Santa's Village

We had a great time at Santa's Village!  The girls went on most of the rides and enjoyed the petting zoo.  The weather was pretty much perfect!

 No hands!

 Claire riding on Chester

 Allie riding on Pip

 Allie was so focused!

 Claire was chilling!

The 4th of July

Claire the lake explorer found a clam!  

 Sparkler time!

Smores and sparklers!

 Watching a few at the front of the house.

 The girls prefer to watch inside where it's quieter and there aren't bugs swarming!

 On the 5th, the Welke's came up for the day.  They had fun in the hot tub!

Father's Day!

We started the day at the Hawthorn Woods Country Club with the family!  The girls always love hanging with William!

 It was a tad on the chilly side and windy, but the kids didn't mind!

 Scooter's pie!  It was still delicious despite being a bit over thawed!  Oops.

 Such a great dad!

 Evening BBQ!  What a busy day!

Caterpillars to butterflies!

We searched and searched for a caterpillar, but had no luck!  I purchased some instead!

 Cup-o-caterpillars!  It's kind of gross looking, but the girls thought that they were cute!

 Chrysalis to butterfly!

 We fed them some oranges and sugar water.

 Good bye friends!  Enjoy the world!

 We had nudge them to leave us!

Lake house fun in June

We enjoyed having visitors!  Aunt Jill and Brad came out to the lake house for the first time!  Uncle Chris, Aunt Luz, William, Arrabella, also came for the first time, as did Grammie and Papo.  Pamma and the Welkes were our repeat visitors!  They all came on different days, but I didn't do a good job taking pics.  

 Claire found another baby turtle!  She found one last year too!  It was a different species than last year and the girls named it Licorice.

 Aunt Jill helped Claire make the turtle a comfy home before it was released back into the lake.

 She is always finding creatures in the water!

 Kid picnic!

 All clean with Emmie (8 months)

 Poor Emmie!

 Nappie came with us and he was so cute.  He stayed by us on the beach and walked in the shallow water.

Laurie Berkner concert at Ravinia

We all enjoyed our 2nd annual Laurie Berkner concert with the Welkes!  This picture sums it up!  The kids dance and sing for the full hour.  

 Snacking before the show!

 5-4-3-2-1 Blast off!  Thanks Uncle Matt!

Cubs Family day and Lincoln Park Zoo!

What a fun start to the day!  The girls loved playing on the bounce houses at Wrigley.  It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed exploring the field!

 Hot dogs and chips on the sun deck

 After the fun morning, we headed to the zoo in the afternoon.  The girls stopped to say hello to the meerkats!

 Summertime sisters!