Fruitful Vine

Tabor Hill...

Decisions, decisions

At Contessa...

Round Barn...

Saturday Brad took me on a tour of the local Michigan wineries, not too far from home! We stayed in New Buffalo, MI (same town we visited this summer for our beach trip and LOVED!) and took the Fruitful Vine winery bus tour to 4 local wineries around St. Joseph, MI. We had no idea that being along Lake Michigan makes for such ideal conditions in the grape-growing business! It was amazing how many wineries, vineyards, and fruit orchards we passed while were were out and about. The day was not rushed and there were tastings at each winery with lunch in between. It was a great way to celebrate my 30th birthday! Many thanks to Aunt Nicci and Uncle Andrew for manning the "funny farm" while we were gone! Alex and Abby had a blast with you both!

Visit with Nicci and Andrew

Mmmm, rice!
Her cheese face.

Alex's buddy Josh happened to be at the tree show too :)

Our little Teletubby!

Aunt Nicci and Uncle Andrew came up to visit this weekend and kindly watched the kiddos on Saturday while Brad and I went on a tour of various Michigan wineries. It was a lovely weekend! Friday night we went to dinner in Bolingbrook and then hung out to watch the Christmas tree lights that are set to music. It was really cold outside so the kids were pretty bundled up!

Abby's First Haircut

At this point, I had to put the camera away and hold her still.

Abby's hair is so wild and crazy, I thought maybe a little trim around the edges would help her out. I assumed a lollipop would distract her enough from the scissors that everything would go smoothly. We plopped her up in the little Barbie Jeep that they have for the kids and as soon as the stylist put the cape on her, Abby flipped out. Nothing would settle her fully. So, she removed the cape, snipped a little off the ends and away we went. No sense in forcing the issue. It looks cute and is pretty even so we are pleased. Once she was finished, Abby was able to play with the toys while Alex got his hair trimmed and that made her quite happy.

Alex Is Soooo Ready For Christmas

Alex has been begging us to decorate the house for Christmas, ever since November 1. We just put up the Thanksgiving decorations and are in no hurry to decorate for Christmas yet. Alex has other plans. After shopping Sunday, we went upstairs to put away our purchases and when we came down, Alex had lugged a large Rubbermaid tote up the steps from the basement and unpacked it. He had the tree skirt in the middle of the floor, musical toys lined up along the coffee table, and was getting ready to unpack the ornaments! I didn't take a picture because I didn't want to encourage this behavior, but it was so funny :) I told him to wait a few more weeks and we packed it all back up and took it downstairs again...all except the musical Rudolph.

Abby 22 Months

Abby's becoming quite the talker. Tonight, in fact, Abby said "Abby" as clear as can be. She says "please" and "thank you" pretty regularly. She also says "no" quite a bit and tests her limits everyday. Abby counts "1, 2" then knocks the blocks over. Toy Story is her favorite movie and Max and Ruby her favorite TV show. She got a kick out of Halloween and I think she will really enjoy the Christmas holiday season as well. Here's hoping she likes snow!

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?