Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Pre-K pumpkin patch

We made a second trip to the pumpkin patch this year.

Alex and I tagged along with Ella's pre-K class to the KC pumpkin patch in Gardner.


It was a VERY CHILLY day... the high was 42 and the kids were COLD by the end of the morning!!!




But we had a great time!



Ella and her two best buddies Sophia (Steketee) and Macie (Boerigter) were inseparable for the morning. Those girls are TONS of TROUBLE!!! But so cute.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Happy Orange Day

It's one of our favorites...













Ella was decked out...













for her pre-K, Orange Day! (that's Mrs. Dick, her teacher)

The Monster in the Mirror

Ella is a good sleeper. She always has been. This is the kid who slept 12 hours at night and took a 3 hour morning nap until she was ready for preschool. I asked the doctor if I should be concerned and he basically told me to "shut up before another mother heard me!" She wouldn't even sleep in our room as a baby. She switched from the bassinet at 3 weeks!!! Okay, so you get my point, now her latest escapade.

Ella has been showing up in our room the last couple of nights and tonight, I just couldn't get her to settle down and go to bed. Two nights ago, she had a bad dream and insisted that there was a "frog faced monster" in her bedroom mirror. After 4 trips to our bed between 2 and 4 a.m. Troy and I didn't care WHAT she saw in the mirror, we were ready for sleep! We basically brushed it off!

The next day, she still insisted the monster was there, in the mirror, in it's own bedroom, watching her. I offered to take the mirror away, but she likes it, it's like a fairytale mirror, and she has pictures stuck around the edges, so it's part of her room. Finally, we found a compromise. I told her we should draw a really happy picture and put it on the mirror to keep the monster away. We did, she taped it up and last night was fine.

Tonight, we put her to bed and she kept getting up. Troy talked to her, then I heard her up there just quietly sobbing!! I talked her to and finally got her to tell me that she's afraid of the monster in the mirror and it's scaring her every night. OKAY I'M A HORRIBLE PARENT!!!

So I ask if she wants me to take the mirror and she sobs more, "NO I WANT IT BACK TO NORMAL!" So I take the picture off and she sobs more "BUT THE MONSTER IS THERE!" So we walk up to the mirror, I carry her, she points at the mirror to show me what's scaring her, I call Troy we turn lights off and on, looking in the mirror, finding the scary spots, and finally realize it's a picture frame and Tinkerbell figurine on her shelves which are casting the ominous reflections in her mirror!!! I move them, even let her hold Tinkerbell and suddenly the monster is GONE!!!

My girl was smiling again when she went to bed. Troy and I both felt better for having stuck with this until we made it okay for her. She was happy, and safe and comfy in her room again tonight. Thank goodness!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Pumpkin Patch 2009!!!






A brisk Saturday morning was perfect weather for this! I think it was in the upper 40's or lower 50's so the jackets were fine once we got moving, but it was cool and windy out there!





We love this annual tradition! As hard as we tried, we hated that we couldn't coordinate and schedule to go with our friends this year... but the kids still had lots of fun! Papa and Grandma came along and we WORE PAPA OUT!








2 and a half hours later, the kids were exhausted!!!






We brought home 150 lbs of pumpkins! Sounds like a lot, but it was actually 5 large pumpkins, one wheelbarrow FULL for Troy to push onto the scales.








Ella rode a pony (Alex wasn't happy that you have to be 3 or older for this), Alex climbed all over a real firetruck, both kids loved the petting zoo and they were all over and through the pumpkin vines. This is always one of our most fun days of the year!