At the Circus!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we headed to Chicago to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Kingsley side of the family. It was wonderful having all the cousins together. On Saturday we took all the kids to the Ringling Brothers Circus. Alice was mesmerized, but mostly enjoyed the animals, especially the elephants. When the elephants left the stage, Alice would say, "Where elephants?"

Alice however did leave with two souvenirs from the circus. First, an adorable plush elephant that she now sleeps with every night, and second, an an awful facial bruise from tumbling down two sets of stairs. Yes, she slipped and went face first before I could even grab her or stop her. Other than a bruise and a few minutes of screaming, she was fine, it was me who was a mess. . . just freaked out mostly at what could have happened. Good thing children are resilient!

Playing/throwing children to pass the time before the gates opened.

Emma and Anastasia


Dragging Papa around to play with me.


Camel/Shoulder rides



Amazing Elephants

Before "the fall"

After "the fall: although the bruise continued to crawl down her cheek :(

Gotta have popcorn for the show!


Alice was being very difficult during this attempt at a Christmas photo. . . This is the best we could get :)

TrikyTeet

"TickyTeet" (as Alice pronounces it) was a lot of fun for this little giraffe! She didn't quite grasp the concept of holding out the bag for candy, but she did fully understand how delicious chocolate is saying, "more chocolate peease" over and over again. Of course, I'd open a bag and then somehow manage to finish off the rest myself. Alice decided it would only be polite to wave and say "bye, bye" to every trick or treater and then blow them a kiss from the cutest giraffe EVER! It was cute. Whenever we'd ask her, "Where's the giraffe?" she'd point to her head and outfit and say, "geaffe." The next day I asked her if she liked being a giraffe on Halloween, and she starting looking at her clothes and became very confused about where the giraffe went :)

It is nearly impossible to get her to smile at the camera these days, but she did say "cheese" long enough for me to get this shot.


A little closer incase you didn't see all her beautiful teeth :)


Alice did not want to be carried or put in her stroller. She kept insisting, "walk, walk, walk"


Ready to go!

Tiffany and baby Sadie, the lobster. It's hard to believe Alice fit into that costume last year!

Remember this lobster?????


Bye, Bye


Looks like the rest of this candy is for you and me dad!

Fall Break Fun

It was nice to take 3 days off work after 2 long nights of parent-teacher conferences. Even nicer was having Andy around and off work on Thursday and Friday. After my 12 week doctor's apt on Thursday, yes, Alice is going to be a big sister (although we haven't yet broken the news to her :) Andy, Alice, Grammy, and I headed downtown to the Children's Museum. It had been a while since I last visited, and I was thrilled with how much Alice enjoyed her time there. She loved the dinosaur exhibit and kept pointing and saying "dinosaur." She also really enjoyed the toddler "playscapes" room. It was a beautiful day - - probably one of the few we have left before winter :(


pretending to be a dino

tickets please!

playing trains with Grammy

Alice loves to watch the "fishies"


my daddy is so cool!

Alice wasn't too sure about the maze of mirrors. She did run straight into a mirror once:) I know she gets that from me :)

Until next time!