halloween eve

Enjoy the pictures from our Halloween eve at home on Thursday night. We carved and stabbed a few pumpkins up and made a cute family of pumpkins. Alicia really enjoyed the stabbing portion.. hehe.. it was like Mr. Potato head pieces for a pumpkin! She did a good job with that and even tried to dig out the gooey pumpkin guts with daddy, but she preferred the scooper method rather than using just her hands. She also really enjoyed digging in the seeds and transferring them from bowl to bowl. Oh well, much better progress than last year as I don't think she even wanted to touch the pumpkin insides then! well, enough for one night, check back later for some Halloween night pictures!

some more quick pictures from a few weeks ago

Here's some more photos from Kaylee's birthday party and some photos from an outing at California Pizza Kitchen of the kiddos playing. Alicia, Carl, and Lucas were way too cute that evening, they did a little ring-around-the-rosie, and then even sat nicely for a quick picture for me. Then Lucas dives in for a kiss from Alicia :) while they were waiting outside in the lobby area- oh boy! These kids really do like each other's company.

happy 2nd birthday, Kaylee

Yet another big birthday to celebrate! Kaylee celebrated her 2nd birthday a few weeks ago with her friends, Carl, Lucas, Samantha, Megan, Alicia and a handful of other friends and family. They had a really good turnout and as always, Kaylee's mommy and daddy had some yummy treats for all. Alicia liked the cupcakes' frosting, not so much of the cake yet, but we are getting there I guess ;)  So, Kaylee had a "Blue's Clues" themed birthday, where Kaylee's daddy even got into the festivities and tried out the blue "ears" as well :)  below, in the top right picture, the Suttmann family showed off Megan's new ability by joining in the "fun" - Megan now is a thumb sucker, just like Alicia and Lucas, way to join the club! :) 

Happy 2nd Birthday, Kaylee!

Good potty video :)

Quick update... This is a great educational potty training video that
Alicia loves. So far in the last few weeks Alicia has gone "peepee" on
the potty about 5-6 times now! No "poo" on potty yet though. She tells
me she needs to do that sometimes, such as "Alicia poo" but runs off
and gets scared and doesnt want to sit down at that time. Oh,well some
progress. "Ali peepee" in potty has been getting better-yeah !! Thanks
Elmo! ( and grandma Bev as it seems like when's she's visiting Ali
will go for her, I think she's being bribed,whatever works!)

Vacation Wrap Up

Well sometimes I feel like i' m ready for another vacation... It'd be good to put the wraps on the most recent one to Minnesota.  Already gave a good wrap up of the first few days at the Wisconsin Dells, and Pladsens (MN), but then on Sunday we went to visit Heather's past co-worker and family (The Beckers).

Here's the readers digest version of our last day on vacation.  Sure was a good time and hope to do it again real soon.  

We went to the Minnesota Children's Museum first.  It was a good time watching Alicia and Cole(y) run around in there.  

From MinnesotaDay2

From MinnesotaDay2

From MinnesotaDay2

From MinnesotaDay2

After the musuem,  We went to an apple orchard, where (besides the line we had to wait in to get the farm, it was awesome.  Really cool pics.

From MinnesotaDay2

From MinnesotaDay2

Then afterwards we went back to the Becker house and the kids played/watched TV. Alicia found her own chair.

From MinnesotaDay2

Tons of other pics can be found here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/drew.kluesner/MinnesotaDay2#

happy birthday Carl

Alicia's buddy Carl, celebrated his 2nd birthday a few weeks ago and I'm finally getting around to posting his birthday blog :)

Carl's grandma Jackie sure made an influence on the kiddos that day, as they all love to play ring-around-the-rosie now!






Alicia, Carl, Nick, Kaylee, Lucas, and Megan





Carl getting ready to dive into his cake with Big Bird on it!

Carl, Lucas, and Alicia showing off their dance moves!

Ready yet ?

Last night the kids waiting anxiously at California pizza kitchen for
our reservations... Too cute. Lucas, Alicia , and carl .

Vacation Part 2 - MOA/Pladsens

We made it to Minneapolis around 2pm on Friday, and met up with the Pladsens @ the Mall of America (Gas 2.90-2.95). On the agenda: Fish!

We took a trip to the Aquarium in the basement of the Mall of America. Alicia met up with her new "big sister" Katie and "big" brother Will. Katie is 4-5 and Will just turned 1. Katie was so excited to meet Alicia and the feeling was mutual. Alicia followed Katie everywhere. It was cute.

From KluesnerVacation2008

After seeing the turtles and the fish from Finding Nemo, we headed towards the lego area. They played legos for a bit, then Deb invited us over for pizza. We headed to the hotel picked up Ali's pjs, and headed over. Alicia met Katie and Will's Dad, ate some pizza, and played in the living room. It was pretty fun. The girls sure like to squeal. At the end of the nite, Katie gave Alicia a hug. (then another, and another and another). It was really cute. Lets hope these girls can see each other in a few more years. Until then, we'll have to keep them (and Will) in touch via our blogs.

From 2008KluesnerVacation

After lego's we headed to the Build-A-Bear workshop. There Katie picked out a puppy (called "puppy") and Alicia picked out a black bear. The black bear she called "Otottols" which we spell O'toodles, (name comes from a saying on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). We are hoping that everytime she says O'toodles, we can give her the bear now instead of putting on her show. So far its working.. she's quite attached when he's in her vision.

From 2008KluesnerVacation

From 2008KluesnerVacation

Deb has already wrote about our trip here:
http://pladsenfamily.blogspot.com/2008/10/old-friendsnew-friends.html

More pictures from this day in the trip can be found here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/drew.kluesner/MinnesotaDay1#

We had a great time.. It was great to see the Pladsens again. Stay tuned as part 3 will have our trip to the Childrens Museum, Pine Tree Orchard and the Becker Household.

Vacation Part 1

This is a post for the Kluesner Family, not necessarily only Alicia, but its the best location for the post. we may try to start a family blog at some point, but until then we'll invade on Alicia's space.

Alicia went on her first vacation this past week. And while she won't remember most of it. She made atleast 4 new friends. Mr. O'Toodles, Katie, Will and Cole. (details on the friend in future blogs)

Our adventures started leaving Elgin where Gas was about $3.80 for 87 octane. We drove up to Wisconsin Dells (Wilderness resort), and tackled two of the 3 waterparks. (The other one (Wild West) was supposed to be open the following day from 3-9, but when that day arrived it was said to be closed till the following day. It was a good time.. and went to MooseJaw, Denny's and Monk's (per my cousin Laura's suggestion). Monks was really cool. We'll definetly go back there.

From 2008KluesnerVacation

From 2008KluesnerVacation

Alicia wasn't so fond of the water spraying, or the large bucket of water that tipped over every few minutes, but she did like the mini slide, and the wave pool. The wave pool was good as long as the water hit her in the back. It gave her the giggles. She also enjoyed the lazy river. Not sure if it was due to the water temp (very warm) or just the fact that she was moving along without effort. Anyways.. it was a good time.

Heather and Drew sat thru a 2 hour timeshare presentation to make 100 bucks. It was painful, but overall worth it. We can be bribed.

We also took a look at what "used" to be Lake Delton. Earlier this spring the lake drained into a nearby river. So normally this is a big lake used for boating, skiing and fishing.. now its just a small tributary going thru a field.

From 2008KluesnerVacation

Strange point: Drew ran into a fellow co-worker (Simon) @ wave pool on day 2. Drew shares a cube wall with him and wasn't aware that he was vacationing up there at the same time... Simon's wife watched Alicia for a short while so Heather and Drew could go down a slide. Thanks Jackie! What a small world.

Of course we didn't plan the trip too much in advance. we booked the minneapolis hotel about 24 hours prior to arriving. We tried priceline to save some money, and it worked out pretty good. We stayed in a 3star (Holiday Inn Select) hotel near the airport for $40 a nite. Not too bad.

Stay tuned for Part 2 detailing our trip visiting the Pladsens in the near future. (part 3 (with the Beckers) will come after that)

You can find pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/drew.kluesner/WisDells#5256834808946627586

c-o-o-k-i-e

classic..kluesner girl....

well, if you all don't know already that Alicia sure has alot of "mommyness" in her, this is so much more proof that she is related to Aunt Ann "Fred" just as much...
too cute...



Even funnier thing is, that she has that combo of mommy's liking to the frosting, while she has daddy's liking to not really enjoying cake.. She licks and swipes the frosting off and then spits out the cake.. oy... atleast frosting is somewhat fattening for her, I think her doctors would like that ;-)

yipes I've been tagged..

My friend Melanie has tagged me! oh, bother... so I guess I should do this!

1) 4 Places I go over and over: work, the store, the daycare, and my computer

2) 4 People who email me regularly: 1-Alicia's daycare with updates/pictures!, 2-family, 3-work, 4-spammers! ugh!

3) 4 of my favorite places to eat: 1-Manny's - greasy yummy pizza and tacos back home near Savanna, IL; 2- new favorite-Moe's mexican place right by us-cheap and yummy! -www.moes.com, 3-Happy Joe's - home of the taco pizza.; 4-home-cooked meals by family/friends

4) 4 places I would rather be: 1- Hawaii, 2- somewhere foreign since I've never been out of the country before, 3- moved into a new house with more room, 4 - retired and swimming in money

5) 4 people I tag: Karen, Deb, Rachel, and Courtney

6) 4 TV shows I watch: House, How I Met Your Mother, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty


AND what's a post without a picture..
Alicia and the neighbor boy, Justin, playing outside on one of our few last days of nice weather before we hit Chicago fall weather...er I mean more like cold winter weather.