Zoo Trip with Elmo

One fine day the stars finally aligned and I was able to take the little girls to the zoo!  The day was a little chilly, but the sun was shining and these chickadees love to look at the all of the animals at our awesome zoo.

Juliana LOVES to watch the zebras.
We watched them for a good 10 min and she still was mad when we moved on!

Next stop was the giraffes!
(Kari wanted to wear her Elmo costume...the one and only time she's ever wanted to wear it!
Pretty funny, but it was a warm hoodie/vest so I figured, why not?!)

 After the giraffes we ventured back up the HUGE hill (pushing a double stroller up that puppy is quite the workout) and stopped in at the aquarium.  Kari ventured over to the touch-tank, but Juliana wasn't quite so brave.

The penguins are always fascinating!

 Getting two little girls to stand still is tough so after the aquarium, I let them run wild :-).

Kari wanted a picture by the ray statue/fountain...even though it wasn't on b/c it's not summertime.

ROAR!!!

We saw a few other animals and even ate the lunch I packed in the Wild Kingdom Pavilion.  Such a beautiful morning with my two little(est) sweethearts!

Family Pictures 2013

 Back in October, my awesome sister took on the challenge of shooting our family pictures!  Oh yes, it was quite the task.  She tackled not only the late afternoon sun (it always seems to take us just a tad too long to get out of the house!), but also four lively and "spirited" animals, um, children who never quite wanted to fully cooperate at the same time!  Yet, despite all of the odds against her, Erin still managed to get quite a few great shots!

This is what most of the photo shoot resembled best...

But the idyllic shots were still there too :-)

 Here are some of the rest of the pictures!  Not too shabby for a first-time photo shoot with tough shadowing and tougher "clients"!

Our talented photographer, Erin, and her buddy, Christian :-)

 There were so many more pictures that I could have posted, but I think this post is long enough!  We are so grateful that Erin gave of her time and shared her talents with us!

New 'Do

 Kari's sportin' a new 'do these days!  The mullet had reached new lengths and no amount of curling would tame it so it was time to try something new.  Enter my friend, Britany, who just happens to be a hairstylist!  She gave Kari this DARLING new bob and she's never been more darling!

Local Artist

 One afternoon I was in the living room and I knew that Juliana had gone into the kitchen just moments ago.  A few minutes later, she got very quiet....and then I heard light scribbling.  I tip-toed over and peeked around the corner.  Our little local artist was busy making her mark, or marks, on our kitchen floor.  (Thank goodness for Magic Erasers!  The crayon comes right off so I let her color to her heart's content!)

She was so happy and proud of her "work!"

Halloween 2013

Halloween was great!  In the morning I took the little girls to our library's special story time and downtown trick-or-treat.  It was a beautiful day and Kari and Juliana had a great time!  Kari, who had been dressing up as a kitty all week, decided she wanted to be Snow White.  She put on the dress my mom had made for Emily years ago and an old Beatles wig of Cubby's!  (It must've been itchy, but she didn't seem to mind...she was the one who insisted upon the wig!)  I put a red ribbon in in, gave her some red lips and an apple and she was set!  Meanwhile, Juliana, who had been wanting to wear Kari's kitty costume all week was thrilled to have a turn!  Funny enough, the costume was only a little big on her.  She was a darling kitty!

Check out this pose!

We met up with some friends of ours at the library...it was a busy time at the library!

While we were trick-or-treating downtown, one of the businesses had these two awesome Newfoundland dogs.
Juliana was in heaven!

Tick or treat!

After the library, we stopped by Grandma's work.
She was all dressed up too!  So fun!

Later that night...

Everyone's ready for some trick-or-treating!
 (Juliana was mad b/c she wanted to go outside...not take pictures.)

Our neighbor friends!  Such a great group of kids.

Two little kitties...Alexa and Juliana

This is how Juliana spent most of the night...
...either that or insisting that she walk, while holding a very heavy candy-filled pumpkin.

One of our friends' house up the street had quite the cool display going on.  A pop-up ghoul and old episodes of Scooby Doo playing on their garage!  Soooo fun.  Juliana really liked Scooby Doo.

Such a great night to be outside!

Emily and Ella

Juliana was not happy when it was time to go inside.  (Which means it was exactly the right time to head in!)

Happy Halloween!