Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

Our li'l cowgirl refused to wear leggings. Good thing it wasn't too cold this year! We started out early in the afternoon which helped, too.

Ella refused any and all attempts at taking a picture. Therefore, all I have are pictures of her trick-or-treating. She was very focused while trick-or-treating and she didn't notice me taking her picture.

Oh, I forgot to mention that she also refused to have any whiskers or a black cat nose painted on as well. She pretty much runs the show. I have to pick my battles with Ella, and it just didn't feel worth the effort.

After we got done trick-or-treating we headed to church for the party they were having. There was a costume contest (Gracie won a prize), supper, games and loads of candy. Gracie really enjoyed playing Twister. Good thing her skirt was actually a skort or we would have had to redirect her to a different game!

When we got back home we headed down the street to our neighbor Charlotte's house. Every year she dresses up as a witch and sits outside greeting the kids. She looks pretty authentic, and it kind of scared Ella, but we still managed to get a quick picture. My flash must not have liked all of her spotlights she had because it's not a great picture.

When we returned home Gracie and Ella enjoyed passing out candy to the trick-or- treaters at our house. I truly think they are happier doing that than they are dressing up themselves. Gracie was very generous and gave out handfuls of candy to anyone who came to our door.

Halloween Parade at School

Atlanta C-3 still allows the kids to dress up in their Halloween costumes in the afternoon for a class party and an all-school parade. They parade around the gymnasium by grades, and prizes are awarded for creativity. Gracie had a really hard time deciding what to be this year. If we would just let her be a princess every year she would probably be happy, however she has done that plenty of times in the past. This year she was super excited to be a cowgirl. We had all of the accessories except for the cowgirl boots. We borrowed those from a friend, and she looked really cute!

Ella and I came to the parade to take some pictures. I let her wear her cat costume since it's really just black pants and a shirt with some ears and a tail. This was the only picture I took and Ella's eyes were closed. Oh, well...you get the idea.

Look, we found the principal wandering around and took a picture with him!

The first-grade class during the parade. Check out the boy on the end. He's a blind referee. Very clever!

Can You Believe This???

Tonight by the time Brent got home from a school dance, we were already in bed. The next morning Brent told me to go look at my camera. I looked at the last pictures taken and cracked up. Ella got up at some point during the night and fell asleep standing up with her head on the diaper pail that we still have in her room. (Hmmm, that reminds me...why do we still have a diaper pail in her room????) Anyway, he thinks she heard him come home and she got up knowing she wasn't supposed to leave her room. She must have gotten as close to the door as possible and waited there hoping he would walk by and find her waiting for him. She must have waited too long and tuckered out.

Creativity Time

Gracie and Ella are both creative little girls. They are more content playing with Play-Doh, paints, colors, construction paper, etc than they are with 5 new Barbie Dolls. Don't get me wrong, they like the traditional toys like every other little girl, but I have noticed that they are very engaged in crafting. I like to keep plenty of paints, colors, markers, scrap papers, and things like that around so that they can be creative whenever they like. It gets messy, but that's okay with me!

It's Harder Than It Looks...

It's harder than it looks to take Ella's picture. You have to catch her when she's busy and doesn't see you coming. I get so frustrated because I have loads of pictures of Gracie at this age, but Ella just hates to stand still for a picture. If you do get her to stand still, she conjures up some kind of "fake smile" face. You'll see a few below.

This is a real smile! :-)

I literally had about 15 of these. Ella would blink every time I tried to take a picture. She had a beautiful, yet overly exaggerated smile, but her eyes were closed in every one!

Can we all agree that you can see the devil in Ella's eyes in this picture?!

Or maybe she's just an angel. I can see both sides of her, which I guess is what keeps things interesting.

Raking Turned Fun

We were outside raking the leaves today, and as kids do, the girls started jumping in the pile of leaves. They were being so sweet that I ran in to get my camera for a few pictures.

Ella loved being buried by the leaves! She would have stayed there all day if her sister hadn't needed a turn.

I love Gracie's face in this one. It's like she's trapped and can't get out!

Ella decided it was a good time to dog pile Gracie!

A Possible Halloween Costume Idea

Ella can't decide what she wants to be for Halloween. Today I suggested that she dress up as an MU cheerleader (since we already have the outfit!). She decided to get out Gracie's pom pom's and try some cheers.

Her form is a little weak, but it was cute to hear her saying "M-I-Z---Z-O-U! Go, Tigers! Yeah!!"

After 10 minutes of cheering, Ella decided she didn't want to be a cheerleader. Now what?!

A Short Playdate

Our cousin Corbin got to come over today while Alyssa went to a funeral. Ella and Corbin have really been bonding at church, and they are always excited to see each other. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was babysitting Corbin somewhat regularly and it felt overwhelming to hold 2 babies at the same time. Now they don't need held at all!

A New Approach

Ella is our little daredevil. She is willing to try anything, no matter how unsafe it might appear to be. Today I found her in the living room doing somersaults off the ottoman. I never really got a great picture of it, but trust me, it was quite entertaining. It actually wasn't a real crazy stunt or anything, but I just find myself constantly having this thought, "Gracie never did that." Apparently Gracie was a pretty tame little girl, because Ella is taking parenting to a whole new level!

A Major Victory

Before we went to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday, we attended a local church's Oktoberfest. It was a full afternoon of games and eating, but we only got to be there for 30 minutes. In that 30 minute time period, Gracie wanted to play one game, and only one game. The cake walk totally had her addicted. It lured her in with the promise of a poorly iced cake. She tried unsuccessfully to win until she was down to her final ticket. I gave her a little pep talk about how it didn't matter if she won a cake or not. We were just there to have fun. Well, God was smiling on Gracie, and she won this wonderful cake with her last ticket.

Papa Charlie's Pumpkin Patch

The kids from church went to Chillicothe, MO today to spend the afternoon at Papa Charlie's Pumpkin Patch. We had never been to this patch before, and it was really fun. It would have been better if Brent could have come along, but he had to head to Lake of the Ozarks for a few days of meetings.

Ella loved petting the animals and getting a close up look at them.

Gracie and Ella had a good time running form pen to pen to see what animal was in the next section.

Gracie made it to the top of the bales of hay. They were stacked SOOOO high, and she was brave enough to climb to the top. Of course the fun part was sliding back down. We did encounter one small problem. Gracie chose to wear her Crocs to the pumpkin patch and her foot slipped through a bale of hale and her Croc fell down very deep into the hay. Luckily someone was able to retrieve it.

Ella didn't want anything to do with climbing the hay bales, so I got her to stand by the scarecrow for a couple pictures. She isn't very happy about having her picture taken these days.

Ella finally decided she could climb the hay bales for a while. I think she was just getting tired of the private photo session we were having with the scarecrow!

Ella and her buddy Tysen looked cute strolling hand-in-hand.

Well, Ella's legs were probably long enough to pedal the tractor, but they are heavy and she wasn't quite strong enough. It was fun trying though.

Picnics are always a big hit with our girls!

I believe Ella was happy with her pumpkin!

A group picture of Ella with her buddies from Little Lambs.

A group picture of the whole group - God Rock Crew and Little Lambs.

A group picture of the God Rock Crew.

Gracie and her cousin Callie were goofing around.