Halloween Activities

The Halloween Festivities started with:

Boo Zoo...the trick or treat with the Louisville Zoo.

Ella's favorite part of the whole thing was seeing the PINK flamingos.
It was near impossible to get her to do anything. Although, she did master saying thank you after getting a treat.

Cyndi's Halloween contribution...Zumba Thriller at 7 months pregnant!

I have the awesomest class that is up for anything.

So we did an ode to Michael as part of our October Zumba classes by learning "Thriller."


Ward Halloween Party.
Trunk or Treat and Chili Cook-off.
We actually won 2nd for the while chili.

Little Princess Ella as Belle with her friends.

Happy Halloween from our family!


Trick or Treating in the Neighborhood...

Ella and daddy walking the neighborhood.

One house was totally decked out!


Friend's Halloween Party at the Southwells...

This was our first attempt at Homemade Root beer. We learned that we don't need 15 lbs of dry ice. It makes for lots of smoke, but pretty soon you can't drink it because the whole thing will freeze over! We literally had to use an ice pick to open the valve. It actually took 2 days for the whole thing to finally melt! Oops!

Next was a very cool ghost cake whose eyes lit on fire!



The pumpkin pinata was fun and since Ella wouldn't participate, Jed got to swing instead.

Last and certainly not least was...
The undies breakthrough!!!
Ella has wanted to buy big girl undies, but never wanted to wear them until after dressing as Belle for Halloween night. This was a big moment for her.

Independence Festival

For the 4th of July, we went to the Independence Festival on the Waterfront. There was a lot to do between food booths, crafts, inflatables, etc. but Ella liked the regular playground best.

The next item of business was to get out favorite Festival treat; funnel cake.

I don't know what it is about funnel cake but it really embodies the fun and flavor of Festivals. We took our yummy cake and went down to the boat dock. The harbor master was kind enough to let us sit along the dock to watch the fireworks. He said they usually don't let people sit there, but Ella won him over. We were literally on the water.

It rained for about 5 minutes and the best we could do was put our camp chairs over our heads and let it pass. I'm sure we looked ridiculous holding the chairs upside down to shelter ourselves from the rain. It blew over fast and then the show began...

We've never been so close to such big fireworks; it was like they were firing over our heads and reflecting at out feet, all at the same time.

Ella was a little scared but daddy held her close and she began to enjoy the show.

She even started naming the fireworks for family members. "This one's for mommy..."

She went all the way through daddy, granny, both grandpas, grandma angel, all her cousins and herself.

On the way to the car we saw a flame-thrower dancing inside the fountains.

It was a magical and memorable night.