Pre-Christmas with the Phippses

Both Elsie and her Phipps cousins, John and Leah, will be travelling for Christmas this year. So, we decided to get together for a day to have a little pre-Christmas. Leah was dressed in the appropriate attire for opening presents!

We went to the Shedd Aquarium in the morning - nice and early before the crowds!! Elsie and John enjoyed looking at all of the fish. Elsie was trying to figure out how to get into the water.

The kids really enjoyed the Polar Play Zone, where there are many hands-on activities. They were just running around playing in the water at this "exhibit." You would have thought these guys had never taken a bath before by how excited they were.

In the penguin area, they tried on costumes.

Then they slid down the slides just like penguins! I think Leah is encouraging Elsie to go faster in this picture!

Getting ready to go down the slide!

Yearly photo shoot

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we went to the local picture store for our yearly photo shoot (with about 12 other families squished into a room). Elsie did really well when she could see us. When we were all in the photo, she was pretty shy with the photographer. But, all we needed was one good one. And I think I did a pretty good job as pageant mom, fixing the barrettes, straightening out the dress, etc! Cheese!

Thanksgiving!

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year for our family and Grandma Jan and Grandpa John. Elsie put them straight to work reading her many books!

We had a great dinner in the Dining Room with the china!! Elsie's favorite part was the cookie for dessert! Oatmeal scotchies...yum.

The day after Thanksgiving, we utilized Grandpa John's help putting up the Christmas lights. Elsie was amazed by all of the lights. She just kept walking around and around the tree calling out all of the different light colors. In fact, most of the pictures I took are just a pink fuzzy ball, since she was moving to fast for my photo skills!

We had a great couple of days with Grandma and Grandpa!

Leafy fun

We have a lot of trees, which we love....until October and November. We are fortunate for 3 free leaf pickups each fall. Two from the City of Elmhurst, and one from Grandma Jan, who uses the leaves for her compost pile!

Messy! Elsie doesn't mind getting messy, but she does not enjoy staying messy once she realizes what has happened.

OK Mom. I'll take it from here!

Helping pack the leaves into the bag!

Where did Elsie go??

Visit with Merrill

Elsie had fun visiting her friend Merrill and playing with her cool toys! She loved the play house, repeatedly exclaiming "Mine." Guess we still have some work to do on sharing...

Tea party ladies?

Posing with Daddy in her new dress made by G-G-Ma.

Cheese!

Making Pumpkin Bread

Yum!! We made some pumkin bread recently. Elsie loves helping in the kitchen, especially when she gets to wear her apron!

Time for Elsie to mix.

Happy Halloween!

This was Elsie's first year trick-or-treating! It was a big success! Elsie went as an elephant - this was actually her assigned "vocabulary word" for her school's Vocabulary Word Parade (I guess a Halloween parade is not educational enough). Elsie has a stuffed elephant that she sleeps with at school, so Elsie is a big fan of soft, fluffy elephants!

I have candy in my pumpkin!! I am so excited!

Wow! Can I have this?

Let's go back out for some more candy!

What exactly did you put in the pumpkin? Better not be healthy... Elsie didn't say much at our neighbors' houses. She just smiled really big and inspected what was just placed in the pumpkin. We'll have to work on the manners for next year.

Heading back home.

Dad - let's inspect what is in the pumpkin.

Oooh. Pretzels! "Oooh" is one of Elsie's favorite words at the moment.

Elsie picked M&Ms as her first candy, because she is so familiar with the characters on the bag - they are located throughout the Bullard house. Papa Pete was so proud (he used to work for Mars).

Elsie got to eat a bag of the regular M&Ms (we'll save peanut for next year). She shared the M&Ms with both Mommy and Daddy.

Elsie's favorite words are now "candy" and "costume." I wonder how many more times we will have to pull out the elephant costume in the month of November.

Fall weather = new sweaters!!

The best thing about Fall weather is new sweaters! Grandma Jan knit Elsie this beautiful sweater for this season ... and probably for a few more seasons!

Elsie loves going on walks these days.

Playing out back with Mom and Dad!

Elsie's hairnet

Every once in a while, I find an extra hairnet in my pocket when I get home from work. Elsie just thinks this is fantastic!

September day at the Phipps Farm

We spent a short weekend at the farm in September. Elsie was loving Maizy (except for all of the licking, of course) and tried to help Maizy get the animal out from under the pallets. Elsie tired of that game after about 15 minutes, but Maizy stayed there for a couple hours!

The grandkids all helped Grandma Jan dig up some potatoes for dinner.

Leah and Elsie had a lot of fun playing together. After dinner, they just ran around the house squealing!

Labor Day picnic at the Bullards

The Labor Day picnic was moved from its traditional location at G-G-Ma's and G-Papa's to the Bullards to allow for swimming. Unfortunately, it was a cool day!

The Phipps ladies - so stylish in our sunglasses. Elsie is slightly obsessed with glasses!

Kathleen and Elsie hanging out.

Even though it was cold, Mommy, Elsie, and Kathleen all took a swim.

Kick, Elsie, kick!

Wheee!

Elsie shows everyone how to get the bean bags in the hole!

Elsie and Kate admiring the trees.

Here is a piece of mulch, Uncle Pete!

We had a bonfire to keep warm. Elsie reminded everyone that the fire was "hot."