One of mommy's favorite Christmastime traditions

This year I finally let Alicia help me set up my probably all-time favorite Christmastime decorations. This ceramic tree belonged to my Grandma (Leone) Kloss, and when she passed away years ago that was one of the only things I really wanted to keep and perserve. I am so grateful that every year the little light still turns on and the musicbox still plays....

thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobbert's field trip

Wow, what a busy day it was for Alicia’s class last month. Lots of kudos to the preschool teachers at daycare, 4 teachers and a couple of parents (including mommy) took approximately 30+ 2.5-3 year olds on their first field trip to a pumpkin farm! Alicia even got to share her special trip with Lucas and Carl, as their class also went on the trip with them!

Despite being a partially rainy, soggy, muddy day, the kids seemed to have lots of fun at Goebbert’s Pumpkin Farm in South Barrington. We’ve been there before with Alicia and her friends years past, but never a trip like this! The trip consisted of: a Big Yellow School Bus ride, a picnic snack lunch, a movie all about farm living and pumpkins, a petting zoo with LOTS of different kinds of animals, a tractor/hay ride wagon through some muddy corn fields, and a corn field/hay maze. Whew, and then after that, the kids got to pick out their own pumpkin, gourd and mini Indian corn to take home! Oh yes, can’t forget about their “treats” which was a small bag of fun-shaped pretzels and a cup.

The kids had a blast, despite the mud-coated boots and clothes they were wearing that day.. but hey, I guess that is what real farming is about, right?! So the kids even got to experience it that way too.. :)

Alicia's preschool class

for those facebookers out there.. you can see more photos here. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36831&id=1068473303&l=91fb9cb1e8

happy belated halloween!

This Halloween we stayed around our neighborhood this year. We took Alicia to about 5 of our neighbors' houses and by the time we got through the courtyard, she was like "I wanna go home..." so that was about the extent of our Halloween treat or treating. But then we decided to go and "trick-o-treat" at our friends Tomi and Chad in a neighboring suburb, as we knew they were tending to trick or treaters that evening! It was a nice surprise visit when the bumble bee buzzed over to visit!

Kaylee's birthday celebration!

In late October, we celebrated Kaylee's 3rd birthday! The kiddos had a great time running around and playing so well with each other at the Ford's house. Of course, Kaylee's mommy and daddy cooked lots of fabulous food for us! The kids even partook in a pinata game! btw, pinatas now days are way more "safe" than I remember when I was a kid. -Maybe a little bit of taking some of the fun out of it... so now the kids just take turns pulling ribbons and wait for all the treats to fall out instead of swinging a bat... I guess we save the bats for the ball field..

Dubuque pumpkin farm trip with Grandma & Grandpa Kluesner

In late October, Grandma Karen and Grandpa Mike took Alicia to a local pumpkin farm in Dubuque, while mommy and daddy got to spend an "Alicia-free day" in Galena. Alicia had a nice time at the pumpkin patch picking up pumpkins, playing in the bouncy house, and petting the goats and other animals. Alicia even tried something new, she was brave enough to let Grandpa Mike take her on a pony ride! She sure had fun!

lots of happy birthdays to some great women in our family

Alicia wants to share some birthday cheer with all of the November-ish birthdays we have in the family! In the last week, Great Aunt Vera, Aunt Ann (aka Fred), and Grandma Kloss all celebrated their birthdays!! In the next week or so, Grandma Karen and Great Aunt Ann (aka Auntie Up) will be having their special "cake" day soon, too! birthday wishes to all :)

Apple Canyon 2009

As many of you know, We make a yearly trip to the Apple Canyon State Park every fall (usually in October). This year, we happened to take 2 trips, as Alicia didn't cooperate the greatest the first weekend, and we were in town for Aunt Vera's 80th birthday party as well. (More on this on a later blog).

Anyways.... Here's a few of the good pictures from this year. As well as a few others that we tooked. The whole album can be found here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/drew.kluesner/AppleCanyon2009#

Here are a few of my favorites

From AppleCanyon2009

From AppleCanyon2009

From AppleCanyon2009

From AppleCanyon2009

A pic a year since 2000 (still trying to find 2003-2005)

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