Alexis Birthday Earlier in July

The morning or her Birthday - but forgot my camera when we went downtown so didn't get pictures of the beach and the zoo!

Children's Museum and Birthday

We went to the Naperville Children's Museum with my brother and sister in law and my niece and nephews.... it was a fun time for all....
My brother, (and my Godfather) with his son...

The girls playing on one of the exhibits...

My beautiful neice stops for a picture...

Kayla really loved the museum....
The cousins gather for a picture... quite fun getting 5 children ages 3 and under to pose for a picture!

Making Mommy a cake with Daddy while I was at work....

So proud of her beautiful work!
They sang Happy Birthday to Mommy while I blew out the candles!
To Jurin for dinner of course on Monday night, Mommy's Birthday! Mommy and Daddy spent the weekend in Galena courtesy of Auntie Louise and Uncle Mike... The Bed and Breakfast we stayed in was beautiful... we had a great time! Mommy got pampered with a full massage, pedicure and facial! I didn't think I would know what to do laying still for an hour, but it was very relaxing!

Dinner at Jurin with my favorite girls and boy!

Sunday with the Girls

Sunday after Church, we took a walk around the NIU campus (Mommy's alma mater) to kill some time before lunch....

Alexis holding her sister on the bench so she didn't fall...
Our girls

Alexis loved this sculpture, it was pretty neat. She wanted to sit inside of it and kept asking "Mommy, who did this?"

Both of the girls were trying to find the right size hand print for their hand...

Alexis made a friend on the bridge looking at the fish.

Walking together.... Kayla looks back to make sure Mommy and Daddy are still there!

Mommy attempts to take a picture with the girls.
We had a great weekend!

A Tastefully Perfect Weekend

We took the girls down to the opening of the Taste of Chicago on Friday afternoon. We all had a great time. It was a little crowded, but there were mostly families there. We ate lots of good food and ice cream.

Playing by Buckingham Fountain... Alexis couldn't get Kayla to stand still to take a picture with her.

We were just in time to see these beautiful Clydesdale (?) horses go by... of course Kayla was making the sound of a horse!

Alexis loves waterfalls and fountains, so she thought the fountain was great and wanted to go in it! Kayla got bored very quickly and was ready to move on...
The girls found some pigeons to chase after. Kayla wanted to catch them so badly. Alexis was telling her to be careful.

We saw a bunny in one of the gardens, the girls were very excited!
And a pretty butterfly... there were a lot of them but this is the best picture I took.
Trying to take a picture of a 2 (almost 3) year old and a 1 year old is fun... Kayla kept getting up and walking away...
Alexis finally held her tight enough so she couldn't get away!
Then we walked to the lake to look at the boats and found some geese.

Went back to The Taste for more food and a ferris wheel ride for Mommy and Alexis!

It was pretty neat being up so high, Alexis loved it, but I couldn't get a good picture of her (I didn't want her to sit too far away from me since we were the only people in the gondola).
Up high above Chicago - I did hold Alexis up so she could see how high we were above all of the people.
Visiting with the horses that we saw earlier. Alexis spent a lot of time looking at all of the horses in their stalls. She was very fascinated with how big they were and how they were eating their food.

Kayla was getting tired, big sister gave her a hug and said it's alright Kayla...
Sisters, such a precious gift....
Alexis got to jump in the moon walk. She really wanted to go in the one for big kids, but we didn't want her to get hurt so she went with the smaller toddlers as she should.

On our long walk to the beach - Kayla kept giving Alexis big wet kisses. We're trying to teach her to kiss on the cheek instead of on the lips...

Playing at the beach - we all had a great time at the beach... it was very chilly, but we were prepared. The girls loved the sand and Mommy and Daddy loved to have a few minutes to sit on our blanket in the sand and just watch the girls play.

When I asked Alexis if I could wash the sand on her hands off with the lake water, she ran away from me (smart girl!). The water was way too cold!

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the way home... with the girls sleeping peacefully in the backseat.