Halloween...

Yesterday we were in Halloween preparations .. making sure there was a quick dinner to eat before the 'trick or treating', ensuring the costume fit and was ready to go and just for a special treat - we made caramel apples. Ellie thought the decorating part was the most fun.. until she bit into one!

Saturday filled with fun ...

From the prior post you'll remember Ellie and I had our runs in the morning .. and the fun continued Saturday evening when the Hutchins family (Michelle, Scott and Zach) came for dinner.

Ellie and Zach were thick as thieves last night. They played ball outside until it got dark, and inside they entertained themselves with Legos, marbles and Wii. Zach took Ellie's bossing him around in stride and she LOVED having someone here to play with with!

Michelle and I once talked about the fact that we both had only children so they could be 'siblings' to each other. This was about 4 years ago when we all lived in Saratoga. And at that time Ellie and Zach had never met! Who knew that one day we'd live just a few miles from each other and our kids would get along so great?!

Life is just funny like that! So glad we're all together again!

Grove Elementary 5K and 1M Fun Run

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." ~Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Ellie ran the 1M Fun Run and I ran the 5K this morning at Tipton Trails to benefit Ellie's school, Grove Elementary. Some kids ran in costume, she ran in her race t-shirt and leggings! She loved it! And she 'finished strong, not ever giving up!' which is what she always says to me when I'm running. I did the 5K - not fast, but finishing! Mr. Schweinberg, the 4th Grade teacher made sure he finished behind the very last runner .. yea Mr. Schweinberg!

Here's a few pictures from today's festivities!

Homemade Dinner Rolls

Ellie and I have had a ball making this recipe twice now. It's an hour from start to finish including the time for the dough to rise. We love them. Bill loves the coarse salt on top .. reminds him of a pretzel.

click here for RECIPE

Rader Farm

Today we accepted an invite from Jack and his mom, Erin to go to Rader Family Farm. It was a wonderfully sunny day to enjoy the pumpkins, hay ride, hay bale climbing and even feeding goats!


Ellie and Jack ran, jumped and laughed their way around the whole day. They even ran into their friend, Caitlyn! What a great time we had.

Parent Teacher Conference Day

Imagine Bill and I sitting in Miss Dillow's classroom in the those tiny little chairs hoping that Ellie is doing all she's supposed to be doing .... that's exactly what we did today! We learned that Ellie is very eager to learn to read and doing extremely well with sight words and is at a reading level "B" when they are only expected to be at the level "D" by the end of the year! And we're only 2 months in! The other thing we learned is that Ellie is naturally good at math. She doesn't have to work at it, she just does very well!

We also had a pediatrician appointment this week. Ellie is 45 inches tall (that's just 3 inches shy of 4 feet!), and 52 pounds. She's 90% percentile for weight and 70% percentile for height. She's been that same ratio since she was 6 months old. She continues to tell me she'll be taller than me soon.

All in all this was a great week. Ballet on Monday, Girl Scouts on Thursday ... we're ready for the weekend!

Smile!

"All She Wants to do is Dance.."

Ellie is really learning a lot at her weekly ballet class. She's not only learned first, second and third position. She's stretching and using the hula hoop to build coordination!

You can tell from her face that she just loves to dance.

New Camera!

We've been saving our Best Buy credits to make a dent in the purchase of a new Nikon camera! Amazing! You'll see for yourself in these photos!

Welcome to the New Normal

Welcome to the New Normal.



We live in Normal, IL. Its the sister city to Bloomington. I experienced "Uptown Normal" for the first time this week when I took a cooking class at The Garlic Press. Its a quaint little downtown area - similar to Saratoga! Mitsubishi used Normal as a prototype for what an electric car city could look like. It's so cool to see the commercial on TV. When you watch this clip look for the Wind Farms .. those are Ellie and my favorites!

Normal Public Library

I've been promising Ellie we'd find the Normal Public Library for weeks now. So today was the day! The entire second floor is the kids' section with an awesome loft and comfy chairs just for kids to enjoy! She loved the new Discovery Room and Book Nook. Since she's not yet old enough to leave to her own devices .. it's hard when the two of us really want to enjoy the library .. ON SEPARATE FLOORS!

She even got her own library card and checked out several books! More to come from our library adventures!!

Bless the Broken Road

Today Bill & I celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. I'm more grateful today for him, our marriage and our life together than I ever could have imagined I would be the day I married him. I often think this song is a reflection of how we finally found each other.....


"Bless The Broken Road"

I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you

Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like Northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

I think about the years I spent just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true

Now I'm just rolling home
Into my lover's arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you.

Ellie stories

Many of you know that Ellie has some famous stories .. or at least she keeps us laughing with them anyway. She's had several this week.

The other night we sat down to dinner and she said to me, "Mommy, do you have a boss?" I responded, "Yes, I have a boss...." not quite sure what she was getting to. She said, "What is their name?" And when I responded, "His name is Jason." Out of nowhere she said, "Does he wear black underwear?"

Gasp!

How would you answer that one? I said, "I'm not sure. The only people's underwear I see are yours and Daddy's when I do the laundry!" She was mighty proud of herself making us giggle with that one.

Good friends!

Who knew a Happy Meal would make 4 kids this happy? Ellie and I met 3 of her friends and their moms at our PlayPlace McDonald's on Saturday night. I think the moms had as much fun as the kids and promised to do it again soon!

From left: Ellie, Allison, Caitlyn and Jack

It's the Playoffs ...

and we're hoping to get through the next three games without any rain! Ellie's closet was first priority today to move sundresses to the back and long sleeve shirts to the front. We filled a bag for Good Will and found a few treasures that now fit her.

In this photo she's wearing her Yankees warm-up suit. She loves the pants - because they make noise when she walks! What a nut!

The Official Saratoga Lip Dub

Home to the Historic Saratoga Race Course and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the summer host to the NYC Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce and Modern Mix Marketing is proud to present the "Saratoga Lip Dub". Saratoga Springs is the only community in New York State, and one of just a handful in the US, to involve hundreds of local organizations and thousands of local people to create a Lip Dub -- a music video featuring participants lip synching to a chosen song which is then dubbed over with the original audio. The Saratoga Lip Dub features a medley of songs by the band Train, whose drummer Scott Underwood is a native of Saratoga Springs.

Ellie's Kindergarten Picture

Isn't this awesome? As a mom its hard to believe without me there to push the hair back or say something funny to make her smile that the picture will actually come out ... but lo and behold, this gorgeous picture is Ellie's kindergarten picture!

A full day of shopping!

Ellie and I hit Peoria on Saturday and left our mark! The Northwoods Mall has a Gymboree and that good enough for us to make that our destination. We took our list and coupons in hand and secured lots of treasures for Ellie! Including our find of the day $5.49 jeans at Gap Kids! Two pair! Size 7 for those of you wondering. Her legs are SO long! The 7's are roomy in the waist but the perfect length. A few more stops at Target, CVS and even a haircut at Super Cuts for $6.99 and we were exhausted.

Here's a picture from our re-fueling stop, one of Ellie's favorites, Five Guys!

Joining the Wordle Excitement

This is a Wordle.

Click on the image to see if full size.

No matter how I tried, I couldn't make it look bigger!

Amazing!

Dad,

You have to listen to this! She has an amazing voice!

love, Jude