Dupage Children's Museum

Saturday morning we had fun hanging out at the Dupage Children's Museum!  Jack was in all of his glory with the gears...

...they both had fun creating artwork with the plastic stickers!

This is probably our first of many visits :)

Dr. Julia

Aunt Anne is going to be so happy to see Miss J playing doctor with teddy!  Jack and Julia both love playing with the doctor's kit and giving each other shots (if only they knew!) and taking blood pressure!

Causing a little mischief this morning...

Julia posing in her Hello Kitty outfit (I couldn't pass it up on the sale rack in January).  I used to love Hello Kitty, but I am pretty sure I never had an outfit like this!

Happy 2nd Birthday Miss Julia!

Miss Julia you are 2 years old today!

You are a sassy little diva!  You love clothes, shoes, cars (that's what happens when you have a big brother!), playing outside, coloring with markers and "doing" stickers.

  Your favorite color is orange. 

 You love to ride bikes, but your feet don't touch the pedals.

You are in love with Curious George.

You are a little chatterbox.  You are always quick to announce..."now it's Julia's turn", "I want some too", "what's that noise".

We went shopping this morning and you were so excited to get new purple shoes.  I've never seen you take your shoes off so fast to try on the purple ones!  

We went to Choo Choo Johnny's for your birthday dinner and you were so excited to see all of the trains (your second favorite after cars)...

How fun...dinner comes by train and so did your ice cream!

Everyone was singing Happy Birthday to You!

Jack had to show you how to blow out your candle...big brothers are "ALWAYS" helpful!

Happy Birthday Miss Julia!

XOXO

Teddy Bear Day

Today was Teddy Bear day at preschool!

Julia swiped the bear...

Mommy's Little Helpers

Mommy always has a little helper...

Jack helped make cupcakes for Julia's birthday tomorrow!

Julia helped make dinner...

Brookfield Zoo

We spent last Saturday at the Brookfield Zoo - we were there about 5 hours (which is a long time for two little kids!) and they both had a blast!  

Before checking out the actual zoo we had to give the Fisher Price cars a go (there was a huge Fisher Price display set up)...not sure how many time Jack drove in the circle, but he couldn't get enough...  

Julia couldn't stop laughing...

We saw all sorts of animals, playgrounds (we had to try every slide), a dolphin show, the children's zoo, the play zoo, stingray bay...

One of our favorites was the carousel rides...a first for both!

Chicago!

We love that downtown Chicago is only a 40 minute drive from our house, so on Saturday we explored Navy Pier and the Chicago Children's Museum.

Jack is really into tools and building things, so Jack and Daddy spent the majority of the time in the building area.  Jack probably would have spent the entire time there if we would have let them.  I didn't see the finished product, but I am sure it turned out AMAZING, you know how Jason loves to fix and build things ;)

Julia loved playing in the kitchen...

Two crazy boat drivers on Navy Pier...

Jack checking out the Ferris Wheel...

All that fun makes a little gal sleepy (don't let her fool you, she only slept for 10 minutes!)...

Where's Julia?

Julia and her entourage...

First Day of Preschool

Today was the first day at Jack's new preschool!  We got very lucky as we didn't find out that we were moving until very late in the preschool registration game and we were on a wait list.  I didn't think that we would get in, but we found out this summer that we made it in and I am so happy that we did.  Jack was excited to go to school this morning (it helps that there are tons of fans in the hallways!) and he had a great day playing, painting and making circles!

Those CRAZY kids!

The bad thing is that I was sitting across from Julia when this happened.  I LOVE washable markers!

That's a marker that she is trying to color the camera with...

Then this crazy boy straps himself in a booster seat while I was mopping the kitchen floor and then proceeds to walk around "with a chair on his booty" (his words) for the next 15 minutes (now he looks and the camera and smiles)...

Meet & Greet

We went to Jack's preschool meet and greet this morning (he wasn't about to humor me and look at the camera!) and I think he is going to love it!  The teacher focuses a lot on fine motor skills (writing, scissors, etc.) and this should be great for him!  Thursday will be his official first day!

Bike!

Julia is obsessed with bikes!  She points them out wherever we go and wants to ride all of the time.  She loves wearing her bike helmet too (yes, I still need to cut off the tags) and she doesn't even mind that it's too big (it was the smallest one I could find!).

Labor Day Parade!

We try not to miss a parade...and this was our first one in Naperville.  Let's just say that we need to get there a bit earlier next time; however, we were lucky and got some good seats.  It was a bit chilly...we went from the upper 90's on Saturday to mid-50's on Monday.  

Jack's favorite part of a parade is the candy, but this time he had a lot more competition (which was good since he wanted to eat the candy and soon at it hit his hot little hand!).

She shoots, she scores!

Sunday we had a picnic lunch at the park with Grandma & Grandpa and Daddy and Julia played some hoops ;)

The Last Fling

We spent Saturday morning with Grandma & Grandpa at The Last Fling children's area at Naperville Settlement...and boy was it HOT!  They had the greatest children's area and Julia spent her time dancing in the bubbles and Jack in the bouncy maze (he learned the art of standing in line, not that the lines were long, but let's just say he is sometimes short on patience).

The craft area was fun too!

Two New Georges!

Aunt Anne sent Jack & Julia new Georges and it goes without saying that Jack LOVED his, but Julia has started loving all thing George too!  Julia's favorite saying these days..."I want one too!"

CDO

Monday was Jack and Julia's first day of Children's Day Out (at home we refer to it as school) and they both seemed to enjoy it; however, I believe that Jack got in trouble a few times for not sitting when he was supposed to (most likely during lunch).  

Neither one was too keen on posing for pictures before class started...

...and the only way to keep Jack still for even a minute was with the hand sanitizer bottle!

"School" itself went smoothly, but I paid dearly for my four hours of freedom with a two-hour Jack tantrum and then an afternoon of crankiness since he felt that he didn't need a nap.

Normally they will go one day a week, but this week they they also went today (I wanted to get them used to the program).  Jack will start preschool after Labor Day.  

Julia has taken a liking to her lunch box (thank goodness since I spent way too much time trying to find the "perfect" lunch boxes...and don't get me started on backpacks...I have not found the "perfect" one for Julia, so she is currently using one of the free giveaway bags from Lancome).  

She even had to carry her lunchbox to the car like it was her purse, she is such a girl.  When we made a quick stop to Trader Joe's for a few items she insisted on bringing it with her!