Oh Christmas Tree

There's nothing better than putting on some Christmas tunes, heating up some hot chocolate and putting up the ol' Christmas tree. Now, I love the smell of a real tree but not the mess (especially with little ones running around), so we use a nice fake one we inherited from my Aunt Pat. And you know you'be got an easy-to-assemble tree when even your 3-year-old can help!

After Abby helped assemble the tree, she hopped up on Daddy's shoulders to put the star on top.

When we told them earlier that day that we were going to put up the tree, Abby got really excited and asked, "Do I get to put the star on top like last year?" It kind of blew me away that she remembered doing that last year - I guess I sometimes forget they have memories of their own!

Claire also got in the action helping put the ornaments on the tree. Such a cutie! And when we were all done, this is what we got...

Let the Christmas season begin!

Little Chute, Reindeer, and Dress Up

We finally took a trip to Little Chute (they are great at coming to see us, but it had probably been at least a year since we had been there) to see Grandpa Wayne & Grandma Sharon and celebrate Wayne's birthday with a surprise party (on 11/11/11). The party was in the upper room of a cool pizza/bar place and was a blast. The girls had a great time playing toys that Grandma Sharon had brought and dancing, and we had a great time chatting with Wayne and Sharon and their family and friends.

We had a nice weekend there just hanging out at their house, playing games, and taking a trek down the block to a nice little park. Uncle Scotty had come with us for the trip and even joined the girls for a little Merry-Go-Round action.

Back home the following weekend, we headed to Woodbury Lakes Open House for the first time, where there were lots of activities to kick off the holiday season.

Claire, Abby and I took a sleigh ride (and Ryan took some pictures) pulled by these guys here...

It was our first reindeer sleigh ride and it was awesome! We also saw Santa, friends Amy, Linnea and Chris Meyers, and a fantastic fireworks show. Plus we danced with this reindeer (below) and some of his snowman friends. It was a chilly but fun night!

Other than that, we've been hanging out at home quite a bit. We spent some time decorating and, of course, dressing up.

Dr. Claire (& "sweetheart")

Cinderella Abby

Oh, and making a few funny faces, too.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is enjoying the holiday season as much as we are!

Leaf Pile!

The leaves on our trees are finally coming down and in one fell swoop, our yard was an ocean of orange, yellow and green leaves. The girls and I tried to get a handle on it today by doing some raking. Okay, I did the raking; the girls did the jumping into the leaf piles.

It was a gorgeous day for being outside, playing in the yard, breathing in the crisp Fall air, and hearing my daughter happily report to me, "Mommy, I went pee-pee in the leaves!" (said to me moments after this picture was taken).

Bonus points if you guess who it was! (Abby is on the left, Claire on the right)

Happy Halloween!

The girls were SO excited for Halloween this year! Abby asked me almost every day, "Mommy, we go to Halloween now?"

We decorated our pumpkins about a week before Halloween. We decided to use transfers instead of carving and it worked really well! The girls were pretty proud of their creations (above: Claire, left, & Abby, right). Plus they got to put like 3 faces on each pumpkin, so that was pretty cool.

Finally, the big day arrived! Claire was Cinderella and Abby was Ariel, Little Mermaid. (A HUGE thank you to Grandma Sharon & Grandpa Wayne for being our costume suppliers yet again! You guys sure know how to hook these girls up with great costumes.)

So excited!! (Can you tell?)

The day before Halloween, we actually got dressed up and headed over to Aunt Pat's house to see Aunt Pat, Uncle Joe and Aunt Joy and get some of our first treats.

Lily/Butterfly Fairy met us there, which made it all the more exciting! Auntie Pat was leaving for a big road trip a couple of days later so it was great to say good-bye and wish her safe travels.

We also headed to Papa Mike and Grandma Maggie's house that day to say Trick or Treat to them too. (Yep, as much as Abby LOVED her costume, she wanted out of it almost right after we got to their house.)

The next day (actual Halloween), we dressed up again for some trick or treating at the Maplewood Mall, followed by more around our neighborhood. One thing I actually really like about Halloween is it's one of the few times I get to interact with my neighbors! (One of the downsides of being antisocial is you don't get to know the neighbors really well.)

After we headed home with our buckets full of sugar, the girls had some hot apple cider and helped Grandma Gwen hand out candy.

In the times between trick-or-treaters, Claire would stick her head out the window, wave a candy bar around and yell, "Candy!" to entice people to stop by. Plus side, this may indicate a strong future as a saleswoman or, down side, a carnie. Either way, it had me chuckling pretty good!

All in all, a great Halloween for these little princesses! Hope you all had very sugar-filled, fun Halloweens too.

Fall Fun

During our October Cam Fam, the entire Campbell clan headed over to the Twin Cities Harvest Festival in Brooklyn Park. It's new within the last couple of years and boasts the largest corn maze in MN! Since it's in my hometown, we figured we ought to check it out.

It got a little hectic in the corn maze - Papa got a little nuts trying to find the exit - but once we made it out okay, we got to enjoy the rest of the festival.

The coolest thing, in my opinion, was the giant pit of corn kernels!

The girls jumped right in and got a big kick out of getting buried in the kernels. It was pretty awesome!

The girls also went down the giant slide with Daddy and fed some animals in the petting zoo.

Claire (above) wasn't sure what to think of these llamas and sheep all looking at her expectantly! Abby (below) loved feeding the baby goats.

We also took a hayride, played on a playground, tried (and failed) to climb a giant web thing, ran through a kid-sized hay bale maze and had a great time! Way to represent, BP.

In other October happenings, the girls got a big kick out of have a picnic in our sun room. We put a blanket on the floor and munched on appetizers (apple slices, grapes, carrots, celery, peanut butter, mini pigs in a blanket and hawaiian bread with spinach dip) while watching Surf's Up, the movie the girls picked from Red Box. They asked to have a "sun room picnic" pretty much every day since!

And finally, we are so excited for Halloween! Abby keeps asking me, "Do we get to go to Halloween now?" Claire wants to be Cinderella and Abby wants to be Little Mermaid. Today a package arrived from Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Wayne and inside was...

Thanks for our wonderful costumes, Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Wayne! We can't wait to wear them!!!

Birthdays, Festivals and Haircuts - oh my!

August isn't complete without a family birthday party to celebrate my, Jill and Mama's August birthdays! We all gathered at Mama and Papa's house on Mama's birthday for the big celebration.

The three birthday girls got to go out to a movie while the boys hung out with the girls (Above, Uncle Jason with all three girls on a hammock) and started grilling us a yummy dinner.

One of the biggest attractions at Papa and Grandma's house right now that the girls love to play with are their garden statues. Somehow, they end up all over the place by the time we leave. Above, the bunnies hop over to wish Grandma Maggie a happy birthday!

Abby gives the camera a big "cheese" face.

Jump forward to September, it was so busy, I only took like 6 pictures the entire month! They were mainly from the Wild Rice Festival we took the girls to in Roseville. It was pretty interesting, and at a place we'd never been before - the Harriet Alexander Nature Center. There was lots going on but the food part was unfortunately not very well organized and SUPER slow so after checking out the festival a bit, we left and took our hungry girls elsewhere for some food.

Like most children, the girls have this very fun ability to make up games wherever they are. Even at the festival, surrounded by fun activities and interested things, they decided to create their own game out of walking across the outdoor wooden benches and going "ta da!" (Claire, above, and Abby, below)

Jumping forward even more to October, and the big excitement this month was in the girls getting their very first haircuts!

Abby (left) got a trim but Claire (right) wanted something different so she got a bob haircut. The stylists also put a cute braid in each girls hair when they were done.

We took them to Kids Hair for their first cuts because we weren't sure how they'd do but they did great! Not a peep out of either one the entire time they got their hair cut. Good thing because we probably couldn't afford to go to the very entertaining but quite pricey Kids Hair on a regular basis.

These girls love their new haircuts! They've been walking around, looking in mirrors and going, "Aren't I beautiful?" (To which I respond, "yes, you're beautiful because you're so sweet/kind/funny/helpful/generous," etc. Just trying to counter those darn Disney Princess movies they love so much!) They've also been talking a lot more about being big girls, so I think they're feeling quite grown up.

Trip to Green Bay

The girls are I were thrilled to head to Green Bay to visit Amanda, Ben, Atticus and Sampson in August. Amanda had a jam-packed fun few days planned for us!

We got to check out the North East WI Zoo, where we inadvertently taunted this raccoon with our popcorn snack. Sorry guy!

We also got to feed a couple of cute giraffes (Claire above and below), which was pretty darn awesome.

We also inadvertently taunted this penguin - he kept trying to get the food we had from behind the glass!

We went out to eat at a yummy Vietnamese restaurant where Atticus wowed us with his use of chopsticks - pretty impressive!

We also checked out the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, where Abby (above) loved running around exploring, especially the slide that slid you down into a cave.

Sampy got a kick out of this duck boat thing and Claire (below) went spelunking.

The fun didn't stop there! The Wildlife Sanctuary also has lots of outside area where you can feed ducks galore, which we happily did with bread Amanda had brought. Seriously, this place had lots of fun stuff to do!

During the nights, the kids all snuggled up together before bed and watched an episode or two of Dora, Diego, Fireman Sam or the like. If my girls were lucky, they'd even get a nice pat on the head from Sampy (Abby and Sampy below).

We visited over my birthday so Amanda and Ben very nicely got me a crazy delicious Nutter Butter ice cream cake from DQ. Peanut butter and ice cream? Crazy good!!!

We went to Sir Bounce-A-Lots that night for even more fun and excitement!

This place was crazy cool. There was a giant inflatable slide that the kids went down about a million and a half times... (Abby above and Sampy below)

...plus lots of bouncy houses. Below, Amanda and Sampy check one out!

We also had a deep-fried dinner there (seriously, other than the pizza, everything one the menu came battered and fried - even the veggies. Yikes!) complete with Icees (Abby below tries hers out and is instantly hooked).

On our last day there, the RK and Lambert clans met up with Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Sharon at Bay Beach Amusement Park for some rides. I took Atticus and Sampson on the Tilt-a-Whirl while Grandma and Grandpa took Claire and Abby on the merry go round and train ride.

It was a very fun end to our very fun few days in Green Bay! Thanks to Amanda, Ben, Atticus and Sampy for being such great hosts and for planning such a great time for us!