Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Birthday!

 We had such a lovely Thanksgiving with our families!  Grammie, Papo, Aunt Jill, Pamma, Grandpa Dennis and Uncle Greg joined us for some tasty turkey and more!  Both grandma's brought a lot of delicious sides and it worked out to be a perfect Thanksgiving and Allie celebration!

 Pamma's silly turkey hat looked silly and cute on Claire!

 Allie presenting Jill with Pamma's home made cornucopia.

 Allie cracking up with the turkey hat on!

 Allie presenting Papo with the cornucopia!

 We had to take this pic from this angle because Allie wouldn't take her eyes off of the dessert!

 Hamming it up!

 Allie loved this puppy dog!  She kept telling us, "I just want the puppy dog."  She asked for it last night too, but it was long gone by then!

 Present time! 

 Claire really liked Allie's red headed bitty baby doll from Grammie and Papo and red haired dog from Auntie Jill!

Allie playing with the adorable wooden manger from Pamma and Grandpa.

 Celebrating Allie's birthday with the Welke's at Moretti's.  Claire, Mads and Dane all made their own pizza's and Allie stuck to her favorite, french fries!

Sisters = Best Friends

I don't typically dress the girls the same, but it made it so much easier to spot them at play!  They had a great time playing at the Northbrook Court tree house.  Claire is such a great big sister to Allie.

The girls love throwing coins into the fountain.  They do that at the library with Grammie and Papo, so now if they see a fountain, I cross my fingers that I can gather up some change!

Presenting...Claire's new 'do!

Claire has been asking get her hair cut (to her ears) for a long time!  We were at the mall last week and the place was empty, so I let her get a bob.  She was so funny when the lady was cutting it.  The hair stylist kept asking Claire if she was OK because she was cutting off a lot!  I thought Claire might cry, but oh no, not even close!  She was as calm as possible and seemed to love her new look!  We love it too!

Cosley Zoo

We headed out to Cosley zoo last week for some fun outdoors before the cold weather came to play.  The girls watched the ducks for a long time.

 Two cute birdies in the nest.  Claire was flapping her wings.

Some random November pics

 Allie LOVES to sneak up onto the chair and play with the computer. 

 Claire doing her best Lady Gaga impression.  She decided to wear this to school one day, which surprised me!

 Allie actually letting the head band stay on for a few minutes while she tries on some big gloves!

Cheese!

Pizza Party for two!

 We make a lot of pizza at our house!  Matt would have Claire and Allie as his helpers in the past, but now they are pretty much experts!  They do a good job putting on sauce, cheese (Allie always steals a bit) and oregano! 

 A little oddly shaped (mom's fault) but tasty!

Tractor

Girls driving the tractor at Ekert's.  It's a Mc Cormick Farmall, which is something that you don't learn in Chicago!  We were in town to remember our Grandpa Mueller, who would have turned 85 years old on election day.  (Allie is holding the bag that her animal figurines are in.  She really loves them!)

Halloween fun!

We loved Halloween this year!  We headed to the Welke's block, which was super festive and full of kids.  Claire can't wait to trick or treat again next year!

Claire the pumpkin stayed warm!

 Allie, Maddie, Dane, Piper and Amelia!  Claire didn't want to get in this one.  Dane is one lucky boy :)

Allie just went with a doggie hat!  I was all about keeping it simple and warm.  Maybe next year I will actually get creative!

Things on their head!

So our bed isn't made and there are clothes on the floor, but I had to post this of Allie! 


Allie is so silly and this was her idea that Claire decided was a good one!
 

Halloween fun at Preschool

Claire picked out her pumpkin costume.  She is posing with her buddy Ethan.  His dad works with Matt.

 Allie cowgirl.

 Not a great shot but oh well!

Galena for GG's 60th wedding anniversary!

 We had such a fun weekend in Galena celebrating with the GG's and the Ord and Newton crew!  We didn't take many pics because we were too busy having fun! 

Allie loves her little animal figurines!  After dinner, we had quite a catastrophic event when 3 of them got flushed down the toilet.  Allie was screaming, I was laughing.  A lady in the washroom asked me if things were ok!  I had to explain myself.
 Below are a few pics that Pamma took.


 Allie was really into this!

Allie happy to be outside!

Claire exploring during our little hike with Pamma and Grandpa 

 

 

 

 

 

Lincoln Park Zoo

We were so fortunate that this mom gorilla brought her babe right over to us!  You can see how close we were since that is Allie's head at the bottom.  Totally amazing!  All of the animals seemed to come to us today.  That never happens!  Maybe the beautiful fall day had them in good spirits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claire's second time singing at church!

 Posing with her bible that she got in Sunday School.

 This time, Papo, Aunt Jill and Dad were in town to see her sing.

"Momma, take my picture"

 The girls are often asking me to take their picture, so naturally, I oblige! 

 Note Allie's shoes.  She is really, really into shoes.  I'm always having to remind her to take them off!

 Claire wanted in!

Feeding the giraffe at Goebbert's

Goebbert's Farm

We had a great time at Goebbert's!  Claire rode on a camel (while I silently freaked out) and the girls both loved feeding the giraffe.  We loved hanging out with Frankie, Sophia and Sam!

 As soon as Claire saw the camel, she wanted on.  She had no reservations whatsoever!

 Feeding the giraffe was my favorite.  Once again, the kids were fearless!

 Claire asked the man what the camel's name was.  It was Biggs.

 Goebbert's had so many animals to see!