. The kids all got along really well and believe it or not the adults actually got to have a little adult conversation too. A good time was had by all!

Ella Catherine Petting and brushing the goat at the Petting zoo.

Reese petting the goat. This goat was in heaven!!

Reese, AKA: The goat herder! :)

Reese, Jallen and Ella Catherine. (ever so hard to get 3 Two year olds to all look at the camera)

So, close but Jaden was the only attentive one the whole time. Oh well.

All 3 kids out of their strollers and on the loose. We were in the Larakeet house and they loved the colorful birds.

Matt and Ella Catherine. A fun family and friends day at the zoo.