Pigtails and Tricycles

Ella is growing up so fast! The last couple of weeks I was able to put her hair in pigtails a couple of times and it makes her look so much older! Like a little girl now, not a baby. Here are a couple of pictures with her pigtails!

Pigtails!

Sitting with all her toys in the toy box

Sitting in the toys, and wearing the princess skirt!

As much as I love the pigtails, we had to get her hair cut this past weekend. Her bangs were starting to hang in her eyes again and she just needed a trim. I think I can still do the pigtails, but she won't let me try. I'll have to give it a couple of weeks and try again.

Then last week, Ella got her first tricycle! This was actually a b-day present from Grandma and Grandpa Keyes that got delayed a little bit. She didn't care at all and loved it all the same. Here are a couple of pictures with her new trike and a little "Thank You" video for Grandma and Grandpa.

Packing up the "trunk"

Trying it out

Taking along some friends

My Parents Visit

So, I'm a little behind with this post, but who cares. My parents were in town visiting a couple of weekends ago, along with my Aunt Sandy, Uncle Mark and my cousin Sydney (who's 10). We had a really good time and squeezed in a ton of stuff in just a few days. I wish the weather would have cooperated better though, it wasn't the nicest weekend. They all took the train into town and Marc picked them up from Union Station. They stayed at a hotel downtown this time instead of at our house. We just didn't think we could fit everyone into our condo. We ate a lot of food, good food and walked a lot over the weekend. We went to the observatory deck in the Hancock tower on Friday, which was nice. I had never been up there before, the views were great. It was fun to see everything in the city and be able to point out places.

One of the views

Sydney, Ella and Me up in the Hancock

Sydney and Ella pretending to watch the windows

Sydney and Uncle Mark washing the windows

We also went to the American Girl Store and many other stores on State Street. Then on Saturday we went to the Shed Aquarium, which was a lot of fun. Ella had a great time and I think that everyone else enjoyed it as well. Unfortuntely, Marc didn't come with us, he wasn't feeling well at all on Saturday, so he opted to stay home for the day.

Ella's cute outfit that day!

Ella sitting on the big pumpkin out front of the Shed

Ella and Sydney on the big pumpkins

It was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to spending more time with all of them at Thanksgiving. I love when my parents come to visit, it refreshes me. I truly enjoy spending time with them and seeing Ella with them. Plus, Sydney was great with Ella and it was nice to not have to be the only one keeping an eye on her!

I've been tagged

So, I guess my friend Angie tagged me and I'm supposed to follow the rules of being tagged. I am supposed to list 7 things about me, some random, some weird and then tag 7 other blogs. I can list my 7 things, but I don't know 7 people with blogs, and the ones I do know Angie already tagged. I think it's kind of fun to do this, so here it goes:

1. I haven't worked full time since May of 2006!

2. Being a mom is the job I have always wanted. I never was very career driven, I was just waiting for the job I really wanted.

3. I don't feel like Chicago is my home, MN will always be home.

4. I love ice cream.

5. I love to plan and be organized. I need to know what is going on and when stuff is going to happen. I even plan out our weekly dinners and write it down so I don't forget.

6. I look forward to the Sunday paper :) I like to look at the ads.

7. I can't wait to be pregnant again, I loved being pregnant.

Well, there are my 7 things about myself. Sorry, I don't have anyone to pass this tag along too :(

Halloween Fun

So, I know it's been awhile since I've written and I have a lot to share about Halloween. We started the fun about a week ago with a trip to Spooky Zoo at Lincoln Park Zoo. Every year since I've lived here we have gone. The first year Marc and I volunteered at it and then we've brought Ella every year since she was born. They have some entertainment and characters walking around, then they have tables set up with goodies for the kids. The lines can get pretty long, but Ella still doesn't care that much so we can get by with just a couple of goodies. She more enjoyed just seeing the animals and all the other kids dressed up.

Our little zebra

Mommy even dressed up, kind of

A zebra looking at the zebras

A tree hugger

Sleeping on Daddy's head after a long day

Then on Halloween Ella had a party at gym daycare in the morning. The kids got to wear their costumes and they had cookies for them and decorated the room. They brought in the TV and they got to watch a couple of cartoons as a special treat. Ella had a good time and too many cookies I'm sure. Oh, and I also put her hair in pigtails for the first time that day.

Pigtails

Ella and her friends, Ella and Brady (twins)

We were lucky enough to get invited to a very nice neighborhood for trick or treating. A guy from Marc's work invited us to come trick or treating in his neighborhood. They live in a sort of "gated" neighborhood, so hardly any cars and lots of families. Eric and Erica have two little girls, 3 and almost 1, so Ella fit right in. They have a little tradition there of a Halloween parade. Everyone gathers in one area and all the kids can see each other and walk around for awhile. Then they start moving through the neighborhood for the actual trick or treating. People stand in the streets or by their garages, so the kids don't have to actually go up to the doors. It was fun, Ella had such good time.

Getting ready for trick or treating

Talia, her trick or treating companion

Look at that bag, already dragging

Ella and daddy

Trick or treating, it's a little dark, but cute

After the kids finished up with the candy we stayed over for awhile and ate dinner. Ella and Talia got to have a "picnic" with their dinner. They shared some edamame and then got hot dogs and a little bit of their candy.

Ella and Talia having dinner

I think we had a very fun Halloween and it was great to see Ella enjoying herself and starting to understand what was going on.

Fall - Loving it!

Now that fall is really here, we are loving it. It has been fun so far and the great weather has been nice. We have been trying to take in all the fun of fall and Halloween. A couple of weeks ago we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo for Harvest Days. Harvest days is a weekend at the zoo where there are activities centered around fall and farming. They have all the festivities out at the farm part of the Zoo and there were lots of things for the kids to do. They also have a pumpkin patch where the kids can each pick out their own pumpkin to bring home. We had a lot of fun and Ella really enjoyed seeing all the pumpkins and getting to pick one out herself.

Picking out her pumpkin

Here's a good one!

Decorating her pumpkin

We even made her a mask

Daddy and Ella looking at the cows

Ella and I have taken advantage of the nice weather lately and headed the park a couple of afternoons. When we don't have time for the park we'll go for a walk around the block. She probably has just as much fun and she can actually walk the whole way instead of having to ride in the stroller. The other day we were out and she was very interested in the leaves that were on the ground. Living right in the city we don't have a ton of leaves to play in, but there is a couple of big trees that line our street that have dropped some leaves. Ella really wanted to play in them, so I thought it would be a good time to grab some pictures.

Yea, leaves!

Look what I found, a "big stick"

Cheese

Last weekend we carved our pumpkins. I know it's kind of early, but it was nice out and we were all here, so we thought we would just do it. Plus, Ella isn't going to know if they last until Halloween or not :) It was fun carving the pumpkins, but Ella wasn't really in to it. She was actually a little scared of the inside of the pumpkins. So, Marc and I each carved one and Ella just played on the deck with Mona (our cat).

So, like I said we have been enjoying fall and I'm looking forward to Halloween fun too. We are going to Lincoln Park Zoo for Spooky Zoo this weekend and then Ella has a Halloween party at the gym daycare on Halloween, so lots of fun coming up. It is fun this year, because she actually knows what she is going to be. If you ask her what she is going to be for Halloween, she promptly responds, "a zeba" (zebra).

Guess Who's Two

That's right Ella turned 2 on Saturday and is now officially in her terrible two's! Actually, I think she hit those at about 18months, although she isn't very bad at all. Her birthday celebrations actually started while we were in MN where we had a birthday party for her on September 17th. We wanted to have a birthday party for her in MN so that her cousins would be able to come and celebrate with her. She is definitely starting to understand the whole birthday thing. She kept asking for a "happy itday cake". For her birthday party I made her an Elmo cake.

Pretty good, huh?!

This was actually her first birthday party she's had. For her first birthday we never had an actual party, so it was fun to have something for her. She enjoyed playing with her cousins and having balloons in the house. We let the kids play outside for awhile and then brought everyone in to eat. After everyone was done eating we opened presents to keep the kids roped in for awhile longer before cake. Ella was so cute opening the presents. She would open one and then just want to play with it, she didn't understand that she had more than one to open.

Pushing her new mega blocks wagon

She received great presents from my family and our friends. She got some new clothes, books, dress up clothes, mega blocks and weebles. I think her favorite present was the My first leapfrog book reader from my brother. He got her that and a Dora book to go with it, she plays with it at least once a day. After presents we had the Elmo cake. Since I used a lot of food coloring in decorating the cake I recommended that all the kids take off their shirts to have cake. I didn't want to risk any stains on behalf of Elmo! Here are pictures from cake eating.

Cheese! Good cake, it doesn't even need a plate

Who needs hands?!?

All the kids had a great time and I'm so glad that we were able to celebrate with family and friends. I don't know how people throw big parties for kids though. It was stressful enough with only about 10 people, I can't imagine a bigger party.

Then Saturday was her real birthday so we had a little celebration again for her. John, my brother-in-law, Katie and Johnathon came out for the day. Marc, Ella and I started out the day with a birthday breakfast of pancakes.

Birthday Pancakes for breakfast

Ella and Johnathon played all day together (except for when she had to nap). I got her a couple of balloons while at the grocery store so we had a couple of decorations. We grilled out for dinner and our neighbors, Jamie and April came up for dinner. We all had a good dinner and then had cupcakes for Ella's birthday cake this time. I made cupcakes and decorated them with chocolate frosting and M&M's. Ella even blew out her own candle this time! She got to open presents again, this time from Uncle John and Katie and from Jamie and April. She got another new Dora book and a princess book as well as more blocks (which she loves). It was a very fun day and Ella wasn't ready for it to end, she fought to the end to go to bed! Here are pictures from that day:

Birthday Princess

Opening presents

Blowing out the candle

Playing with Johnathon, making silly faces

This lucky girl actually gets one more birthday celebration, I know, crazy. We are going to Ohio next weekend for my sister-in-laws baby shower and we will celebrate Ella's birthday again with Marc's mom and stepdad.

I can't believe my little girl is two already. I love her so much and I am really loving the girl she is turning into. She is very sweet and loving, but independent at the same time. She is growing so fast and learning new things everyday.

What a big girl!

3Day Walk

Most of you know that I participated in the Susan G. Koman 3Day Walk for breast cancer. The walk was the main reason why I was in MN. My mom, sister, Alicia, and I walked in the Twin Cities walk on Sept 19-21st, and it was an amazing experience. For anyone that doesn't really know what it is all about her is a little summary. They have the 3Day walk in 15 different cities around the country and you can walk as an individual or in teams and it is a 60 mile walk over 3 days. You have to raise at least $2200 to participate in the walk and all the money goes to the Susan G. Koman Foundation which uses the money for a number of things, but mainly for breast cancer research. My sister Alicia is the one who wanted to do the walk and wanted us to participate with her. Her daughter's paternal grandma died from breast cancer years ago and Kaia will never get to know her. That was the motivation behind the whole idea. We walked as a team with two other great ladies and our team name was, For Our Daughters. We started out at the State Fair grounds on Friday morning and ended up at the State Capital on Sunday afternoon. There were lots of places in between and it was a trying experience. I've done 4 triathlons in the past and this was harder than that in a lot of ways. It is the same movement over and over again for 20 miles for 3 days in a row. I don't think sleeping on the ground helped any either. That's right, we camped each night at an amazing camp site that was set up just for us. There were about 3000 walkers and almost 300 volunteer crew members to help us along our way. Like I said before it was an amazing experience and definitely something I will do again. People were so grateful that we were walking and took the time to raise the money and train for the walk. Along the route they set up cheering stations where friends, family and anyone else can come out and cheer us on and that in itself was great. There were a lot of breast cancer survivors that would come out and just say thank you, sometimes it made you cry, but also feel blessed that you are able to do something to help. Marc came to MN a couple of days before the walk so that he could take care of Ella. Marc and my dad came out to cheering stations a couple of times and brought Ella and Kaia with them. On the last day, Sara came with her kids as well and they were all there at the same time. So, besides having a pain in my leg for a few days and some sore, stiff muscles, it was completely worth the effort to participate in this event. Here are some pictures from the walk.

At opening ceremonies

"Titty Town"- One of the pit stops along the route

A local fire station showing their support

All the grandkids at one of the cheering stations

Yea, we did it! Our team at the end of the route

Thank you to everyone who supported me in both thoughts and prayers and with donations.