Lumpkin Family Xmas Teaser

more to come after our 7 hour journey home

Friends

Today Eleanor and I went to a mall with Scout and her mom. They had so much fun riding together.

We rode the carousel again today. Eleanor asked to do that several days ago, so I obliged. This is a fun carousel with two levels. She wanted to ride an animal on the top this time. As she was climbing the stairs, she exclaimed, "I'm so excited! I've never done this before!" She had a great time looking up to see how the mechanism worked.

And here's some foreshadowing of things to come. Any guesses?

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Turkey Fun

I cooked my first turkey this year. It was fairly simple. I followed America's Test Kitchen Cookbook's directions and all went well.

Before:

After:

We had a nice little feast.

Eleanor got a turkey leg and throughly enjoyed it.

Pumpkin Fun

I let the pumpkin I was going to use to make pies sit a little too long. I asked Matt to dispose of it. We live on the second floor of a three story house. The dumpster is at the back of our parking lot.

It looks like it's going to make it....

but it bounces off the side.

Real Thanksgiving pictures will be later.

Chuck E Cheese

Becca and Luke drove down to spend Thanksgiving with us. Today we took Eleanor to Chuck E Cheese for her first visit. Her favorite prat was feeding the tickets into the counting machine.

On the other hand, Matt and Luke really enjoyed the video games.

Eleanor rode this roller coaster simulator. It kind of tilted along with a video. Not so cool. She kept asking, "Why is it a roller coaster?"

It was a fun trip. I think she liked it. I got my skeeball fix, so all is well.

Hatching

Eleanor has been really into Silly Putty lately. It can be anything from a swimming pool for her Little People, a nest for the eggs, or the food she's cooking. Tonight as I was cooking dinner, she made dinner out of Silly Putty, pancakes I think.

The other morning I asked Eleanor, "How many ponytails do you want, one or two?" She answered, "Five." I did my best.

Halloween

Eleanor and I were princesses this year. We had to work to get our tiaras straight.

Eleanor really enjoyed wearing earrings (for about thirty seconds).

And a ring. (Yes, the tiara says Birthday Girl, it's the only one I could find at Target.)

Eleanor "Trick-or-treated" at one house--ours. Our downstairs neighbors had tons of candy, so we taught Eleanor to say "Trick or Treat!" Then she asked what it meant. We explained that it really wasn't very nice because it was demanding candy--or else a "trick." She chose to say "Can I have some candy please?" instead.

We went to a party at our upstairs neighbor's house.

Eleanor thought Jimmy's "moose" costume was great. Jimmy wasn't completely happy with that interpretation.

It's fun to have more than one story in your house.

hair in water

Matt's taking a night off of studying, folks. Here come some pictures...

Yogurt!

Playdough, sun.

Pony Ride II

Eleanor was much more comfortable on the ponies this year.
Last year:

 

This year:

 

Because It Was So Fun Last Year

 

Eleanor was an octopus again this year:)

 

(And the costume still fit.)

Two Years Ago

Our friends Becca and Luke sent Eleanor this cute little Chinese outfit. I took pictures of her when she first got it, then again yesterday. She's finally (almost) big enough to wear it. The pants are still a little long, but it's pretty cute. She was NOT in a picture taking mood when Matt was trying to get her picture yesterday. I'll try to get better ones later.

 

 

 

Hiding

Some folks may recognize this image from a picture in a prior post about visiting friends in San Francisco.  Eleanor helped by adding texture to the wall with the brush and diluted ink, and also by not coloring all over the face with a purple marker (which she very nearly did).

Adam and ???

We love our church. It's an amazing group of loving people. Eleanor has a wonderful Sunday School class taught by our friend Abby. I have never had reason to question Abby's teaching until this Sunday. During lunch I was asking Eleanor about Sunday School:

Me: What did you learn about in Abby's class today?
E: Animals.
Me: Really? What about animals?
E: God made animals. And he made plants.
Me: Wow. What else did he make?
E: People!
Me: Really?? He made people? What were their names?
E: Um, Steve and Adam.
Me: You mean Eve?
E: No, Steve. Adam didn't have anyone to talk to so God made Steve so he would have someone to talk to.


So, maybe our church is a bit more progressive than we thought:). Later Eleanor told me that Steve is a woman. I think that she's just unfamiliar with the name Eve, so she assumed it was Steve.

Of Interest (to some)

I woke up at around 4:30 this morning realizing there was a third person in our bed. Matt awoke and asked Eleanor, "Why are you in our bed?" She promptly answered, "I guess I'll go back to my bed." She hopped down and went right back to her bed and back to sleep.

If you ask Eleanor who should be president, she will often answer, "Barack Obama AND John McCain." Really, why choose?

On a recent Sunday as we were driving home from church we were asking Eleanor what she learned about in Sunday School. They had been talking about how God created light and made days. Eleanor was chattering away about it. Then she paused and said, "But Jesus makes the light in the bathroom." (We have a Jesus nightlight in the bathroom.)

Eleanor saw our neighbor's garden gnome and got all excited: "Look! Look! It's JESUS!" I think it was the beard.

Eleanor is learning all kinds of new words. Some of my favorites are "moderation," "mysterious," and "impossible." Example of usage:
Me: Eleanor, why did you pee on the floor?
E: I don't know. It's mysterious.

Zuma Beach

Eleanor loves everything about the beach--the sand, the water, the birds. We went last week when it was really hot. The beach was great.