Weekend Fun

 Hanging out at Lincoln Square's Apple Fest.

 Taking a scenic boat tour from Navy Pier on the "Tall Ship Windy."

 

  

 Ellie and Daddy helped raise one of the sails.  

 Taking in the sights.

There's always time for a little dancing!

18 months

It's hard to believe that our little sweetie pie is already 18 months!  She is definitely becoming less of a baby and more of a toddler as she strives to be more independent.  At her doctor's appointment last week she checked in around the 75th percentile for both her height and weight.  Her measurements are very close to Ellie's at this age, she's just a tad shorter.  Clara has about 20 spontaneous words, but she is constantly "talking." She is also saying cute little phrases like "peekaboo, I see you" and "love you."  She is always singing, loves to dance, and is starting to give us sweet little open-mouth kisses.

One happy girl!

Clara is fortunate to have a big sister who is patient and kind.  They're already best friends : )  She is learning so much from Ellie and they are always running around the house, having fun and giggling together!

Vacation

 We went on our first family vacation this past weekend to Wisconsin Dells. 

 Looking good at breakfast in their wolf ears!  At lunch, Ellie got a wolf tail to go with it.

 The Great Wolf Lodge was the perfect place to stay with the girls!

 Clara isn't a big fan of the water yet, so here she is just looking cute running around in her suit : )

 Ellie on the other hand had a blast at the pool area and spent a lot of time there with Daddy.  The  wave pool was her favorite!

Even Clara was able to join in on family bowling with the help of the ramp.

 We spotted a beautiful rainbow!

Showing good form at mini golf.

Clara loved golf and carried her little club around for the entire 18 holes!

 Pajama story time with Violet and Wiley.

 Handing out hats to the kids seemed to be the thing for the restaurants to do.  Here, we are leaving Buffalo Phil's where a train delivered our food to the table.

Moosejaw Pizza

Two cute "babes" at Paul Bunyan's restaurant : )

Preschool

 Open House art activity.

Ellie knew exactly what she was looking for when we went on our shopping trip for the first day of school - a dress with pink and purple flowers.  It only took two stores to find the perfect dress : )

 She also loves her purple,"big girl" backpack.

 Too excited to walk!

 Ready for her first day.

Let the fun begin!

Summer Activities

Ellie tried bowling for the first time during an outing with one of my mom's groups.  Guess the first ball went down just a little too slow!

 Ballet Class

 Clara likes to watch from the door and will occasionally do a plie of her own : )

 The Lincoln Park Zoo merry-go-round.

 Baby steps from sitting with me on a merry-go-round bench, to riding on one of the stationary animals for the first time!

 The air show was in town that weekend, so we had a picnic lunch outside of the zoo to catch some of the show. 

 Dancing at our friend's block party.  We can always find Ellie front and center of the music!

Lunch with a view on the aquarium terrace.  Since we could see Daddy's building, Ellie called him and told him to look out the window so that he could see her wave and smile at him : )

 Recently, we have spent some of our time on the weekends exploring areas in which we may want to permanently reside.  Last weekend, we headed out to the suburbs for an end-of-summer festival where Ellie enjoyed some carnival rides!