Happy Halloween, Elenora!

so today started out with ballet. this was her 3rd class, and when the girls lined up to go into the classroom, s. and i just let them go in without us. we looked at each other and said "should we go in?" and then we figured we'd see how they did without us. after 4 minutes we realized they were having fun and not even thinking about us, so we ran across the street for lattes. what fun. at the end of the class i poked my head around the door and ella, who had her back to me, was following along as they all went through a little "routine" to the song "i'm comin' out so you'd better get this party started." oh my gosh, it was the cutest thing i'd ever seen in my life. she was probably a half step behind the other girls, but she was really involved and paying attention and you could tell she wanted to be doing the steps. i love it. love ballet class. and i can tell she does too.

when we got home, j. and i walked ella downtown to sofia's for a meal (i hadn't had breakfast yet, and ella needed lunch). while we waited for our breakfast order, ella played with the little jelly containers. she lined them all up and said "everybody face the wall" and then had them do shimmies and floor exercises, just like in ballet (the teachers line them all up facing the wall when they do the routine). then j. ripped a straw paper into short pieces and she handed them all out to the jellies so that they'd each have sashes. she gave one jelly the name of "aurora" and one the name of "ella", and then there was a creamer for the teacher. okay, i can't even quote how cute she was and how active her imagination was with all the role playing with the jellies. but it was so cute.

i tried getting elenora down for a nap, but between all the morning activities and the various candies everyone seemed to be handing out to her today for halloween, she did not sleep at all. so i got her up at 2:40 and we were outside no later than 3 pm--dressed in her butterfly costume, of course. our afternoon was then spent walking all over the neighborhood (it was 73 degrees outside and super windy today) and making piles of leaves to jump into. so lovely. she's so much fun. her sense of humor and her memory just continue to entertain me.

truly, my favorite person in the world.

j. was golfing until about 4 pm, and when he arrived home we took ella downtown to walk along the river and see the other children in their costumes. then back home for a special halloween dinner (butternut squash soup... it's orange) before taking elenora outside for trick-or-treating.

okay, so the weather couldn't have been any more amazing for this year's halloween. warm and windy with a full moon shining in the sky. gorgeous. elenora is usually inside getting ready for bed when it's dark outside, so it was such a huge treat for her to be outside looking at the moon and observing the night. she kept exclaiming "is there a full moon in the sky?!"

(she's not good at looking at the camera on her own...)

we took her down the next street over and then up the same street on the other side. people were just sitting out on their stoops and porches and there were children and parents everywhere. i can't remember the last time i had so much fun trick-or-treating. i love how community-oriented it is. houses that you would never approach any other time of the year you get full access to; and all the smiling faces of our neighbors really touched my heart. everyone was so nice to elenora and really made her experience something special. she would walk up to the door and say "trick or treat!" and they would hold the bowl down for her and she would very intently try to figure out which candy in the bowl might be the one she will want to eat (since she's really had very little candy in her lifetime). we found she favors lollipops, but i did have to steer her away from a twizzler at least once. (who likes those things besides my brother???)

we finished our evening reading a little book from the library about a mouse who invites all his friends to a halloween party under the full moon.

just like us.