Pumpkins 2016

If you have been keeping track, our little family tradition is to paint a pumpkin each Halloween.  This year, we decided to go with a Disney theme!  Ella chose Minnie Mouse, I chose Olaf and Jay decided on Mike from Monsters, Inc.

Let the painting begin!

Happy Halloween!

Planning for the big trip!

So, I got behind on the blog updates (again!).  I meant to post this a few weeks ago when these babies arrived!  See those?  Magic Bands!!  We went to Disney World!!  We just got back so I will have to update with pictures and details on our trip soon.  But, I wanted to post in order of what's been happening.  :)

Ella and I also made a Countdown to Disney paper chain.  I found a cute one online here and Ella chose the Elsa one because Elsa is her FAVORITE princess.  :)

Stay tuned for highlights of our trip!

Homecoming 2016!

For Homecoming in Farmington this year, Ms. Ella participated in a cheerleading clinic with the high school cheerleaders.  They were able to walk and cheer in the homecoming parade and then also perform their cheer before the big game!  Ella LOVED it, and bonus!  Her BFFs Julia and Emily were also in the clinic!

Turkey Day and all the updates

Oh hi!  Can you believe I'm posting again SO SOON?!  :)  I hope you are as impressed as I am.  Since school has started, things are getting busy during the weeks!  We recently celebrated Jay's mom's 60th birthday!  It was a family lunch at their place and we brought the cupcakes!  Sam's Club came through for us and I think they were the most adorable things.

 We all joined in an Abbas family rendition of Happy Birthday!

 Ella was VERY serious about her singing (notice hands on hips?!?!)

Vikings season is a big deal here at our house, so we've been catching our Vikings outfits with some selfies...

Ella started Just for Kix last week.  She says it is a LOT different than dancing at the studio, so I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but so far she seems to be having fun!  Her coach is legit "Coach" and has the 5, 6, 7, 8 yell DOWN.  These girls are in for a bit of a bootcamp I think, but I'm hoping their hard work, focus and dedication will result in a super awesome winter show coming up in a few months!

Ella with Coach Tawyna

So then last weekend we headed to Worthington for Turkey Day 2016!!  Love it.  I walked the 5K with high school friend Gretchen (boo - no pics) but we had a good time catching up on all the random life stuff and ran into a few friends along the way! We watched the Turkey Day race (Worthington turkey Paycheck won AGAIN - booyah!) and then headed for our reserved spots to take in the Grand parade! 

Random note from yesterday - it was picture day for Ms. Ella.  We were supposed to rise and shine at 5:50 a.m. to get things done and have time to curl up her hair all cute for pictures.  Well, Jay left town for a work trip at 3:30 a.m. (WHA?!) and FORGOT TO SET THE ALARM FOR ME!  You guys!  OMG!  I woke up (praise the LORD) at 6:10 a.m.  I flew out of bed so fast!  Thankfully Ella was a good sport about it and got herself going and ready without my continuous prompting.  We squeaked in some time for curls and ran out the door.  What a morning!  She said the pictures went good - in fact, she told me her hair was beautiful - ha!  So, we'll see when that Lifetouch package arrives if the curls were still intact!

TGIF!  Fun weekend ahead here!  Ella is headed to a cheer clinic with the high school girls and then there's a swim lesson and hoping to visit Jay's parents too.  Ella starts Sunday school at a new church on Sunday and then it's Vikings Game Day!  Also next week is Farmington Homecoming - Go Tigers.  We'll be participating in the Homecoming Parade and Ella will be cheering with the big girls at the Homecoming Football Game on Friday night.  LOVE. 

Back to School!!

Now that I have caught up on the summer pictures, we can get back on track for (hopefully) more timely updates on life here in the Abbas household. Second grade started for Ms. Ella on Tuesday and she was more than excited (but read below for a brief moment of panic).  Labor Day weekend, my mom came up to visit and took Ella out for a bit of back to school shopping.  They had a blast!  We also hit up the Vera Bradley store and Ella had fun taking pictures with the photo props!  NOTE: She brought her own purse and money along for the shopping trip and was so cute about the whole thing.  She is growing up so much! 

Orientation night at our elementary school was the week before school started.  We got all of Ella's school supplies in her desk, met her teacher and learned all about Kid Connection, which is our before and after school program through the school district that Ella is attending this year.  Another selfie booth with photo props!

The morning of the first day of school was a bit interesting.  Ella barely ate anything for breakfast (unusual) and then she seemed quiet.  As she was getting ready for school she came running in crying because she thought she was going to throw up.  WHAT?!?!?  I rushed her to the bathroom and she sat near the toilet for a bit.  We talked about how she might be feeling nervous about school and maybe had some butterflies.  She calmed down and thought that was probably the issue.  Whew.  We did make it to the school and thankfully, a friend was there early so they chit chatted away until the bell rang!  She had a fun first day, loves her teacher and has made some new friends both in her classroom and at Kid Connection - hurray!

It was POURING rain on Tuesday morning for the first day of school, so our pictures had to be inside, and it was NOT fun running through the school parking lot to attempt to avoid getting soaked on the way into school (didn't really succeed on that)!

(I promise Ella was laughing in this picture!!)

We are looking forward to a super fun year of Second Grade. It will be a busy Fall!!  Ella will be in a cheer/tumbling class on Mondays, dance on Thursdays and swim on Saturday mornings!  And, along with a few BFFs, she is participating in a cheer camp with the high school cheerleaders in a few weeks and they will perform a sideline cheer at the Homecoming Football game - as you can imagine, she can hardly wait!!

July and August Recap!

I have no excuse for not updating this little blog in such a long time.  We have done a few fun things to end out the summer 2016.  Let's recap, shall we?

Valleyfair!  Near the end of July, my family, my sister's family, my mom and Randy all headed to Shakopee for a weekend of fun at Valleyfair!  Unfortunately, Saturday had tons of rain and storms, so we waited to head to the park until Sunday.  Saturday, we had a fun lunch, ran through parking lots in downpours to do a bit of shopping, and then spent the afternoon swimming at the hotel!  

Jay's birthday on July 31 - we had a fun breakfast at Cracker Barrel!!

And Ella helped bake a cupcake cake (from scratch) for Jay's birthday celebration!  It turned out super cute and she was SO proud of the frosting - which she did all by herself.  

 

Ella will be dancing in the Just for Kix program this year instead of the studio, so we are excited to try the new program and see how it goes!  She LOVES to watch the dance teams in our area, so her and I headed to the Rosemount summer festival (Leprechaun Days) to watch the Rosemount High School Irishettes perform. 

And afterwards, we walked around the festival grounds and Ella got to try out the firefighter equipment!

 

  

Lots of time at the parks in our area this summer....

 

And scootering around the neighborhood!

Summer selfies!

 HA!

And Ella had another visit from the tooth fairy!  She lost the lower right incisor on August 11.

This time we captured the picture the next morning so she isn't wearing PJs!! 

We have had a busy and fun summer!