Santa

We took Ella to see Santa before Thanksgiving on a weekday afternoon. It was the perfect time. No one else was there, so she got to spend as much time as she wanted without me feeling like we were holding up the line.

She was really excited the whole way there, but then she got a little nervous when she got close. Since no one else was waiting in line, Santa was really patient and waited for her to be ready. After a few minutes she hugged him and told him what she wanted for Christmas. He's such a great Santa. I think we'll go back to him again next year.

Halloween (in December. I know I'm a little late:-)

We had a party at church for Halloween. One of the activities was a cookie walk instead of a cake walk. Ella loved it. She just loved walking around and stopping on a number. She didn't even want the cookies that she won. She just didn't want to stop playing.


Last year Ella didn't want to do anything at the Halloween party, but this year she wanted to try it all. I thought it was pretty funny watching her and another "princess" trying to eat a donut off a string.

I was Hermione from Harry Potter and Ella was Cinderella. I knew Dave's old high school graduation robes would come in handy some day.

We had the most beautiful weather on Halloween. I think it was in the 70s. Mom had the day off of work and she took Ella and I shopping and out to lunch. It was a great day and Ella really enjoyed spending the day with Grandma Pam. Of course she had to wear her costume out all day. :-)

Sorry I havn't blogged in awhile. I blame it on my Facebook addiction.

We went to the Pumpkin Patch in October to get our Halloween pumpkins. Last year Ella loved all the extra activities they had, but this year she was pretty much only interested in the actual pumpkin patch. She really wanted a small one "just my size" and I had to go to the very back of the field to find one.

While I was searching for the tiniest pumpkin that Ella wanted, she was busy twirling through the pumpkin patch.

My dad (Grandpa Rob) likes to come out to our house to visit about once a month. He is the only one who can play the piano, and Ella just thinks he's fabulous. Usually he'll play and Ella will sing and dance, but sometimes she likes to play along with him.

We took Ella bowling a while ago. She loved it. I just gave her the ball and led her towards the lans. After she dropped the ball, fell over, and busted into tears, Dave decided he was going to be the one to help her bowl. She liked Daddy's help better.

Vote for Dave at http://www.kansascity.com/twilightextra/story/882382.html

Dave entered a Twilight Fan Fiction contest in our local paper The Kansas City Star. We're so excited because he's a finalist. Please help us by voting at
http://www.kansascity.com/twilightextra/story/882382.html
It's Jacob and Leah by David Hill
The story is only 400 words long so if you get a chance to read it that would be great too. Thanks for voting.
If you're a Twilight fan too post a link on your blog and help Dave win. Thanks ahead of time to all my blogging friends. :-)

Watch Week

Every few months they have watch week at Ella's dance studio where the parents get to come into the class and watch. I think this was the best hour of my life. I'm used to Ella being kind of shy so I kind of expected hers to stand there and do nothing since there were a lot of strangers watching her class. She totally surprised me though. She danced and twirled and had the best time. It was so fun to watch her.

Occasionally she would stare off into space or get really into watching the teacher and forget to dance, but her teacher was really nice and would hold her hand and encourage her to follow along. I really love her teacher too. She's really encouraging and positive, but she also wants them to get the steps correctly and will take the time to individually help them do the step.

I think her favorite part was lining up at the end of the room to practice their steps. They would all race down there. Some of the steps they did were kind of hard. I think they felt really confident with lining up. It was something they were all good at and excited to do.


They even had the moms dance for one song.



She was really outgoing during tap and was stomping her feet around like crazy. I was really proud of her, and I was glad to see that she was enjoying the class. I can't wait to see her Christmas show in December.

C is for Cookies and Craziness

Ella and I have been doing a little preschool with some of our friends. It was my turn to teach the letter C on Tuesday. We made cookies and decorated them with Halloween candies and the letter C . Ella doesn't like frosting so she decorated it for Mommy and then she ate a plain one.

Afterwards Ella and her friends decided it would be fun to climb in her old crib and throw all the stuffed animals on them. It was a big mess, but they had fun.

New Twilight Trailer

Dorthy

Ella just loves dressing up as Dorthy and playing with her Wizard of Oz Barbie dolls.

Nap time

A few days ago we had a busy day and Ella's nap just never happened. She was coloring at the kitchen table, so I went down stairs to make a quick phone call. When I can back upstairs I found her asleep at the top of the stairs. We try not to skip nap time anymore around here.

The Parade

The dance studio that Ella attends was in the local parade about a month ago. Ella was so excited to be a a parade. The morning of the parade was really wet and rainy, but it stopped raining around the time we needed to leave for he parade, so I threw my umbrella in my bag and headed off to line up for the parade. As soon as our float started moving down the parade route the rain started also. Ella still had a lot of fun though and waved her flags underneath the umbrella to all the people lined up along the street. As soon as we finished the parade the rain stopped again. It was kind of funny that it pretty much only rained while we were doing the parade. Ella had a great time though and I still had fun even though we were all wet.