ella turns 10!

 our silly belle turned 10 on

thanksgiving day!

it was so fun to be able to celebrate in
st Louis

at grandpa and grandma's house

with

all

the aunties and uncles and cousins

minus trent, who's serving a mission

 the best way

to begin your special day

*if your name is ella*

is to open a box from

justice!

all things sparkly and girly 

fun decorations

and

presents!



yum!

birthday pancakes

with mya

and clay



aftie puts the finishing touches on the birthday cake



ella said she'd like a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting

the kind from the round container

and no ganache!

what can i say?

the girl loves processed food.

grandma slaved away making this darling

birthday crown!

grandma knows how to throw a party!

games galore!

musical chairs!

ella told grandma,

"it will take all of your chairs for the whole family to play!"



the bozo grand prize game!

pin the nose on olaf!

drop clothes pins in a bottle!

ella has always loved playing games

so this was a great way to

celebrate her special day!

thanks so much grandma for the fun games!!!

here's ella and her best buddy, violet

we're pretty sure that miss violetta's

feet rarely touched the ground

the entire week!

she loves to be carried!

aftie made a special sketch book for elle

lots of fun presents!

and the much desired,

begged for,

pleaded for present...

isabelle!

American girl doll of the year

 

happy happy birthday our sweet and funny girl!

we love you and are so excited to watch you grow and become

even more talented and amazing with each passing year.

masterpiece

here is aftie's final unicorn drawing!!!

she worked so hard and it is beautiful!

what a difference a week makes

 

 here are two silly girls who love to dress alike

on the trampoline last week

 ella is spotting miss lil on a backbend

 and here she is with miss mol

just this morning!

who says you can't jump on the trampoline

in the snow?

Happy Snow Day #2!

this oughtta sum it all up

 when you become a heim middle student,

it's very important to decorate your friends locker when it's their birthday. 

we learned that from afton a few years ago.

this was ella's first locker decorating for her friend molly.

aren't these the cutest girls? 

they've been friends since kindergarten!

 my wonderful friend, Cynthia invited me to make fairy books with her.

she set this whole display up with fun tools to work with!

we've been slowly but surely working away and having so much fun!

 afton has been taking art lessons from our friend, Mallory

who is a senior in high school and is a fantastic artist.

she comes to our house once a week and works with aftie on a project.

this is the first one they've done.

the photo above only shows the beginning stages.

afton's learned all about shading

and has made a trip or two to the art store for her own professional supplies!

 miss belle had her 3rd set of tubes removed a few weeks ago!

here she is in recovery.

that can of sierra mist woke her right up!

 the girls had a fun Friday night with

friends and trampoline-ing!

they have both made such good friends.

we love them and love having them over to play!

 here's ella and princess, our houseguest.

princess belongs to our friends, who were out of town for a week.

she is a hypo-allergenic yorkie

and the cutest dog in the world!

we were so sad to see her go home to her real family!

 in other news...

we made ella into a rodeo queen for Halloween

this horse applique turned into an amazing belt buckle.

at least I thought it was amazing.

lil and elle weren't nearly as excited about it as I was.

 I think it made the outfit,

and obviously the judges did too,

because

ella and Lillian won best group contest at the middle school Halloween party!

 

 afton's feet were cold one night,

so she solved the problem by using hair ties to enclose her little paws.

 not only can she warm her feet-

she is learning to tickle the ivories!

 and look!

ella learned to unload the dishwasher

 we went to glen park one day and took pictures.

this was a cute one.

 when ryan was out of town last week

I took pictures of the girls waking up

and being mad at me

just so he wouldn't miss us too much

 we partied with our neighbors on Halloween!

they are so fun!

afton trick or treated for

3 hours

with friends and then went to a fun friend party til midnight.

it was sorta hard for ryan to stay awake til she got home.

I think I fell asleep around 10.

 the other day the girls had school off.

so we made a day of it!

nail salon, brunch, shopping.

heaven on earth.

 my friend molly wanted to see if you could really win things on the radio.

so she texted the number they said.

and she won!

she shared her winnings because she's such a nice friend.

we got to go to a special lunch and mini concert with

Ingrid michaelson!

I'm laughing in this picture because

Carolyn

was hoping Ingrid would come home with her

and be her best friend.

ryyyyyyaaaaannnnnn!!

 one day, I opened this closet to grab some cleaning supplies

BUT

THIS

is what I found when I opened the door!

ryan thinks he is so funny.

my sisters

I am missing my sisters today.

I miss them everyday, but i especially wish we were together today.

Maybe we would be

shopping

or

eating lunch

or

lounging in our jammies

or

cooking something delicious.

But we would most definitely be laughing!

That's what we love best.

Love these amazing sisters of mine.

lockport locks

after 10 years of living a mere 20 minutes away from the Lockport locks on the erie canal

we finally took an evening to cruise the canal and locks.

it was fun and interesting and educational.

 we boarded "lady of the locks" to cruise the canal.

just kidding.

I don't think the boat had a name.

 these green gates hold back a lot of water

 we are sitting in the lock

waiting for the water to rise to the top of this cement wall

 they just let in (what looks like) a little bit of water at a time.

it takes about 10-15 minutes for the water to rise

 getting closer to the top!

once the water rises to the top, they open the gates and we float along down the canal.

we went through 2 sets of locks.

apparently you could float all the way to nyc if you wanted.

 so fun to have grandpa and grandma with us!

we liked going under the bridge that uses hydraulics to lift it up to make room for a boat to go under.

we also went under the widest bridge in the united states.

it's called "the big bridge"

ryan loved the upside down train bridge.

 best sisters!

beautiful girls!