Trick or Treat

Ella was a kitty cat! Our trick or treat experience lasted a whole twenty minutes. We sat outside and passed out candy, which Ella loved watching the trick or treaters. She had candy for the first time, twizzlers, and kept asking for more! After twenty minutes it was too cold and Ella had her fill of the costume.

Trip to Park

Ella loves the park that is close to our house. Tom, Ella, and I spent part of the afternoon there today swinging, climbing, and sliding..

New camera!

My new camera finally came in! I took over 300 pictures this weekend, but only added a few to here. Im loving the quality of the pictures but feel a bit overwhelmed with all the camera can do and that I dont know how to do!

The week in pictures...

(no new camera yet :(
Last Saturday Tom, Ella, and I went to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital (my work) Walks for Kids. Its a walk at Coney Island with games, rides, etc to benefit the hospital and the research the hospital does. Over 8000 walkers were present last sat! Still waiting to hear the total amount of money raised. There were
my team from work...

Clowns...

Ella's first carousel ride..



Funny mirrors...


The weather was so beautiful on Monday so we spent a lot of time outdoors. Check out Ella's cute new boots :)


Ella has been sick the last two days and mommy stayed home with her yesterday. The only thing that seemed to take her mind off of it was playing outside, which we did a lot of. We also made a little house out of the box daddy's Halloween decor came in

Ella and I spent a long time playing outside yesterday. These are a few pics from my phone. I havent uploaded from my camera yet (new camera still not arrived). Ella always goes straight for the dirt when we go outside and digs right in! As you can see, she finally has enough hair for a clip, even if I do have to put it clear at the top of her head!

I know its been awhile since Ive put pictures up of Ella. I PROMISE to get some up this weekend. We have a busy weekend with the Cincinnati Walks for Kids which is the walk for Children's Hospital here in Cinci where I work. We also are going to stay with the Bowsher family on Saturday so lots of photo opportunities this weekend.
On another note I am excited to announce I bought a new camera last night! The Nikon D3100 should be arriving next week! I maximized the potential of my little point and shoot and Im ready to move on. I have been disappointed with the quality since Ella became mobile. Below is a picture of the new camera..

I am thankful all 33 miners were safely rescued after 69 days underground. What a spectacular event.

Cultivating Confidence

How do we inspire our kids to be confident, competent, fulfilled, and successful? Studies consistently show that praising a child's effort, NOT their intelligence is the best way to support their future success. It is SO important to focus on the effort your child puts into a task, and the feelings of accomplishment they get from working hard and conquering something that was difficult for them.
Here's a great article summarizing one of these studies:

http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/
(couldnt get link to paste correctly so just copy and paste)

Go Bucks!

Grandma Joyce stayed home with Ella while Tom and I went to Columbus for the afternoon for the Buckeyes vs Hoosiers (wtf is a Hoosier?) game. I lived in Columbus for eight years, graduated from OSU, went to Hineygate countless times, and even had season tickets to OSU games yet never actually viewed a game from inside the Horseshoe! I was super excited that Tom got us OSU tickets with this being my first game from inside The Shoe. Despite the heat and my foot still being a boot, we had a great day! We took over 170 pictures!