A Random Assortment of Pictures

Ella looking so cute in her pink p.j.s
She has skipped board books entirely and is now reading novels.

Will eating homemade buttermilk pancakes. I know, I am waaay too proud that I made these. :)

Cute little naked baby

This isn't the most flattering picture of my sweet daughter, but I wanted to show you her fabulous onesie from Diantha. It says, "Rock the Wee World". Every time I see her in it I sing!

I love this picture of Mike. He was running all through the house with Will on his shoulders. Of course, Will was loving every minute of it.

Spoken like a true karaoke queen...



"She gave up her song spot for me, that's a real friend. That's like giving me her bone marrow".



Here are some of the things I did today...

*Had a nice long phone conversation with my Grandma Novie.

*Made homemade pancakes for the first time ever.

*Wrestled away a spatula from Will after he found out how far he could stick it down Ella's throat.



When these are the highlights from your day, you pretty much need to go out with your girlfriends on a weeknight, sing a little karaoke and drink a margarita, just to keep your edge.

***This was written on Wednesday night, but I just got around to posting it. I know that today is Saturday.

Feeling Crafty?

I'm really not all that crafty of a gal, but once in a while I get inspired. My little friend Sofia turned 3 this month, so I thought it would be fun to make her a crown. I was going to add more embellishments, but then I reminded myself to keep it simple and not go overboard. I even did some handstitching. What do you think?

Two Babies

This is a very au natural picture of me, but I had to post it anyway. One day, after I had Ella, Will had climbed into the crib. He asked for help getting out. I had Ella in one arm and picked him up in the other. There is a mirror right across from the crib, so I turned around and said, "look, Will, two babies". Now whevever I hold Ella and he wants my attention he says, "mom, two babies, two babies". It's pretty cute. So...back to the picture...

Mike had gone out running that morning and I wanted to get some stuff done around the house, but of course, Ella was crying. I sat with her in the rocking chair and tried to comfort her. Will came over and wanted me to have two babies, so I scooped him up too. I remember thinking I should lay them both down and get some work done. Then I stopped myself and remembered that they won't be babies long and decided just to keep holding on to them and keep rocking them in my chair. This is how Mike found us when he walked into the house and he said he just had to grab the camera and take a picture of us all. I love it because we are all so happy and peaceful. Ahhhhhh...

It's not on the test...

This link was sent to me by a dear friend and I thought I would share it with you. I taught third grade for a while and was disheartened because they were subjected to so much test taking. One of my students was in tears during the first session of test taking and they were so anxious. The next time around I told them not to worry, no matter what happened, their teacher would still love them. I also want to let you know that I did NOT teach to the test and my students did great. My goal was to teach them to think and instill a love of learning in them. Isn't that what we want for our future? I always thought it was such an honor that parents would entrust their most precious cargo to me for the bulk of the day and I tried to do the best that I could. I spent many extra hours of my life preparing my lessons. Most of all I wanted to make sure that my students felt loved and safe in their classrooms. I was certainly not perfect and had my share of bad days, but I still think of my students, all of them. I miss them, love them, and wonder what they are doing now that many of them are middle schoolers.

Soooo, check out this link, it's not as serious as this post!

www.notonthetest.com

The Dynamic Duo

Trick or treating


At home enjoying "lollies"



Will invited himself into our neighbors homes. One of the older kids let Will wear a part of his costume.

A rare pic of the whole family

Will checking out his loot. This is actually the only picture I have of Mike where I didn't cut his head off. I really need to practice my photography skills!

Doesn't Ella look like she is about to go and save the world?

Here they are...Batman & Robin

All of that trick or treating wore Ella out!

I have no time or patience to rearrange my pictures, so here they are, all out of order! We had a great Halloween. I think it might just be my favorite holiday. Will was so excited about knocking on doors and seeing our neighbors. He walked into a few of the houses and took a look around! It was so much fun! We also went downtown beforehand for a little trick or treating action. All of the businesses hand out candy. We are very grateful that we still have a vibrant and thriving downtown.

*I just re-read this blog and realized that I forgot a few of the details...

As I was trying to get the kids out of the door, Will decided that he wanted to be a bunny rabbit. He proceeded to fling himself on our living room floor and kept crying out, "bunny rabbit, bunny rabbit". I had to chase him down to get his cape on! Mind you, Batman was actually our plan b. He was supposed to be a lion, which was a hand-me-down that somone had given us. He refused to put the costume over his head! Luckily, we had batman pajamas on hand that could do double duty as a costume.

Ella turned out to be very compliant. She was supposed to be a pumpkin, which was Will's costume when he was her age. At the last possible minute I thought, wouldn't it be great if Ella was Robin? So, I rummaged through our house and found some old clothes to cut up to make a Robin costume for her. I even did a little bit of sewing. Aren't you impressed? I was probably a little over proud of myself, but it's not often that I get that crafty! I think Michael really got a kick out of it too since it was a surprise to him!