Museum visit with Cousin Evie

We went to the museum with Grammy, Molly and Evie. Norah was very excited about the butterfly room, dinosaurs, the igloo, and the rocking chair grandma in the Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit.

Norah's real favorite thing? All of the fountains in the museum. She just wanted to sit and touch the water at every fountain she found. Here she is admiring the water in the rainforest exhibit.

Norah was also fascinated by the butterfly feeders and the fruit left out for them to eat.

A few fun pictures from the fall...so far!

Lily and George are best buds.

Norah LOVES to ride the tractor with Casey.

One afternoon when Casey and Stephan went golfing, Norah and I went to the zoo (one of our favorite places) with Grammy.

We always take a picture next to this little gorilla. I'll have to compare them in the same post sometime to see how the kids have grown and changed.

Norah is 3!

Or should I say "Norah has been three....for two months!" I am a terrible blogger. I cannot even remember when I last blogged (even though I could easily look!) I am back and ready to post updates on our lives.

Oh, Norah. She is such a dear. I can't even find the words. Singing, dancing, painting & swinging at the park remain her very favorite things to do. She also loves to make believe all sorts of things liked grocery store, library, day care drop off, and more. She comes up with all sorts of imaginary scenes on her own. And every profession seems to end in "er" like "librarier" and "marching bander." (It's so cute that I don't even want to correct her.)

Norah loves classical music and requests it regularly, especially songs with "lots of violins."

Norah has been on not one, but two field trips. Yellow school bus and all! Her class went to the apple farm and pumpkin patch. (See picture above.) She might have been more excited about the bus than anything else, but she was still proud to bring home a bag of apples, a tiny pear, a pumpkin, indian corn & more.

Norah can make the letter N (although it's messy) and O in attempt to write her name. Her favorite place to practice at home is on a big dry erase board. I can often hear her reminding herself how to do the N..."up, down, up."

Norah wants to be a vet, a zoo keeper and a marching band...er when she grows up. (And don't try to tell her that some zoo workers are vets...)

Norah talks regularly about becoming a big sister. Specifically, she would like twins and she is very firm about this. "Two babies, Mommy, I want you to have twins and that means two." I believe this is because her friend Annabelle is going to have twin babies at home soon. When we go to Costco from time to time, the carts have seats for two kids. She tells anyone and everyone in the store that her baby brother or sister will sit in the other seat. Then I get looks like "Oh? Are you, uh?" No, no I am not...

Norah is going to be a witch for Halloween. I can't wait to take her Trick or Treating this year! I think her shyness has finally worn off (for the most part). She briefly wanted to be a hippo and a pig instead of a witch. I should clarify that was to be a hippo AND a pig...at the same time. Not one or the other. Both. I had no idea how to accomplish this, but my wonderful hair stylist helped me get her excited about being a witch again. After all, it was her idea that she talked about for months, and we already had the hat. The new complication...she wants to ride a broom. "For REEEEAL, Mommy, I want to fly for real. Not pretend." Sigh.

(Stephan update and more pictures to come this weekend. Seriously!)

Summer fun!

We had a very busy weekend! Luckily Stephan brought his camera along when we went to Casey's work picnic at his boss' lake house. The kids enjoyed boating and tubing on Little Cedar Lake.

On Sunday, we each had a great day with one of the kids. Casey and Stephan golfed with Pops at the Bog. Stephan has been very enthusiastic about his golf game lately and has been asking to play on a daily basis. This is music to Casey's ears, of course! Norah and I did fairly routine things...ran errands (she went potty at EVERY single store...I think she likes to check out the bathrooms everywhere we go) and cooked a few meals for the week, but we had such a nice time! She was so sweet and funny all day. I mean more than usual. I just wanted to write down everything she said because she had me laughing the whole time. We also had a wonderful first day at our new church. It was not an easy choice to make this switch, but we both agreed on our way home that this is the right place for us. We look forward to September when the youth programming starts. Norah is very excited to begin Sunday School!

Cousin time with Hayley & Jenna

Before we left for our vacation, we had a chance to visit with Casey's Aunt Karen, Cousin Shauna and her daughters Hayley and Jenna who traveled from Nebraska. Hayley celebrated her 3rd birthday in Milwaukee. Norah and Hayley had a lot of fun together, and Norah still asks to play with Hayley. Hopefully we can all see each other again soon!

Make a wish!

Fairy princess time!

George

A picture that Pops took of Norah entertaining a crowd...this was either when she said "I have a mommy and a daddy" or when she sang "Old MacDonald."

Wow! I have not blogged in a LONG time...almost a month. I promise that vacation pictures are coming. As we approach Norah's 3rd birthday, I have been thinking about what she has been up to these days.

Norah LOVES ballet. She likes to dance in general, but she is particularly excited about ballet and cannot wait for her next class to start. She regularly asks to perform a ballet show for us and flutters around the house. She does it with the most serious look on her face too. She also enjoys singing non-stop (this is how she entertains herself on car trips!) and recently told Casey she wants a stage for her birthday. When he took her to jump in the fountain at Bayshore, she didn't pay much attention to the water and climbed up on a stage instead to sing "God Bless America" for anyone who would watch. I should also add that every day she asks to ride her bike and paint.

Norah is very observant and in ways that I don't always notice. For a while now she has thought it was fun to look for letters in the signs of stores and tell me names that start with those letters. Well, yesterday, I was on the Kohl's Department Store website checking their hours when she walked by and said "Let's go there." I asked "Where?" And she said "Kohl's, Mom!" I asked her how she knew it was Kohl's on the website, and she said "K is for Kennedy. It's next to Michael's and Costco!"

I am almost afraid to say the words because I feel like I might jinx myself, but let's just say that Pull Ups are not on my shopping list. On one of her most "victorious" days during the process, I told her I was proud. She replied "Mom, I always knew I could do it!"

To say that Norah is excited about her birthday is an understatement. When we left for vacation, I told her that when she went back to school it would be August. That morning, when I woke her up for school, I reminded her that it was now August and they would have a new calendar during calendar time. She said "August?!? It's my birthday!" She knows it's the 25th, but everyday between now and then she reminds us that it's her "birthday time." Some people have a weekend. Some people have a week. I guess this little girl wants a whole birthday month! She can't wait to be three. During our vacation she said "Awww, I'm becoming a grown up now."