Traditions

I'm sure Ronnie has lots of traditions and memories of things he did growing up. But let's be honest - I am the one who writes on the blog, so usually when I say "traditions from growing up", I am referring to the Brown household!:)

So, I remember carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds and special Halloween treats! Ella absolutely loves crafty things, cooking in the kitchen, and any type of holiday activity, so we have been doing lots of that sort of stuff around our house these days. We made ghost cookies (nutter butters dipped in white chocolate with mini chip eyes), and ghost suckers for her playgroup friends. We made caramel corn (thanks to our dear friend Kendra's fantastic recipe), pumpkin cookies, and have visited the pumpkin patch a couple of times. The numerous pumpkin crafts adorning our fridge have turned our kitchen into an orange themed room!

So, when Ella mentioned earlier this week, "Don't forget mom. We still need to carve our pumpkin!", the comment exhausted me!!:) I thought maybe we could just let our little pumpkin ride through the holiday straight to Thanksgiving for a festive porch. No such luck with my little girl already engrained with the attachment to yearly traditions! So, this week, we carved pumpkins. When I say we, I really mean that I cut off the bottom, scooped out the insides, printed off the pattern (which ended up being way too difficult so we went with the old triangle face standard!), and eventually finished up Mr. and Mrs. Pumpkin when Ronnie and Ella watched a Halloween show on the couch. All this in the midst of roasting pumpkin seeds for probably no one in this house because I'm not sure any of us like them. But hey, it's tradition!!:)And to all the moms reading this blog, make sure you notice who is actually in the picture with the pumpkins. Ronnie and I laughed about how moms are so involved in the process, then always behind the camera!

So to my mother, thank you for passing along the attachment to yearly traditions to me, which I have passed along to Ella. It is a little bit of a love / hate relationship, but I am thankful that she loves the simple things. She makes everything fun. (And an apology for never realizing how much work those "simple traditions" could be!!!)

Our playgroup had a Halloween party this morning. Ella, the purple fairy princess, loves showing off her costume. Kinsley, the curious cat, not so much. . .

Ella's 4th Birthday!

http://animoto.com/play/S8LNHQHvTSqsU8mpd3Fx7g?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=one_click_share

So often I feel like this blog is just a private journal for myself! I have no idea who checks or reads it, but it is a great outlet for me! How is it possible that Ella is already 4? Last night, Ronnie made a "princess tent", equipped with multi-colored Christmas lights and about 1000 baby dolls and animals, in the living room for her. We stayed up and watched Annie, then tried to get her to sleep to be ready for her big day. At 11:40, she was still wide-eyed. I know she was so excited!

So I was a little surprised when I woke up this morning to gentle arm pokes. When I rolled over, she said, "Hi mom. I'm 4." So cute. We had birthday muffins, opened presents, then got ready for her party. I think it was a little overwhelming at first with so many friends there to help her celebrate. This was her first real friend party and we had almost 30 kids help us celebrate, which was so much fun! She quickly warmed up, had a great time jumping, playing, eating pizza and cake, and just being a silly 4 year old! All that energy wears off, though. So her and daddy are crashing in the princess tent.

We love you Ella so much. Thank you for all the laughter, joy, love, and amazing memories you have brought and continue to bring in our lives. We had no idea how incredible it would be to be parents and we know we hit the jackpot with you. Happy Birthday!!!

Halloween @ the Zoo

So, Sunday evening, off we went to the zoo with our Purple Fairy Princess and Kitty Cat. We are the type of family that could actually change costumes 2 minutes before walking out the door for Trick or Treating and be just fine. It seems as though we always have a couple of options! We aren't really the type of family to go purchase a major costume investment. It is more like, "Ella, here are some choices that we can pull together based on what we have - what do you pick??" So far, that has seemed to work well!

Ella had a lot of fun, although she wasn't real impressed with the places that passed out trading cards / books / tattoos / and crayons. She made me put those in Kinsley's bag so her "bag didn't get too full before the candy". For a trade, she took out Kinsley's candy. I think Kinsley lost out in that deal, but at least she is too little to really notice yet. That seems to work in Ella's favor.

My Town

I think anyone who is from a small town will understand my perspective in this post. There is a country song that is called "This is My Town". I don't know who sings it, and I don't even really love the song. However, it pops into my head every single time I pull off the Caneyville Exit off WKU parkway. Caneyville is my HOMEtown and I love it! I love going to visit, I love all the memories tied to it, and I love how it is so familiar and comfortable - like a HOMEtown should be.

All that being said, as much as I love it, and as often as we go visit (and we even lived there for 2 years!), Ella had never experienced the Caneyville Fair. That was a highlight for me growing up, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take the girls. I know, to some it is probably silly and not much of anything. But to me, the sentimental person that I am, I enjoyed every minute of seeing her enjoy it! Kinsley had fun, too, but give the girl a sucker and she would enjoy anywhere!

While we were there, Kinsley also took her first steps!!! She is growing and changing so fast. I am thankful I am able to be home and see the milestones and special moments!
We were also able to go visit my grandparents before we came back home. That is a long trip for the girls, but I am so thankful we were able to go and visit all my grandparents. It those types of things that later I know I know I would regret not doing when I had the chance.