What's in my Bag?

I would like to report a strange phenomenon in our house: the packing of survivalist gear. I blame it on B reading a little too much Sharon Astyk, but he's suddenly started packing a "bug-out bag" with things like fire starters, swiss army knives and power bars, and putting things like flashlights and grain mills on his Christmas list. I guess in case of calamity or natural disaster, we will be prepared.

At the same time, without knowledge of her father's plans, Ella has become obsessed with carrying several bags of essential items wherever she goes. I suspect that the bag is most helpful for protecting all of her goodies from a certain little sister. Yesterday, she discovered that it would be much easier if she consolidated all of the little bags into one big bag. Never mind that the one big bag was helpfully containing all of her play food, which has now been dumped on a living room chair.

Here are Ella's essential items:
red velvet hat
small book about kittens
a Curious George tin filled with 26 ABC puzzle pieces and sparkly pom-poms
bunny money
a marker and small notebook
a small plastic container filled with a half-dozen tiny ceramic animals
super ball
ABC magnets
a doctor bag containing a stuffed monkey, a pair of sunglasses, and a hockey puck
empty tote bag
board book for use as a map
booklet of stickers
small cassette walkman for use as a camera
golf ball
a dozen or so rectangular puzzle pieces

And of course if big sister has a bag, little sister needs one too.

Fall

Overheard in Ella Land/ Ellaisms

#4 Daddy: "Ella, where do you get all your energy from?"
Ella: "New York City."

Overheard in Ella Land/ Ellaisms

#1 Ella decided to make worms with her new playdoh toy. She cut them into tiny pieces to make baby worms and then put them in their bin (the playdoh can). She accidentally dropped one but assured us, "It's not crying. Worms don't cry about a little thing like that."

#2 Ella told my friend that "Mabel's a very good helper." We asked her, "What does Mabel help with?" Ella replied, "She helps me play." The amazing thing is that Mabel really does help her play. They like to play beach on our living room rug. They both jump and splash and do belly flops in the "water." If Ella splashes her babydoll in the water, Mabel splashes her doll in the water too.

#3 Ella has been carrying around a sheep backpack, doctor bag and a baby doll all day. After she got dressed, she told me, "Wait I have something in my backpack." She pulled out a pair of red sparkly shoes and a red velvet hat. It turns out in her tiny backpack, she had stuffed not one but two pairs of shoes, a hat, about fifteen large puzzle pieces and a super ball. Just in case.

Oh Mabel!

Mabel has a nice snack of a multi-colored crayon. Just because the crayon looks like a muffin, doesn't mean it is.Mabel discovered how to open the whole-wheat flour canister. Also, she put on that necklace by herself.

Candy Corn, Candy Corn, Candy Corn

Here's my first candy corn-themed snack, served at Ella's party. Cheesy Corns. They were a bit labor intensive. I took whole-wheat pizza dough and made five small rounds out of it and baked at 450. To my surprise, I made pita bread! This is only ironic because I have tried to make pita bread twice before on purpose and failed. I cut the pita bread into wedges with a pizza cutter and then arranged tiny rectangles of three colors of cheeses and melted in the oven at 375. For our family, I might try a larger version and just shred the cheese and make it like a cheese pizza. But they were very cute and completely devoured at the party.

I would also like to point out that I am not the only one obsessed with candy corn. Check out more candy corn themed ideas over at Skip to My Lou.
Scrap Happy Heather also had a candy corn themed day.
Also Candy Corn Felt treat bags

My Second Sweater

I knit my second sweater! I used a free pattern from Lion Brand and it was super easy. I may never knit sleeves again! I was also able to use up the leftover Debbie Bliss cotton/angora from my first sweater for Ella. Ella has requested one in purple for herself, so I guess that will be my third sweater.