My Little Elves

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Wild Lights

We went to the zoo with my parents tonight to see the opening of "Wild Lights." It is a really neat light display. The kids really enjoyed it. The weather cooperated so it wasn't too cold. And of course we had to stop at Ted Drewes for ice cream afterwards. How often does ice cream sound good at the end of November? Anyway, here's a few pictures:

Chloe and I

Well, now we know the reflective piping on the girls' coats works :-)

The Jingle Bell frogs

My mom, the girls, and me

the "Wild Lights" sign

Cousins

Chloe was in love with her baby cousin Cedar today. She couldn't get enough of her. Thank goodness Cedar was a good sport about all the hugs, kisses, and attention she got from Chloe. Too cute!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope that everyone has had a great Thanksgiving! We definitely had a good one. Too much good food and lots of fun with both sides of our families. Sorry that I haven't been keeping up with posting lately. Everything is good, just a little busy. I promise to try and be better! Anyway, for now, here's a few pictures I took of the girls this morning:

Favorite Thing Tuesday

I'm going to try to think up some weekly "themes" to post about. That way I'll still have some things to post about even if the girls haven't done anything super cute or we haven't gone anywhere or done anything exciting. So my first "theme" is gong to be Favorite Thing Tuesday. On Tuesdays, I'll post about something I'm currently or continually liking. It might be baby/kid related or something that's floating my boat :-) So to start us out, here's a baby/kid item that we couldn't do without:


This is the Maclaren Volo. After going through numerous strollers over the course of 4 kids, this is the one I wish I knew about from the beginning. Its lightweight, folds up small, steers really easily, is tall enough (most umbrella-type strollers kill your back!), and its sturdy enough to put up with some abuse. The new versions have some fabric on the seat and back which is nice since we had to buy a seat cover for ours (Elise gets eczema on her legs and the mesh bothered her skin), but having mesh on the sides definitely keeps them cooler and it washes easily. The few cons I can think of are that it will tip over if you have bags on the back and get the child out, the seat does not recline (so you can't use it for newborns), and while not super expensiv, its a little pricey ( it has been our go-to stroller for both Elise and Chloe, so we figure we got our money's worth out of it!) My parents use it all the time too when they babysit.

So that's my product plug for the week. I'll post again soon after I figure out some other "themes" or if the kids do something noteworthy :-)

Last weekend's camping trip :-)

I realized that I forgot to post the pictures from our final camping trip of the season. We went to Springfield, IL. We spent Sat. out at New Salem. It was a little chilly but it was neat to see the town with all the chimneys smoking. It also made me thankful for central heating. I was cold all day! There weren't a ton of people there so the the costumed historians that were out and about in the town spent a lot of time talking to the girls and showing them things. That was really neat.

Sunday the weather was gorgeous. We decided that we just couldn't spend it inside and so we found a great place to go hiking. On Lake Springfield, they have an area known as the Lincoln Memorial Gardens. The trees were beautiful and the kids absolutely loved picking which trail to go on and finding the different colored leaves. They also had benches every so often engraved with Abraham Lincoln quotes which Claire liked to read to us. It was a really neat way to spend a fall day.

New Salem

Walking to the next set of cabins

The girls checking out the school house. They couldn't believe that kids had to sit there for school with no desks or anything to write on. The New Salem school was a "blab" school where the students just recited their lessons and nothing was written down.

Lincoln Memorial Gardens

We're not quite sure what's wrong with Em in the picture :-)
Chloe got a good nap in. We were glad since she didn't sleep well the night before!

Halloween 08

We had a great Halloween. Both sets of grandparents and all of the girl's cousins were able to be here to trick or treat with us. We had a total of 7 little girls! They had a blast and got a ton of candy. Our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween. It is truly a sight to behold. There are all sorts of neat decorations and kids everywhere. The adults have as good a time as the kids. Without further ado, here they are:

Chloe the ladybug

Emilie the witch and Liah the cat

Claire the cat and Taylor the bat

Cedar before she got her kitty cat costume on

The gang -from left, Claire (cat), Taylor (bat), Emilie (witch), Elise (pink poodle), Liah (cat), and Chloe (ladybug)