8 Months

My sweet Ella Grace is 8 months old today!

Smiley, happy girl :)

Had to get a picture documenting the face that she still loves that thumb!

We are now 2/3 of our way through her first year.  Sigh.  Luckily for me, she still feels so much like a baby.  I love the baby stage.  And this is an especially fun time because she is sleeping well, starting to "talk" (which I tried to document in a video, but blogger and i are experiencing technical difficulties!) just learned how to sit up, etc.  

It's been a big month!  Changes since last month.....   She is now sitting up.  We returned her beloved swing that she practically lived in the first few months of her life because, sadly, she outgrew it.  Moved from size 2 to size 3 diapers.  Fits into most Size 6 Month clothes, but just this week, started putting her in 9 Month clothes.  Cut her first tooth last week!    And started to babble a lot more.  Love our sweet Ella Grace!

Apple of my Eye

I got it in my head that I was going to take the kids apple picking this year.  We've never done this before, so it took a little research to figure out where to go.  I settled on a place called Larriland Farms, about 45 minutes away.

As for the soccer jerseys...... well, the only way we could figure out how to squeeze this in to the day was for me to take the "older two" immediately after soccer games while Dave stayed home with the "younger two" for nap time.

Magnolia Golden

Empire and Red Delicious!

They loved it!  And they loved eating what they had picked.  In fact Tanner had 5 apples and one chicken nugget for dinner.

King's Dominion: Round 3!

Thanks to Dave's work, we were able to go to King's Dominion for the third time.  Once a year, they have "Employee Appreciation Day" where his company rents out the entire park and they provide free admission to employee's and their immediate family members in addition to free parking and free food and drink.  It's great!  

For the last 2 years in a row, Tanner said his favorite ride was Lucy's Crabbie Cabby (aka Bumper Cars), so we headed straight there for our first ride of the day!

Snoopy's Space Buggies

First Roller Coaster of the day - Woodstock Express!  We got to the park right when it opened (10am), so there were several rides, including this one that they rode a couple of times in a row before lines started forming.

Pumpkin Coaster

Poor little Ella.  She was such a good sport.  It was HOT - despite it being a week or so into September.  This was her first time at an amusement park.  Clearly, she wasn't all that amused.

While Ella was sleeping, Dave took the other kids on "Shenandoah Lumber." They LOVED it!  So fun that this year Riley got to go on several rides with the "big kids." She graduated to a 40" bracelet this year (yes, she is only 2 1/2 yrs old) and Lacey and Tanner both graduated to 46" bracelets.  48" is a big cut-off point as the majority of the 17 "Thrill rides" have 48" minimums so I'm hoping Lacey (and maybe Tanner?) can make it next year!

Flying Eagles.  Dave was thrilled that Lacey and Tanner were old enough to ride this on their own.  I went on with Riley as she was old enough to go, but needed an adult with her.  Dave was happy to sit this one out with Ella - he's discovered in the past year or so that spinning around and around is not his favorite past time!

Linus Launcher  (very excited to be like "Superman!")

Joe Cool's Driving school - a high point for the kids.  A low point for Dad, who waited in the longest line of the day in blazing heat :)

The next few are "cell phone pictures" so the quality isn't great.  Tanner declared the "Triple Spin" as his favorite ride this year.  I went on it twice with him and Lacey.

Snoopy's Red Baron

Lucy's Tugboat (look closely - that is Ella in between us :))

Ella is only 7 months old.  She can barely sit up by herself.  Half the time I try to sit her up, she just falls over.  The other half, she'll sit up for a few seconds before falling over.  I have never seen her sit up for any period of time over about 10 seconds.  But at one point, Dave was off with the "older two" and Riley wanted to ride a ride and I needed to go with her.  It didn't have a height minimum, so I decided to board "Flying Ace Balloon Race" with Ella on my lap.  It is a hot air balloon looking thing that rises in the air and turns around in circles.  Right as we were about to ascend, the lady tells me I can't have Ella on my lap and she needs to be "in her own seat."  "Okay, no problem" I respond as I nervously put Ella beside me sure she was going to plop right over.  I held on to her the whole time so nervous that she would slip right on out of the ride somehow.   But we all survived and Ella officially rode on her first amusement park ride!

Yeah for King's Dominion!

Notes from this adventure:  Lacey and Tanner are at such a fun age to take to amusement parks.  Riley is actually at an okay age in that she can ride a lot of the rides (especially in the "Planet Snoopy" area which has 18 rides).  BUT, there are a lot of rides that Lacey and Tanner can go on that she can't go on.  But then she wanted to when she saw them go, so that was hard.  And then there was Ella.....  A baby is definitely NOT a great age to go to amusement parks.  There were some rides that all of us could go on except for Ella, but instead of going as a family, one of us stayed back with her while everyone else went.  The bigger problem was that there were a lot of rides that the kids were big enough to go on, but only with an adult.  But because one of us had to stay with Ella (and/or Riley), we couldn't go on the ride or else one of us waited while the other took one kid and then went back again with the other kid.  Not totally convenient or ideal but we knew that going in to it and we just set our mental agenda as such and all had a great day!!

Two-fer

Lacey just lost her second tooth!  She was thrilled!  The tooth fairy brought her a new "tooth pillow" to put her teeth in from now on along with $2.  Yeah, Lacey!