Fall Festivities

Saturday was packed with fun activities for the kids. Spencer and I had a great time too, but we were exhausted and would've liked to have spent Saturday afternoon in the backyard but I had already told Ella-Ann (we are hyphenating her name now, FYI, for various reasons) that we would go to Boo at the Zoo so we had to rally! Saturday morning Spencer got up bright and early, at 7 a.m., and first took the kids outside to check out the huge, bright moon that was absolutely beautiful. After that he took Ella-Ann to Dunkin Donuts for, what else, donuts and coffee! They came back with Halloween-iced confections that were yummy!

Later that morning we went to Ella-Ann's school for a fall festival. Ella-Ann was so excited to see and do everything! They had three bouncy houses for different ages, ring tosses, story hour, a cake walk, book sale, face painting, tattoos and all kinds of other games put on by each class. Ella-Ann's class had a duck pond that she helped make the sign for....very fun for her to see what she worked on in class on display! She got to see her teachers and several of her friends, which was a thrill. Rane was, of course, all over the place and he had fun in one of the bouncy houses, eating a slushie with Spencer, walking around, playing the duck pond game and going to story hour. We came home and quickly fed the kids lunch and while Rane slept Ella-Ann went back to the festival with me because I volunteered (I'm in the PTA and they put on the festival) to collect tickets at one of the bouncy houses. Fortunately, I was assigned to work the one for the younger kids so Ella-Ann hopped in with one of her friends and jumped for a good 45 minutes. She crawled out and asked me if she could get her face painted toward the end of the festival. This was quite a shocker for me because any time there is face painting Ella-Ann will only get the top of her hand painted. She has never wanted anything on her face so when she said she wanted it done I told her where to go and off she went...by herself! I could see her easily and I watched her stand in line, give a volunteer her ticket and sit down for the painting. I was so proud of her independence! When I went to check on her she was getting a big butterfly painted on her face and she loved it! I was happy she finally got something like that done, even though by the end of the day her face was one big pink smear! On the way back home Ella-Ann said, "I'm really surprised I wanted to do this!"

At 2 we came home, I ate a quick lunch and we woke up Rane at 3 to head to the zoo. Ella-Ann got decked out in her fairy costume and she looked fantastic with her face painted to go along with it! We didn't dress up Rane because it was too much of a hassle. We had a wonderful time at the zoo and got to watch several of the animals eat during feeding time. We saw a viper eat a huge rat...thrilling! It was very crowded and I didn't see a single child not dressed up for Halloween but it was a manageable crowd and we didn't have any problems. We saw everything we wanted, rode the train and looked at all the Halloween decorations and left before dinner. We put Ella-Ann to bed at 6:30 p.m. and had to wake her up at 7:45 this morning! She was exhausted, as were the rest of us!

Ella-Ann with one of her good friends, Kathleen.

Rane taking a rest on Spencer's shoulder during story hour.

Ella-Ann picking out a prize she won at the duck pond. Her teacher, Miss Glasby, is in the green shirt.

Rane provided an audience numerous times to the little girls doing karaoke to Alvin and the Chipmunks. I worked at the bouncy house next to it so I enjoyed Alvin for an hour. It was pure torture.

Ella-Ann was overwhelmed with the crazy kids in one of the houses and started crying so she was done after that.

Rane loved jumping and held his own really well!

Ella-Ann had a balloon poodle on a leash made and if it wasn't a balloon I think she would've slept with it last night. She named it Rose. :)

Ready for Boo at the Zoo!

We were getting ready to ride the train and, obviously, the kids were not interested in me taking a cute picture of them!