Happy Halloween

Amelia has been infatuated with the musical Annie for nearly six months, so it was no surprise that her Halloween costume ideas came from the cast list. Interestingly, her first choice of costume was "Miss Hannigan" (reminder: Miss Hannigan was the orphanage manager). I asked her, "What does Miss Hannigan do?" and she said, "She dances around and drinks lots of water!" (dances around = stumbles; drinks water = gin). Her first take:

After a few weeks, she decided that she wanted to be Annie herself. When I asked why she changed her mind, she told me that "Annie sings better songs." (whew!!) 

If you have been in Ingrid's company lately, you have noticed how passionate she is about her "what does a dog say" bark. And when I say, "passionate".. I mean "you can hear it within a 25 foot radius." This kid is loud, and her dog barking is no exception. We had our eyes out for a cute puppy costume, but one afternoon Amelia put the ladybug antennae hat on Ingrid while they were playing, and there was no going back. While we felt bad "recycling" a costume for Ingrid, it turns out that she wouldn't have it any other way. This is probably the first "comparison" photo I have gotten around to pulling together of the girls, and I'm sure someday they'll be just thrilled *sarcasm* with this one!

Sometimes Ingrid will forget that she has her antennae on and will toddle around for hours with them on. It's one of the cutest things ever.

Well, without further ado.. the little Olson ladies Halloween 2012: 

Last year's Halloween Posts: Sisters in Costume and Halloween Big Post !

She walks, She talks.. She plays the harmonica!

Ingrid is eleven months old today, and at the risk of sounding cliche, I will admit that we aren't quite sure where the time has gone. This summer has been full of adventures, so much that we never really got into a daily routine of sorts until just last week! Consequently, we are quite overdue on the "Baby Update" requested via email.. Sorry!

Though she took her first steps a good three or four weeks ago, Ingrid is officially walking around. (I'm going to try my hand at including a video here for the first time.. I hope you all can view it! If you are reading through an email subscription you might have to click on the blog title to bring you to the actual site)

In addition to the walking, there is quite a bit of talking going on with both of the little ones.. Ingrid says about six words and hollers, screaches and points at the rest of what she is trying to tell you. Amelia's vocabulary has transitioned into the realm of sarcasm, which leads to Issac and I attempting fervently at the end of the day to remember the things that she said to make us laugh aloud.

Our theme last weekend was 'musical instruments.' Though Ingrid enjoyed all of the noise-making options, she really took a liking to the harmonica and the kazoo.

Until next time.. we will be busy chasing these little girls!

Farmer's Market Time!

Hands down, one of my favorite things about Appleton 

is the summer&fall Downtown Farmer's Market! 

Hang in There!

There are so many technology-related reasons for our lack of photos and stories as of late:

..I have misplaced my camera cord

..Blogger has some updates that I haven't quite figured out yet

..my computer does not have a glare filter and the weather is unbelievable

Couple those with many non-technology-related reasons and .. well.. it's still just been awhile.

Either way, we've been busy.

And busy is good, it makes for tired kids at the end of the day. 

Tired kids sleep well, which leads to well-rested parents. 

We will be back soon with some photos from May. 
Until then, check out this photo from the Zoo in May with Auntie Heidi!

Swingin' {by Baby Ingrid}

When you're still too little, sometimes the park is no fun.

I can't go down the slide all by myself (like my big sister)

I can't drive the bouncy cars yet..

 I can't color with sidewalk chalk because mom thinks I will eat it {and she's right!}

 I can't climb the fancy stairs or walk across the bouncy bridges..

No monkey bars or crazy climbing contraptions for me..

What's a {seven month old} girl to do?

SWING!

and SWING!

and SING!

"We want to go outside!" -Amelia

As this evening's forecast calls for freezing temperatures, the girls {and I} politely request the return of summery sunshine so they can play outside! Today we survived about four minutes on the deck before Amelia declared it, "Too vindy, mom. Too vindy."

In other news, Ingrid is officially crawling. For the past two months, she has waffled between army-crawling and 'actual' crawling but today we noticed that she has given up the 'scooting along on her stomach' version.

Six Whole Months Old!

Crawling and pulling up and eating green things, Ingrid is growing and changing every day! Her personality continues to be very pleasant and personable, and she is absolutely smitten with any attention her older sister throws her way.

Ingrid hit her 6 month milestone in style, compliments of her friend Brynn. This was stripey outfit was Brynn's dad's very favorite outfit and Ingrid was excited to snuggle into it for her afternoon outside! Thanks for sharing, Brynn!

Brynn and Ingrid, February 2012