Happy Halloween

The girls love Halloween.  This year, they wanted to go with a Cinderella theme.  Abigail and Ellie came up with the plan.  We needed Cinderella, Lucifer the cat, Gus Gus, Prince Charming, and the evil step mother (thanks for that one).  

Well, by the time it was all said and done- Ellie was Cinderella. Abigail was a black cat named Lucy. Hallie was the cutest mouse you have ever seen.  I'll take it.  They had a blast trick or treating with friends from our neighborhood, and we went way longer than we ever have before, and they loved every minute of it.

Bath time baby

Here is my sweet Hallie taking a bath after a very messy lunch. These pictures won a photo contest that I entered :) Leave it to those baby rolls to win people over! I love these pictures, and this crazy girl.

Time to play catch up.

Our fall was a tornado of craziness.  I can't believe my last post was Abigail starting school, but it is understandable, because that is when things got crazy.  Abi really had a hard time adjusting to going to school.  I don't know what it was, she loved being there, but when she came home, she was different.  She was overly emotional, had lots of rage, had trouble sleeping, and overall- just wasn't the sweet girl she has always been.  We tried lots of different things to help her, but by November, I was ready to pull her out of school.  I started praying about it then, and went about a month and a half without knowing what to do.  When it was time to send her back after Christmas break, Charles and I knelt in prayer together and finally had a feeling of comfort and peace that we should not send her back to school in two days.

So we didn't.  We started homeschooling. Life has been SO much better. We are all much happier for it, and best of all, I have my sweet, helpful Abigail back.  So now, its time to play catch up on everything that has happened for the last 6 months.

Kindergarten

Abigail started Kindergarten this week.  I will spare you my emotional saga.  She was very nervous about meeting all the new kids in her class.  She didn't know any of them, and was pretty scared by the thought of 18 new kids in her class.  She hid behind me as we walked into the school, but went to her seat and was fine from there on.  When she got in the car, before I could say anything, she said, "MOM! It was GREAT! I LOVED it!!" She was pretty exhausted the rest of the day, and this morning when I woke her up, she asked if she could take a nap after school today.

Her and Ellie really missed each other.  Ellie cried when we left without Abigail, and when we picked her up, they hugged for a long time in the car.  Today Ellie is asking about her and asking if we can go pick her up.  She misses her play buddy.

Fancy Nancy

One of our last trips to the library, Abigail picked out a Fancy Nancy Tea Party book, that gives you all kinds of tips and ideas for hosting a tea party.  Her cousin, Chloe, also got the book from the library recently.  We visited them last week, and they had a FABULOUS tea party.

Little Fish

If there is one thing my girls love, it is swimming.  I knew that we would not make it to the pool nearly as much as we did last summer (almost daily) with Hallie in tow.  So they were excited that we did swimming lessons this summer.  They had a lesson twice a week, and they did great.  Ellie learned to respect the water a little bit, which she really needed.  She is fearless, and had gotten in the habit of trying to jump in the pool without floaties or supervision, and had accomplished it enough times to make me freak out.  After starting swimming lessons, she is much better about pool safety.  She won't get in the water now unless someone is there to catch her, or she has her floaties on.

Abigail made HUGE improvements.  She learned to swim at the end of last summer, but it was more of a doggie paddle to stay above water.  She was afraid to put her face in the water, wouldn't jump off the side, even if someone was there to catch her.  Now she is swimming all over the place and just loving it.  

The best part about the Texas heat is being able to swim for so long each year.  It has us talking crazy about putting in a pool.  I keep having to tell myself, not until all the kids can swim on their own! I love visiting my grandparents pool and reminiscing about my childhood summers where we probably spent every day of the summer. Its so fun to take the girls there and see them enjoying it.  Their pool is huge compared to most backyard pools now, and has a diving board and slide, also a rare thing now.

Our Ellie

Ellie has been so much fun to watch grow.  Her personality just keeps blossoming and she is really such a funny little girl, and unlike I would have thought a year ago, is quite the girly girl.


SHE LOVES SHOES:
Last week we went to Target and Ellie stumbled upon a pair of GLORIOUS cinderella-like glass(plastic) slippers. Can you dream up anything less comfortable for a 2 year old to walk around in? I cannot.

She put them on immediately, and there was no turning back.  I don't know if I could have ever been back in her good graces if I had not bought them for her.  She wore them around the store with great pride, and when it was time to check out, she reluctantly held up one shoe for the checker to scan- and then took it back and put it back on.

We bought them in the morning.  She wore them all day. By night time, she was hobbling along, clearly in extreme discomfort.  I'd ask her if her shoes hurt and she refused, "No, it's all better now." When it was time to go to bed, there was no removing them from her feet.  She insisted on sleeping with them. I obliged.

About 3am our princess came into our room crying.  She had lost one glass slipper during her slumber and was quite distraught.  Charles retrieved it and she slept the rest of the night in our bed, with the glass slippers carefully placed on her feet.  She wore them the whole next day, until her sore feet began to bleed, and we convinced her to take a break.

Sunday I was able to convince her that fancy socks were a good pairing with the shoes, and her little feet are healing.

SHE LOVES ROLL PLAY:
Ellie takes roll playing pretty seriously.  It is sometimes difficult to keep up with her imagination, and who she is pretending to be.  She is always quick to correct us when we call her Ellie and she is pretending to be someone else, most commonly, Snow White, Sofia, or Cinda-lella.

Monday night, Charles was giving the girls blessings before they start the school year.  When he started by saying Ellie's name, she quickly corrected him, "No, I not Ellie, I LUCY." She had us all dying laughing after doing this 3 times before she agreed to be Ellie for the purpose of her blessing.

And just for good measure, here is a super cute video of her playing Mary Poppins :)

Summertime

We heard the sound of the ice cream truck approaching and sprung into action.  Abigail grabbed her money jar, and we ran out to catch it.  We had to chase it down, and she bought a bubble gum snow cone with her money.  When we got home, she split her snow cone in two and gave half to Ellie.  Then they went out and hopped in the freshly filled kiddie pool, naked.  Doesn't get much better than that.

The Doc is In

We are solving America's Healthcare issues one child at a time. Grooming the next generation of doctors.  They are never too young.

**Disclaimer: She is wearing a diaper, even though it is not visible under all of those rolls**

Turning Five, something worth celebrating

Abigail had her 5th birthday last week.  It was a big one.  Charles said I went overboard... I told him to shut it ;) Her party request was for a mermaid swimming party, and thats just what we did.  It was perfect.  Everyone swam and had fun, and there is nothing that Abigail loves more that swimming in the summertime sun.  The weather was really nice too, so it wasn't too hot for those of us who didn't dive in.  We played a couple of games at Abigail's request: Sea horse races (on pool noodles), and a seashell hunt in the mermaid lagoon.  That was just enough organization and the rest of the time they just played and swam in the water and I got to catch up with a few friends that we haven't seen in a while. Her actual birthday was Sunday, so we kept it pretty low key.  We had the missionaries over for dinner and she loved that.

Abigail on her birthday in her new dress, getting whacked by Ellie

Since she was up way to early to get breakfast in bed, she requested lunch in bed instead.