The Shedd

Dan took two weeks off after Greta was born to spend with the family (and help me out with the older two as I constantly feed a newborn for the first week).  October happened to be Corporate Sponsors Appreciation Month at the Shedd Aquarium and Dan just happens to be staffed on a project that's a corporate sponsor.  With the help of his badge, our entire family got all access admission completely FREE!
Greta spent the day strapped to me in the Ergo baby carrier and slept the entire time we were there.  Nora and Myles had a blast and loved every minute they were there.

Standing by one giant replica of a fish.

Hundreds of tiny electric blue fish.

The shark tank.

These are actually shark babies!  60% of sharks lay
eggs rather than carry their offspring.  These shark babies
were within weeks of hatching and squirming all around
in their sacks.  They will eventually grow to be about 3 feet long.

Jelly fish.

The award for ugliest fish of the day goes to this guy.

An all access pass included tickets to the dolphin show.

Myles kept saying "more jump" during the show.
I think everyone watching wished the dolphins would
have "more jump". 

This is what a successful morning looks like. 

Carving

It was that time of year again.  Time to carve pumpkins! 

Someone was ready!

Knowing how he can be with textures sometimes, I didn't
think he'd like this activity but he did pretty well.

While we worked, she slept on the job.

We asked the kids what they wanted their pumpkins to look like this year.  "Circle eyes or triangle eyes?" type of options for Myles.  And then they sat on our laps while we carved what they asked for.

"Myles, what kind of mouth do you
want your pumpkin to have?"

He also wanted only one eyebrow.

This was his final product.

Girly Nora wanted heart eyes, an oval 

nose, and a kissy faca

My Frankenstein pumpkin

Dan's pumpkin

Our front stoop.  Sorry Greta, we didn't carve one on
your behalf.  Next year, darlin'.

Greta Pearl

Meet our newest addition.

Greta Pearl

A tiny peanut taking up a large space in our hearts.

 Day Two -- Greta got to meet her older brother and sister.  They immediately loved her.

My heart was so full of love during the following pictures.  I don't think I stopped smiling the entire time they were there.

Within the first minute, Myles buried his face into her
to give her a kiss and he hasn't stopped yet.

Getting to hold her little sister.
She waited a long time for this moment.

About a week before Greta was born, Nora made this
bracelet at school.  When she showed me she asked, "Mom,
do you think this bracelet will fit my baby sister when she's
out of your belly?"  I thought it was the sweetest thing.  We
set it aside for her to bring to the hospital to give her when
they met.  It fit. 

Our family of five!

Perfect.

Pumpkin Patch

Huh... I really thought I had posted this already but apparently not!  So hold onto your hats, folks.  There's a lot of pictures with this post! 

It was enough that Nora had already been to the pumpkin patch this year.  I didn't want Myles to have to pick his pumpkin from the pile at the grocery store just because Nora already got to go to the pumpkin patch this year.  Well, that's part of it anyway - the non-selfish outlook.  The other reason I still dragged my entire family to the pumpkin patch again - I like all those picture opportunities and creating those memories together so off we went.  

It was a great day for it too.  It was the first weekend in the month so I think most people weren't quite in pumpkin picking mode yet so despite us going on a Saturday the place was pretty quiet and the weather wasn't too chilly yet.  Hopefully we'll remember to go early again next year.

Time to let the pictures tell you about the rest of our day ---

When Myles saw this picture last night,
he kept saying, "Fire truck, please Mom?
Please Mom?"  He wanted to go back
to the fire truck right then and there and
was very sad when I explained we had to
wait until next year.  "Why Mom?"

Love this picture.  And yes, he did wear the pink necklace
the entire time we were there.

Waiting for the cannon to shoot
a pumpkin into the field.

Wagon ride out to the field.

 

The pumpkins were HUGE this year.
It seemed you could pick from giant or
small.  Nothing in between.

Picking his.

Waiting for the wagon to come back for us.

The pumpkin eating dinosaur looking straight at Nora.
Myles was clinging to my leg scared to get too close.

They really flew down this slide.

Judging by this face, I didn't think she
liked it.

Until she stopped! Then she finally smiled
while asking to go again.

A "haunted" train ride was also part of the admission fee.

This picture looks so much different from
last year's.  I cannot believe how much
they've grown!