It's All About the Accessories

The other morning Eric woke up (lucky me was still sleeping from working a really late night) to find Ella looking like this.

I think I am training him well because he grabbed the camera to capture the moment! Ella, the child who NEVER wants her hair combed, let alone some bow or clip in it, had all of the headbands we own on. Looks somewhat like a turban to me.

Right now she loves the song "So What" by Pink. She calls it the camp rock song. When it comes on the radio she will sing "I am a rock star, I've go my rock clothes" She also loves the part "He's gonna start a fight! We're gonna get in a fight!"

I asked her what she wanted for Christmas and this was her reply "Sparkaly stuff for my body." Me: Oh yeah, what kind of sparkaly stuff? Ella: Like make up and jewels!

What will this girl come up with next.

I Have Been Tagged

My friend Candice tagged me so here it is.....

This post is in honor of the "I Love Your Blog Award." I now have to answer each of the questions with a one word answer.

1. Where is your phone? pocket
2. Where is your significant other? garage
3.Your hair color? brown
4. Your Mother? Portland
5. Your Father? Portland
6. Your favorite thing? chocolate
7. Your dream last night? work
8. Your dream/goal? happiness
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? blogging
11. Your fear? death
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? musical
15. One of your wish-list items? treadmill
16. Where you grew up? Portland
17. The last thing you ate? red vines
18. What are you wearing? jeans
19. Your TV? garage
20. Your pet? dead
21. Your computer? addictive!
22. Your mood? tired
23. Missing someone? always
24. Your car? Odyssey
25. Something you're not wearing? shoes
26. Favorite store? target
27. Your Summer? beach
28. Love someone? yes!
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? today

I now award six people the "I Love Your Blog Award."
Tiffany, Chiara, Joanna, Abra, Jenni, Jen

Commonwealth Duck Pond

This summer my sister and I took Ella and Cameron to a duck pond that I went to many times as a little kid. I have great memories of taking a bag full of bread crust to feed the ducks. We loaded up the car with the kids and bread and off we went. Ella had so much fun feeding them. The ducks were crazy! Word seemed to spread that we had bread and they were coming from all over to get in on the goods. There are also a few really large geese that are at the pond, but I keep my kids away from those mean guys. They are not friendly animals and will snap and anyone. It is a beautiful park with a fun playground for the kids.

A few of the dozens of ducks fighting for the bread.

Flying in from across the pond for some food. We did notice as we were leaving the pond the sign that said NOT TO FEED THE DUCKS. Oops. :)

The mark on his forehead is residue from a sticker that my sister put on him DAYS before. It was not easy to get off. Love ya Joanna!

Cameron was really into eating the rocks.

Go Panthers!

Natalie played soccer for the first time this year. She was on a team with her good friend Madelynn and I think they had a lot of fun together. I was really excited for her to play because I have so many great memories of my soccer days. I think Natalie's favorite part was the social aspect. There were times I would have to say, "Natalie stop holding Madelynn's hand and go after the ball." She became a bit nervous around the ball after it smacked her in the face one game, but she did really well at throw ins and kept trying.

Mr. Mischief

Cameron has lots of fun getting or trying to get into things. The other day I was in the bathroom fixing Natalie's hair for school. Cameron thinks it is a treat to be in there since as soon as he starts playing in the toilet I put him in the hallway and close the door. On this day he had skipped past the toilet and climbed into the tub. I was thinking well at least he isn't in the toilet and no big deal. Guess what he figured out how to do. Yep, turn on the water. You will notice he is only half dressed since getting his diaper on is enough of a challenge so usually the pants get on a bit later. He was having a blast splashing in the water.

The look he gave me when he realized I saw what he was doing. "Dang, she caught me!"
This is so fun mom! You would think he never had a bath. Maybe it is more fun with clothes.

Making sure he gets his feet washed. He also did his hair.

Misc. Disney Photos....

in case you didn't get enough! Ella intently studying the map.
Both parks were decorated so cute for Halloween.

All of us at California Adventure.

I was trying to recreate a picture I took with Tiffany when I went with her to Disneyland in 5th grade. Didn't quite work out as I planned and there were actually people in the exact spot, but this was pretty close.

Dumbo was a big hit, but always had long lines.

Ella and her pillows. I think there are seven!

The girls watching a movie back at the hotel.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

The Rides

The girls loved the rides and since I am not a "thrill ride" type of girl Disneyland is my level. I love all the mountain rides because they are just enough for me with out giving me a panic attack. The girls seems to be more like me when it comes to rides, but Natalie did go on Thunder Mountain with me and Ella went on Space Mountain with Eric (she held on for dear life the whole time, but only teared up at the end). Other than that we stuck to the easier rides. Eric and I went to Disneyland a few years ago and I thought I would try the California Screamin' roller coaster because Eric loves those kinds of rides. Yeah, thought I would die! So when my 8 year old niece wanted to go I was impressed. She was awesome and went on it twice! That is not a Randall trait. We did keep to some of the Randall traditions: riding the train around the park first, the Tiki room (which the girls loved!) and the Jungle cruise. Unfortunatly Small World was closed. The carousel- Ella's favorite aside from Dumbo.

The worlds slowest bumper cars!

The girls LOVED the tea cups. We did them many times!

Alice in Wonderland

The new Finding Nemo (the old submarine ride)

I love this picture! She was just in awe on some of the rides. So cute!

Disneyland- The Characters

At the beginning of October Eric and I took the girls to Disneyland. My parents were so nice to keep Cameron with them for the week. The weather was great (80's and 90's) and while it wasn't summer busy, it was still pretty busy because it turned out that it was Arizona's fall break and southern California schools had Thursday and Friday off. The girls had a great time and are ready to go back. After many failed attempts to see characters we finally were able to get pictures with many of them. Ella didn't want her picture taken at all and especially not with the characters, but there were a few times we lucked out. We were able to have dinner at Ariel's Grotto and had 5 princesses come to our table. Ella would only get in the pictures if I held her. She is for sure my daughter that way. :)

The Pumpkin Patch

There is this great pumpkin patch that is seriously about 2 minutes from our house and we have gone there the past few years. It has a play structure, hay maze, corn maze, tractor rides to the patch and the patch is actually a field where they bring all the pumpkins so you aren't tripping over the vines and your kids aren't picking up the rotten pumpkin. On a gorgeous Friday I decided that we better go that day before the rains come. I call Eric and he decides to meet us there after work. While I thought my idea was genius apparently everyone else had the same idea because there were a MiLlIoN people there. It also seemed to be "Every girl scout in the Portland area meet at Baggenstos at 5:00 to get your pumpkin" day. There were so many Girl Scouts. I really have nothing against them since I was a brownie for many years, but they were not the politest of girls and their leaders didn't do anything about it. I was a bit annoyed, can you tell? I was also frustrated that I didn't get any good pictures. The kids were running in opposite direction and I obviously didn't hold the camera very steady since many of the pictures are blurry. In spite of it all the kids did have a good time and we got some great pumpkins and isn't that what is really about? Natalie balancing on the hay bails.
Running through the maze.

Swinging from the play structure.

I know this is a horrible picture, but I want to point out the Christmas trees in the back. That is were my kids kept running. They seemed to lose interest in finding the perfect pumpkin and decided to find the perfect tree instead. I hope they are that enthusiastic in December.

Look- all three in one picture!

Little Cam man picking up pumpkins.

The beautiful view from the tractor. I wish I could have made it translate a bit better in the picture.