A Week of Presents

So, though Ella's actual birthday will be spent entirely in a passenger van driving through the desert with a bunch of highschoolers, we made sure she felt plenty celebrated all week long.  And all of you helped with that!  Each morning Ella has been excited to pick a present from the pile and open it.  Here are a few pictures to show you the happy face each of your thoughtful gifts prompted...

 Grandma and Grandpa ordered the #1 thing Ella has been wanting for the past year: a basketball hoop!  It's actually a gift for the whole family, and one we've used almost every day.  I love watching Ella and Dave playing Around the World and other b-ball games together.

 Auntie Heather and Uncle Jeff know Ella perfectly!  From them she received a super cute running outfit and an art kit.  When school work has Ella writing about or describing herself, "runner" and "artist" are always the words she uses.

 Auntie Kris and family sent Ella one of her new favorite dolls.  She read Shannon Hale's Ever After High series this year and has been obsessed with all parts of it-- even forming her own "Ever After High Club" with her friends at school.  The dolls allow her to act out and play the stories now too. 

 Another gift for the whole family-- Miss Amy and her family gave Ella an awesome bag of ladybug gifts: a kit where we can send away for baby bugs and watch them grow and transform, a ladybug book, and a magnifying glass.  We need to be home for more than a few days and that won't happen this month, but once we get this ladybug observing experiment started, we know we're in for a fascinating treat!

 Ella asked me to put "a pocket Bible" on her wishlist and Anna sent Ella that.  It's The Message version, which Ella is already fining very interesting to read.  Since she keeps her big Student Bible at school during the year, this will be the perfect one for personal use at home.  Bibles are such cool gifts.  Thanks, Anna!

Auntie Karen and family, knowing we have a grand hiking adventure in our near future, sent Ella these cool hiking shoes.  When I visited the area we're headed to in college, I got to do some the hikes we have on our itinerary.  They involve scaling rocks, ascending ropes, and shimmying across crevices.  Legit hiking shoes are a must and these ones are cute too!

Good buddies Meilani, Giada, and Zayla sent Ella this adorbs skirt and tank outfit. My favorite thing to share and gift their mom with is cute clothes, so it makes me smile to see our daughters follow suit!

And here is what Dave and I gave Ella this year.  I love to tease my daughters, but she did not find the Justin Bieber paper as amusing as I did!  What was inside sure made her smile, though!  It's a fancy art kit, a variety of different size canvases, and enrollment in a 7 week drawing and sketching class at our local junior college for this summer.  

She put this gift to use right away and made this for our anniversary on Wednesday.

Thank you for your prompt and generous gifts, Friends and Family!  You made our almost-9-year old girl have a wonderful week!