Thanksgiving in Ohio (in pictures...)

Well if Ellie and I can make it through tonight, Cydil will be joining us again tomorrow! The house hasn't burned down (although it may not have always been as neat as when Cydil is here). We are both anxious to have Cydil back. Today Elisona walked around the apartment calling for Cydil as if she were playing 'hide-and-seek' with us. She then turned to me and said, "I think she's hiding in Albania!"

For much of last week I had help from Nonna and PaPa in Ohio with Ellie. I will let the pictures tell most of the story with captions if needed...

At the Lancaster Mall play area Ellie found this car which she proudly exclaimed, "It Cruella's car!" I never did see any dalmations though.

Ellie is constantly playing doctor these days. She not only diagnosed her leg as broken, she fasioned a fairly creative splint for it!

Mom's Thanksgiving meal is always a feast. I didn't realize until I had dumped this picture to the computer that Ellie is about to sample the mashed potatoes!

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we decided to take Els bowling. Although she has palyed with the plastic Fisher Price bowling sets, this was her first time to experience the real thing and she was really excited. She sang a song about bowling balls the whole way there and then when she saw the sign with a ball and a few pins she said, "Yeah! We're at bowling ball's house!" She picked the brightest orange ball they had and even with a slightly broken ramp to guide her ball, she had lots of fun.

Aunt Rebecca and Ellie celebrate their first roll!

Bowling must have worn her out because she fell asleep leaning against Nonna during the movie that evening! You can't see it in this picture, but she was sitting Indian style (or the more politically correct 'criss cross applesause') when she fell asleep. Miracously, I was able to carry her to bed without her waking up!

On Saturday we decided to go to the Zoo, but we first stopped at a cool park that had topiaries that were laid out to depict the famous painting "A Day at the Park" (I plan separate blog post with more pictures about it later). Elisona was more intersted in the ducks than the art, and she had a blast feeding them some crackers.

The Zoo was decked out in Christmas lights which was cool! We saw a really fun animal show made up of mainly rescued animals and Ellie had her 'happy hands' going the whole time!

We had to stop by the reptile house while we were there. Nonna had a book about snakes that Ellie had been dragging around the house and she wasn't about to leave without seeing some in real life. It may look like I am having to encourage her to touch the snake, but actually I am pulling her hand away so some of the others waiting in line could have a turn! Ellie seemed to enjoy practing the word 'slither,' since she would use it to try to convince every snake in each enclosure to move.

Thanks Nonna and PaPa for a wonderful time! We promise to bring Cydil with us at Christmas!