Happy Birthday Ella!

Our little Ella is 5 years old today! We are so very proud of her and happy for her. She is so excited that it's her birthday today and is bringing pink and white Hello Kitty cupcakes to share with her class today. Here are a couple of photos taken in the past week or so. Ella showing off her Encino Elementary Explorers temporary tattoo and her new haircut.

Ella's favorite food: tortilla with butter

Ella's favorite color: pink and greenish-blue

Ella's favorite princess: Sleeping Beauty

And Felix wishing Ella a happy birthday!

I'm a little late in posting this, but I'm just now catching up with some recent pictures. Back in July my aunt Dolline from Arkansas passed away. I regret I hadn't made it out there to see her in about ten years, but kept up with the occasional phone call and Christmas card. Three weeks later, she was going to make the trip to Southern California to attend a family birthday party, and I would've seen her then. However, I did get to see my uncle Alvin and two of their daughters, Jeanette and Jeanine. It was great to see them and catch up.

Here I am with my cousin Jeanette:


And my uncle Alvin, with Ella and Felix:


Ella with Jeanine:


One of the funniest things was meeting one of my distant cousins, Eugene, who was there with his brother and two sisters. Eugene knew my mom and my uncle Marshall in high school, and he hadn't seen me since I was a few weeks old.

Here is Eugene and I:


Unfortunately, I don't have a very close family and often none of us talk to each other for years, since many people are scattered all over the place. When this kind of event happens, it becomes pretty memorable.

Ella's First Day

Ella today started her first day of kindergarten at Encino Elementary. Everything seemed to go well, and told us that the highlight was the teacher reading a book called "The Kissing Hand". She also came home with a piece of artwork of her hand-print in red paint, with a red heart and a red sparkle on it, and a picture that she drew, of her family.

Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Ferreira, yesterday during the orientation the school gives for new kindergarteners.




Here's a picture I snapped of her at the front of her new classroom, right before I left her for the day. Our little girl is getting so big!



(Sorry for the slightly blurry quality of these pictures. We snapped them in a rush.)

Summer Fun

Try telling me this kid doesn't have a sense of humor and panache... we were getting ready for bed and he toddles out the bedroom, closes the door behind him, then a minute later, bursts in the door like this:



Not to be outdone, his big sister can wear Dada's gardening hat and look just as charming.



Here is a picture of Felix proudly showing off his Baby Sign for MORE:


Felix drawing (yes, we live close to the airport and dinner time is when the little planes come out to play).



And of course last but not least, we celebrated Dada's birthday with balloons, song, cake and ice cream last week.



Happy Birthday, Dada, we LOVE you!

Happy Fourth of July!

Ella made these Uncle Sam hats at school and Felix liked wearing his.

It's been quite hot here lately; today it's supposed to be 93 degrees (34 C) and pretty dry. Felix has discovered the joys of ice cream cones in this weather. Nicki bought these tiny little kids cones that are perfect for his small hands, though you have to scoop ice cream in it with a melon baller.

Op Vakantie

Felix got his first plane trip as all of us went to the Netherlands the first two weeks of June. A few highlights. First Felix got ready for the trip by enjoying some chocolate, since that's what the Dutch are known for.



We stayed with Nicki's father in Den Haag (the Hague), and the first day we were there we went to visit a farm where you can feed baby goats from a bottle. As we drove out there, through the lush green polders and past the windmills, Ella commented, there are a lot of farms in Holland!






Felix took the opportunity to kiss the goats.



We also visited with Ella and Felix's new cousin Céline and with their old cousin Emile, who is already two years old. What a big man he is.





We took a trip to Delft, which is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, and the birthplace of a certain Nicole Ellen Ferguson. The main church in the middle of the city is where all of the Dutch royals are buried, including William of Orange, considered the founder of Holland. The kids decided to show their respect by running around and jumping on the graves.



I also found a pizzeria there I didn't know I owned.



Back at his Opa's house, Felix added to his experience of his first plane ride by getting his first ride on a ladder.



And Ella jumped with her cousin Annick on a trampoline in Belgium.



All in all, Ella and Felix had a great time visiting their cousins Emile and Céline, and couldn't leave them as they said goodbye and went away in their car.



Thank you Opa, Dunie, Funky, Céline and Emile!

Some notes from me so we remember all the things we did... we went to miniature Holland - Madurodam - where there happened to be a Dutch Sesame Street exhibit and Felix boogied to Dutch Elmo (with much gratitude to Diane Weber, Funky's mom, for filming this):


We had wonderful visits with my aunties Mariette (& Bert) in the eastern part of Holland and Heleen (& Sylvain) in Baarn, a super fun time visiting the bunnies at the kinderboerderij (petting zoo) in Belgium with Oma, and Ella played on cousin Annick's slide WHHHEeeee!


There were also several visits to the beach with Opa and Alex The Dog, mostly by the restaurant-on-the-beach where Tante Eva works, De Kwartel, just a short walk through the dunes; some days the weather was not so great and sometimes it was very nice, especially the day the kids went to Scheveningen with Oma and OpaJon.




Click HERE for the visit from Céline's POV with more pictures of us.