Pre-K Picture Day!

The girls had picture day at school last month and here are the photos.... drum roll please.....

oh-so-typical school pictures, but oh-so-ADORABLE when they're yours! 

Ella with her new favorite 'do', french braids.

Ella's class

Katie

(with no hair bow! I don't know what happened to the hairbow, but it didn't come home from school that day and it didn't show up in the photo -- ????)

Katie's class.  Katie is sitting in the end chair on the right.  The class photo was taken on a different day explaining the different (dark pink) dress from above.  Notice how cute her hair looks -- now, why couldn't the teacher have taken a few minutes to make sure she had her bow in for the individual shots??? 

School Scrapbooks

Katie had to do a scrapbook page for her class, something to tell the other children about her family.  Ella wanted to do one too.  Below is what they came up with.  I wrote the words, but they told me what to write.  They picked out the pictures too (with a few "hints" from me).

Katie's first page is about her family.

The second page is about things she likes to do.

Ella's page (she only did one page).

The Pumpkin Patch

We just had to celebrate the arrival of Fall with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  This year we went to Cox Farms.  Wow - what a GREAT place!  Slides, slides, and more slides, plus a hayride, rope swing, kettle corn, and fresh-picked apples -- yum, yum, oh-so-much fun!!! 

Ella at the bottom of the slide (in her very own Fall-inspired fashion statement -- autumn colored striped tights, a blue tutu skirt, and an orange glittery pumpkin shirt!) and Katie is at the top.

Katie makes her way down the slide!

Now, time for the BIG slide.  Actually, I didn't get a shot of the BIGGEST slide of all, the Dinosaur slide.  It was humongous and the girls LOVED it!  We (all three of us) did it again and again and again -- I'll agree, it WAS FUN!

Cinderella's cottage (can't tell who's Cinderella)

Ella in Cinderella's Pumpkin Coach

Fall Pumpkin Pix

Katie on the rope swing

Ella in the choo-choo train

Both girls speeding away in the VW Bug

Happy Fall everyone!!!!

School Halloween Parade

At the girls' school, the 4-yr-olds put on a Halloween parade for the 3-yr-olds.  That means the kids in the 4-yr-old classes were allowed to wear their costumes to school, which was very exciting to the Katie and Ella.  The parents were invited to attend too, which was very exciting for me -- they were so cute, all dressed up!  That morning before school, Ella told me, "I've never been in a REAL parade before!" 

This is a picture of Ella's class marching in to the auditorium.  Ella is dressed as the Indian PRINCESS, Pocahontas.  You can see all the "little" kids sitting along the wall.

Here comes Katie's class -- Katie, as you can see, is Witchy-Poo.

A close-up of our not-so-scary little witch.

And, Ella as the beautiful Pocahontas.

I love this picture -- Ella seems to be looking at me as if she can't believe I came to see her parade -- so sweet!

Messing Around

Ella was sick and couldn't go to school so we were waiting for another mommy to come and stay with Ella while I took Katie in to school.  To kill time, Katie decided to play around with my camera (seems to be a favorite pastime these days).  Below are a few shots of us "messing around" in the car before school...

Ella with her puppy, Abby (sister to Katie's puppy, Dora, but has had much less 'loving' than Puppy through the years -- she still has a nose!)

Katie taking a pix of Momma

Breakfast-on-the-go

Katie self-portrait

Katie's Bedtime Procrastinations

Katie can be such a stinker at bedtime these days.  She doesn't like brushing her teeth so she spends lots of time procrastinating.  Here's a look at her procrastination techniques, self documented...

Momma and Ella who is ready for bed -- pj's on, hair brushed, teeth brushed, book picked out and ready to go -- patiently waiting for Katie to finish her bedtime chores.

Katie taking a picture of Ella's milk cup

Katie's toothbrush

Daddy

Daddy holding the toothbrush she refused to pick up

Self portrait - notice in the mirror the exasperated look on my face?

I think eventually she got her teeth brushed.... possibly.

Little Juice Thieves

Daddy's favorite thing to drink with dinner is what we call "red" juice (sometimes, like in the photo below, it's purple juice - actually it's V8 juice).  The girls favorite thing to do is to drink ALL his juice.  And, what a production it is.  They ask so sweetly, "Daddy, can we have a SIP of your juice?"  Of course he says yes.  Then they run and each get a straw and proceed to drink the ENTIRE glass of juice.  He goes to great lengths pretending that he is very upset by them stealing all his juice and leaving none for him.  Secretly, we're both happy because of all the good stuff they are getting from the juice! 

Ella (in pigtails) and Katie taking just a sip of juice

The girls giggling because they've tricked Daddy, knowing they are going to drink it ALL!

Party Time!

Finally, the big day... Katie and Ell's 5th Birthday Party with THE GREAT ZUCCHINI (a children's magician)!  We asked all the kids to wear their costumes, so we could have a Magical Halloween good time!

I did the party invitations myself -- and I'm quite proud of them, in case you couldn't tell! 

Momma prepping the gift bags -- a magician's hat filled with a magician's wand, a bunny (bags stuffed with cotton candy), clickety-clackety halloween teeth, a squishy pumpkin, and some candy.

Daddy and Mimi's handiwork - halloween decorations and "Happy Birthday Katie and Ella" chalked on the driveway.

Decorating pumpkins and etching halloween decorations.

The kids enjoying the chalk,

Princess Ella with her friends Princess C. and Vampire B.

Show time!!! 

The Great Zucchini begins his show -- he already has the kids' undivided attention!

Princess Ella and Witchy-Poo Katie are his handy-dandy assistants.

Ella making Katie levitate!

The Zucchini playing games with the kids in the front yard.  I love the looks on their faces, as if they are running for their lives!

Cake time!  Katie's first this year with the song and blowing out the candles. 

Ella was sick this year (funny because if I recall correctly, Katie was sick last year) the day I had to order birthday cakes so Ella picked out Care Bears for their birthday cakes this year (not Halloween or Fall like I wanted!).  She picked pink icing and a pink Care Bear for Katie and purple icing with a purple Care Bear for herself.

Make a wish, Katie!  Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!!!

Ella's turn for her song and candles.

Make a wish, Ella!  Happy 5th Birthday, My Angel!!!!

Parting scene of the party and our guests...

despite it being a rushed and COLD morning (not to mention the demanding "talent" -- Zucchini was a hoot in terms of working conditions), it turned out to be a beautiful day and a wonderful party!

We ended up not doing the pinata at the party -- too much confusion and not enough prep time -- se we did it after the kiddos left.  This is Katie giving the pinata a good SMASH!

Ell's turn to give it a WHACK!

hmmm... down and still not open... what shall we do?

RIP it open, of course!

Candy, candy, candy... all to ourselves!

The "after" party -- getting the toys out of the packaging!