Halloween Preview

We went to a little Halloween party today, which Eleanor was terribly excited for.  When I told her last night that the next day was Friday and we were going to a party with our friends she got so excited she almost started crying. Especially when I reminded her that she would get to wear her princess dress.  And that Clara would be a chameleon.

Super excited

She initially wanted to bring her "princess pot", but luckily thought better of it.  Though perhaps we'll let her take it tomorrow to the trunk-or-treat to collect candy in.

Or course, once we got there she was extremely reticent and didn't want to play with anyone for a good 45 minutes, which is strange for her. Then I realized she was yawning constantly. Oh, well.  She got coloring and then playing outside on the playground and she was a happy camper.  She hit the pinata, but when it finally did bust open she wasn't at all interested in joining the scrum of kids scrounging up candy (though we did get some later).  Before we even got home she was out like a light.

Though this one wasn't. She was just happy to be in on the fun. Okay, I realize that she looks mostly like a frog, but if you could see the curly tail in the back it would be more apparent that she's a chameleon. Like Paschal.
Tomorrow Ben and I will wear our King and Queen costumes.  We'll definitely take a picture of our cute little royal family to share.

Funny Things Ellie Says

KI just wanted to document a few of these things, so I don't forget.  Sometimes at night Ben and I lay in bed and repeat the funny things she says because it makes us laugh so much.  So here a few favorites.

No, I can't like it.  (This is my favorite)

E: What's that mama?
Me: I don't know.
E: Yes you do.

Oh, it's getting darky.

Frequently she says what she wants you to ask her, ie:
Whatcha doin' Ellie?
Oh, what's wrong Ellie?
No, don't touch that.

You know as I write these out I realize that they are mostly funny because of the faces she pulls when she talks. Guess you'll just have to imagine that yourself.

A Princess Dress

I would like to take a moment to toot my horn.
I think this is the first project I have completed without messing up.  I didn't have to unpick a single seam!
The entire thing is lined, I even put in the invisible zipper without screwing it up (like I usually do).
And it didn't cost me a cent. Everything came from my stash, which is awesome, but also a little scary. Why did I have shiny purple fabric? It's a long story, but they used to be curtains and I dyed them about 7 years ago. However, the long pink sleeves used to be some pink pants that were never going to fit Ellie (too wide).

I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  I still have to finish Clara's chameleon costume, an Ben and I as King and Queen.  But if my luck continues...I'll add some pink silk embroidery flowers to the princess dress to make it even prettier.

Ellie loves it! I hope she just doesn't want to wear it on Sunday...

At the Park

My Ellie girl and her Pooh bear

Girls in Dresses

For my own vanity, I want to post pictures of the girls in their dresses I made for them.  

Here is Ellie jumping on our bed in her rainbow birthday dress.

 If I let her pick out what to wear to church she almost always picks the rainbow dress. 
And a close up of Clara in her blessing dress. I'm so happy with how the embroidery turned out.  But next time I'm not making the dress as wide as the pattern prescribes.

Pooh Bear at the Park

Grandma Brown bought a little Pooh Bear when we were with her in Disneyland in April.  Ellie loves loves loves her Pooh Bear.  He recently came to the park with us and got a lot of action.

3 Months

Our little aka-chan (Japanese for baby, literally translated means "cute red person") just keeps getting bigger and more fun each day. Clara is a champion smiler, she'll even stop crying to smile at you  if you grin at her.  It's the sweetest thing.  She only nurses once during the night now, which is nice.  It'll be even nicer when that goes away!  She's learning to go with the flow, as we tend to run around a lot.  Between play rehearsals, relief society meetings (I'm in our branch RS presidency), and just every day errands she spends a lot of time trying to nap outside of her pack-and-play.  She does pretty well.  As long as she's in the middle of the action, she's a happy camper.
Eleanor adores her sister and like to try and get her to look at her and smile, though sometimes her powers of persuasion are a little rough.
We all love her to pieces.