Happy Halloween!

Thanks Ali for these great shots!

Zoo Day

 We had great fall weather on Sunday,  so we headed to the zoo (thanks Demi and Jeff!) with the Blanchards.  The kids love to feed the giraffes, so we headed straight there.  Katie was fascinated with watching the animals, and she probably could have watched the mandrills forever.  She loved staring in the windows and pointing to them - letting me know when they were moving around, etc.  I always loved the monkeys as well so it was sweet for me to see her enjoying them so much.

A trip to the zoo is never complete without a carousel ride.  If the kids could pick, I think they would ride it all day long.

watching the mandrills

elephants!

this is the only picture I took of Will all day...

feeding the giraffes

Katie riding a giraffe

Love how she is looking at Chad here - she wasn't sure about the cheetah ride at first

...and then she loved it!

Test Day at the Perot Museum

 Saturday was a Test Day at the Perot Museum.  It is set to open Dec 1 and we cannot wait for opening day.  They had 2 floors open although the kids and I never made it out of the Children's Museum.

The museum is awesome and surely will be a hot spot for the Forsbergs.  The kids loved it!  There was really so much to do.  There is a flower stand to arrange flowers (Katie loved this), a playground area (built around the Dallas skyline) where you can wear hard hats and safety vests while climbing rock walls and sending (foam) bricks up conveyor belts.  There is a farmers market where you shop for wooden food and then place it in the truck for delivery and a camping area where you can dress up like an animal and (pretend) cook over a campfire.  There is a baby play area and last but not least, an awesome water area where you can play with water coming out of pipes and have boats come in and out of locks. 

We all had a great time, and Will is asking when we can go back.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for another testing day because they officially open in 33 days and that seems like a long time right now!

Flower arranging

Safety first! 

Down the slide

shoplifting

Katie was convinced this squirrel was real, so Chad had to help her pet it to prove otherwise.

They even tested out the baby play area!

The water area

Food in your Teeth

 I think Katie will be the kind of friend that tells you that you have food in your teeth or a rip in the back of your pants.  She wants things to be right and doesn't like things to be where they don't belong.

We have a hay bale left over from a photo shoot with friends, and we play on it regularly.  Every time after I get up from sitting on it, Katie will point out the hay on my pants and then she will dust it off.  It's really sweet.

She also notices spots on her clothes and others.  It seemed to frustrate her when her doll had a red spot on her dress (from a red marker that Katie was playing with while holding her baby).  Every day until I washed it, she would bring the baby to me and point to the spot.

She likes doors to be closed, drawers to be closed, and lights to be off when we are not in a room.  She is quite orderly.  She also is a snuggler and enjoys being cuddled and hugged.

Differences

 If I had been given an option to clone Will when having a second child, I would have taken it.  I loved everything about him and honestly couldn't have imagined life could be as fun with any other kind of child. 

However, I am so glad life doesn't work this way!  Katie is so different than Will in ways I never would have imagined.  I love that they are so different as I appreciate more about each of them as a result.  It's like you don't notice something until you see something different.

For example, Will is busy.  He goes from one thing to the next...all the time.  Katie can sit and play with the same thing for a while.  She can push her baby in the stroller for an entire morning, stopping to feed her (dog food), put her on the sofa to cover her up, then she will switch babies, etc. 

When we put Will in his crib and now his bed, he would play and play before going to bed even when he was quite young.  He still does.  As soon as you put Katie in her bed, she snuggles in and that is it for the night.  Both are wonderful.  There is nothing cuter than watching Will play with his toys from the monitor except maybe watching Katie put her hands behind her head and snuggle into position - usually includes her feet up on the rails of her crib.

These aren't trained behaviors.  These are ingrained in who they are as little people.  They are two unique kiddos who bring us so much joy.

This is why Katie wears a bow...every single day!

This is why she wears bow.  Here is Katie without one.  But who am I kidding, I also love a little girl in a bow!

She has tons of hair!  I'm not sure where she got that seeing as how Chad and I don't.  I just love it and it has a little waive to it in the back.  Luckily for her, she wakes up looking like someone styled her hair already.  I hope she is lucky enough to have that same gift when she is an adult.  How great would that be!

State Fair

 Today we took the kids to the State Fair.  It was really fun - so much so that we all (me and Chad included) took a 3 hour nap when we got home!  Katie walked almost the entire day (notice Will is in the stroller in some pictures) and both kids loved seeing Big Tex, the cars at the car show and the Japanese Lanterns.  We really only saw a small portion of the exhibits and are sad to have missed the petting zoo!  I would love to go back and do the rest but I just don't know if we will make it there before it closes for the year.  Next year we will have a more strategic plan of attack!

Eating a Fletcher's Corny Dog

...and cotton candy

Climbing

Little Pick Pocket

sad to leave.  See you next year Big Tex!

Moslah Shrine Circus

On Friday night, I took Maddie and Will to the Moslah Shrine Circus in Fort Worth.  Our FW friends, the Gunnins, invited us and we had a blast!  Maddie and Will are still talking about it in detail.

Before the show the kids enjoyed meeting the clowns and asking for autographs.  This alone was a huge hit.  Once inside, we found out that Nancy scored us front row seats which, for this circus, meant that the animals (tigers, elephants) were only about 30 feet from us.  30 feet!  It was really amazing.  Even more amazing is that during intermission you can RIDE THE ELEPHANTS!  This was a huge highlight for Will and something he is just so proud of!   He keeps saying "can we go to that circus again when it comes back to town?"  We definitely will go again next year! 

Circus bound

Will loved holding this guy's hand

Checking out the program

Watching the circus with Ellie Gunnin and some new Ft Worth friends

Tigers!

With Boo Boo the clown

Riding the elephant!  That is Will in the very front.