Apples!

Labor Day!

We went to Chicago last night for a mini-vacation. We met my friend, laura, and her family at the Lincoln Park Zoo and we also went to Navy Pier and rode the Ferris Wheel, went out to eat dinner and breakfast, and just walked around the city. Lilly did fantastic and ended up walking back from dinner to our hotel without any complaints about her feet hurting (it was only about 1/2 mile).

Pete and Lilly on the Ferris Wheel:


In front of our hotel (the W):


Laura and Meg:





Thomas, Allison, and Lilly at the zoo:


The rhino:

more summer photos

Here are some more fun pictures from what we've been up to lately:


Lilly's very hungry caterpillar apple activity that we made today (i am so proud of her...she wanted to write the title of the book all by herself!! She even tried to sound out the word to figure out what letter came next! She was only usually right at the beginning of the words, but I think that's pretty good for a 4 year old!)


Here's my 25 or 26 week photo (honestly, I can't remember how far along I am this time around): Oh, Lilly took the photo, which is why I'm kneeling!


First day of preschool (year 2):


pottery painting! I was SO excited to take her to here. Of course, she chose a ceramic cat...how useful is that? She can't even really play with it...oh well, she was excited.

Happy 4th Birthday, Lilly!!

Lilly had a weekend full of birthday parties! On Saturday she had her "friend party" for which she chose a "ballerina tea party" so we just invited 4 little girls to the party (and one brought her sister). I wanted to post a picture of all the girls, but since this blog is public, I didn't feel right doing that without asking the parents permissions (and I've been getting really odd comments on this blog, so not sure who is looking at it!!). Anyway, the party was very fun for the girls. Lilly had a great time. Sunday was the family party and Pete's parents and two of his sisters came over for that. Here are some pics of the birthday girl:

opening presents:


the candles!


my attempt at a fondant cake...it looks like a hat, but oh well!


the girls decorating crowns:


pin the tutu on the ballerina:


lilly and her crown and ballerina outfit:

pizza anyone?

Two nights ago, we had pizza night and made our own individual pizzas.

Here's Lilly making Pete's pizza:


This is Lilly's pizza: just cheese. She at NONE of it. She looked at and declared that she did not like it. Yet, when I make a calzone for her (basically pizza dough with cheese, wrapped up), she'll eat the entire thing...same thing, different construction. Children are so odd sometimes.

20 weeks!

Here's a picture from last week (I'm technically 21 weeks now). Lilly is a little obsessed with kissing the baby and talking to the baby. Last week, I told her that the baby could hear her and she said "Hi Baby...what are you?" and then answered in a high pitched voice "a girl!" She is determined to have a sister, but we have no idea what the baby is yet! Our ultrasound was last week and we decided to not find out the gender (shocking for me, miss impatient). We do have a sealed envelope on our counter, though, so we could peek...

More summer pictures

Blueberry picking (Lilly is the ideal picker- she won't eat any blueberries!)







At the county fair: