Well Loved

These are Ellie's most prized possessions, Blanket and Bear. When she was little they were called, "danketbear". All one word. It's hard to describe just what these "things" mean to her. They are her ultimate comfort items- she seems to physically need them at times. I was looking at them today and thinking about how they came into being.

Logan was the ultimate Momma's boy. I was his comfort item. No paci or blanket, just Mommy. This as you, can imagine was exhausting. While it's nice to know that you can soothe your baby like no one else, it's also incredibly overwhelming to know that if you're not there, nothing else will do. So, I made it a point when I had Ellie to try and give her comfort items beside myself.

When she was just a few months old I bought her the blanket. It's an Amy Coe from Target. Nothing extravagant, but just a nice, soft, crochet-style blanket. Erica had one for Grace and I loved it. So, when I saw this one at a resale shop still in the package, I bought it. And when Ellie was old enough to start sleeping with a blanket, this is what she got. She took to it right away.

After a couple of years, the edges of the blanket began to fray and unravel. This simply would not do, so I bought some pink satin and sewed a border around the edge to stop the undoing of this most important item. Instead of her undying devotion for saving her blanket, what do I get? A fit thrown for "ruining it". It's probably been 3 years since I did it and she still tears up at times about the destruction of her blanket. I try to remind her that without this "disfigurement" the blanket would be a pile of yarn by now, but she still misses the soft fuzzy edges.

And the smell, let's not forget that. It may be the most important thing of all. It doesn't smell bad (at least not all the time), but it has a certain scent. Even after I wash it, she and I can still smell her scent. She'll pick it up when she needs comfort and practically inhale it. It has a few holes in it as well, but it's holding up pretty well (I'm simutaneouly crossing my fingers and knocking on wood).

Bear on the other hand was a different story. Stuart's mom bought it for her for her first Valentine's Day. I can't really remember how long after that that the two became inseparable, certainly by the time she was 2. Bear is just a simple toy bought from Wal-Mart or Target. Nothing fancy, maybe not the type of toy you'd buy to become a lifetime keepsake. The wear and tear this poor bear has taken, doesn't really show in the pictures. When he was new, he was soft and creamy white with a soft pink shirt that says, "I Heart you". He had shiny black eyes, a soft brown nose and a nice sewn-on smile.

I used to look at him and feel pity for what he has become. He is ragged, worn, and dingy. With scratched up eyes and not much of a smile left at all. But really he's the luckiest toy of all. He is the most loved. Maybe it's from watching Toy Story, but looking at all the toys in our toy boxes that just lie there most of the time is kind of sad. Yes, they are still new looking and not tattered and torn, but isn't that a toy's true goal in life- to be loved.

Somehow this little bear has survived almost 5 years of being loved, very well. I'm still waiting for the stitching to tear open and a catastrophe to ensue, but so far so good. We should all be so lucky as to be loved like that!

I know there will come a day (who really knows when) that she will not need these things like she does now. And I am actually not looking forward to it at all. It's still one of the parts of her that keeps her little to me. Lord knows she's growing up faster than I can keep up with, but to see her with her blanket and bear sitting on the couch watching TV or clutching them while she's sleeping is a comfort for me as well. She's still my little girl. I'm not ready for her to be so "big" yet.

I know blanket and bear will be with us always in one form or another. They will always be in Ellie's heart and in mine too!

Cute kids

This weekend Grace and Carter spent Saturday night at our house. For some reason my kids think it's really fun to pretend to have fancy dinners at the coffee table. So we set it up for them for dinner. I even bought "kid champagne" AKA, sparkling grape juice. Coffee cups and plastic plates were as far as I was willing to go on the glass front especially considering that we have tile in the living room. The menu consisted of carrots, grape tomatoes, celery and ranch for apps. Cheesy garlic bread for entree. And for dessert, cut apple slices, grapes, cutie clementines and pumpkin cheesecake muffins! Sounds yummy to me!!

And what can I say about Ellie? She loves her boots! Last year she had some cute tan leather with a fuzzy inside boots. This time she really wanted some like Mom's. I thought these were adorable when I found them at Target. Now she wants some wintry ones too. (Don't tell her, but I bought her some for Christmas!) Good thing she doesn't read my blog. She does look at the pictures though, or I'd include one of the new ones!

She definitely has her own style opinions. It's not just what Mom likes anymore!! Lord help me!

Our new family rules

The other day at Ellie's Daisy meeting the co-leader was talking to the girls asking them what they thought would be some good rules for our troop. The girls were saying things like, be nice, don't talk when others are talking, etc. The leader said she had just 2 rules in her house and that was all they needed. She asked her 5 year old daughter what they were. And she knew...

Rule 1- Be Kind.

Rule 2- Do what's right.

As she explained them, I thought that those were brilliant!! They encompass everything.

A while back after watching Super Nanny, I put up a list of family rules on a poster board on the pantry door. It had a lot of rules, probably 8. Too many, too hard to remember and read for little ones.

My new rules are simple and easy to remember. I've been saying them all the time. Whenever the kids are fighting or something I ask, "Are you being kind, and are you doing what's right?" Simple straight forward. No wiggle room. Either you are, or you aren't. Brilliant!

I was so glad to have learned this idea and I wanted to share it with all of you in case, like me, you need a little extra help in your house. And honestly let's face it, who doesn't? Love it!!!

More of Logan's Art

I hope I'm not boring any of you, I just think these are really cool. These are some drawings he did of characters he created. He was assigning different characters to people.

Ellie is The Unicorn!

Grace is Wonder Girl!

Carter is the invisible boy!
And the last two, he couldn't decide who to assign to... Multi boy (I guess he does it all)!

And Lightened (not sure if he meant "lightning" )boy!
I just found more...

These are Star Wars inspired.

Yoda Vs. Sith (A sith is like Darth Vader and Darth Maul)

This last one is a little violent...

I just love children's imaginations!!

Jammin'

We took the kid's to the Playland roller rink again today. It's a lot of fun. This time Ellie was tons better. She even skated a little without holding our hand! Logan still falls some, but he loves it and is a glutton for punishment. We just found out a new skating rink opened in RR on Gattis school by Pump it Up. We're planning to check it out soon! It's called Austin Sports Arena.

The title of the post is a throw back to when Erica and I were in college and we used to roller blade around the apartment complex. There was this kind of stoner dude who called out to us once in the parking lot, "Hey man, you're jammin'!" We still joke about it today!

Our trip to SA

Wednesday the kids had the day off from school. We decided to take this opportunity to go to SA for the day to the zoo. The weather was perfect. We arrived in SA around 11. We stopped at Chris Madrid's to eat lunch before we tackled the zoo. They have great burgers, nachos and chalupas. I had a regular burger with cheddar. It's insane, huh?

This is the zoo I grew up going to, so it's very familiar to me. I've been with Stu and my kids quite a bit too. We became members 2 years ago and go as often as we can.

Love the hippos!
Ahhh the memories of childhood and these very same machines which mold wax figures of animals.

Logan's favorite, the komodo dragon.Our first stop, the black bears. Lots of the animals were out in the nice weather. And SA didn't have the day off, so it wasn't crowded!!

If you look closely behind Logan, you'll see the Andean Condor spreading his wings. They're basically like huge vultures and are incredibly disgusting, but amazingly huge!

It was a great day and we even stopped at Cabela's on the way home. Needless to say I was exhausted. But it was really fun and I can't wait to do it again!

Cool spider web

We have a couple of these spiders living around our house. One in particualr has been building it's web between 2 trees in the front yard. The other day it was wet and you could really see it! It's a big fat spider too, gross!

Cub scout camp out

This weekend we all (Ellie and I included) went on a cub scout camp out with Logan's cub scout pack. For those of you unfamiliar with cub scouts the pack includes all the dens. The dens are for each grade. Some grades have 2 dens depending on how many scouts there are. Anyway, there were quite a few people there. (The pic above is just a few of the scouts- mostly Bears, which is what Logan is this year.)

We went to Ink's lake state park. Ink's lake is located just south of Lake Buchanan and is much smaller. I had heard good things about it and that it was very beautiful. It really was. It reminded me a lot of Canyon Lake where I grew up, except for all the huge outcroppings of pink rock. To the untrained eye this may appear to be granite (an igneous rock), however most of it is not. It's actually gneiss (pronounced "nice") which is a sedimentary rock. This basically just means that they were formed in entirely different ways. (I was a geology minor).

I must admit going there and seeing all of the beautiful rock formations made me long for the days at UT when we would go on field trips to look at rock outcroppings. It also made me realize just how much I had forgotten about it all. Thank goodness for the naturalist there to guide us on our tour.

They even had a little playground there right across from our camp site. Ellie's recently learned to "pump" herself on the swings. It's awesome. I have to admit that I hated pushing them on the swings and them learning to do it themselves has been fantastic!

For dinner we had BBQ. One of the cub scout's Dad is a BBQ caterer. He has a huge smoker on a trailer and made us quite a feast. It was delicious. We had a campfire around which the kids took turns telling jokes and doing little skits. Then we went back to our campsite and roasted marshmallows.

We had a great time and the weather was awesome. I have but one complaint. Next time I go camping I must have an air mattress or something. I have never been so uncomfortable in my life. I did very little sleeping as my sleeping bag was basically on top of a big rock!! Rookie mistake, I know. We actually got to bed pretty early. We were all asleep at about 8:30. The kids must have been pooped because they just laid right down and fell asleep. Thank goodness. You just don't realize how quiet it is outside and how much you can hear when people are talking in the next tent over. I would do it again. We will probably go again in the spring. Not sure where, but I recommend Ink's Lake to anyone. Even just for the day.

If you need a little pick me up...

Ryan Reynolds. Need I say more?

Luke and Leia

Logan made their costumes. He actually cut a hole in a piece of my fabric to make Ellie's skirt. I'm not sure why he's using a light sabre that he made from a paper towel roll? We have like 3 actual light sabres? I think maybe he wanted a green one. And yes, those are Ellie's tights he's wearing. At least he wanted to be Luke and not Leia!

Happy Halloween

We started the day out at our elementary school's fall fest. It was fun. They asked the kids to dress up if they wanted. I didn't want Ellie to wear her Ariel costume so that it wouldn't get messed up, so she wore her other costume that she got before Mom got her the mermaid one. That worked out well, so she got to wear both. I forgot to take pictures of her before we left the house, so these were all I had. She's a glitter fairy. We sprayed her hair with glitter.

Logan wore part of the costume he wore that night. But no make-up.
We had a great time last night. No matter what, I always feel like we're rushing to get ready. I don't think we took enough pics! We didn't get one all together! We sprayed both the kid's hair and I think they turned out great! I couldn't believe how well Ellie's did! Logan had me paint his face like a skull with a bloody crack in it. Pretty cool!




I was a witch, I guess. No hat though.

Anyway, we headed out and met up with a big group of boys Logan knows. We trick-or-treated with them. Poor Ellie was the only girl. I still had to walk with her all the way up to every door to get candy. I'm hoping that will end soon! A couple of people tried to give me candy! One guy told me I was too old though! Didn't Ellie's hair look good?

It was nice, not too cold. We went all the way around our block which is pretty big. Along the way we saw these people. All the adults dressed up like characters from the Wizard of Oz, all for 1 little Dorothy. Pretty cool, huh?

It was a great day and night. I'm so glad it wasn't a school night! No rushing to get to bed like in years past! They need to change it to where Halloween is always on a Saturday!!