Happy Halloween!

Halloween has come and gone, and let me tell you, it was a GREAT day!

We carved pumpkins this weekend, and this was the first year that I was old enough to do it mostly on my own.

I decided I wanted a spooky Frankenstein pumpkin so I used a crayon to draw it on.

After that, Daddy helped me get the cutter started, and helped me around the tricky parts, like the teeth.

I think our pumpkins turned out pretty great.  The one on the left was one Mama and I did this afternoon after school.  The 2nd one was the one Mama made for the family (Ellen was going to be a ladybug, and i was a peacock), the third one is the one I did, and the 4th was one that Mama carved for Ellen.

Today at school we had a Halloween party.  We got to make witches brew (trail mix), we had a parade through the school to show off our costumes, and we read a spooky story.  Ellen had a party at daycare too.  

The highlight of the night was trick or treating!!  We added to our outdoor decorations this year and it was sure a hit!  The spider web got upgraded this year with Christmas lights, and Daddy surprised us today with a GIANT spider that moved!  Lots of kids came by our house and were so excited about the spider that they almost forgot to get candy.

Ellen had a last minute costume change to Owlette from PJ Mask because twirly skirts just aren't her thing.  Mama found a hooded sweatshirt with wings, Ellen couldn't have been more excited to wear it.

After we got home we got to dump out our candy and eat as much as we wanted until bedtime.  We scored big with full sized candy bars, bags of chips, and TONS of candy.

It was a pretty great night!  Hope you had an ooky-spooky night!
Linden

Halloween Fun For Everyone!

Hey Everyone!  Ellen Here!

We have been so busy having Halloween fun these past few weeks, we haven't had time for much else.  

None the less, we made time this weekend to see my cousin Tyler race in his last high school mountain bike race.  We didn't get any pictures because he was pretty smelly, but we had a great time running around outside and cheering him on.  

Saturday was the annual Trick or Treat Trail in Owatonna, and it did not disappoint.  They moved it to a new park this year and it was great!  There were bounce houses, candy and all kinds of fun.

I think my favorite part was the train ride, Linden's favorite was the scavenger hunt through the woods.  My least favorite part?  Having to wear a costume, I am not sure what Mama was thinking when she decided that I should be a ladybug.

We spent a ton of time this weekend playing games.  I really like Honeybee Tree, Linden really likes making up new games.

Because we haven't posted in a while I am going to tell you about last weekend too.  We started out at Daddy's work Halloween party where we got to play games, decorate pumpkins, and eat cookies!  I look happy to be wearing my costume, but really Mama told me that I had to take one picture and then I could take it off...which I promptly did.

After Daddy's work party we went to the Minnesota Zoo for HalZOOween!  They had tons of fun activities for Halloween.  We got to pet a crawly caterpillar...

And there was a band playing fun Halloween music for us to dance to.

It was a beautiful day so we played and played at the new naturescape park they added.

Mama and Daddy decided that the fun didn't need to be done, so we went to the Mall of America for some legos, shopping, and more fun!  Linden is big enough to go on the roller coaster, she keeps telling me it is fun but I don't know about that..maybe when I am bigger.

Winter is just around the corner so the mall had a winter sport expo going on.  Burton was there and they had a tiny snowboard for me to try out!  It took Daddy a little convincing to get me to wear the helmet, but once I agreed to put that on I had a great time!  So much fun that I cried when it was time to be done.

We got a really fun medal and a picture of us on our board.  It was great!

We carved pumpkins this weekend, too, but I am going to save that for another blog post.  I am sure there will be more Halloween fun tomorrow.
Ellen

Fall for Fall!

Fall is here and that means it is time for our annual Leaf Jumping Play Date! 

When Mama and Daddy bought our house they planted some trees, and one thing we have learned is that trees take a REALLY long time before they have enough leaves to jump in.  So, my good friend Kaiya invites us over every year for a play date!

They have a couple really big trees, and some nice neighbors who are willing to share!

The deal is, they provide the leaves, and Mama brings the food.  It is a win-win.

Last year Ellen didn't really know what to do, but this year she LOVED it!

The only part she didn't like was when Daddy would burry me in the leaves and Ellen couldn't find me.

No worries, I always came back!!

Kaiya and I are both in gymnastics and a pile of leaves is the best place to practice!  We were doing all sorts of fancy tricks, and we had a lot of fun when Daddy threw us in!

It was a really nice day today, can you believe it got up above 70 degrees?  Too bad it is supposed to get colder again tomorrow.

After dinner Kaiya and I went to play in her room while Ellen colored.  Kaiya has tons of really fun costumes.

Of course no costume is complete without fingernail polish so the dads helped us out.

Don't we look great?

Kaiya really likes having dance parties and putting on shows.  Her daddy played the music and even got out the light machine to make it extra fun.

Of course, Ellen wasn't intersted in dancing with us.  But she was interested in eating a cupcake :-)

I think we had some pretty great moves!

Off to bed, lots of fun Halloween plans in store for this weekend.
Linden

Labor Day Weekend 2016

Hey Everybody!  Ellen Here!  

We had a super great long weekend at Grandma Carolyn and Papa Tim's house for Labor Day Weekend!

One of the best parts of going to the Lake is getting to see Great Grandma Joan.  She hasn't been feeling well lately so we got to visit her at a different place.  She made sure to make it feel like home by bringing pictures of us.  While we were there we color pictures for her too!

We went to a new restaurant this weekend and I learned that my new favorite dip is Blue Cheese!  I wanted to dip everything in it, but Mama said just my cucumbers...Papa gave me some french fries too.

The weather wasn't that great this weekend so we had to find other things to do besides playing on the lake.  We went to Casey's Amusement Park and had a blast!!  Linden's favorite was the bumper boats.  She and Daddy SOAKED another little girl on a differnt boat!

I loved the go-carts, but I wasn't big enough to drive one on my own, I got to go with Mama!  Linden got to do the mini-go-carts and she loved that too.

While Linden was on the mini-go-carts Papa let me ride on the merry-go-round a LOT of times.

They also have mini golf there.  Mama said we weren't keeping score, but I want it to be known that I totally beat Daddy and Linden.  They only wanted to get thier golf ball in the hole...it is much easier to get lots of points if you put everybody's ball in the hole too...

The weather on Sunday wasn't much warmer so we decided to go to a local apple orchard and check it out.  They had delicious apple cider, and blueberry doughnuts.  They also had a huge blob for us to jump on!  There were all sorts of places to climb, and fun corn mazes to wander through.

I really loved the big corn pit.  It was really hard to walk through, but it was fun to dig in.  Linden liked pouring corn down the slide and sliding after it.

 Even though the weather wasn't great, we made the best of it and had a great time!

Have a great night!
Ellen

Kindergarten, Here I Come!

Well Folks, today is the day!  I didn't even need to look at our family calendar to figure it out, today is the day that I get to go to SCHOOL!!!  I am so excited!

Mama made us this family calendar a long time ago and I have been waiting for this special day to show up forever!!  (Do you see the cute butterfly in the corner?  There will be more about that later...)

Mama did a pretty good job this morning.  We made sure we had my first day outfit picked out.  And she made me this cute sign that we finished filling out this morning!  Too bad it was raining and we had to take pictures in the garage...

Walking into school for the first time was AWESOME!!

I have heard a lot of great things about my teacher, Mrs. Hozerland, I am certain it is going to be a great year.

I was super excited to find out that I got to be the FIRST classroom helper!!  That means I was the line leader, I got to shut off the lights, and I got to be a big help for my teacher.  Having a last name that starts with two A's isn't all bad...

Did I tell you that it rained, all day...?  We still got to have gym class, and do a couple projects, and I had all sorts of fun stories to tell Mama and Daddy afterwards.

I think the most exciting part of the day was waking up to see that my butterfly, Nyla, was ready to come out of her chrysalis!  When we met my teacher yesterday we asked if we could bring it in if it was a school day that she came out, and turns out, today was the day!!!  My silly butterfly was shy so she waited until we were all at lunch, but when we got back we had a big surprise!

After school once Daddy was home it was time to let her go.  I named her Nyla, and was super excited when Mama told me that she was in fact a girl.  Nyla wanted to hang out a little bit more on my hand...

Buy eventually she was ready and flew away to find her butterfly friends.

Today was amazing! I can't wait for all of the new adventures that Kindergarten is going to bring!

Linden