Ellie and her pumpkin

I love this picture of Ellie. I just had to put it on the blog.

The Haircut

We finally went to cut Ellie's hair. I've been meaning to do it but I also have hesitated - I didn't want to give up her curls and it had just gotten long enough to put into pigtails. But we were both off on Monday, so I thought I'd take her over to the children's salon and do it before I changed my mind. Her hair really did need trimming - she had the mullet going on and even in a toddler it isn't the best look. I told them that I did not want bangs and the stylist agreed. The hardest part was watching them take off 2 inches from the back of her head.

She even let her blow dry! I guess it helps when Toy Story is playing in front of the chair!

Here is Ellie before and after her first haircut.

Going to the Pumpkin Patch

We ignored the fact that the weather was in the 90's this weekend and headed off to a farm to find us some pumpkins! The picture above is of Ellie (on the right) and her friend Ally. The girls got to go see some animals (goats, sheep, pigs and ponies) and feed them, get their faces painted (Ellie was doing a pig theme as she chose to have a pig on her face too - maybe she knows this is the Year of the Pig). Jordan chose to have candy corn painted on her cheek.

Afterward, we hopped on board the trailer for the "hayride" to the pumpkin patch where the girls could pick out their pumpkins. Jordan immediately found the largest one she could carry and hopped back on board the trailer. Ellie was much more selective and tried out several pumpkins before finding one she liked. This included her throwing a few pumpkins back down on the ground (oops).

After the pupkin selection, we all went back to the main section of the farm to pay for the pumpkins (all 16.5 pounds of them) as well as buy some drinks. The first round was bottle water but then Jordan saw someone with lemonade (they had sold out when I went to find her some). She ended up with a citrus (sprite-like) soda. And then I found Diet Cheerwine in a real glass bottle. For those of you not from the south - Cheerwine tastes a little like Dr. Pepper. I don't drink it often but it hit the spot. And then we went off to the play area where the girls rode around on John Deere mini-tractors, climbed on a pirate ship and then played in the corn box. Corn box???? Yes - they had filled up a sandbox area (around 20' x 20') with corn. It was great - you didn't have to worry about corn getting in your hair or in your shoes (or diapers) - and with the canvas tent around it - it was cool and a way to get out of the blaring sun).
Jordan (as you can see) loved to get buried in the corn. I hadn't seen her grin so big in a very long time. She also liked diving into the corn and then "swimming" over to me. Ellie spent most of the time with a shovel and pail - loading up the bucket with corn.

Jordan had a great time playing with her friend, Grace, as well. Since school has started, they have not seen each other much. Grace also has recently become a big sister - so it is nice that the two of them can get together every once in awhile and compare notes.