Books and Dancing

This is how Eleanor likes to read. Actually, she just likes to read. One of our neighbors stayed with her for a couple of hours the other morning. When Matt and I got back, Eleanor showed us the stack of books Sarann had read to her. I was impressed with Sarann's reading stamina.

For Christmas, Eleanor got a complete dancing costume. She tried it out the other morning...and then didn't want to take it off. She went to Target ballet style.

The other day Matt was going somewhere and called me as soon as he walked out the door saying I needed to see the special limo parked outside. It is not unusual for limos to be parked in front of our house, but this was not exactly what I was expecting. SoCal is so fun.

Dresses

Eleanor was more than a little thrilled to get a new dress in the mail last week. The best part about this dress was that there was a matching dress for Eleanor's baby (and the dress twirls, an extra bonus).

Eleanor was reading to Caroline and Sister the other day.

The tease is over. Xmas 2009

Playing...

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

Reading...

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

Gifts...

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

Hiking...

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

From xmas 08

Still Teasing

The Fankhausers are always kind enough to provide us with a place to crash when we first get into Little Rock. They are good people and good friends. In this picture: E, Micah, and Silas. Not pictured: Baby Liza, Alice and Joel.

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.