After the Holidays

We all went down to Mississippi for Sylvia's second Christmas. We had a great time visiting family and friends. We went to parties, opened presents, and ate until we had to loosen our belts a notch. Sylvia is really beginning to get into toys, and she loved the variety of things she got to play with - whether they were meant for her, an adult, or one of the pets. She loved getting her hands on anything she hadn't seen before. The big presents this year were a piano, guitar, drums (do you see a theme?), and baby and stroller. Santa brought her lots of books, too.

After Christmas, Darcie and Sylvia stayed in Jackson to celebrate cousin Austin's birthday and hang out with the Price family for the annual reunion. Sylvia even got to ride a horse for a bit (she still doesn't like helmets). On New Year's Eve, the ladies returned to Chicago (and snow).

We've posted photos of Elaina's baptism, Christmas, Austin's birthday, and the Price family reunion in the photo section.


Sylvia in the courtyard.


The rose garden.


That's a Teva sandal in her hand. She was not allowed to wear it outside.


Our holiday card collection.

Hope everyone had a great holiday is enjoying a wonderful new year. Happy 2008!

Holiday Decorating

While Sylvia napped and the rain fell outside, two elves dug through lights, ornaments, and decorative soaps. We decided that a real tree might not survive the season in our household this year, so we pulled out our little 18 inch plastic tree which has served us well since 2001.

Thanksgiving Photos Are Up

Here.

Thanksgiving 2007

We flew down to see the family for the Thanksgiving holiday, making a week vacation of it. We began the trip in Fairhope, Alabama where we stayed with Dede and Papa. Uncle Will and Hoya joined us.

Dede, Sylvia, and Darcie walking along the bay.

Next it was on to Gluckstadt to see Pop-pop and Grandmom and all of the animals.


The rest of the week was split between Grandmama and Granddaddy and Dede and Papa and all of the uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Grandmama and Sylvia read a book.


Sylvia and the Wallace cousins pose for the annual gorilla photo.

Don't worry, there are plenty more photos (and some video). We'll be posting some of our 217 snapshots in a photo gallery soon. Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween certainly seems to be the official kid holiday. Sylvia had a total of 4 Halloween related events over the past few days. And of course all of that culminated in trick-or-treating tonight.



We have posted a whole gallery of costumed images here. Have a look, and happy Halloween!

A Little Bit of Halloween

This weekend Dede and Papa came for a visit.

Sylvia was a great hostess as always.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to a 'little' Halloween party.

Sylvia was a monkey. Another kid was a monkey, too. With so much in common, there was a lot to discuss.


The group photo. That's Sylvia behind the purple ball.


Bobbing for apples.


The walk home.

A Little Turkey, A Little Pumpkin

Technically Canadian Thanksgiving was celebrated a few weeks ago, but to a lot of Chicagoans, October 21 will do just fine. Better late than never, as they say in Toronto. Cecile, our resident Canuck, hosted her annual Canadian Thanksgiving and pumpkin carving this evening. It felt less like Canadian Thanksgiving, though, and more like Florida Thanksgiving with the 72 degree weather. Before going to the party, we even stopped off at the beach to play in the sand.



After brushing the sand out of our hair and practicing a few yoga poses together, we whipped up a squash casserole, grabbed our pumpkin and were off to the party.


Joe did a lot of the hands-on work, though Sylvia tried to help.


Chris and Joe do some carving.


Joe polishes up the final work.


The gallery of jack-o-lanterns.


Our goofy jack-o-lantern.

Taking It Easy on Labor Day

Well, since we cut our camping trip a little short, we decided the best thing to do on Labor Day was just relax and enjoy the wonderful weather. The skies were blue in Evanston on Monday.

First up was brunch at Tre Kronner, a Swedish place in the city. Sylvia had a fruit feast and some toast. After a short nap, we decided to go for a bike ride.

This is where we have to admit that we already opened Sylvia's birthday present from Dede, Papa, Aunt Heather, and Uncle Will. We opened it early! But Sylvia looked at us with such sad eyes, that we had to give in.

The riding is going pretty well. Sylvia loves the bike seat. Unfortunately, she hates the helmet. Her personal best is two blocks before pulling it off. We're working on it.

Next we went for a walk to the lake where Sylvia got to swing for a while and chat with some of her buddies from a local play group. Afterwards we strolled out to the beach to enjoy the sand and water one last time before the swimming areas officially close for the season.

We tried to fill the stroller with sand and then stuck our feet in the water.

After a big dinner of grilled sausages, we all slept well. Hope everyone's Labor Day was fun!

Kettle Moraine

Over the Labor Day weekend we tried a little family experiment and took Sylvia camping at Kettle Moraine State Forest in Wisconsin. We weren't sure how she would take to sleeping in a tent, but she did great.

She slept in her very own baby tent inside our tent.

Unfortunately the mosquitos were pretty bad. We tried a number of hikes...

... but eventually the bites were just too much:

Not even bug spray or clothing could stop them.

Still, we had lots of fun at Kettle Moraine.



Check out all of the photos in the photo album.