Trick or Treat 2009

We decided to divide and conquer with Ellie and manning the door tonight. So I took her around the houses in our cul-de-sac, while Bill got ready for the masses. She was torn at costume time whether to put on Ariel or Tinkerbell, but Ariel won out. No jacket needed here in Virginia ... although I carried the umbrella, we didn't need it. So Bill and Ellie manned the door, while I did anything inside I could to avoid it. Lots of folks in our neighborhood were sitting on their front porches too .. that was a neat change to the evening!

Halloween Party and Parade

Ellie has been waiting all week to be a princess for her Halloween party. Bill & I were able to be there at 3pm when the parade was just getting started .. and came back to the party. Ellie & I made brownie cups with candy corn baked in last night .. and we supplied the cups, plates and napkins for the party.

Pick of the Piedmont Wine Festival

Bill & I accompanied Krista & David to the Piedmont Wine Festival today in Orange County. It rained to the point we were soaked, but they had a great set-up. All the vendors were under a pavillion. There were tons of wineries and lots of food choices. It was a great afternoon of fun and wine. Ellie was home with Miss Shannon working on Arts & Crafts! They had a ball too!

This was a sunny, fall morning with a bit of a chill in the air as we ventured out to find an adventure! The Chocolate Festival at Lee Park downtown, but with the threat of rain it was moved to the alternate, indoor site at the United Methodist Church. Ellie loved the chocolate samples, face painting, but most of all the bouncey-bounce! You can see the 'heart' she chose for a face painting, enjoying a chocolate sample, sliding down the bouncey-bounce, laughing inside the bouncey-bounce and then she's reaching into the 'pocket-man' for all the chocolate and treats that one pocket contains. It was lots of fun!

New Addition ... Olivia the pink unicorn

While Papa, Aunt Lisa and Josh were here over the weekend, Ellie experienced her first Build-a-Bear process as a treat from Aunt Lisa.

Columbus Day Weekend 2009

Happy 7th Anniversay Jude & Bill

Today Bill and I celebrated our 7th anniversary! We grilled steaks, had baked potatoes, broccoli and said "Cheers" with Ellie and her sippie cup of juice. Yes, life has changed for us in Charlottesville. And still we're thankful to have each other and share the life we have!

BIll surprised me with a wonderful overnight package at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. He was the winning bid at our State Farm United Way auction! So not only we will enjoy a wonderful night away including dinner and breakfast in room the next morning, the proceeds go to a good cause - our "Ellie's Half-Birthday" cause this year. We look forward to enjoying our night away soon!

Take a tour of the hotel HERE.

Scavenger Hunt FIND!!

When cleaning our our reach-in attic space to make room for the Christmas decorations, Bill pulled out 6 framed prints of different sizes! We did a bit of reseach to find that two of them are by the same artist Charles Cooper Henderson who painted a series called the Open Road. The other bit of information we were able to uncover was that these prints have been here awhile. They were framed here in Charlottesville at a place called Shuford Gallery. But that as sold in the 1970's and the name changed to Creative Framing. It's been an interesting adventure trying to find out more. Since the prints have been around that long we now know they belonged to the original owners of the home, who built the house in 1991. They must have moved in with them! We've decided to hang them! With all our Saratoga prints, they're a welcome change - and add a bit of history too!!

Pumpkin Patch 2009

I posted a Smilebox because Ellie loves them! Here's a preview!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Treats arrive by mail from Saratoga!

Ellie is thrilled everyday to go to the mailbox. Many, many days there are packages from Grammy with books, stickers and music cards. The latest package arrived from Aunt Mimi and contained a package with finger puppets and spider rings. This is just a sample!

Kids' Book Festival at UVA

Ellie becomes a 'fan' of Miss Rosa's

What a crowd for the PBS programs

She loved her 'fan'

Ellie getting a tatoo for jumping rope

Ellie and Mommy in the crowd

Ellie jumping rope

Making a book mark with foam stickers

Here's the tatoo

We spent the rainy morning with Miss Rosa and Elmo as did hundreds of other kids and parents at University Hall on the UVA grounds. The local PBS TV station sponsored this event. Ellie had lots of fun making crafts, watching Miss Rosa, and of course, seeing her friends! Everywhere she goes she sees people she knows ... today we saw Dante, Demaria and Kayla! They sponsored a free book giveaway for every child, free snacks and lots of tables to visit with giveaways. It was good use of a rainy morning, that's for sure!

Date Night

Bill and I enjoyed an evening out tonight, while Ellie had Miss Shannon to entertain at our house. Miss Shannon, as you may recall, was her summer session teacher before she moved to Miss Jamie's room. Miss Shannon is 19 and mom to Phillip, about a year old. Ellie just loves Phillip, but tonight had Miss Shannon all to herself!

Bill and I thought the best place to enjoy ourselves for a few hours was the downtown mall. We started our evening at Siips with a glass of wine and an assortment of cheese and fruit. I had this wonderful new wine that is a blend of Zinfandel (51%), Cabernet Sauvignon (23%), Syrah (12%), Petite Sirah (6%), Charbono (6%) and Grenache (2%) called The Prisioner. It was wonderful!

After that we made our way to Zo Ca Lo an eclatic restaurant on the mall. An amazing meal. Bill had Spicy Tuna Tartar salad and I had Spinach Salad with bacon vinegarette accompanied by fried oysters. As if things could get any better - Bill had grilled lamp loin with roasted green beans and corn salsa, while I had the black bean and corn relleno with smoked tomato grits. I wish I could tell you we had room for dessert, but we did not.

We were thrilled to come home and find Ellie and Miss Shannon happy together, watching a movie with the house completely picked up! Ahhh ...

Ellie's Camera

The 'mad' photographer!
Self portrait

Very cool leaf .. Daddy is holding it p

Great shot capturing Daddy grilling our dinner

The infamous taking your own picture shot

and then again!

Just a couple of frogs, hanging out ...

Great shot of the blinds