A visit to the arboretum

Thursday morning, Owen and I drove out to the Morton Arboretum to meet some friends. It is so beautiful there and very kid friendly. They had tons of fall flowers, gourds, and pumpkins and all of the leaves are starting to change. The weather was a little cooler, too. It puts you in a fall mood. The kids had so much fun playing in the frog pond, trying out the musical flowers, playing on the playground, and maneuvering through the maze. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera!

Dancing man

Here it is!!! I have tried to upload this darn video about 5 times and it finally worked! This was at the Northwestern game, about a month ago! Enjoy!

Frankenpumpkin

We bought this Mr. Potatohead Frankenstein kit for pumpkins at Target and a pumpkin at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, so today Owen and I went to town.


The pieces weren't sturdy enough to poke into the pumpkin, so we used the end of the beater. It actually worked pretty well.

Owen has been very into "cooking" lately, so he was happy to use the beaters, too! I just wish I could get this kid to sit down for a nice picture, though!

This one would have been great, and then he moved! He really enjoyed playing with the "parts" and putting them back in different places. We already lost the nose! We'll carve the pumpkin after we get home from vacation!

Guitar Hero...

Here he is! Live in action!

Here he is showing off his do-rag. This is his rock star look!

A finished project...

Here it is... I finished my sweater! I started it around the middle of August :o) I'm actually really happy with how it turned out. It is really soft and I like the fit a lot. I can't wait to start another project. I think I'm going to make Owen a sweater for Christmas next.

More comapany!

Sunday, we had another visitor stop by. Uncle Al was in town for his girlfriend's cousin's wedding. It was great to see him, even though it was only for a couple of hours. He had fun playing with Owen. We made pizza from the Homemade Pizza Kitchen and then took him to Midway for his flight back to KC.

Owen's first rock concert

Saturday night, Owen, Mike and I went to Chili's for dinner. Afterward, they went to see a free Fountains of Wayne concert in downtown Evanston. I was so jealous I had to go to work! Mike said Owen had a great time dancing around!

A roadtrip

Last week, Owen and I loaded up the car and drove to visit our friends Megan and Josh and their new baby Keatin (7 weeks old) in Ames, IA. We left Tuesday morning and made it in about 7 hrs. I guess it is normally a 5-6 hr drive, but considering, Owen did great and I felt like we made pretty good time! The furthest Owen and I had ever driven alone to date was to St. Louis.

After we arrived, we had dinner and caught up. I put a very tired Owen to bed in Keatin's pack 'n play. Would you believe that he climbed out?! He was getting pretty mad in our bedroom and after a few minutes I went to check on him and found him trying to open the door! I could not believe it! He refused to stay in that pack 'n play so, the two of us hit the sack early and he thrashed and laid all over me all night long. The next morning we got moving (after a couple of cups of coffee!) and made it out of the house in time for lunch. We ate at a great bbq resturant (which is where Owen had fun checking out this carving of a Native American.) Afterwards, we got a tour of downtown Ames. It is such a cute college town! After a little shopping, we hit the park.

Owen loved this alligator...

(He was being gentle, I swear! He really liked checking Keatin out!)

After a long day, we ordered pizza and watched the Cubs game. Owen was pretty crabby by this point, so I put him to bed pretty early and he didn't stir until I woke him up 13 hours later (thank goodness!!! I was wondering how we were going to make it home!) We went to the mall with Megan and Keatin and did a little shopping and let Owen play at the playground while Keatin had a bottle. Megan even let me feed her while she played with Owen. Keatin is such a cutie! It was so nice to hold a tiny, snuggly, warm baby! I love my Owen so much, but at almost 19 months, he is quite the "big boy." We tired him out pretty well and had lunch before we loaded up to head back to Chicago. On the way home, he was such an angel! He took a great nap and watched a couple of movies. He didn't even get the slightest bit crabby until we got to Aroura, IL (about an hour from home) and it was a little past his dinner. We had so much fun and it was great to catch up with our friends!

Thanks so much to Megan, Josh, Keatin, and Crimson (the dog) for their hospitality. Come visit anytime!

Apple Picking...

The last Sunday in September, after I finally woke up (I'd worked all weekend) we drove to Apple Holler in WI for our 2nd annual apple picking trip. We truly had a great time! It was so nice to get out of the city. We started out by looking at the goats.

Next, we went to try and take a nice picture of Owen by the pumpkins. This is what we ended up with...

There was the cutest little girl, about Owen's age, right by us... her parents got her to sit on a pumpkin and eat an apple, while smiling, for the camera and this was the best we could do. Go figure!

Owen had a great time tromping through the tall grass and picking apples. His favorite thing about our trip to Apple Holler was eating apples, though! In fact, he wanted to take a "test bite" of every apple he picked!

He definitely did more eating than picking!

Here he is back home with his apple haul! Thank goodness he is a hungry growing boy!

Go Wildcats!

We took Owen to his second Northwestern football game a couple of weeks ago. We met the Lakofkas and the Conklins there. It was a surprisingly warm day. At halftime, we had to move to a more shady area because Owen overheated and got a little sick. He loved the game, though. He loved to cheer!

He loved dancing to the music and the band!

He loved playing in the kids area!

He loved riding on Mike's shoulders! He really loved the train ride to the game! We walk by the train so many times each day and he is always excited to see it go by. I think we might just start taking it for fun more often, though. He loved it so much!

FYI- I tried to add a good video of Owen dancing but I can't get it process right now. Check back later!

1-and-a-half and other silliness

Can you believe how fast the last 6 months have flown by since Owen's birthday? I can't!!! We baked cookies to celebrate Owen's half birthday. Because my birthday is in the summer, we always celebrated our half birthday at school. I guess I still feel like half birthdays are something to celebrate. FYI- at his 18 month checkup he was 26 lbs 9oz (60th percentile) and 34.5 inches (95th percentile.)

Here are some pictures of Owen being silly in his high chair. Aren't those legs getting long?!

This is Owen at the park. He was trying to make sand castles with wood chips and having a great time :o)

He still loves the fire truck... I caught him in a rare moment when he wasn't "surfing" on it!

It was a little cool the other night, so we tried on the monkey robe with Owen's monkey jammies. He thought it was great! Doesn't he look cuddly!

I know, I know, more bathtub pictures!

And, after the bath!