lots of family

Oh boy, this is quite an old post, but I'm finally getting around to it! yipes! The end of May, we had a lot of extended family come up to Illinois to visit from several states- Oklahoma, Texas, and North Carolina. It was like a mini-family reunion. We had a good time visiting with all of the cousins and extended family and even hosted a few "hotel/taxi kluesner" for a few nights before the family left for the airport. It was nice getting to see everyone and Alicia got to meet a lot of new cousins! She had a great time playing with them at the park and hanging out. Thanks for letting us visit with y'all while you were in the states!!

Taking some time...

Taking some time to stop and smell the flowers... That's a good lesson
to learn at any age :)

More posts story/pics to come soon I promise!

happy daddy day!

Happy father's day to all you dad's out there!
and especially to "daddy" and "papa" - aka Drew and Grandpa Mike.

Thanks for being there for me and spoiling me rotten like a daddy's girl should be! :)

Shedd visit

Alicia and mommy enjoying a visit to Shedd Aquarium .

Pretty toes

Alicia's first "toe-sies" polish :) pretty dark purple. And yes she
actually sat very good for me and didn't wiggle all around!

fun at the zoo

Since we had the day off last Friday for Alicia's 3-year doctor visit, we thought we'd make it a fun day for her, despite a doctor's visit! We took Alicia to the Brookfield Zoo where they have a special Dinosaur exhibit showing right now. Alicia really loved her dinosaurs, especially when they moved and growled! She really liked to mimic their actions back with her tyrannosaurus-like claws (I mean, hands) and her cheetah-like speed, while she ran around visiting all the other dinosaurs. I think she made for a pretty one-of-a-kind dinosaur! :)
Another first we did at the zoo was to finally ride the carousel there! We have visited the zoo a number of times before in the last few years, but have never took a spin around on the animal carousel. It was a super treat for Alicia, she actually waited in line pretty well and then picked her animal, which was an Ostrich to ride on. The ostrich beat out a polar bear and a lady bug! I did not realize Alicia liked ostriches...I think she liked this guys cause it was so much taller than all the other animals and she could see above everything riding on it!
Well enjoy the pictures, and I will make an effort on the next post this week to be about Alicia's big birthday party bash!

A quick note:

here's a link to some pics from Alicia's bday party last week.. Heather will probably write more later, but we've been asked for some pics.

http://www.kluesner.net/gallery2/v/album/