Great America

We went to Six Flags Great America with Tim and Molly yesterday. It was a long day, we left around 9 a.m. and didn't get home until almost 9 p.m., but we all had fun. The morning was pretty dreary, but I think that worked in our favor because the park was not very crowded and only a few rides had long lines.

Lila and I spent most of the day together on the rides marked "mild" and that were suitable for people under 36" tall while the rest of the group rode almost every roller coaster in the park. Chris and Tim did their best to annoy Molly by shouting or acting out the theme of the ride on every coaster, like striking the Superman pose on Superman or flapping their arms on American Eagle.

Lila spent the entire drive up to Gurnee saying, "I ride horsie!" so, of course, we rode the Carousel first thing. Our grand total was four times on the Carousel, but Lila never got tired of it. She rode this horse, one with a red saddle, one with a pink saddle, and a cat. At one point she even put her arms up and said "woo!"

This ride was called King Chaos and basically just flipped you upside down over and over again. Everyone said it was a lot of fun, but Lila started shaking and crying while we watched the ride so we had to steer clear of it after that. We also had to take her to drive the cars again immediately afterwards to return her to her good spirits.

Our end of the day family picture.

As a side note, Tim is making huge progress with Lila. She had fun with him all day and even asked to ride a ride with him. And today she asked if Uncle Tim could go to the park with us. So watch out Aunt Katie, you are going to have some competition next weekend!

For The Cubs Fans

Cubs fans don't have much to smile about these days, but this might help. The first song is Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the second one is Go Cubs Go. For those of you who aren't Cubs fans, the words to the second song are:

Go Cubs Go

Hey Chicago, what do you say?

Cubs are going to win today

An Evening Stroll

Lately, Lila's favorite phrase has been, "I can do it mySELF!" In light of that, she has now decided that she can walk Lucy herself and has done so the last two nights. Lucy has been very tolerant, but I'm sure it helps that she has had her real walk already.

And is there anything cuter than a 2 1/2 foot tall little girl walking a dog?

Erin's Visit

Erin came to visit us this weekend. She flew in Thursday night just in time to watch the Grey's Anatomy finale. On Friday she went to Lila's music class with us and then we all had a low key day at home. On Saturday morning we drove into the city to do the architecture tour on the river. It was very interesting. We all enjoyed it!

Lila and Erin in front of the Wrigley Building (just so you know where we were, not that you can see it).

Lila's favorite part of of the boat tour was looking for geese.

Excuse my hair, it was very windy.

After the boat tour we had some lunch and then Chris and the kids headed home. Erin and I stayed in the city to shop at Lori's Shoes. Katie met up with us and we walked around for awhile before Erin and I caught the train back home.

Sunday was another low key day, but we all enjoyed the chance to hang out!

Birthday Party

We celebrated Lila's Second Birthday with a small, family party at our house last Saturday. Lila had a blast opening her presents and, of course, being the center of attention.

Singing Happy Birthday

After we sang Happy Birthday, I took Lila's cake back to the kitchen to cut it, but Lila didn't know what I was doing so she started crying. She thought I was taking the cake away without giving her any! Chris had to bring her into the kitchen to watch me cut the cake and put it on plates.

Yum! Cake!

She loved opening presents and wanted to make sure that every bit of paper came off of the box. She also wanted all of the toys out of the box right away.

Holding her new baby from Aunt Katie.

As soon as she opened this outfit from Nana and Pa she wanted to put it on.

Holding on tight in her new wagon from Mommy, Daddy, and Ian.

Her favorite toy was definitey her car from Uncle Tim and Molly. She's barely stopped driving it since she opened it.