Throwback day: Let's go, Stillers!!!

This is a bit of a throwback that I stumbled upon just this week as I was cleaning out and reorganizing our hard drive. Miss A was about eight months old in this picture and I had gone out for the day only to come back and find them dressed out for a Steelers game on TV.


The other day when Miss A woke up she said two things:

1. "I wake up."
2. "I wanna watch football!"

What can I say? A love for football and Steelers is just in her blood.

The big girl bed

It's finally happened, world. Miss A has gone and grown up so much that she's no longer sleeping in her crib.


As you can see, she's quite pleased with the whole situation.



I got this bed for F-R-E-E but we just used the crib bedding we have because the bed was the same size as the crib. Doesn't make any difference to Miss A though. She's all about spending as much time as possible in it, on it, or climbing in or out of it. If I'd have known how much of a kick she was going to get out of it, I would have gotten her one a lot sooner!!



And this bed is SO amazing (to her, at least) that it inspires her to be super silly and do all kinds of "weird toddler things" as detailed in the next photo. *shrug*



Miss A is just growing up so fast! It's both exciting and sad.



They just grow up so fast and try and shut you out of their rooms so soon...

What we BEAN up to

These days Miss A is quite the busy little lady. She's here, there, and everywhere all at the same time and she would try to do everything all it once if we let her.

Last week I googled for activity ideas geared specifically for toddlers. I came up with some really cool things for her to occupy herself with but the clear winner of them all was one: Bean play.

I was a little concerned that Miss A would spend more time trying to either eat the beans or stick them in her nose or ears but after a little "how-to" lesson about what to do and what not to do...

She was off and running with the whole idea!

And she was occupied for nearly 20 whole minutes with this!!!

And the play segued itself into her trying to figure out other things as well.

Eventually she did start making such a mess with them that D and I had to make the executive decision to clean them up and Miss A was NOT happy with that but we will surely bring them out for another day - rainy or not - for her to play with them again.

Guess who wants a pony for Christmas

Right now everybody around these parts is all a-buzz about the regional Renaissance Festival, or the RenFest as "those in the know" know it as. Does everybody have these? I have no idea. However, what I do know is that it's a big deal around here!

Today's weather was every bit inclement but that didn't keep us from going as we've been planning on it all weekend. That and also? I printed off a coupon to save us a fair amount and it was only good for this weekend. *wink* (Penny saved is a penny earned in the Ellwood household!)

As it turned out, the weather didn't keep near as many away as might have seemed and it was actually a little nice because, so we were told, there was about 2/3 less people there than normal. Woo-hoo for just as much fun but less crowds!!!

We all decked ourselves out in rainy weather gear complete with galoshes and we didn't just have a ball eating our share of roasted turkey legs, Scottish meat pies, crab pretzels, frozen chocolate dipped graham cracker bananas, and funnel cake fries, we also had more than our share of splashing in all of the puddles and hanging out with all of the equine in attendance...

Miss A was in all kinds of heaven with the free pony rides that they had there. Granted, the ride was just around in a little circle and she wasn't off doing jousting competitions or anything but still? It was pretty awesome if you asked her.

And if the pony ride wasn't enough, there was this weird mime looking character floating about pretending like he was riding a horse that Miss A was more than happy to believe was a real horse.

The horse was pretty much a life-size puppet and the guy made the eyes blink, did some pretty realistic neighing of the horse, and dipped its head up and down just like a real horse would! It was impressive and Miss A was quickly head over heels for it...

*sigh* It was such a cute sight that OTHER PEOPLE were actually stopping, looking, AND taking pictures of her and all of her sweetness. Such a joy and a blessing she is to us and all those around her.

Perhaps next year we'll get her a cute little Renaissance costume and she can blend in with the "locals" a little better.

The stuff that dreams are made of

Wendy's Frosty + french fries = DELISH!!!

I KNOW it sounds gross (this is what I thought before I was "in the know") but it really is one of the greatest joys that I really believe all should know if they truly want to live a life that is fulfilled and awesome...