Monarch Butterfly Festival

Today we went to the Monarch Butterfly Festival at Lake Katherine. There was a netted tent full of flowers and butterflies, as well as tons of other entertaining activities. Check out the monarchs...

Alexis checking out a butterfly... not too close... for fear that it might go into butterfly attack mode and flutter her to death.

Lots of butterflies in this corner... and look at the big one that I caught!

Alexis checking out the waterfall...

Cort and his Bears fans...

GO BEARS!

Gymnastics

Alexis started gymnastics class this weekend. She loved it! We are so proud of her for starting so many new things lately, and not being afraid. She has come a long way since her clingy toddler days!

Going through the tube...

Doing a somersault... I was taking photos through a window, so the pictures are not the best...

Waiting in line...

Jumping up...

Chasing the hoops...

The highlight of class was swinging from the rope swing... check out the ghost on the right side of the photo!

Alexis swung sooooo high!

Posing with the ever present Patsy the Penguin...

Good Cat

Max continues to put up with more than most cats would ever tolerate... he lets Alexis put the stuffed Max on his back...

And he continues to endure all of Dave's loving embraces...

Chatterbox

Dave has been a chatterbox lately!
Here are some of his favorite words...

Costume Party

Last Saturday I decided to clean out the kids' closet, but 5 minutes into the task I found a bag of costumes... so cleaning went out the window, and the more important task of trying on costumes took over!

You may remember the clown costume from Alexis' 2nd Halloween, when we were in Sedona. Still fits!

She liked checking herself out in the mirror...

Argh Matey! Too bad we didn't find this one before she went to see the tall ships last week... it would have been the perfect outfit!

Patsy (named this because penguins pat their sides with their wings as they waddle along) looks cute in the pirate hat. Patsy is the most loved toy in our house these days!

Trying on the snowpants, too... woohoo still fits from last year!

Chief Illiniwek!

Gotta look in the mirror again...

Skirt from Gramma Debi... soooooo cute!

We stuffed Dave into some snow gear as well... he looked like the marshmallow man and could barely walk. But like everything, he thought it was hilarious.

Of course he had to laugh at himself in the mirror, too!

Ribbit!

Aloha!