It's Halloween Day!

Ellie was so excited this morning. When I woke her up, she didn't ask if it was Halloween Day, she told me and jumped right out of bed to get dressed in her princess dress.



At school they are planning a BIG party.





Families were asked to bring food for the party, or treats for the trick-or-treat bags (but no candy!). Nick found small tubs of Play-Doh, so we brought that as goodies for the kids bags. Ellie helped me put some in each bag.









Then the Halloween music came on and Ellie started dancing with her friend "Girl Elmo". They are dancing to the Pumpkin Patch Polka.
















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Is it Halloween day?

No! Not till tomorrow. At least I only have one more day of answering that question which has gotten pretty annoying.

She took her remote controlled pony car and pony, but not the remote. She was distraught she forgot the remote. It all happens to us in the mornings honey.







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The new normal

As much as Ellie and I aren't excited about it... Our new normal morning routine means getting up early, rushing around, breakfast in the car or at school, and getting dropped off at school right at 7 when the doors open.

Today, however, she was super excited she wasn't the only one at school and got to talk about her trip to Disneyland with friend between spoonfuls of yogurt.







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It's Disneyland Day!

Yes, it is...but not till this afternoon. Ellie thinks she has a full day of school ahead of her before we go... But we are going to pick her up early (just after lunch). So a little surprise for her. She's excited...but Nick and I are too.

Silly lunchbox!



For the second time this week, Nick left Ellie's lunchbox at school. It seems to happen on swimming lesson days...so Ellie took a silly lunchbox to school.

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New vocabulary

This week Ellie has learned some new vocabulary words such as, exam, test, studying, and stress.

It is really hard to explain what an exam is to a 3 year old, let alone stress.

Today is the second of the two exams for me. And tomorrow I'm taking the day off of work for much needed family time.



Today was sharing day, Spanish lesson day, and swim lesson day. Whoa...Tuesdays and Thursday's are packed!

When I left Ellie was showing her little letter tracing/letter game computer with her friend Bridgette.

Off to study for my afternoon exam.

Ring the Bell & Birthday Rewind

I didn't get too many pictures of Ellie this morning. I grabbed a quick nap after getting home from work.. then ran with Ellie up to school. Before we left Ellie was sure to wish Mommy good luck on her test today.

Ellie got to school just in time to ring the bell for clean-up and the start of the day.



This weekend Ellie had a great time at her friend Hailey's 5th birthday party.

After getting her face painted with a "jungle butterfly" at the L.A. Zoo on Saturday...



...she asked for a unicorn at the party Sunday.







After that Ellie and her friends bounced in a pink princess castle bouncy house and played with some fairy wings they were given as favors. (Boys got knights' swords and shields.)



Things got a little crazy when the piñata was cracked open...



...but things calmed down when it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" to Hailey.



Ellie enjoyed her vanilla cupcake and strawberry ice cream with her friends the birthday girl-turned zombie Hailey, and Lauren.



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"I'm not talking to you!"

She was miffed to be going to school so early, ("before the sun is up mommy!" which it wasn't, it was just cloudy), I had to brush out tangles to get her pony in, I put her muffin in the wrong container, she didn't believe it wasn't thursday (trust me honey, I wish it was Thursday), her shoes...blah, blah, blah.

But I was the same way...because some little kid was awake and begging for me to get up and feed her at 5:00am because she thought it was time to get up!

Silver lining? She picked out her outfit and put it on herself (with much grumbling). But she was happy she made it match, a black shirt and black pants. Fits the mood she was in.






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Monday Monday...

After a great weekend full of face painting, parties, baking, good Italian food, and fun...it's no wonder that Ellie was very upset to learn it was a school day and not a "home day".

So that made a Monday, early (7am) school drop off that much more difficult. Ironically, as soon as I had her buckled in her at seat, she was full of excitement talking about what she would do and how it was gymnastics day.

Ellie and her breakfast...major mommy guilt...




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Ellie does Spanish

Just a quick video of Ellie counting in Spanish.

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Where has the day gone!?!

Ugh! It has been a LONG day...its past 5 and I'm still on a construction site in Beverly hills putting out fires. Not literal fires, but you know, the eruption of chaos that has to be dealt with that is managing a construction project.

This was another early morning for Ellie. However, she was super excited that today she got to bring the movie for Movie Friday. Which is ironic because as I understand it, they watch the during the little kids nap time, so Ellie usually sees like 15 min of a movie and eats popcorn before going down for a nap with the other younger kids. Oh well. She took Little Mermaid. She was happy.



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Nick, don't be mad...

So Ellie didn't go to bed right away and kept coming out of her room. At around 8pm, I went out to the guest house to study for the CA PE exam and Nick went to bed, both of us thinking she had finally fallen asleep. We were wrong.

When I came back in around 10:30, I found that a little fairy had left Nick some toys and had "put him to bed". Ellie gave him her baby sister doll and a lovie. She also brought in her toy crib, twilight turtle, and a few other things.






Ellie, however, was sound asleep in her bed.




In other news, Ellie is writing numbers and her whole name, as well as drawing and cutting out ghosts to celebrate the season. I can't tell if you can see the eraser marks in the sheets where she was practicing writing.

And here is a photo of Ellie with a male friend from school. I love the multi-color fingers. They look pretty happy...

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Early bird gets the pumpkin!!

Our crazy busy early morning schedule has started! Ellie will be dropped of at 7am so I can get to a construction site in BH. To save time and not have her bored at school we are taking breakfast to school.

Today she was pumped to have pumpkin yogurt and a pumpkin muffin that we made last weekend. She loves pumpkin just as much as I do.

As we talked on the way to school as Ellie saw all the pumpkins on stoops and Halloween decorations, October is pumpkin and Halloween season, but not Halloween day. On Halloween day we will wear costumes. But until then, we get to eat pumpkin!




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Sharing Day

Ellie got a little cut on her lip at school yesterday during a tire swing mishap. She fell off and landed on the wood chips.. or as she describes, "flipped over in the air and landed on my mouth OW!"

Because of that.. she enjoyed the comfort of her ice pack on the way to school today. She calls the pack "Boo Boo Fishy" because it's shaped like a colorful fish.. and it helps with boo boos. She asked to bring it to school, and after I spoke with her teachers and discovered they didn't have a communal ice pack at the moment.. I decided that would be okay. Ellie said she would use "Boo Boo Fishy" as her Sharing Day item.. and Anton and Bridget were very interested.


After a bit Teo came in with his stuff for sharing -- his soccer ball and jersey.


And then Ellie played with Bridget and her Sharing Day item, an Elmo that lets you practice a lot of things.. like doing Velcro, tying laces, and fastening buttons.


Ellie did a very good job sharing this morning.. and Sharing Day hadn't even technically begun yet!

Also.. today is the day Spanish class begins at Ellie's school. It goes from 3:10 to 4:10 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Ellie is already pretty good at the language.. she knows several words and she's able to count as high as 16 (or maybe higher.. we just haven't heard it ourselves).

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Helping Hands

This morning Ellie was very helpful and nice with some of her younger friends.

When we arrived at school, Ellie noticed Bridget struggling to lay a mat out flat, so Ellie said, "Hi, Bridget. I can help you with that mat." Then she helped her lay it flat.. and the two of them spent a few minutes building with little connecting blocks.






After a few minutes of playing.. Ms. McCrae asked Ellie if she wanted to ring the bell that signifies that it's time to clean up and start circle time (where Halloween songs have been sung in recent weeks). Of course, Ellie was happy to ring the bell.



As I left, Ellie, her teachers, and her friends were singing a song about how "spooks are out" and how "goblins will get you."

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Rainy Days & Fridays

Yesterday we had a whale of a storm roll through. Mountain runoff gushing down roads and streams, leaves flying, hailstones falling, lightning, thunder, terrified California drivers. It was good stuff.

It also meant Ellie got to use her umbrella for the first time in months, which she was quite happy about.



This morning when I got home from work Ellie was somewhat disappointed it wasn't raining again today.. and that she didn't need her umbrella for this trip to school.

She was amused to see our pumpkins had got a little wet in the storm, though.


Once at school Ellie made sure to tell her friends today is swimming lessons day for her. Her occasional teacher (who sometimes subs from another Montessori school) have her a nice compliment on her ponies, to which Ellie said, "Thanks!"

As I was leaving Ellie joined Anton and Lauren building a vehicle of some sort with toys that look like a cross between plastic blocks and some giant Knex.. if you remember those.



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It was a good morning...

She stayed in her bed. Ate breakfast, got dressed, used the potty, and put on sunscreen all without incident. It was fun, there was laughter, we played. She laughed as I struggled with the garbage cans.

I put a special treat (fruit leather) in her lunch.

Then I it was time to put on shoes. She declared that she can't wear pink socks. Not that she doesn't like pink sock...but that wearing light pink socks is the worst thing in the world and will prevent her from walking or being a happy normal kid.

So I took the fruit leather out of her lunch.

The car ride to school was quiet.

At school she showed me the jack-o-lantern she made.




And she was happy to see her friend Anton (who was pretending to be asleep, or shy).



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