Britta's Shower

Back in June I had the pleasure of being a hostess along with Leah, Annie, Stacy and Stephanie for Britta's bridal shower.   I was also really excited to have it at my place.  It was fun decorating and pretending to be Martha Stewart :)  Here are a few pictures of a wonderful time celebrating Erik and Britta's wedding!!!!

 

The food table



The favors...I made caramel and Linnea put together the bags which I think were super cute. Britta liked these so much that we ended up doing them as her wedding favors too! I had a carry-on bag full of 520 pieces of caramel when we flew to Seattle!

 

Annie put together a ton of pictures and we had them all over inside and outside.

It was great weather that day so we were able to eat outside.  Our theme for the shower was rustic chic which was also the wedding theme.

Pictures outside

I hung these lanterns on this tree and I thought it was so cute I left it up for the whole summer.

Linnea also made these rock picture holders which were really great.  If you can't tell they are in the shape of B, heart and E.

It was a fun shower celebrating Britta and Erik!

Activities that keep us busy

 

Here are just a sample of activities that Addison, Caroline and I enjoy.

 

Caroline making a butterfly tissue paper window thingy.



Addison all smiles and Caroline still hard at work

 There have been a lot of animals that come through our backyard.  We love watching and talking about them.

Goose family

Chipmunk

Bunny
 

Bee

We made this butterfly feeder but no butterflies came by at least when we were watching.  Addison and Caroline really enjoyed watching the bee eating away.  They were fascinated.



Our rose bush

An impromptu hug!  We are very happy and lucky that they get along and really love each other....for now.

They have a lot of fun tickling each other.  They really laugh together a lot and we LOVE it.  Music to our ears and hearts.

Memorial Day

No, I did not make a mistake on the title.  You would think that this post is about Labor Day that we just had but this is from Memorial Day several months ago.  What can I say, I am catching up now.

 

We have started a unspoken tradition (tradition, my family?  I know, crazy) of going to the Winnetka Memorial Day parade and then spending the day at my parents house together.  This is also when we celebrate my dad's birthday and the way he likes to celebrate is by grilling his family a very delicious meal!  It is usually ribs and as he says they get better and better every year!  He is right and we are lucky that he likes to celebrate his birthday this way.

 

Gwen and Sonja waiting for the parade to start.

Addison and Caroline basically had their hands over their eyes the whole time.  The sun was too bright and they were not too fond of the parade either.  Oh well.

Playing in the pool after the parade.  That is Addison with Gwen and Sonja.

Addison

Here is Caroline in the swing.  This is always a big hit at Mor Mor and Grandpa's.

Addison in front and Caroline in back

Caroline

Naomi

My dad, his car and his grill!  Happy birthday!!!!!

Naomi was giving Lucia kisses.  They are really cute together!

Relaxin

 

Oh Cam!

Sonja loves to smile and have fun.

Matt and Lucia

 

Naomi got hold of a rib and loved it!  We thought it was hilarious of course.

Feeding Grandpa

Me and Caroline.  She loved the ribs too!

The perfect ending to a great day...ice cream!

 

Naomi turns 1 and Another Trip to the Zoo

At the end of April Naomi turned 1!  She is just the sweetest, happy and laid back little lady you will ever meet!  Happy birthday sweet Naomi!



Of course she was all smiles when we were singing to her.





She loved her cupcake...who wouldn't!

She fit perfectly in this doll carriage...so cute!

Just a random picture of Addison eating pizza.  So messy!!!

 By far one of Addison and Caroline's favorite places to go is the zoo.  They are always talking about the animals they saw for days or weeks after we go.  I always love taking pictures of the animals when we go so I have fun too!

Who knew peacocks could fly

 

They always love going to pet/brush the goats

Their confidence around the goats change every time we go.  This trip they were being pretty timid and would not get closer than this to them but afterwards they still talked about how they "brushed" the goats.

Mother goat in the barn that just had a baby.

 

We tried riding the tram for the first time with them on this trip to the zoo.  They did not like it.  Not sure why but oh well.  At least the tickets were free with our membership.

 

They LOVED the seals!

 

Waiting for the dolphin show to start.

This was the only picture I took of the show because we thought we were sitting in the no splash zone and we very much were in it!  About a minute into the show a dolphin came to the edge of the wall right in front of our section, flipped its tail and a wall of water came our way.  If you know Addison and Caroline you know how much they HATE getting splashed.  As you might guess, they lost it and never recovered.  We were able to stay for the whole show but they did not enjoy it one bit which is too bad because they were really excited before they were splashed.