Alex's Class Party

Before school
Alex asked me to drive him today so he wouldn't have to wear his costume on the bus. I thought this was a fair request.

Alex and his buddy

Alex's Kindergarten Class

Playing freeze dance with his friends

It has been a week of parties around here! This morning I organized Alex's class Halloween party which one student said was "the best party ever!". It was not, by any means "the best party ever", but I think all the kids had a great time :) They had snacks, completed a door hangar craft, and played lots of games. I think Alex liked that I was there. Every once in a while he'd yell out "MOM!" over the other students to get my attention, which was kind of funny, just like we were at home. The twin boys who were in his preschool class last year also went as Woody and Buzz, and there was a Bullseye the horse, so Toy Story was very well represented this morning in class. He was very excited to wear his cowboy boots to school this morning!

Halloween at Gymnastics

Dressed and ready to go
Waiting patiently for class to start

Posing on the equipment

The trampoline is one of her favorite activities!

Abby's Baby Bees gymnastics class celebrated Halloween yesterday by all wearing their costumes to class. Talk about a cute group of one year olds! I think some had trouble doing the obstacle course in their costumes, but Abby did just fine as a cheerleader. Getting those little pigtails in her hair is much harder than I would have thought, but luckily she sits still pretty well for the procedure :) Abby's been doing well in gymnastics. She likes the obstacle course and running around the gym. She does not enjoy the part in the beginning though where they take attendance for all 20 kiddos (clearly those instructors have never raised a 1 year old to know they don't sit still well for this) or at the end where they give out stamps one kid at a time. Sometimes we arrive late, intentionally, so we can skip the roll call. Is that wrong?

Costumes and Cupcakes

Alex, Abby and all their friends!
"Mom, Daddy kicked the ball way high up in that tree!"

Alex, getting the roller coaster back to its starting position for another run down the hill. Can you see the ball pit balls are already strewn across the yard?

This was followed by Brad scaling this poor tree to retrieve the ball for the kiddos.

Alex as Woody and Vanessa as Jessie from Toy Story.

The kids had a blast with their friends Saturday night as we hosted our fourth annual Halloween party. While it did rain in the morning, it cleared up to be a perfect rest of the day! We started out with a candy scavenger hunt in the backyard. Alex was really helpful in prepping and sorting the items for the scavenger hunt and hiding them all over the yard. Then we had a wonderful potluck dinner, followed by a few rounds of "hot potato" and "freeze dance" with the sugared up kiddos. They had great fun playing in the swimming pool ball pit and riding the roller coaster down the grass in the yard. This morning we had quite the task of washing it all off in order to bring it inside for the winter months.

Next up: Alex's class Halloween party. Piece of cake!

Autumn Activities

How many years until he stops "wanting" to rake the leaves?
Kind of a weak pile, but still worthy of a big jump!

Time to try on the winter coats. Abby's still fits! Alex's will work for a little while...

Pumpkin Farm

Ready to roll!
Making our way through the corn maze...

Happy to be hiding among the cornstalks with Grandma!

Getting a good photo of the two of them just gets trickier and trickier.

Playing on the playground as we were trying to leave.

Although it was 80+ degrees, we decided to try and hit the pumpkin farm when it opened Sunday. The crowds were low and the kids had a blast seeing all that they have come to expect from Dollinger's Farm. The corn maze was a first for all of us and we guesstimate it took us about 15 minutes to get out of there. We were kind of killing time, waiting for the train rides to start, but kind of trying to find the exit at the same time. Alex found the exit and led us all to safety. While I didn't get a photo, I did notice that out by the train they had a pumpkin catapult, similar to that on the show Little People, Big World. Alex picked out a nice big pumpkin and Abby found a baby pumpkin just her size. The bag of popcorn was a pretty big hit too!

Segway Tour

We really lucked out with clear, warm weather last Friday.
The couple that Segways together, stays together.
Brad and his dysfunctional helmet. Another guy had one that was cracked all over the top of it. Seriously? What are people doing with these helmets?

Tooling around Northerly Island...

The Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park...nicknamed "The Bean" by most, provides a cool reflective view of the city.

On Friday afternoon, Brad and I took a 3-hour Segway tour of downtown Chicago. It was incredible! We saw way more on that Segway than we could have ever walked in one afternoon. The guide said on a typical tour, the wheels roll between 8 and 10 miles. We rode out around the various museums along the lake, circled around Soldier Field, then rode out to Northerly Island. Northerly Island is now home to a bike trail, music venue, small beach, and wildflower fields. It is a beautiful, quiet space and I'm not sure how we would have ever found this park without the Segway tour :) I think for those who live in the city, it would be an awesome place to escape the hectic pace of city life. It is the home of what used to be Meigs Field, a single-strip airfield on the edge of downtown Chicago that was operational until 2003.

We then made our way back towards downtown with stops at Grant Park and Millennium Park. The tour guides were fabulous and inserted little tidbits of Chicago history along the way. I think the only stressful part of the tour was trying to make sure we got our whole group of 14 across the street each time we entered a cross walk! Many thanks to Grandma Eileen for babysitting the little ones while we were out!!

Abby, 21 Months

She scoots right up to the table to eat.

Abby can blow her own nose (missing from this photo is the half-roll of toilet paper she unrolled to get this "tissue".)

We've actually stopped referring to Abby by months and now just tell people she's "almost 2." This past month she has really taken off verbally and it seems like each day she has a new word. Her focus right now is two-fold: animals and modes of transportation. She is very proud of her new words and says them both loudly and with confidence. We've settled into our own schedule during the day while Alex is at school and Abby certainly likes the one on one attention. I try to "do" her hair cute each morning with a bow/barrette but take this out at naps, so by dinner each day her hair resembles photo #2 above :) Alex is absolutely her best friend and getting him off the bus is the happiest part of her day!