French Braids and Buttons

There are little things about being a little girl, that make a childhood what it is. Most of those things go by without notice, things that we don't really stop to think about.

Learning how to wash your hands. Learning how to properly apply toothpaste to a toothbrush. Learning how to jump up into the air. Learning how to drink out of a real cup, versus a sippy. Those kinds of things.

I'm trying to pause more often.
I'm trying to make the time.

She won't remember these things when shes older. Or maybe she will?
So thats where I come in.



Her first french braids.

Getting her to sit still wasn't as big of a challenge as I thought it would be. Getting my fingers to work the way they needed to though, well that was.

"Stop moving your head. Look up. Elie look up. Eleanore stop moving your head!".

And in the end it was worth it, wasn't it?

She twirled around in front of the mirror, over and over again, telling herself how pretty she looked.

Just as it should have been.



Buttoning your first button.

I don't remember buttoning my first button, its just something that I've always known how to do.
But I guess I didn't always know how to do it.

The look of concentration and determination on Elie's face. It was priceless. It was a moment that I felt blessed to witness.



French braids & buttons, my dear.
Some of the very best parts of a little girl's childhood.

Our Halloween

So it turns out I didn't steal Halloween after all. We still went trick or treating, even though we recently made the choice to go sugar free (you can read more about that here). We told the kids the story of the Halloween Witch, constantly mixing up her name- fairy to witch, fairy to witch- and causing a whole lotta confusion. We went out all dressed up, with the goal of collecting candy, only to pass it along at the end of the night, and hopefully wake up the next morning with a bowl full of toys, instead of empty wrappers.

Now, you know that I want to share all of my pictures with you, but- I think that loading 200 pictures, even if I put them into collages, would be just a little too much, and mean (I'm like the crazy lady with the mile long wallet slide show at the grocery store). So for your sake, and mine (the baby is going to wake up and want to eat soon), I'll just post my favorites.

We had sugar free pumpkin Halloween ghost cakes for breakfast. Buckwheat, flax meal, stevia- and they were so good, the kids were boo-ing for more. Get it?



Christopher and the kids (minus the baby, who is clearly taking up space on my lap) filled the driveway with chalk ghouls and skeletons.



This is what Christopher and I are going to look like when we're older. And its going to be awesome.



Charlie was a puppy.
A really cute puppy.
Probably the cutest puppy ever.



We set out a bowl loaded with candy bar mummies (about 200 of them), and would you believe that they were gone within the first hour? Sorry kids, but if you snooze, then you lose! There were gross grape flavored tootsie rolls underneath for the slow pokes.



This was Charlie's first year trick or treating. Big Sister Eleanore took his hand to showed him how. Melt my heart you sweet edible children.



And they walked along, Mommy and Evelyn June falling behind.



It was 90 degrees outside (yeah, ninety), so rather than dressing up like a cute lil ladybug- Evelyn wore a My First Halloween onesie, and snoozed through the drill.



Christopher snapped a shot of me under a tree, where we stopped to regroup and decide where we'd go and how much longer we'd stay out.



From where we were standing, the sky looked like this.
There was a beautiful monarch butterfly floating around us.
Can you spot him in the picture?



Eleanore stopped to dig through her candy bag.
Uh uh, kiddo. Get your face outta there!




That last picture is my new favorite.
Grow old along with me, old man, the best is yet to be.



Looks like things are dying down, with the exception of a Mario brother riding around on a bike behind us- its time to call it a night.



Goodnight, says the kitty.



Goodnight, says the naughty puppy, after sneaking a sucker out of the bag and into his mouth.



And Goodnight, say the happy old couple.

Until next Halloween...