Full of November

November was FULL. Full of dance practices in preparation for the big performance. Full of fun with family and friends. Full of travel as we went from Utah to Ohio to Chicago back to Utah. Full of good food so of course, our bellies were FULL.

Ellie's dance group prepared all month for their November 30th shows of The Nutcracker. Dance is usually four times a month, but this month Ellie was at the studio NINE times in preparation. So many of our nights were filled with dance. They had a morning performance where other school children were invited to attend and then an evening performance for parents and families. Ellie's usual fans were there (Grandma, Garred, Kevin and me.) Ellie was a cute little candy cane and those practices must have paid off because she did her part so well! I just love watching her dance.


We were dance free on the weekends so we tried to make the most of each one.

The first weekend we spent Friday night miniature golfing. Trafalga is close to us and has an indoor course so we went there. It's always fun and I beat Kevin! It's always a good day when that happens, because it's not very often. Ellie is really pretty good and in a few years will probably beat us both. Saturday night we took Ellie and her friend Isabel to see the movie Ponyo. We went to a little dollar theatre in American Fork where Kevin had heard there was mouse poop in the popcorn...of course he told the girls this but they still wanted some. :) The girls enjoyed the movie AND the popcorn (Kevin hated both) and nobody got sick.

On Sunday, we made our November craft at Grandma's. I think it was my favorite one so far. Ellie's turkey is in the middle, and Kevin's is the Ohio State bird on the right.


The next weekend Ellie was with Garred, but she did some incredible things. She and Garred went to a sub for Santa one mile fun run. She said she had her boots and reindeer gear on as Christmas dress was encouraged. She ran the entire mile and finished in ten minutes! She took second place!!! I was so excited to hear the stories.

That weekend, we got snow so she finally built the snowman she's been wanting to build for weeks. Her dad also took her and her cousin Analia to see the Disney Princesses on Ice. They had second row seats and Garred said she had a great time. He sent me this clip below...looks like fun! I love how into it she is and how she waves at the characters.



The third weekend Ellie went to her friend Ethan's birthday party. She was a little shy that day so played mostly with uncle Jed, but warmed up after a bit. They made their own candy Bakugan's and had a great time.


We also had another craft at Grandma's that Sunday (she is in the heavy craft months) they were supposed to be tee pees, but I think they look more like Christmas trees.


We also helped her decorate her tree because couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving. The kids did every last decoration and had so much fun. We were glad John could help reach the high branches and Ellie decorated herself.



The final weekend we started early and left after her Thanksgiving feast at school on Wednesday for Ohio for our own Thanksgiving feast. We got there pretty late but Ellie was so excited to be staying where there were two dogs and plenty of kids to play with on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was such a great day. We spent it at Kevin's dad's house (Mickey and Linda) with plenty of tasty food and fun friends. There were six little girls in total for Ellie to play with and they went non-stop....inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs. I thought maybe after turkey they would slow down, but they didn't. They wore Kevin out tickling him and using him so they could fly. I got tired just watching them.






I don't do Black Friday because the crowds would drive me crazy, so instead we went to the Imagination Station in downtown Toledo. It's similar to the Children's museum in SLC and the Science Center in Seattle that we have been to, but it was by far my favorite of the three. We did just about everything and I honestly think Kevin and I had just as much fun as Ellie if not more. We did more things than I can remember...tug-of-war, pretend shopping, pretend hospital (with real x-rays,) building blocks, sailing boats and ducks, wind tunnels, circus dress-up, high wires, mind zones, magnets, and exploding (combustion) demos. We wore ourselves out and were starving after so we went to the Spaghetti Warehouse to fuel back up.







After, we decided to pick up Mickey and Linda and see the lights at the zoo. I was nervous because it really was cold after dinner, but luckily the wind stopped and it was a great night to see the lights. Once again, of all the zoos I've been to, I think this was my favorite. (I want to go back in the summer.) There weren't many animals to see in the night, but the lights were beautiful and the aquarium was open. We did get to see a few penguins and a pacing leopard.



Ellie loves maps and she and Kevin had to stop a few times to make sure we knew where Santa was and that we were on our way to him. In the end, the line for Santa was LONG so she traded visiting him for hot chocolate knowing that she would see him again.



The zoo was on 2 Hippo Way and I thought of my mom. The giraffe lights made me think of her too. It was such a fun night. Ellie really enjoyed Mickey and Linda and their two dogs and cried because we had to leave them that night.



Saturday we were off to Chicago to see Carrie, Jonathon and their new addition, Ethan. He's so cute. Did I mention he's cute? He really is.


Carrie and Jonathon took us to downtown Chicago where we got to see a few Christmas lights and eat dinner. We also got to take a peek in the American girl store (and of course Ellie wants one now) and browse the Disney store. Ellie ended up with a Jasmine Barbie which she played with on the plane ride home the next day.


Jonathon and Carrie have a ping-pong table in their basement; Jonathon told Ellie (because she's Asian) that ping pong was in her genes and tried to get her to play. After a couple of days, and a lot of gentle pushing on Kevin's part, she finally braved it and came to get me to watch because she "was awesome" at it now. It was so fun to see her confident about something new.


It was for sure a full month and I had so many pictures, I had a hard time limiting them...so this blog is FULL of pictures too. Gobble Gobble.