Steve asked Ella what kind of pumpkin she wanted to make, she didn't have to think about it for more than a second and immediately said - "skeleton!" So, skeleton it was!
Other years she's been really grossed out by touching the seeds and the strings but she dug right in there this year
Ella told me a funny story about pumpkin seeds. She wanted us to bake pumpkin seeds so I told her we'd have to separate the seeds from the strings. She said that people don't eat the strings and only snakes eat the strings with the seeds. I asked her how that worked and this is the explanation she gave me: Snakes swim through the water and find pumpkins underneath the water. They poke a sharp knife into the pumpkin to make a hole and eat all the seeds and strings!
Steve making a skeleton and Ella making her "soup"
My little helper
Final product - one scary skeleton jack-o-lantern and one adorable little super girl!
Ella has been excited for Halloween for the past few months. She loves dressing up, Halloween decorations, and everything else Halloween-related. For her first two Halloweens, I didn't ask her opinion, just picked out what I wanted her to wear and put her in it - so easy. Last year, I wanted her to be a ladybug so I asked her if she'd like to be a ladybug and she was thrilled with it - simple again! Those were the good old days :)
This year, I could not get the same answer out of her more than twice in a row. She initially said she wanted to dress up as a banana, pumpkin seeds, spider, the list went on and on. The crazier the idea, the funnier she thought it was. One day I got a costume catalog in the mail and she picked out costumes like the grim reaper and 'zombie doctor'. Anything sweet or cute that I tried to suggest, she was just not interested.
As Halloween got closer, she became more and more into skeletons, and started saying she'd like to be a skeleton. I was still holding out hope for a cutesy costume so I suggested pirate, thinking it's a good compromise and she could have some skeleton accessories. We looked at costumes in several stores, and she would pick out scary masks with crazy hair attached to them, laughing hysterically while she tried them on, and shoot down all of my ideas (sigh...)
A few weeks ago the three of us were shopping and saw an adorable cupcake costume, and Ella said she wanted it right away. We were all happy with the choice and I thought we were all set - phew! In the meantime, Mom had offered to send some of the costumes she had made for Erin when she was little that could be a good fit for Ella; and between those and the cupcake, I was sure we'd be all set.
Here she is dressed up in the space lady and pirate costume that Mom made, so cute!
Pirate sidekick
Even with all of these costume choices, when someone would ask Ella what she was going to be for Halloween, she'd say she wanted to be a skeleton. Steve took her to the Halloween store and she picked out all kinds of spooky decorations, they decorated her bookshelf with orange lights, Mom gave her little toy skeletons that she carries all over the place, on and on - she is really, really Halloween-crazed.We got her a cute skeleton hoodie hoping that would settle her skeleton clothing needs, but no such luck.
This past Friday, I decided to take her to see if we could find a skeleton costume since I knew that's really what she wanted and her desire for it wasn't going anywhere. She wanted to try one scary costumes like zombies, bloody creatures, the more horrifying the better - oddly enough they don't make gruesome costumes in a 3T, who knew?
Just when I thought we were out of luck, I spotted one called "funny bones" in the corner that was hidden by a wig, that did come in a 3T. She tried it on at the store and it was love at first sight - she didn't want to take it off and once we got home, put it right back on.
So - in her pre-Halloween debut in her costume, here is my scary little skeleton!!
Video of her showing off her spooky moves
So far she's had two occasions to dress up and picked her skeleton costume for both, but I am still holding out hope that she'll trick-or-treat in the cupcake costume!
Last Sunday afternoon we took Ella to the State Fair. Steve and I had gone once before, when we lived in Fayetteville, and hadn't really had the desire to go back since then. But this year, since Ella had such a great time on rides at the beach this summer, we thought she'd really enjoy it.
It was the opening weekend, beautiful weather, and very, very crowded, but a lot of fun. We went on a bunch of rides, Ella played a few games, and we ate fair food - we even tried a deep fried snickers bar which didn't taste anything like I expected, but still neat to try.
Ella went on this roller coaster by herself - when I saw that she was going to have to sit next to a big boy I thought she might change her mind, but she did great, and loved the ride.
A video of Ella and I going down the big slide. The best part of this is hearing her loud screams all the way down!
All ready for her first day in her new classroom at school
Showing off her skeletons from Grammy
In her skeleton sweatshirt (never mind that this is a boys sweatshirt, about three sizes too big - she HAD to have it - enough said!)
Making a recipe for Chloe, her toy caterpillar / glowing creature. On this afternoon he was hungry for cat food and milk, yum. Ella instantly fell in love with Chloe and had to have him and has taken good care of him for about two weeks now, but last night told me that I should bring him back to the store because he keeps getting caught in her hair.
Playing with Cory
On the new playground in our neighborhood
All dressed up
Making lemonade
Little buddies
With her crew
Future fashion designer? Beautiful gown made of glitter paper! (and some lipstick on her chin)
This past Sunday we went to Green Acres Farm for some fall fun. It was a beautiful day and we had such a fun afternoon. Ella is crazy about all things Halloween and was so excited for the trip.
Big girl!!
Climbing on hay bales
Ringing the bell at the top of the net ladder
Having fun
My scarecrows
Ella riding a pony by herself!
Climbing on the tractors
We had intended to pick pumpkins as well but unfortunately the pumpkins were not good at all, so we need still to go somewhere else to get pumpkins!
This past Friday was Ella's school block party and her class was finally going to perform the planets song after practicing it for several weeks! I was so excited to see Ella sing it. She gave me a scare a few days before because when I mentioned to her how I couldn't wait to watch her sing it she said to me, "oh no, I'm not going to sing, I'm just going to sit with you instead" -- aahhh, no!! So I got a little nervous when before it was time for the big performance there was a lot of "one more hug and kiss" instead of sitting with her group...
But when it was time to sing she got in her spot and was ready to go!
The kids did great. They all really knew the song and everyone sang it, it was precious!
Here is a video of the big performance - it's actually several different clips stuck together which is why there it skips it several places, but you can definitely get the gist!
Besides the 3-year old classes singing about the planets, the Pre-K class did a cute little skit, the 2-year olds did a dance, and the babies had a costume parade, it was all so cute to watch.
With Daddy in her new classroom
Getting her face painted
Going down the slide on the playground
With Gillian - two happy little kitty cats!
With my sweet girl
Ella was so happy with her painted face that she wanted to keep it the rest of the night. We went out to dinner and she asked no less than 5 strangers, "hey, did you see my kitty cat face?" Ha!
