Crab Apple River

Anna's imagination is finally starting to take off!  When Santa got her a kitchen for Christmas, and then she didn't seem to have much interest in it, I got a little concerned.  When is she going to start pretending.  I've noticed more and more this summer that she gets caught up in making stories up involving her friends/toys and finally that kitchen is getting some good use!  Her favorite thing to make is soup (it started out being normal, but now she's adding things like oranges, onions, ketchup, and mustard).  Sometimes she adds popcorn!  In any case, I'm very glad it seems to be happening now.

Her most recent dive into imagination concerns the sand bebow across the street.  One day a while back she had lots of fun helping some other kids make a big river using the sand and water.  Then she got very interested in burying crab apples so that the animals could dig them up.  So now she's combined the two interests, and she's made something that she calls "crab apple river."  She gathers as many crab apples as she can, puts them in the river, then fills it up with water.  She also occasionally says that the crab apples are taking a bath, which is pretty cute too.  I can't wait to hear what she comes up with next; now that school is starting she'll probably get all sorts of new ideas!

Santa's Village

Apparently about 2 years ago Santa's Village reopened to the public after being closed for a number of years.  They just did an article about it in the newspaper, and it made me think that Anna (being the roller coaster and ride enthusiast that she is) would probably have a blast.  Today was supposed to be another beautiful day, and it's nearing the end of summer for all of us, so I suggested that we go.  What a great idea!  We got there around 11:00 with Auntie Carrie, and it was nonstop fun for the next 5 hours!  Auntie Nanu met us there too.  We started on the carousel, then Anna rode a bunch of other things, like the balloons, Kiddie Whip, cars, dragon coaster, tilt-a-whirl, mini ferris wheel, etc etc etc.  There actually wasn't a single thing in the whole park that she couldn't ride!  And she kept wanting to go on everything again!  I got to ride the old-fashioned cars, and they also had a really cool fire engine ride, where they drive you over to a little "burning" house, and the kids get to use little hoses to put out the fire!  A very neat idea and lots of fun too!  On top of all that, there were also several areas that had some very cool animals to see.  There was a free-flight parakeet building where Anna got to feed them (and touch them).  There was also a petting zoo, complete with pony rides, and then there was a horse-drawn sleigh ride that took us around a reindeer paddock!  When we finally forced Anna to leave the park, she was exhausted but didn't want to go!  I can't blame her at all.  Even though she wasn't born when the place was built, it was like it was made just for her!  I have a feeling we'll be back again...

Fun at the Zoo

We've lucked out with some good weather this past week.  Well, the first couple days it rained a lot, but we needed it, and plus it brought a beautiful cool-down with it!  Today was a truly lovely day, complete with sunshine and nice breezes.  We took our lunch to the zoo (along with about 10,000 other people) and walked around for a bit.  There's a baby bison who's only about 3 months old there right now, so it was fun to be able to see her out and around.  All the other times we've been she's mostly been hiding or isolated from the public, but I even managed to get some decent pictures!  Anna had a nice time, although she wanted to see a ton of things that we had to try and squeeze in before her naptime.  She still takes at least a 2 hour nap every day, probably mostly because she wakes up so early and manages to get us to keep her up later than we should.  Speaking of which, I better get up to bed, because who knows what time that crazy kid is going to wake up tomorrow!

A New Addition

I'll have to change the name of this blog soon!  Anna will finally get to be a big sister sometime around December 20!  We've been trying to add to our family for quite some time and have had some major setbacks.  Finally we got some help from a doctor, and thankfully that worked out well!  We found out last week that it'll be a brother for her, although we've known that pretty much from the beginning!  Anna has been wanting it to be a boy, but I don't know if that's because she prefers boys or if she thinks it means she won't have to share her stuff with him.  It could be both.  Either way, we're all very happy in the Pachla household!  Hopefully it will be good motivation for me to be better about updating this thing.

Delinquent

There's no denying that I've been horrible at blogging the last 2 years.  Anna certainly keeps me busy though, that's for sure!  Rather than trying to catch up for the whole year 2012, I'll just try to highlight the summer that we've been having.  It's been very hot and dry, so that's made for a lot more indoor time than I'd prefer.  We've had our share of bebows this summer (yes, she still calls them that), but we have to make sure to go very early, before it gets insanely hot.  Even then, sometimes Anna complains about the heat and wants to go home before we've been there very long.  Okay, now for June...

We started off our summer with a weekend at the farm in Michigan.  That's a lot more down-time than Anna's used to, but she still managed to have plenty of fun taking walks around the place and playing frisbee, bugging Matt a lot, and playing fetch with the dogs.  I think she really enjoyed the bonfire we had, where she got to roast marshmallows and eat s'mores.

Anna also played her first-ever round of mini-golf on Father's Day!  We went to Haunted Trails, and Anna really loved it!  She's gotten better about taking turns, but she still gives up on herself very easily.  Her coordination is still a little lacking too, but she's working on it.  After we were done golfing, her and Daddy played a couple arcade games and then went on the little roller coaster together.  Then we had a delicious lunch at Uncle Bub's, where I discovered that Anna really has a strong love for pulled pork!

We also made our way to the Children's Museum, which is always a good time.  They had redone a few things since the last time we went, and Anna particularly enjoyed the vet area, where she took care of the animals.  She wasn't as interested in the market area this time around, but part of that might have been because it was really difficult to acquire the shopping carts.  They were being hogged by some older kids, so she couldn't use them for a long time.  By the time she got one, she must have been getting worn out and didn't want to play much at that point.

We also checked out the splash park in Westmont once, which was pretty fun.  Anna didn't want to run off and splash by herself though, and she didn't have any "friends" there to play with, so it wasn't quite the time that it could have been.  If we go back, we'll have to make sure to arrange a play date ahead of time!

The end of June had us moving Auntie Loonie to a new place in Warrenville.  The new place is much nicer than the last one (and quieter), and we enjoyed helping her celebrate!

July brought us to family vacation at Double JJ Resort.  We had a wonderful time!  Anna got to ride ponies, pet and feed the barn animals, ride the barrel train, get her "face" painted (she got it on her arm instead), get balloon animals, make crafts, play in the splash pool/swimming pool, feed the horsies, ride the pedal carts, and play lots of games.  Her favorite game happened to be ladderball.  I swear she could play it for hours.  She also really loved visiting Bubby and Bobby in their room (which was awesomely very near us), where she would play checkers among other fun things, surely.  One night we also took a hayride to the woods, where we roasted marshmallows, made s'mores, and sang songs.  Another day we went for a lovely hike on a deserted snowmobile trail.  On our way home we stopped by a blueberry farm and picked 8.5 lbs of blueberries!  I was surprised at how much Anna enjoyed it, because it was very hot that day, but we all had a great time!  It was a good vacation, and we're hoping to go back next year.

That brings us to August, which has been pretty quiet.  We mostly just play at home these days, although I'm sure we'll do a couple more fun things before going back to school.  Anna starts preschool a week from today!  Hopefully she'll enjoy it, but I'm sad to see her growing up so fast.

Catching Up - September & October

September highlights include a surprise party for Anna's first-ever girl cousin, Maria. Also, it was Auntie Loonie's birthday, and Anna has gotten very good at singing Happy Birthday to everyone. Anna's favorite part of the month was probably Berwyn's Oktoberfest. She called it "The Carnival," and she enjoyed all the rides a ridiculous amount, so much so that she talks about them months and months later. These rides include "Puff the Magic Dragon," (which she rode with Ellie) the "Big Strawberries," and the pony ride. At the end of the month was Maria's baptism, so for Anna being able to visit Marky, Eric, and Maria's house for any reason is good times. They have an astounding number of toys that Anna is more than happy to play with.

For October, we visited Six Flags for Fright Fest. Anna, being 36 inches, can now ride an amazing number of rides! She definitely has the thrill-seeker in her, because she likes roller coasters! Her favorite is probably The Little Dipper. She also rode The Whizzer, but I think that one was a little too scary for her. She loved The Scrambler and all the littler rides like that, and Bubby, Bobby, and I had a blast taking turns riding with her. What fun! Anna has gotten ridiculous use out of her Halloween costume (Jessie), wanting to wear it nearly every single day. I was actually worried that it wouldn't make it until Halloween, but it did. We made a visit out to the pumpkin patch again this year, and Anna got to play inside the big kid play area this time. It's a shame we didn't have more time to devote to that, because she sure did have fun. We had to cut it short though because it was waaaay past her nap time! We visited Starved Rock on a beautiful, mild day, and Anna was able to hike quite a bit! We went up to St. Louis Canyon, where the murders occurred many years ago, and it was very pretty there. Anna had a hard time making the walk back, so I had to carry her a lot of the way. Still, it was a fun time. Then we celebrated Bubby's birthday, and we always have a fun time when we go to her house! Of course, the month ended with Halloween, and Anna very much enjoyed Trick-or-Treating and getting all that candy! Yum-MA!

Catching Up - July and August

This year has flown by, thank goodness. 2011 hasn't been very kind, but Anna has been having a blast. I think that girl could be the happiest kid I know. She's always happy, smiling, full of energy, it is wonderful. Let me try to think of what has been happening thus far. I'll start with our vacation in July that I never got a chance to write about. We stayed at a cabin with Mike and Emily and other Swansons. We went swimming in Mirror Lake, saw how real Wisconsin cheese was made, went for a couple nice bike rides, and I went running for about 6 miles every morning. It was a very laid back vacation, but it seemed to appeal to Anna pretty well.

In August the highlight might have been the Wild West Town. We went there with Bobby, and I think we could have spent about 8 hours there if we could. Anna just loved it. She went on her first roller coaster, there was an adorable playground, pony rides, canoe rides, choo choo train rides, panning for gold, a carousel, a covered wagon, archery, a petting zoo... I mean, you could see why she would have a blast. We also finished (mostly) the upstairs of our house, so we all moved up there. Anna loves her new cloud room, and we're happy having more space. It turned out very nice and matches the rest of the house beautifully.