Five on Friday {Halloween Edition}

1. Ella in a pumpkin. Standard. You knew this was happening.

Poor girl got eaten alive by mosquitos while I was snapping these pics! Her dad was not very happy with me once we discovered all of her bug bites!

2. The photo shoots didn't stop there...oh no. We had to take a few pics in our basket (that I also used at Easter) with all of the Halloween candy we had bought for me to eat the trick-or-treaters!

3. And we also took a few this morning in our "first Halloween" outfit (thank you, Auntie Kaffy!) and a milestone card! {You can get one *free* HERE!}

Ella definitely had more interest in eating the card than taking a picture with it. 

4. After her nap, Ella is going trick-or-treating at Daddy's office in her owl costume!!!

Yes, I made it myself. My mom always made our costumes growing up, and I wanted to keep the tradition going. Well, maybe just this year since I am not working and it did not require any sewing (I can't sew). I somewhat followed directions from here. 

5. A few Halloween decorations! First, I'm pretty proud of myself for carving this owl (Of course! To match Ella's costume, duh!) pumpkin yesterday during nap time!

{photo bomb by Ella!}

I got a stencil from here, which made it super easy!

For our other smaller pumpkins, I copied Carolina Charm and put fishnet stockings around them! Hers look way better though, surprise, surprise! I think for next year, I will use fishnets that are thicker/have bigger holes (if that makes any sense) because from far away, you can't tell that there is anything on my pumpkins!

I do love that after Halloween, I can just take the fishnets off and use them as fall/Thanksgiving decor!

And last but not least, I decided also to paint some pumpkins! The chevron one still needs a little touching up...

And this Tarheel one is actually Ella's footprint (that was fun) with her fingerprint for the tar heel part! I just put a few extra coats of paint over it to make it look a little bit nicer :)

Have a happy, happy Halloween!!!

Life with Ella {week 38}

It's been another fun-filled week with my favorite girl! 

{similar dress}

Last Monday through Wednesday, Ella and I had the privilege of dog sitting Kathryn's not one, not two, but THREE dogs!!

Ella was a little unsure of puppy Kells...and let me just say that taking care of a puppy is not for the faint of heart!!! Hahah, we still love you Kathryn!

Also on Monday, Ella helped me pick out some new tennis shoes that I had to wear to a gala for Trav's work! (More about that later!)

Tuesday was more swimming lessons...

...and a quick trip to Alphabet Soup to get more stuff monogrammed!

Wednesday, I had to go to the bank, which just happens to be right next to a Starbucks, so of course we had to stop and get a PSL!

{owl romper / bow}

Ella also found my stash of wedding magazines!!! Uh oh! Time to start saving!

And we also had to work at the Y...Ella was NOT having it on the Bye Bye Buggy, which she usually loves!

Thursday brought another swim lesson...

...and a play date with sweet Palmer, who is a month older than Ella! They enjoyed ripping each other's bows off and putting all of Palmer's toys in their mouths. 

After we got home from our playdate, I realized that I had left the bag of our wet towels and swimsuits at the Y! I called up there, but they said they hadn't seen it, so I started freaking out! 

(For the record, I could care less about my swimsuit and towel, I was mostly concerned about the adorable swimsuit Ella had worn that day, as well as her monogrammed towel!) Thankfully, we went up there, and the bag was in the locker room, right where I had left it!

On Friday, we went grocery shopping...

{Guess Whoooo tee}

...Ella helped me vacuum...

...and then we celebrated Halloween a little early with Chelsea and baby Mackenzie!

A new location of Portrait Innovations was opening up, so they were offering free portraits to any kid in a Halloween costume last Friday! Here are Ella's (she was being a little difficult...hard to believe, I know):

Saturday was the annual Tuxes and Tennis Shoes gala for Trav's work. I think I mentioned it on here last year? Anyway, this year, I rented this dress from Rent the Runway. I just knew it would fit, so I didn't try it on until 10 PM Friday night. 

What do you know? It did NOT fit (and the backup size was even smaller!)!!! Apparently, even if you are back to your pre-pregnancy weight, your body is still a little different and your rib cage is HUGE.  I was so PISSED. Ella was quite upset about it also!

So I spent most of Saturday at Nordstrom trying to find a dress! I am only 5'3", so every dress was ridiculously long, especially since I had to wear it with tennis shoes. The lady who was helping me (Wendy, she was awesome!) had to beg the alterations department to quickly hem up the dress I chose (of course it had 2940 layers and the seamstress I'm pretty sure HATED me). But they made it happen. Nothing short of a miracle!! Thank you Nordstrom at SouthPark for getting me a dress to wear!!!! 

We left Ella with one of her babysitters and we had a great night out! :) 

Yesterday, we decided to try the "baby-led weaning" approach, since Ella was not digging some of the purees I had been giving her lately. BLW is basically babies eating real food, instead of mush. Ella was a fan of the bananas!

Any other good foods to try? We did avocados last night but she did not like those.

We also finally carved (ok, by carved, I mean we hollowed the 30 pounder out) pumpkins last night so we could do the classic baby in a pumpkin picture!!! I'll be sharing more later (you know I will!) but here is one of my faves:

That would be her #ellaisnotimpressed face. She couldn't wait to get out of that thing! Ha!

Happy Halloween Week and Happy Birthday to my sister in law, Ella's Auntie Caitlin! :) 

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Ahhh, the cliche pumpkin patch post. With lots and lots of pictures. 

I know you've been on the edge of your seat waiting for this...so here ya go! You're welcome ;)

This was actually our third attempt at a trip to the pumpkin patch. We were going to go last Sunday, but it rained all day. Then, we tried Tuesday afternoon....there ended up being a tornado watch. Finally, on Friday, the weather was gorgeous, Trav was home from work early and all of the stars finally aligned for us to go to the pumpkin patch!

{bubble / bow}

We went to Hall Family Farm, which is also where Ella and I picked strawberries (well, actually we bought a pint of already picked ones...minor details) back in May. They had tons of fun activities for older kids, as well as pumpkins to pick (duh) and hay rides (of course)! 

The sun was a little too bright for somebody... 

...and she also wasn't too sure of all these round, orange things on the ground. She just kept clapping her hands, she didn't know what to do! Bless. 

Please note that my husband is standing right next to the wagon, just outside of this picture. It's safer than it looks, promise!

In typical Ella form, of course she would try to climb out of the wagon! 

We managed to pick out a 30 pound pumpkin to scoop out and put Ella in. Stay tuned for those pics!

After exploring the pumpkins a little more...

...we went on a hay ride!

As usual, Ella was unsure about it. 

Still super fun though. Such a great family afternoon!! Yay for fall!