Toothpaste on the Toilet Seat: filling in some gaps

Well, here I am again after another nearly-two-week hiatus from the ol' blog. I'm sitting here with a literal mound of paperwork (and stickers, packages of balloons, two spools of thread, a roll of masking tape, a pacifier, three suckers, and a Target bag of things to return to the store) surrounding my laptop on my desk. I probably shouldn't even be taking the time to blog right now, but I thought I'd post a few odds and ends, filling in some of the gaps that I seem to leave when I fail to blog for long stretches of time.

I can't remember if I ever mentioned that Eloise is taking ballet class this fall, but, in case I did fail to mention it, Eloise is taking ballet class this fall. She loves it! She loves interacting with her teacher and classmates, and she adores wearing leotards. Here are a few photos from her first day of class back in September:

Eloise is in white.

Getting some help with her jumping (she's already gotten much better!)...

They learned the YMCA (or Y-C-M-A, depending on whose version you're singing...)!

The day before we left for Texas last month, I took the "big girls" for haircuts. Evie decided to cut off 10 inches of her hair and donate it to Locks of Love. I had donated my hair a few months ago, and I think she really loved the idea. So, we went from this:

to this:

Cute picture, huh? It was "drawn" in one of those photo booth things!

I was nervous about it being so short, but I think it's adorable. It really suits her, and she loves it!

We don't do Halloween in our family; neither Mr. B nor I grew up celebrating it, so it feels pretty normal to us to just ignore the holiday. Our friends from across the street are not Halloween people, either; they've always gone to Chuck E. Cheese that night. We've been joining them in their tradition for the last several years, and I can tell you that Chuck E. Cheese is very quiet on October 31st when most of the rest of the world is out trick-or-treating! Here are a few photos: