Halloween

I love the creativity involved in choosing a costume for Halloween! Such a fun opportunity to let your style, interests, whimsy fly! Or in our case if you're 2, do what your sister does :-)

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 :-)

Valentine's Day!!

We had a great Valentine's Weekend!


We made 2lbs of chocolate covered strawberries! They were SO good.


Chris had all of this waiting for Ella and I-he was very sneaky :-) The pink paper in the front had an itinerary for our whole day! We had so much fun-a pedicure for me while he dropped Ella off with his mom, museum, lunch, coffee shop, then a movie!

A great new coffee shop in the city that we found after going to 3 places that were closed! The red hearts were part of a game Chris made up for us to play where we had to think of our favorite memories in about 20 different categories. He's so sweet and it was a lot of fun :-)

Valentine's dinner with my extended family! My Dad is SO sweet-he brought a dozen roses for EACH of us!!! And a bear for Ella :-)

Then, my mom gave Ella this amazing princess dress, shoes, and crown. She was SO happy.

Dancing with Daddy. What a perfect way to end a wonderful Valentine's weekend.

Playdate at Jen's

I realized I've never blogged about our lovely playdates at Jen's house. Jen is one of those lovely people who is welcoming and generous and doesn't mind kids making messes or climbing all over her things (within reason). Jen has 2 beautiful little girls (L is Ella's age and C is 8 months) and they have mountains of toys that are different from ours (Jen is quite the creative toy buyer) so Ella always has a blast with L getting into everything. On this occasion Amy was sick so we took Hannah with us and the three girls played for HOURS with only a few fires for us to put out (figurative ones of course). Thanks for letting us come wreck your house Jen! We love you! (and we'll be there to do it again tomorrow!)

Jen and baby C

The girls snuck into C's crib and were in the midst of a full fledged game of "Animal Hospital" when we found them.

And of course with 3 little girls, dress up ensued.

My little disco princess diva in full costume. She walks shockingly well in heels. Oh teenage years...stay away...

Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun! It's one of my favorite holidays because as the bookish, preppy, straight-laced type of child, it was the one time a let myself be really creative. The only time of year you get to dress up as something else-SO much fun and a highlight of my childhood. So, Ella gets the whole shabang-we went to Larriland in the morning for a corn maze, a hayride, pumpkin picking and then trick-or-treating that night. The only Halloween joy she didn't get to experience was eating candy. She had so much fun learning to say "trick-or-treat" and holding out her basket, then saying "thank you" and has NO IDEA that candy is food. The basket has been sitting here for days and she still doesn't know you can eat the stuff in it. She LOVES chocolate so once we clue her in she'll be obsessed so I'm holding off and enjoying this phase that surely won't last long. Here are some pics!!


Playing in the Pumpkins

An attempt at a group pic of all the kids (think we'll have to wait a few years for that to turn out well)

Holly and Ladybug Hope!

Ella was a Giraffe!!

We already had orange pumpkins at home so Ella picked green ones this time

Hard to explain but this cocked-head look is very "Ella"

Nana and Ella singing songs on the hayride

Ella trick-or-treating with Daddy and Raleigh

We went trick-or-treating with a bunch of friends in Lexi's neighborhood. It was the perfect toddler-friendly street: a cul-de-sac and lots of friendly neighbors out on their porches. Lots of fun!!