Santa's Little Dancing Helpers!!!

Clara and Magda- Material Girls (our first music video)

Playing in the last bit of leaves left before the first snowfall. For Chicago, that could be any day now. 

Magda and Clara - Dem Bones

The girls seem to be IN LOVE with this song! It is called "Dem Bones" and is basically a skeleton on a plain white background dancing. This is their reaction anytime it comes on...

   Sporting their new winter outerwear!

Morton Arboretum

We are still outside an taking advantage of Chicago's unseasonably warm weather. Our plan was to get to the Arboretum when all the colorful leaves were still ON the trees, but the sleet/rain/high winds we had a week ago took that all away. It was still a very fun place for the girls. They loved crawling and walking up and down a huge hill. I'm not really sure if we were even allowed to go off the path, but no one said to get off. We may have to come here when it snows!! They have a pathway of ALL conifer trees which would make some some cute pics of the girls in the snow.

Brookfield Zoo

Since the weather in Chicago decided to take a U-Turn back to summer weather we took advantage of more outdoor fieldtrips! Today we went to Brookfield Zoo, and this is the first time we opted to not go to Lincoln Park Zoo. Brookfield definitely has a MUCH better ape house. However, strollers are not allowed inside. So, I had to carry the girls most of the way through it. I hope they don't plan on being held a lot tomorrow, my arm muscles are going to be out of service. The polar bears were by far the best part. The girls got very up close and personal with a very friendly bear.

      Playing Outside while we still can!!!!

Up close with both the girls!

HALLOWEEN!!!!!

HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Well the costumes came out very well, and the girls pulled off two of the cutest bumblebees I have ever seen. They competed in a costume contest at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago. They didn't scream or cry at all! Clara clapped on stage and Magda walked all over the place. Neither were scared of the crowd or the noise. They were very cooperative after standing in line for a half hour before the competition even started. Unfortunately, we did not win the contest. We lost to a Chucky....that's right, that creepy doll. Someone dressed their child up in overalls, red hair, and freckles and called in a costume. It honstely looked more like Raggedy Ann. It was a good day all in all. Next year we are bringing the competition, and props seem to give you an edge as well.



Didier Farm

DIDIER FARM

Today was our last fall fall outing...tear. We decided to go to Didier Farm and go on a hayride, but of course these girls couldn't pass by the PUMPKINS!!! They absolutely love crawling around in them. Magda even gave a hug to a few of them and even tried to pick them up...obviously she was not successful. As for Clara, she loved the hayride. There were scarecrows along the ride and she waved at every single one!

Even on the windiest, yuckiest days the girls are still all smiles!!! 

Chicago was supposed to have one of the worst storms in 70 years, and other then it being windy (barely more then normal) this storm must have been invisible or took a turn in a different direction.

Painting Pumpkins!

Our pumpkins are painted!

The girls painted the smaller pumpkins all by themselves. I just put on some green paint and they couldn't wait to get their hands into it! After a few minutes they were more excited to squish in their hands then continue with the pumpkin painting. After their small pumpkins were finished we mad handprints for spider legs on the larger pumpkins. After they dried I added a little color, webs, and their names. 

Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm!!!!

We took a trip to Barrington to visit Goebberts. Yet again we probably could have spent all day long playing in the pumpkins! The girls actually picked out their own pumpkins! I took out 5 pumpkins that were all roughly the same size and shape and let them go to them. The first one they went to was their pumpkin...might not be what they would have actually "chosen"...but they're infants, so this seemed like the best pumpkin picking alternative. 

Some Halloween Fun!!

It was a little chilly today, but we got to enjoy being outside. The girls played with chalk and used Magda's new dinosaur walker to go up and down the sidewalk. We also started "Your Baby Can Read." They are supposed to watch this 10 minute DVD twice a day, but since we don't want to spend our time doing that, the girls will see it once a day while I'm getting their lunch ready. Apparently it only takes a month before they are "reading" so we will see if it actually works. The DVD does keep their attention and they both waved and clapped when prompted to....mind you that was when the were shown children clapping and waving while someone said the word, not when the word alone was shown... no reading yet. 

                                             Just another day at Oz Park.

Magda's Party

MAGDAS PARTY!!!

Daddy bought Magda a special tinkerbell cake filled with starwberries. At first she was very cautious about digging into the cake and only took little nibbles here and there. Once she realized the greatness of sugar she really dug into it. It wasn't as climactic as we had hoped, but she got share her first cake experience with friends, family, and even grandma and grandpa over skype.

Magda's First Birthday!!!!

 Magda's birthday was celebrated at Navy Pier's Children's Museum. The girls LOVED it there! There was so much more to do then we had expected. They got to "ride" a CTA bus, play in water tables, and chase butterflies. We took a walk along the lake after lunch but to cool weather didn't allow us to stay outside for long. Magda's favorite place was the water tables. She loved using the fish net to splash the water and was not too happy when we had to lave and she couldn't take take the net with her. Clara enjoyed to the light table. She loved to stack the transparent legos on top of the table look through them. 

Wagner Farm

We took a drive out to Wagner Farm in Glenview for our first fall outing. The girls could have played in the pumpkins all day long. They loved to climb over them and play peek-a-boo behind the big ones. We also got very close to a cow at the farm. We probably could have touched him/her, but we kept our distance. Magda loved "talking" to a goose. She stood right at the cage and babbled like crazy, she did however jump when the goose would honk back.  Clara loved crawling around in an old wagon. She thought it was funny to have me go from one end of the wagon to the other trying to get her out of it!