Trip to Florida

We flew to Florida the week after Thanksgiving to visit Gus, Nancy, Grandma Groves, and Great Grandma. Gus and Nancy flew down from New York, but Bella thinks that Gus lives at Grandmas. This was the first time we flew with Evelyn and all in all both kids did well on the flights. We were looking forward to getting away from the cold Iowa weather, but it was not as warm as we had hoped. Florida was experiencing record lows during our trip with frost warnings overnight. Despite the weather we were able to have a lot of fun. It seemed like the weather got colder everyday we were there. You will probably see that we are more clothed in each picture.

Bella got to fish with Gus and Grandpa caught her first fish.










No trip to visit Grandma is complete without visiting Parkesdale for some Strawberry Shortcake. Unfortunately they didn't have Strawberry shortcake yet, but we were able to get a Strawberry Sundae. Bella was upset that she had to share one with Mom even though they are huge.

















We played a joke on Bella and caught it on video. Thank you, Gus, for knowing when to end the joke. Gus's maturity helped to avoid a complete meltdown by Bella.







We did swim one day while in Florida. Bella sporting her new swimsuit with built in life vest and enjoying the water with Grandma.




















Evie watching the swimming and showing off her two bottom teeth.














We also made a trip to Busch Gardens. Bella had a blast going on the rides and meeting many Sesame Street Characters. Her favorite ride was Air Grover (rollercoaster) which actually goes surprisingly fast. The weather helped as the park was not very busy so there was no waiting in lines for any of the rides.







Here are a couple of pictures of Evie just to prove she was in Florida as well. She is taking a snooze under my coat while we are at Downtown Disney shopping. After she woke up she tried on the Minnie Mouse ears.









































We really did a lot while we were down there. Here are some pictures of our trip to the Glazer Children's Museum in Tampa Bay. We were all happy that we could get in for free with our Children's Museum cards (ours was expired, but we are planning on renewing...).










































In addition to the cool firefighter outfits, there was also a pole they could slide down. Gus was a pro, but Bella had never seen such a thing and just fell straight down rather than slide down the pole.















We were so busy that many of our nap times took place in the van. On one trip Robin was the only one awake for a 40 minute stretch as all three kids as well as Nancy and I fell asleep. This picture is taken on our way home after the Children's Museum and a lunch at Burger King.
















Here is the 4 generation shot with Grandma, GG, Robin, and the girls.

Bloomsbury Farms

We went out to Bloomsbury Farms in October during the Hawkeyes bye week. Isabella had a great time jumping on the Jumping Pillow, riding in the barrels, seeing animals, and lots of other stuff. Bella also really liked this big slide they have, she liked it so much that she ran right back up and cut in front of the entire line and went down again. I wish I could say she only cut in front of one or two people, but it was a lot longer line than that. We do have pictures of Evie to prove that she was there as well. We have a picture below of her next to the measuring stick and also of her sleeping next to Tyson. My favorite pictures of the day though were Bella on the jumping pillow. You also have to check out one of my favorite videos of all time at the end of the post where Bella looks like she gets shot out of a cannon. I recommend watching it in slow motion so you can see how the expression on her face changes as well as the imminent doom.




Bella's impersonation of David Lee Roth.

















Bella doing her Wrestling moves on Aiden















Evie and Tyson taking a snooze

Banwarth Halloween Party

Since my parents were in town Robin and I were able to go to the annual Banwarth Halloween Party. Abe and Brandee always do an unbelievable job with the party, they decorate the entire house and always have awesome food. We also got to meet up with friends that we don't see very often. My parents brought us the gorilla costume and this blonde wig. We were able to put together some nice last minute costumes, although I would say that mine was most disturbing.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We posted a video of Isabella reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.

Halloween

On Halloween morning we decided to put the girls in blond wigs. It did take some convincing to get Bella to keep it on and take some pictures, in fact I believe she was bribed with the promise of candy. Evie looks like a doll, we had just put some Aquaphor on her face so it glistens in all of the pictures.We went out trick or treating around our cul-de-sac and Evelyn kept up the tradition of wearing the Tiger costume. The tiger costume is almost 40 years old and Evelyn is the 5th person to wear it and thus far is the youngest as well at 6 months. Bella was a bumblebee and enjoyed being outside, but did not seem to care that much about the trick or treating, but she certainly got her share of candy. Grandpa dressed up in the Gorilla costume and although Bella saw him to get into the costume she was quite hesitant in sitting next to him. You can see in the picture that she would not sit right next to him, but at the end of the photoshoot we asked her to give grandpa a kiss and she did.