Thursday, November 4, 2010

How many takes?

Happy Seth, Nana not looking.
Everyone happy, fingers in Seth's mouth.

Not bad, except the thumb. Sweet though.
I wanted to get a picture of Nana with her grandkids (two of them at least, Liam was not there) since they were all wearing the same colors:) We tried many takes, much more than what is shown here, but at least you see how adorable they are.

Trick or Treat and raking leaves, Oct 31, Michigan

Elli waiting patiently for someone to come to the door with candy:)
" The gang" hopping out of the van and heading to the doors for candy.
We got the days wrong and headed out for candy on Saturday instead of Sunday. Elli is waiting for someone to answer the door. Fortunately, it was the house of a friend of Linda so she was able to explain our mistake. The guy did however, give the kids some candy. We found out there was a town close by that was having trick or treat that night, so we headed out and got some candy afterall.
Nana and Grandpa with the grandkids in the piles of leaves ready to be burned.
I love this picture. She was posing for the camera with the leaves in her hair.
Seth was a little unsure of the whole, "have fun in the leaf pile" thing:)
Elli loved it this year!
Grandpa with his little helper. Actually Elli was following him back to the leaves so she could get another ride on the tarp!
Brent got a little more exercise than the rest of us. He was chopping some wood from a fallen tree so his parents could have some manageable firewood.
Elli is actually in there somewhere, riding in the leaves. She had a lot of fun.
There she is:)
Is she helping or playing? Oh wait, that is a result of Brent raking the leaves onto the tarp Elli is holding:)
Lots of smiles before the work begins.
This is Elli's preschool class going trick-or-treating downtown Cedarville. It is a lot of fun for the kids. They get to go to all the businesses and get treats. Elli was excited to do it again this year.

Our Time with Seth

The little cow and precious fairy at Trick-or-treat.
Elli was helping Seth jump on the trampoline. So sweet to watch her with him.
Seth sitting in his big booster seat for lunch at our house. Elli never far behind when Seth is around. She loves to take care of him.

Trunk or Treat and Pumpkins

Our annual picture with the Jack-o-lantern, Elli and Fergi:)
Carving the pumpkin.
My little lambs from Cubbies. I co-lead these munchkins with Deanna and Steven. Such fun we had. Since we were going to be out of town for trick or treat, we decided to beg at Heather's house. She gave Elli a piece of candy and some money. Elli got a generous streak though and gave it back:) She was sharing.
We also stopped at mom's for some candy. This little fairy knows how to coax the candy out of anyone.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Hike in the Cedarville Gorge

Yes, Elli is wearing a santa outfit to show off her leaf collection from our hike. How fitting?:)
We walked for an hour and Elli didn't ask me once to hold her. We had a great time!
She wanted to lead the way the whole time. She really was excited to find all kinds of leaves and rocks, and nuts, and other things. So thankful for a warm day.
Finding a colorful tree. A lot of the leaves had already fallen, so it was fun to find a tree with the leaves still on and colorful.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Friday, our last day, Magic Kingdom:)

This was early the next morning. We were told we couldn't take her balloon on the plane so she asked an attendant to give it to a little girl going to Disney World:) She is a sweet little girl, don't you think?
We went to Downtown Disney for ice cream and walking around. She had wanted to ride the carousel at Magic Kingdom before we left, but it broke down, so we let her ride this little one.

A week without naps and late nights was hard on this little girl, as well as her parents:) She fell asleep soon after leaving the Magic Kingdom for our last time. She picked a pluto for her souvenier. She made a wish on him to turn him into a girl, and the next morning she said it worked because he had sparkly fur:)
This was the closest we got to the Fairy Godmother. The line was closed so I took this picture so she could remember what the Fairy Godmother looked like.
We loved riding the Barnstormer:)

We got to ride the magic carpets. Elli was bummed that she couldn't make the carpets rock back and forth, but it was fun still. (The button was broken)
Action shot on Big Thunder Mountain. We asked Elli what rides she wanted to do again at Magic Kingdom since it was our last day. She picked this one, the carousel, the carpets, Barnstormer, Splash mountain, and I think Snow White. We opted out of snow white since she didn't really like it the first time, but fit the rest in. She loves rides!!!
We finally got to meet Tiana and Naveen. Each day we were too late to get in line so I waited here while Brent and Elli went straight to the carousel. She loved talking to her. Being first in line, Elli got lots of attention. They talked to her for a while. When we were leaving Tiana asked Elli if we were her Mamarazzi and her Paparazzi. Elli said no:)
Elli decided to be brave and try to get her picture with these ladies all by herself. Go Elli!
Her favorite horse was available! She told us she wanted to ride the flower horse and on our last day, she found it. She was so thrilled!!! It's the small things people!

Day 6, Hollywood Studios (Thursday)

Not the best picture but the ferry had so many characters!
Mickey in the show Fantasmic. Sadly, we went to this after terrifying Elli on the Tower of Terror. (She kept asking if she was going to twinkle like the people in the movie, i.e Twilight Zone. As we were flying down, Elli was near tears thinking we were going to twinkle away) Anyway, this show was about the evil characters trying to take over Mickey's imagination, so it showed all the evil villians very close up on the water spray background. Needless to say, Elli had a hard time sleeping that night. I found her the next morning still totally covered in her covers.
This picture cracks me up. She so wanted her picture with these actors. This was pose #5:)
Hollywood Studios:) Elli didn't like this as much as the other parks, since there were not so many rides, but the shows were awesome.
Meeting Quincy and June after seeing PlayHouse Disney live. She was quite excited.
We loved Beauty and the Beast, well most of us:) Elli only loved Beauty and the other girls in pink dresses:)
Play House Disney was a fun show, if you enjoyed sitting on the floor surrounded by lots of kids singing and dancing along:)

One of Elli's favorite moments was seeing The Little Mermaid show. She was a little confused about why Ariel wasn't swimming around though and was stuck on her rock:) Good thing she got legs at the end!
And yes, Minnie Mouse again. We wanted to go to the Toy Story ride first, but it was not working so we sent Brent to get a fast pass while we talked to Minnie. We did get to ride it later though as well as Tower of Terror.
Elli was making a wish while holding her balloon. Not sure what she was wishing for, but it is cute nonetheless:)