She's Off Her Rocker

Ellieween 2009!

It was our oldest daughter's annual Halloween themed birthday party out at the farm this weekend, and a great time was had by all! Ellie turns 11 this month, and she looks forward to her special day all year long. We have a big fire, roast marshmallows, ride the horses, run around playing hide and seek after dark with glowsticks...tell stories by the fire, roast weenies and bust open a homeade pinata full of Halloween surprises and candy...sigh, what more could a girl wish for? This year we had a blast making her Jack O Lantern pinata. I helped with the form, in fact due to cold rainy weather I had to carefully turn it around side by side in front of a 200 degree oven for a day! Its tricky keeping warm enough to dry but NOT warm enough to expand and bust the balloon!) but she did the painting and design all by herself...there were two sides to it, a jack o lantern face on each side. I had a hard time making something strong enough to hold a LOT of loot, but also, breakable on purpose. Here she is watching her aunt trying to hang it up...



Here she is taking the first shot!

Other kids waiting their turn...little brother Danny waiting excitedly in the foreground...

Here was my sister, Dusti, posing with it before it was destroyed...

Here is Ellie pointing her little sister Cassie in the right direction for a hefty swing...

Ellie's dad Jim awaits the front of the line to hand off the weapon....




Here are a group on the horse...Sugarboy is very old and also sweet.

THERE is the light of my life..... after she got the pinata to the ground!! (NOTE...because it did not bust the first time upon falling, we hung it again. I could not get a shot amongst the mayhem once the thing finally was destroyed! I was too busy trying to make sure noone was trampled to death after the real event!! We burned it's remains. R.IP. Jack!)

Ok, another shot...I can't help it as a proud mom...

Here is "Aint Dusti" lighting the fabulous triple layer birthday cake she made form scratch! Bottom was chocolate, middle was German chocolate, and the top was carrot!! On the very top, sheer genius...a real little pumpkin she carved into a beautiful jack o lantern on one side, and the words "Happy Birthday Ellie" on the other. Dusti turned the two "LL's" in the word "Ellie" to also read as the number 11!! Extra cool!



Sweet Ellie licking frosting of the pumpkin after her birthday song...

And what did the little artist get? Her first case of Prisma colored pencils from her DoDa!!

Here she is again holding the little birthday cake jack..

Here was an area by the bonfire...I didn't decorate as much as usual because I have a nasty chest cold! It was simple, a few skeletons hung about in trees, a moon here and there, and I even made Ellie a moon on a stick for her birthday, I don't know why we didn't get a picture of it.



Yours truly, hanging up lantern on the springhouse's rickety old porch...!

Ellie's Dad loves to cook for a crowd! Here is Jim's grill, he served brats and hamburgers all day long...and made a HUGE batch of homeade mac n' cheese kept hot with bunsen burners too...sticks were used to roast regular hot dogs and marshmallows by the real fire all day!












It was a fabulous day! Happy Birthday Ellie I Love You!!!