Trick-or-Treat!

Ella was really scared of kids costumes last Halloween and I ended up carrying her most of the night when we went trick-or-treating so she'd said she didn't want to go this year. We decided to just dress up and have dinner with the cousins and some friends and then head home when they went out to trick-0r-treat but they talked Ella into it! I am so thankful it was a "redemptive" experience! She saw some "scary guys" and handled herself quite well (Chris and I talked her down and she responded well!). I'm so proud of her!

Pizza first. Ella lapped up her milk and when i asked her why she looked at me totally deadpan and said "because I'm a mouse." It should have been followed with a "duh Mom"

"look at the camera and smile? are you kidding? with all they candy out there to go get? No way!"

To help her face her fears (and because they couldn't keep up with the group of big kids we were with) Amy, Matt, Chris and I followed Ella and Hannah around and told them they should be buddies. They got really into it and stuck together all night. This really helped Ella get over her fears (she wanted to go but at the beginning kept asking us to hold her). By the end they were going up to doors by themselves and telling each other knock-knock jokes as they walked together giggling the whole time and reminding each other to say "thank you" after they got candy. The cuteness of these two Minnies was overwhelming!

The sprinkling rain got heavier as we walked and eventually we headed back to the car. Before heading home we decided to stop by and surprise my parents with their favorite little trick-or-treater :-)

I love my mom's face here! They were thrilled to see Ella all dressed up! A very successful Halloween :-)

Pumpkin Fall Fest

We had a fun time last Saturday at a local pick your own/fall festival farm. Here are a bunch of pics!

Not many recent pics of Amy and me-my great friend and sister-in-law :-)

Hannah, Lexi, and Christopher-Ella's best buddies :-) There was a traumatic/dramatic event just before this where Ella got her head shoved out of the way so another kid could fit in the whole and Ella burst into tears and came running to me. So sad but she recovered quickly :-)

My Brother-in-law, his Mother-in-law and my nephew.

We brought Ella's friend Lexi with us to the farm and they had a great time.

My sister came too and had a great time with the swarms of children who kept saying "hold me! hold me!"

Hannah getting her face painted-this girl LOVES pink more than any 3 year old I know. That's saying a lot.

Love this one!

Art Love

After a huge, sudden surge in drawing coloring desire/skills a few months ago, Ella is still very into art. She's not coloring for an hour every day and taking coloring books everywhere we go anymore, though that did last pretty much all summer. She's expanding her art interests though and I'm still really impressed with how well she draws and colors!
Many Mediums!

Chalk


Photography


Painting Pottery


Painting with Aunt Marissa's (non-washable!!) paints (no stains were made)


And an upgrade to the 64 count box for coloring :-)

Ella is Hilarious

I've been collecting things Ella has been saying and doing that have made me laugh (or cry) but most are HILARIOUS. SO love this girl.

Random quotes (and I mean RANDOM):
Ella: Mom! Wanna race? Do you know what a race is? It's when you run as fast as you can and then someone wins and then the cheerleaders cheer!! Yeah! Whoohoo!

Ella (when we walked past a Baltimore Ravens Sticker on someone's car): Look mom-a "B" on a Hokie Bird!
Mom: No, that's a raven, it's a different kind of bird but it does look like a Hokie!
Ella:(silent for a moment, processing): Oh! Raven, just like a raisin! Mmmm.

Ella (in the car after a long silence, very nonchalantly): Hey Mom? This raisin is flat. Flat like a doggie's bed.



About a month ago Ella has this odd, hard to describe, new laugh she was doing ALL the time. It also went a long with this very teenager-ey tendency to say "oh yeah, for sure" and "like" all the time. I have NO idea where it came from. Anyway, it was so odd that I kept pointing it out and since then she has decided she'll pick a new "laugh for the week" (her words) each week. It is hysterical. Lately she's lost track and forgets but for a while she somehow naturally went into the desginated "laugh for the week" whenever something was funny. Where does she come up with this stuff??


This morning we were talking about our friend Lexi riding in our car. This turned into a discussion about how old you have to be to sit in the front seat and how old to not be in a car seat and then...
Ella: when you're 10 you get to sit in the front!
Mom: yeah! and when you're 16 you can learn to drive! Isn't that cool?
Ella: yeah! And when you're 17 you can get pregnant!
Mom: WHAT?? No you can't! You have to be much older. And married! That's SO silly Ella!! You have to be an adult to do that.
Ella:but 17 is a half way adult and you could have your own baby!
Mom: (lots of talk about how that's not a good idea)
(*disclaimer-we had talked earlier that day about what how "pregnant" means someone has a baby in their tummy because she didn't know that word when I mentioned our friend was pregnant. I think it was just fresh in her mind when she was thinking of things you get to do when you're older, like drive! Still, threw me for a loop!)


Climbing into the car and seeing Silas (her cousin) getting strapped into her carseat Ella looks at Chris and I and with her voice quivering and her face solemn says "This. is very. disappointing. (long pause) I. am getting. very. angry. I. do not. want. him in my seat." She was on the verge of tears and it was everything Chris and I could do to not burst out laughing! Poor girl hasn't had to share her car seat much!

No needle phobias here

Ella is a freakin hero when it comes to shots. That's all I have to say. The girl asked repeatedly when she could please get a shot this year because she was so excited. She was disappointed when we went to the audiologist last week because "hearing aid doctors don't give shots." Why has she been so excited? Because, in her words "I'm good at shots, I'm good at being brave!" And she was. We went for mother-daughter flu shots this week. She's not usually very nice when I have to wake her up but when I reminded her it was to go get our shots she perked up and quickly put on her clothes. In the car she reminded me that she would hold my hand and give me a kiss when I was done (she knows I'm not as big a fan of shots as she is). So, game time came and true to her word, she was brave! She didn't even flinch for her shot. And she was true to her offer to hold my hand when I got my shot and give me a kiss :-) This bravery and lack of fear of needles is certainly not inherited from me but I love it! She is so funny and quirky and I absolutely adore her.

Hope-y!

We had a fun playdate with Hope a few weeks ago so her rents could get in a little day time date. Lots of fun was had by all!

Ella is on her tippy-toes but doesn't she still look like a giant here???

I love any excuse to buy pumkins and gourds and Ella and Hope love any excuse to paint so this activity worked well for all of us.

Hope gave up on her pumpkins after a while and started painting the table cloth so we got out some paper which she happily decorated.

Then on to lunch at Chik-fil-a where they really were angels. Love these girls!

Ren Fest 09!

So, we go the Renaissance Festival every year. This is Ella's 3rd time and Chris and I have been a ton of times. We even went together once before we were dating so that goes back over 10 years. We don't dress up, we don't eat Turkey legs, or carry the swords but we do love the spectacle of it all. For me, being in the lush wooded area surrounded by games and food and shows all means "it's fall" to me. I Love it! I'm also a huge fan of the Johnny Fox sword swallowing show. It's the exact same show every single year, pretty much word for word and it's still hilarious and amazing. Totally recommend it. Ok, now for some pics. This year we went with our friends E and A and their adorable kids :-)

Thanks to E and A's suggestion we told Ella she could wear a princess dress which she loved!

Ella actually went to the Ren Fest earlier this season with Chris' mom and the cousins so she had specific requests to go on the pony ride again.

Even though she's running away in this shot, this is evidence that Ella went up and hugged these mimes. This. Is. Unheard of!!!! She would never have gone up to, let alone touched, a stranger about a month ago. I was shocked. She really is coming out of this "cling to mommy, scared of unfamiliar places and people" stage. It did last about 6 months though!

Sharing some PB&J with Hanna and Halle (who apparently never eat PB&J...ahhh the allure of other people's food!)

Apparently something off to the right was much more exciting that the camera for the girls (I don't blame them, it was probably an elephant or a fire eater or a woman with a ton of cleavage spilling out of her medieval corset).

Chris tried his hand at ax-throwing :-)

My favorite silly people

Chris carried both girls on the LONG walk to the car and they giggled hysterically at his antics the whole way. I love my husband.

Meanwhile, Halle did this :-)
Good day.

Grace to be 3

Ella has been picking out her own clothes for a good year now. We had daily fights and meltdowns about clothing choices back in February/March until God gave me the wisdom to give up the battle. Via the very wise Tim Kimmel, I have really come to believe that if it's not a moral issue, a biblical issue, or a house rule (something we've decided is very important), DON'T fight over it.

It's also helpful to think about if I'm fighting over it to serve Ella or to serve me. Do I not want her to wear the polka dots with stripes for her well being, or because of my pride? If it's about me, it's a clear answer that I need to swallow my pride and let my kid have the joy of expressing herself in her fashion sense. Over the many months of putting this in to practice, I've come to see how Tim is right: when we give our kids the grace to be who they are and not stifle it to make ourselves look/feel good, they flourish! Ella loves picking out clothes, is very particular and very meticulous about being sure even her underwear match something in the outfit. Our fighting stopped almost immediately when I stopped trying to control this area of her life (cause really, she's 3 and I control most everything else). After a couple months of freedom she's even started asking my opinion on occasion. In the last couple weeks she's even asked me to pick out her clothes once or twice (though she'll quickly reject anything she doesn't like). She still thinks a flowered skirt and a paisley shirt match because "they're both pink!" but she is a really happy kid when it comes to choosing her clothes for the day and it makes me smile.

As for me, I've become much more likely to be excited at the thoughtfulness and creativity that goes into an outfit Ella picks out than embarrassed and quick to explain that "she dresses herself." It's still a growing process but I'm so thankful that God intervened in the midst of our clothing wars last winter and gave me insight into how to end the fighting and shower Ella with grace and watch her blossom.

Ella insisted that this is the way you wear this headband!

She wore this to school last week. A tutu and cowboy boots and I can honestly say, I loved her choice!

Game Girl

Ella is REALLY into games right now. She likes
Uno Moo
Memory (we have many types)
regular Uno
Candy Land
Chutes and Ladders
Hullabaloo
and a few others

The other day she wanted me to close my eyes while she laid out the memory cards and when i opened them this what she made.

and "L" or a "7," she said it could be both :-) I was shocked that she was thinking out of "the box" quite literally! I've never laid the cards out in any way besides neat little rows. I LOVE seeing how she really is her own little person with quite unique thoughts (and perhaps not as like me as I'd thought!).

She was right

A couple weeks ago we froze some of Ella's yogurts with a stick in them per the instructions on the box. One morning she remembered and asked if she could have a popsicle for breakfast. Because this sounded absurd and like something to of course, say no to, I did. She whined and said "but popsicles are good for breakfast!!" and "whyyyyy??" And then, as she was whining, I realized she eats yogurt for breakfast almost every day. Why is the same exact yogurt in frozen form not allowed? So, I came to my senses, apologized for being ridiculous and told her she was right-popsicles are good for breakfast :-) She was thrilled and I was reminded that my knee-jerk response to say no to certain things needs to be re-evaluated in some cases. And I love getting to say yes to this little girl.

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Stained Glass Day 2

So, on day two we began the copper foiling process. This was the easiest part of the whole process. Simply wrap a thin copper tape all around the edges of each peice of glass and make sure they fit back in your work board. I zoomed through this part which was good because I was behind after taking forever to grind. There were a lot of more experienced people in our class so I felt quite accomplished being one of the first ones done with this part!



Once all the peices were foiled you get to start using the soldering iron! Whoohoo! This is one part I really remembered and was excited about. I'm totally a pyromaniac.

Here you can see Chris dragging the iron like a pen along the edge of the foil joints between the glass and melting a long, thick, wire along the seam to join them. It was pretty awesome. Toxic chemicals are involved ("flux") and it's just plain entertaining to melt metal with a 700 degress pen.

Chris getting a little advice from our AWESOME instructor. Seriously, she was amazing. So skilled at all kinds of glass work, super easy to talk to, very good at teaching, and extrememly knowledgable. I was super impressed.

Our little home for the weekend and some of our classmates.

Post soldering we attached the frame, cleaned and waxed the glass and then we were done! Here's Chris' finished project! It's about 8x10. Kind of abstract-we're going to hang it in the window in his office :-)You can't imagine how proud we are! It took every minute of both days to finish these projects!

And here's mine! This will probably go over the kitchen window. Not sure when we'll get to use our new skill again but it was so much fun and I'm SO thankful for a sweet, thoughtful husband!!!

Stained Glass Day 1

**Life has been insane for the last couple weeks but that means I only have more to blog about now that I'm trying to catch up. So be prepared for a flurry of blog posts!**

So, back in 7th grade at Bryn Mawr I got to take an elective class in stained glass. I LOVED it! I loved Mr.Nelson, my earth science teacher, who taught it. I loved getting to cut, break, and grind glass and then use a 700 degree soldering iron to melt lead. It was AWESOME. So, I've been talking about it since then. So, being the sweetest husband ever, Chris paid attention and after probably a year since I'd last mentioned it, gave me a weekend workshop at a Stained Glass Studio for my birthday!! Not only did he give it to me, but he knows me well enough to know I would much rather do it with him. He also arranged the childcare for Ella (thanks Nancy!) So, a couple weeks ago the two of us set out for two 7 hr days of creating stained glass!


Our first step was learning different ways to break glass. This is a video of the table break-SO fun!

Next we learned to cut all of these shapes on this practice sheet. For some reason I could not get the arch shape very well but my first circle was decent. Chris did well with all of them :-)

Next we picked a pattern for our peice we'd work on all weekend and the glass to go in it. This took me HOURS. I'm not very decisive.

Then we lay out and number each peice of the "puzzle" that completes our pattern. Then you glue them to the right color glass and start cutting.


Then you have to create a work board and makes sure the peices you cut fit back in it and are square.

Chris hard at work on Day one. We got to the point of all of our peices being cut, grinding them to fit (this took me FOREVER because all my peices were curved which was a challenge), and getting them back into the "puzzle" on our workboard. Then home for the day! We got 3 cuts between us on day one but all were minor. Day two involves molten metal so y'all come back now, hear?