Holiday Party!

Wow, was Ellie excited this morning for the school holiday party!

She was insistent to wear her party skirt and Christmas shirt (even though she wore the shirt yesterday).

We also took gifts to Ellie's teachers.


The school was totally decorated for the party.






There was ALOT of energy at school this morning. Ellie and her friends were talking about Santa and the party and all the chaos of the holidays.



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Chapstick?!?

So I know I have a bit of an obsession with my Chapstick, as in I have to know where one is at all times just in case. Because I CANNOT function with chapped lips.

Apparently, Ellie can't either?

She got Chapstick in her stocking at Gma and Gpa Harrer's house. And she won't go without it. And that's what she took to sharing day.

To her credit, her lips are really chapped. A cross between the winter and her cold I think.

She didn't want me to leave from school this morning, so I didn't get the best photos. Just her back helping her teacher to clean up glitter after their reindeer antler headband making party yesterday. (sorry Susie)











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Back to School!

After a fun vacation spent traversing northern Illinois.. and visiting with many good friends (some old, some new) and cousins.. it's back to school for Ellie!

She wanted to bring her new horsey from Aunt Cindy to sleep with at nap time, but made sure to let me know she wouldn't bring it into her classroom: "It's talking day today, Daddy. Not sharing (Show & Tell) day."



Ellie was excited to find some small candy canes in her cubby. "Look, Daddy! My friends and teachers left a surprise for me! Candy canes!!!" Over the course of our trip she seemed to have become fairly obsessed with candy canes.. even though she only ate about a quarter of one came while in Illinois.



Mrs. Hyde was happy to have Ellie back in class.



Between bill paying, house cleaning, gift wrapping, and unpacking.. I will try to do an overarching vacation post over on the Harrer Happenings today.

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Ellie & Tristan

Ellie had a great time playing with (and helping to feed) her baby cousin Tristan today. They played very well together.. and both couldn't stop laughing at the other one. More pics of the pair coming Saturday post-Christmas party.















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Happy Holidays, Chicago!

Ellie and I have landed in the good ol' Land of Lincoln!

We're visiting with my side of the family for a week pre-Christmas.. and looking forward to seeing everybody!

On the plane Ellie was very excited. It was too noisy to record a video, but she shouted, "I'll see you soon, Chicago family!"


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Toy donation

Well, this time she didn't get a sticker. But she was super happy to donate a toy do that "kids that don't have lots of toys could have something fun".






Over the weekend we went and picked out a toy for Ellie to take and donate to the toy drive at school. She chose a pink ballerina Barbie.






As Ellie and Nick will be having fun in Chicagoland, Ellie's classmates are going to walk the donates toys to the Sheriffs office and donate them. Ellie knows she will miss this field trip, but she is more than happy to know that she participated and donated something nice for someone.






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Is it time for Chicago yet?

Ellis is definitely looking forward to her trip to Chicago this week.

She didn't ask if it was Christmas yet, but if it was time to go I Chicago yet. I told her know, but showed her on her advent calendar when it would be time to go. We counted that she has to put two more magnets up... And then it's time for Chicago!

She also asked me to keep updating the calendar while she is gone. I assured her I would.

At school she picked out a new toy, well one I haven't seen her play with before. It was kinda funny that she counted sides of different shapes and holes to match them up before placing the pieces into the holes.







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Weird morning

You know that Sour Patch Kids commercial where the large, animated candy does something bad, but then they give big puppy dog eyes, And the tag line is, "first they're sour, then they're sweet"? Well, that was my morning.



I mean, it started off with a timeout, and ended with us eating a cookie! How did I let that happen?

Well, we made cookies last night and at the time Ellie promised she wouldn't tell daddy if I let her have one for breakfast.






In the car to school she asked me if I knew 911. So we talked about emergencies.

At school, it smelled delicious! They are decorating sugar cookies today. Wish I didn't have to go to work...



The class Christmas tree is starting to fill up with some good looking ornaments!



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Minnie's turn

Ellie reminded me today was sharing day. And then she said, "mommy, I want to take something my friends haven't seen before. But it can't be too small because then it could get lost. Or too many pieces."

She picked Minnie.




When I left school, Ellie was going to start work on a secret Christmas present for us. Can't wait to see what it is!

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Back to normal

As nice as it was to sleep in yesterday, today we both had to get up at the normal time. Even though Ellie didn't go to bed when she was told to and was up late. Around 2 she crawled into bed with me saying she couldn't sleep because she was lonely.

Last night, because she wasn't listening to words, staying in her room, or going to bed...all her stuffed animals and dolls on her bed, her friends, were taken away. She then proceeded to claim, all night, she was too lonely to sleep. Really cute, but really frustrating.

She was up with me and ate breakfast at home.



At school, she was super excited to show me her candy cane reindeer.









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Lazy Tuesday Morning

So today was the first day in about 2 months that I didn't have to go to BH. Which meant Ellie didn't have to be at school at 7:00am. I had these great ideas that we could go to a special breakfast or do something special.

Nope. We slept in. In fact, we both woke up at the time we would normally be scrambling to get out the door. It was nice.

We had a great breakfast at home, laughed and giggled quite a bit. It was good.

So good, I kinda forgot to take pictures...sorry...


The only one I got was Ellie showing me the Santa she had colored in.

Great morning.


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Rainy Monday

Well, the rain definitely made everyone grumpy this morning. She was not happy to wake up!

I may have made trouble for myself though because I gave her, "a few more minutes". I let her snooze a few more minutes while I made her lunch. She did eventually wake up.

And she once again enjoyed the use of her umbrella and rain boots.


This morning she had yogurt at school for breakfast, which she was happy about.






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Autumn Cleaning

Just a short entry for me today.

After lunch Ellie really wanted to draw with chalk out in the back. Unfortunately, the dry spots are few and far between with all the rain we've been having. Ellie spotted a few nice patches, though, and was so determined to color that she asked if she could sweep the leaves away herself.






(BTW.. I'm writing this right now as Ellie is taking a bathroom break.. and singing on the can.)


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