When The Sun Comes Out...

We go and play! because it doesn't happen often enough! So a few weekends back we headed to Aberffraw on Anglesey one sunny Saturday afternoon.  

We picked up a bucket and spade - Ella's first ever! and set her loose in the sand! 

 She loved it!

Those kicking legs say it all!

Look how blue the sky was! 

 We had the whole beach to ourselves because despite being sunny, it was crazy windy - what's new Wales! 

Our fly away hair in this pic gives it away!

We took a stroll down to the water...

Ella could splash in the water all day long!

I can't handle the cuteness of this pic!

We got to the water and thought she'd like to dip her toes in, we thought she'd freak out because it was icy cold but surprisingly she wanted to go in further!!

I wasn't lying about the wind! 

The sand wasn't really sandcastle building sand but we had a go anyway! 

What a happy beach day! 

The flowers started blooming in our garden, so we had a picnic lunch out there one day...Ella loves to smell flowers! 

I think she was offering me a smell in this pic!

Love those curls at the back!

She also loves daisies...mostly destroying them and pulling them apart into a million pieces, which is slightly counterproductive considering I love making her daisy chains! They never last!

and oh man does she love our budgie! She gets too excited though and always bats the cage! not so fun for poor Roxy!

Daddy had a birthday! So we had to snap this birthday pic before church! Since it was on a Sunday, we celebrated the following day by going to Dylan's in Menai Bridge.

It's a trendy restaurant with amazing views over the Strait!

It was sunny when we arrived but the clouds soon came in! 

Ella was especially excited about her bucket of crayons and colouring she was given! 

She's not that good at actually using crayons yet, but she likes to try!

She loved that little bucket!

I think she was confused about it's purpose though?!

Tucking into her gourmet mac and cheese, and stealing cucumber from Daddy's plate...because she's obsessed!

I had a yummy calzone, and of course it was steak for the birthday boy - what else!

We are so lucky that the beach is 5 minutes walk from our house - how we will miss it when we leave!

This was taken on a blue sky day last week! love her little outstretched fingers!

She loves rocks and pebbles! so we gather handfuls of pebbles and go and find pools of water and Ella loves throwing them in!  She is not afraid of the water...or its temperature that's for sure!

We headed to the beach one day this week to let Ella have a proper play and to see some more of that walking in action!

Love those sandy knees!

Little purple chevron shorts - how cute can you get! thanks to my aunt in South Africa for these!

Her little stances are so cute! 

She was loving the water as usual! can't wait til it's actually warm enough to get her in her cossie! 

We finished, as always with a play at the park - who has a park with a view like that?! 

She is a master of the slide now! 

I'm really hoping the sun puts in more of an appearance for our final week here! 

Ella loves Elephants!

So one of the things I've wanted to do most since Ella was born is give her a lovely little room of her own! When we lived in Scotland she was just in a cot in our room because she was so little and then we moved to my parents for 6 weeks so when we landed in Wales I wanted to make a special space for her!

When you're in rented accommodation, it's difficult to sometimes personalise things the way you want so the bunting on the door was a good start! It was bought from a lovely gift shop in our favourite little village of Ironbridge thanks to Granny Jones.

Ella was gifted a lot of elephant things when she was born and we thought Ella sounds similar to elephant so it was a good place to start with a theme for the room! plus I always knew it had to revolve around animals, since she loves them so much!

This was the handprint she did at Chester Zoo on her birthday day of fun that got turned into an elephant! I kind of love it!  Thanks to her Great Granny Jones for helping us have the funds to get it done! and the special number 1 that her Grandad painted for her dessert table on her birthday!

This amazing frame was gifted to me at Christmas by my lovely thoughtful friend Laur - it has a printed spot at the bottom saying Ella's name and the date she was born and 12 perfect little spots that we filled with her monthly photos we took.  This will definitely get hung on a wall at some point when we're allowed to put nails in walls wherever we end up!

My most recent addition was this gorgeous gorgeous elephant mint coloured lamp that I fell in love with, and Granny Jones helped us make it happen! Ella loves it - and still points at it everytime we walk in the room.  This super cute personalised elephant photo frame was from Auntie Mara and it holds a pic of Ella in her special dress from her blessing day.

I am also a little bit in love with this elephant laundry basket! We already had a plain one for her...but when I spotted this one in T.K Maxx I knew it belonged in her room! 

The heart bunting is from Granny Jones and the lovely blanket on the bed is her special homemade blanket from Granny Kathy of all my favourite onesies of hers from when she was born.  

This snow globe was a special gift to Ella from Granny Kathy when she was still a bump in my tummy, and Uncle Cam gave us this gift for Ella - again before she was born, and I've filled it with super cute pictures of her from every month - isn't it so adorable!

This is our little nappy changing station and a super cute elephant gro-bag from Auntie Mara!

Auntie Mara also came up trumps with these little elephant characters, that we've placed above her cot.  Ella loves to point at them and make her little elephant noises! and those amazing name letters are from Granny Kathy all the way from Tanzania! Specially painted and handcrafted by some local artists.  I love all the different animals on each letter! 

Auntie Mara also gifted me at Christmas with this gorgeous blanket I'd been eyeing up for a while on etsy! It's handmade and has super soft furry material on one side and this gorgeous animal print on the other! The little cuddly elephant was a gift from her when Ella was newborn, and of course Monkey needs no introduction - he's well known around these parts!

Uncle Ja bought this teddy bear for Ella for Christmas and she thinks it's very funny to make it drink some of her bottle of milk before bed! She did it one night randomly in the middle of us saying prayers and we had to try not to giggle as we saw her doing it! and that cute little cushion with the e on is from the Ides - Ellis even has a matching one.  Those E's have got to stick together!

and this gorgeous lampshade is also from our day of fun at Chester Zoo - Granny Kathy bought it for Ella's room and she is still as mesmerised with it now as she was on the day we bought it! I think it is one of my favourite elephant items in the room! 

Since we don't have any wardrobe space in her room, her under drawer cot has come in very handy to store all of her clothes! Grandad Kevin got us this cot and it has been amazing! 

Just writing this post has made me realise how much love has gone into her room! Nearly everything that's inside of it has been gifted to her by special people in her life, and she's one lucky girl to have so many people spoiling her! 

I wanted to make a record of this so she would always have some photos of her first little bedroom - where she started out in.  As I said I can't wait til we are more settled one day and can really paint walls and do all the fun stuff you dream of doing for your babies rooms! but for now, I'm more than happy with this cute little animal loving haven we've created for her :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour!