Thomas the Firefighter and Linnea the Dinosaur had a fabulous Halloween...
They trick-or-treated with Evan the Fire Dog and Elle the Butterfly.
Earlier in the weekend, we got away to Galena, IL with Nana & Papa. More pics to come but the above was too cute not to share right away - Linnea's first canoe outing with Daddy.
Highlights of the rest of the summer included a visit from Zander (& baby brother Sebastian... and their parents) and an accompanying visit to the Chicago Children's Museum (note the view, above). That's Linnea in the hard hat above and T relishing the waterworks below.
August brought a trek to Western New York to see family, a high point of which was a raspberry-picking foray at Brown's Berry Patch on Lake Ontario.
With the onset of fall came Linnea's first day of preschool (below)...
as well as a few camp-outs with Daddy (and campfire dinners including T & Mommy).
Other autumnal delights have included some "hikes" with Daddy (below)...
and last weekend's first apple orchard/pumpkin patch outing.
Picking up where we left off... summer kicked off Memorial Day with the annual Geneva parade...
and accompanying candy booty.
Above, some special time with Aunt Aimee & Uncle B; below, a visit from the Ferenczis - Mommy's college roommate, her husband and their four girls (three pictured). Ryan, Jason & T were greatly outnumbered.
Above & below are a trip to Swedish Days in Geneva...
and last but not least, that staple of American childhood Julys - swimming lessons.
We were blessed to have cousins Kelsey & Evan (and their folks, along with Nana & Papa) at our house this year for Easter. Above are Easter preparations; below is the actual day. Nothing tastier than Easter candy on the bathroom floor, right?
The Andersons hosted their annual egg hunt again this year. T's eggs were all empty and he didn't care one bit.
Linnea, on the other hand, gathered quite the booty and enjoyed the process thoroughly.
T-Man was baptized (finally - I know; we had to join the church first... long story) on Sunday, May 1st.
We were all much more joyful than this photo reflects; between T's squirming and our attentiveness to what the pastor was saying, we didn't really get any fabulous shots of the four of us up there.
Above, the actual act; below, Thomas' glare at the pastor after the fact - priceless.
Thomas Charles, may you indeed grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and may we, as your parents and family, be used of God to help you become a man after His own heart.
We braved our first transoceanic trip as a foursome for Spring Break 2011 in Kauai with Ryan's folks and siblings. Despite RSV for Thomas and an ear infection for Linnea, we made some great memories and had some good times. The Hyatt's koi pond was popular (above), as was their daily parrot show (below).
For a little my-how-time-flies perspective, scroll back in our blog to the January 2009 entry when Linnea made the trip at the same age as Thomas pictured above; what a difference a couple years makes?!?!
In addition to the milestone of "first haircut" pictured above, Thomas achieved the important feat of reaching one year old last month.
Unlike his sister, who wouldn't deign to touch her first birthday cake (my, how things have changed in two short years!?!), T dove right in.
His buddy Evan and his big sister Elle came over to help us mark the occasion since a family party was postponed a couple days pending our arrival in Kaua'i for Spring Break (photos to follow)...
Yes, he is holding a Baby Blackberry. What can I say? We were flying for 10 hours the next day and it was just too tempting to pass up.
