Beauty Shop

Yesterday while one of our neighbors cut my hair, her daughter and Eleanor played beauty shop, sans scissors. Eleanor liked the way her hair felt "crispy" afterward.

Hiking

Today Charlotte and I went on a hike with Eleanor's kindergarten class.  It was great fun.

Her school is close to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  There was a nice view of it at the trailhead.  The trail was really fun, with all sorts of interesting things to see: parrots, a woodpecker, a newt, flowers.

 

There was a creek running through the valley, I think with runoff from the mountains.  I really liked this 

old bridge that we crossed.

Since the Station Fire in September of 2009, part of the trail has been closed.  There was someone working on clearing debris today.  The kids loved it.  Charlotte also loves chain link fences, so she was doubly happy.

We stopped at a fun place to have a snack and play.  The kids had a great time playing in the water and building small rock structures.

Charlotte and Eleanor both enjoyed the sand.

While all the older kids were playing, Charlotte looted their snacks.

Charlotte's friend Naffi gave her a ride part of the way.  Naffi is a couple of months older than Charlotte and LOVES her.  

I love that Eleanor's school is able to do this.  It's a field trip that is free, educational and so good for the kids.  Eleanor really enjoyed the trip (despite not wanting to go for fear of poison ivy).  Charlotte also enjoyed it.  Both girls were quite tired by the end of the expedition.  I was too.

Daughter

Daughter from Matt Lumpkin on Vimeo.

Somehow I don't think I every posted this video I put together of Eleanor on this blog.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday.  Eleanor's school celebrated by dressing up as characters from books and then having a parade for all the parents and older kids.  Eleanor really wanted Charlotte to be involved, so we decided on the costumes of Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Eleanor said she had to be Thing 1 since she was older.

All I had to do for Charlotte was repurpose her Ponyo costume from Halloween with some letters (and add a bit to the sleeves because they were too tight).   Eleanor helped me make the pattern for her dress, then she went to bed.  At some point I will learn to not wait until the night before to start making costumes.

The girls were absolutely adorable, but I wasn't able to get a good picture.  Here's the best I got of both girls in costume.

The kids were so cute.  I took a few pictures of some of Eleanor's classmates.  My favorite is the Lorax.

 Eleanor's teacher, Ms. Erin, was dressed as the Paperbag Princess.

After we came home, Charlotte wanted to play in the courtyard some.  She's loving the blue car these days.

 She's always careful to check her mirrors.

 Somewhere she learned that when you drive, you drink coffee (or tea in my case).

Eleanor Makes Cranberry Sauce

Eleanor loves to help me cook. Today I proposed letting her make the cranberry sauce all by herself. She jumped at the chance. I wrote out the recipe in pictures and made sure she understood what to do. She measured, mixed, stirred and told me to stop if I was helping too much.

Rainy Day Fun

It doesn't rain here much.  So, when it does, there's always a sense of excitement (and mass hysteria).  I went to a baby shower this morning and while I was gone, Eleanor played in the rain.  Matt took some pictures of this joyful playtime.  I hope you enjoy them as much as Eleanor enjoyed the splashing.

 There's a clogged drain over in this corner.  It makes for great puddles.

 Eleanor recently taught herself to skip.  She now skips whenever she gets the chance and has so much fun doing so that sometimes I skip with her.

Halloween Fun

 

Last year we didn't get any Halloween pictures (maybe because Charlotte was about 6 weeks old at the time).  We got a couple hundred this year.  So, prepare yourself.  On Friday we took the girls to Fuller's Harvest Festival, where we celebrated the harvest of candy and Korean BBQ.  They had rides and games and cotton candy (which Eleanor said was "too sweet."  Bizarre).  Eleanor wore her octopus costume again.  Charlotte dressed as Ponyo.

 

Eleanor and her friend Max

 

On Halloween, we went with some friends to Montrose, where several stores were passing out candy.  There were hundreds of kids and adults dressed up.  Eleanor got creative with her costume and decided to be an octopus fairy.   I happened to have a Snow White costume, so I wore it.

 

Charlotte went as Ponyo again.  At one point two Japanese boys recognized her costume and got very excited.

 

There were some interesting and creative costumes.

 Matt particularly liked the militant telatubby.

 Here are some of the friends we went with.

 Eleanor was not that great at the Trick or Treating part.  She didn't want to fight her way through the crowd to get candy from strangers.  About half way through she asked to go home because she "had enough candy."

 There was a scary spider.

 And Max was there as well.