Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!!


Ellie the cupcake! We went to the Bunker Hill Monument and participated in the parade and trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. It was crowded, but Ellie eventually warmed up to the idea and enjoyed listening to the marching band that was there to lead the parade. Ellie also warmed up to trick-or-treating. Aunt Susie came with us to the parade dressed as a substitute school teacher, Ms. Muciralbnav.





 

Oh yeah...this year Baby got a costume too! (Ellie took this photo)


We hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!!

Hooray for Cousins!!

Congratulations to Aunt Cindy and Uncle Mike on the birth of their son, Tristan Michael.

Tristan was born October 28, at 9:59pm.

All are happy and healthy.

Ellie is super excited to be a cousin.

We all can't wait to meet Baby Cousin Tristan!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Snow Way!

Fast and Flurrious?
Say it Ain't Snow!
Snowlloween?

(Yeah.. I've been working too much lately.)

A coating in October? Almost unheard of in Boston. But at least we don't live out in Berkshire County. Some spots there got 30 inches. Seriously. Thirty inches!

Anyway.. after work this morning Ellie and I headed out to the school's playground to have a little fun with the first flakes of the season.














- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Out of Our Gourds!

As you can imagine, the past few weekends have largely centered around pumpkins.

In addition to visiting the animals at one of Ellie's favorite zoos as they welcomed the Halloween season with their very own treat-filled pumpkins (treat = lettuce, carrots, and other things zoo animals like to eat).. we've been having some fun with our very own.

A couple weekends back Ann and Ellie made some yummy pumpkin muffins. But to do that, you first have to clear out some pumpkins. Ellie was a bit reluctant at the beginning, but wound up having a great time getting all the goop out -- and an even better time eating the muffins once they were finished.


Just last Saturday, we did our first family jack-o-lantern carving. Ellie enjoyed seeing all the shapes you can put into a pumpkin. We asked if she wanted one of the pumpkins to have a happy and funny face or a scary face.. "I want a scary face!".. so that's what we got. Good to see she can get into the spirit of the season.

Again, she did a good job scooping out the insides of the pumpkins, but liked it even more once the jack-o-lanterns were done.



I found it pretty funny that, once the carving was done, Ellie treated the jack-o-lanterns like puzzles.. trying to fit the pieces back into the holes from which they came. She got a couple of them in there, too.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY!
(stay tuned for trick-or-treating Ellie pictures)























































































BOO!



Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Say Cheese!

Here are a couple shots from Ellie's recent school photo shoot.

There were plenty of good smiles to go around.

I snapped pictures *of* the pictures with my camera.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Update and Other things

Potty Training Update: Ellie is now a regular user of the potty with accidents very few and very far between. Public potties, school, at home...she's a pro. She's so good, she actually has figured out that she can manipulate people with the potty...staying up longer, hiding from people at a party, getting some one on one attention from teachers at school...

In other news: I am now a member of the board of the Charlestown Mother's Association (http://www.charlestownmothersassociation.org/). I'm excited to be more involved and get to know this group of women even more.

Aunt Susie invited Ellie to a tea party at her house yesterday. Rumor has it that Ellie ate her share of strawberries (see the photo to the right).

All and all, things are going well. Ellie is growing up and becoming more independent and head strong. She's curious, loves singing and dancing, and is so much fun to be around! She also is the only toddler who can put a real diaper on the baby dolls they have in their class room. I'll leave you with this video of my singing and dancing toddler (she'd been spinning for a few minutes before I turned the camera on, so yeah, she's super dizzy)...




MVI_8812 a video by AHarrer on Flickr.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Apple Picking

Last weekend we went out to an orchard for some apple picking fun with Aunt Susie. Besides picking the apples, other attractions included some animals to stare at, apple cider doughnuts, mini John Deere equipment for toddlers, and a bouncy house. Ellie had a blast!