The flu

After all the excitement of the Halloween party and seeing her friends, and then going to the farmer's market and having a picnic and watching the drummers, Miss Ela June woke up from nap not feeling well at all.  A general gripe about a tummy ache turned into a 102-degree fever, flushed cheeks, watery eyes, and all-over body aches.  Poor little girl threw up in the middle of the night, but Mama's old friend Ser told her all about the layers-of-sheets-on-the-bed trick (Ser has three boys), so it really wasn't that big of a deal.  It was just a bummer to see our happy girl feeling so under the weather.  Mama's had her on a steady diet of toast with honey, water, Pedialyte, and Children's Tylenol.  She ate three (itty-bitty) bowls of chicken noodle soup for supper (mostly broth) last night, too.  (Mama was glad that was mostly digested before her puking episode last night ....)

She's still feverish today, and doesn't have much of an appetite, but her spirits are a bit better, and she's definitely looking forward to spending the day in her fuzzy jammies and watching TV with Daddy.

Nobody likes the flu.

Halloween 2012

Halloween is a big event for the Doctors.  It starts in September, when Mama and Daddy figure out when the farm is open, and how much the pumpkin cannon costs.  We go pumpkin hunting early in October, and enjoy carving our pumpkins into jack o'lanterns.  Sometimes we roast the seeds, but generally not.  For some reason, despite the fact that they're dry, crunchy and salty (all great qualities), our family just doesn't care for snacking on pumpkin seeds that much.

This year, Uncle Jason bought It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, so Mama and Carmela had a screening with some pumpkin pie.  Joy.

Then comes decorating the house with little black spiders, spider webbing, rubber rats and bats, and jack o'lanterns.  Daddy also builds a sort of seated scarecrow out of old work clothes.  He has no face; just a creepy mask.  (Mama forgot to warn the milk man last week.  Mama kind of wishes she could have seen his face as he came up the front steps.)  Uncle Jason has a fake severed leg and a fake severed arm that he likes to put out to up the scare factor.  Ela *really* didn't like them last year because they were too scary.  (She called the severed leg Little Foot, and very gravely told us many times that she did not like Little Foot.)  This year, she thought they were alright, and even tried to trick Mama into thinking she hurt herself.  Ha!

During this time, Mama and Carmela figure out what Carmela wants to be for Halloween, and then they go to the fabric store to pick out the material.  Mama enjoys this part a lot, especially because little children's costumes are very forgiving!  (Note: Ela would like the remainder of her flapper girl dress fabric made into a mermaid costume.  Mama has some Internet research to do ....)

Then comes the Halloween party.  This year, because Ela's a bit older, she got to invite quite a few neighborhood friends as well as some friends from her old preschool.  We played some silly games, ate some pizza and cupcakes, and Ela had a wonderful, screeching, jumping, balloon-bonking, beanbag-tossing, footprint-stamping, apple-chomping good time.  Whew!  We had a fabulous time, but didn't get any pictures.  One of our friends has a great camera, so when we get pictures, we'll post them to the blog.

Carmela is reintroduced to Little Foot.

"Ow, ow! Mama, I hurt my leg!"

Purple flapper girl dress and sequin flower headband.  It's some sloppy sewing, but in the dark from a distance, it looks pretty cool!

Bean bag toss game.  Daddy did a bang-up job carving out the jack o'lantern for the bean bag toss, and even lit it up with a fun yellow light on the inside!

Learning the finer points of jack o'lantern carving with Daddy. 

Very detailed work in progress.

Next up:  Trick-or-treating!  We'll post pictures on Thursday!

Baking cookies

Mama's really excited about having an enthusiastic helper in the kitchen, for things like mixing and stirring, and especially for rolling out cookies.  As Ela gets older, it gets easier and easier to encourage her help.  Mama thinks she's going to have a perfectly great helper for cookie baking day this December.  When Grandma DD and all of Ela's aunties and cousins (Aunt Patty, Aunt Lynda, Aunt Kim, Bizzy, Sarah, Becca, and Ally) get together at Grandma DD's house to bake cookies, Ela and Mama bake cookies on the same day all the way across the country here in our city.  (We make Grandma DD's Austrian Chocolate Balls, so it's probably a good thing Bizzy's on the other side of the country, because Mama hears that Bizzy likes to eat them all!!)

So, until cookie baking day, Ela and Mama will keep practicing.

Miss Carmela June lines up the cookie cutter after rolling out the dough.

Getting the gingerbread boy situated just right.

A few spooky Halloween gingerbats!

Guess who loves making cookies? This kid!

Zoo visit

Ela loves going to the zoo, but Mama doesn't go that often because, frankly, Mama gets hopelessly lost every time she goes, and everyone's a cranky, hungry, overstimulated mess by the time they stagger into the front door seven hours later.

But! Mama's old friend Michelle offered to share some passes with us, and because she and her son, Liam, go all the time, she knows *exactly* where she is and how to get to the exits!  We had a great time visiting with them and seeing the flamingoes, lions, wolves, bats, and everything else. We're looking forward to joining them again!

Pumpkin patch 2012

What a gorgeous day!  Miss Carmela June joined her good friends at the pumpkin patch for a fun little train ride followed by a hay ride into the pumpkin patch to pick out some perfect orange pumpkins.  She found two, and lifted them all by herself into the wheelbarrow.  After a picnic lunch with her friends, she got to shoot a pumpkin out of a pumpkin cannon. Cool!  She fed some goats a goat snack, said hi to a peacock, and snacked on some pumpkin spice donuts, too.  The sky was perfect blue and sunny, and there was lots of dried corn stalks and deep red and orange sunflowers to make for a perfectly beautiful fall day.

Mama and Ela check out a goat from a safe distance.

Carmela works up the nerve to feed a goat some goat snack out of her hand.  She ultimately concluded that she was not all that interested in feeding goats out of her hand.

Who's a champion goat-feeder? This kid!

Ela pulls into the depot in her pony train car.

Hanging out in a wheelbarrow in the pumpkin patch.

Three little friends.  So sweet.

What a great day at the pumpkin patch!

Fish ladder

It's salmon-running season here in the Pacific Northwest (coho and steelhead? Maybe?), so Carmela made a play date with some of her friends to go see the fish ladder at the Locks.  We only saw one salmon (he must have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque), but he was magnificent.  Then we saw lots and lots of boats, a minor boat wreck, and neat ship stuff at the visitors center. Fun!

New leotard!

Ela was so excited to get a surprise package in the mail from her Great Grandma DD and Great Grandpa Gary.  She was delighted to tear open the paper and find two new leotards to wear to gymnastics!  Thanks Grandma DD and Grandpa Gary!

A quiet moment

Ela reads a story to her best cat, Tiny.

Apple picking 2012

This year, Carmela decided to invite some of her friends from preschool to come along to our favorite apple orchard for some apple-picking fun. What a ball!  The girls got to ride in an apple cart, swing on the tire swing, teeter on the teeter-totter, and munch all the delicious apples they could eat.  After a picnic lunch at the orchard, Miss Ela June hugged her friends goodbye and snoozed in the back seat all the way home.

Waiting for a ride in the wheelbarrow.

Swinging on the tire swing.

Ela munches on a delicious apple.

Snoozing all the way home.