A little over a week ago, I got to see my first Mardi Gras parade, and of course, we went to Soulard for the Dog Parade. Here I am, all ready to go, with my stuffed doggie Gretel.

I couldn’t believe that all of these dogs were on the same street!! And for some reason, I was very popular today, and everyone gave me pretty beads to put around my neck!

If you think those beads are cool, you should see my rainbow-colored feather boa!

Here I am with our dogs — Cassie, Sara, and Hannah. Well, Cassie is my dog, and the other two live with Grandma, but I like when they come for a visit!

(One more thing — the Labrador on the right side of the photo is Siggy, who belongs to my daddy’s friend, Barb. Her other Lab just missed making it into the photo, but his name is Bob. Unlike Cassie, Bob and Siggy are much bigger than me, but I still like them!)

OK — we’re really falling behind with our photo posting. So, here is a little more about what Ella has been up to lately. Who are we kidding — it’s a LOT more.

Here are two photo captures from Ella’s recent video highlights. Click each photo to see the videos. In the first one, Ella shows off her crawling ability, although she has quite a ways to go to catch up with Cassie, as you can see.

In this second video clip, Ella shows her complete devotion to Dave Matthews:

And now, here are some more still photos from the past few weeks…

Ella’s first piano lesson:

Ella in gym class (3 photos):

“Ready for some exercise”

“I can crawl right through anything!”

“Me and my new friend named Chase - he’s quite friendly as you can see, but Daddy’s not sure how he feels about this older boy.”

Here they are again.  One of these two is always making the other one laugh, cry, bark, or fall awkwardly.  This time, Cassie is showing off her full-blown “howl”.  And, as usual, Ella just thinks that it’s hysterical.

The time has arrived for a photo caption contest. This photo just screamed out for someone to imagine what Ella and Cassie had on their minds at the time. Be sure to leave comments using the link below the photo. We’ll take the best answer and post it later, so let’s see some creativity!

[Note: To leave a comment on any post, use the link below each one that either says "Leave a Comment", or the number of comments previously made. Thanks!]

The photo says it all.  No words are necessary.