Halloween 2012 - Girl Power

Amelia decided this year that her and Juliet should both be Supermen. It was a busy day between getting to wear costumes to daycare, a costume parade in the morning, a costume fashion show after nap and of course trick-or-treating in the evening.

Ready for daycare.

Little Superman fueling up on Cheerios.

Dragonfly, Spiderman and Superman planning their day.

Juliet walking the catwalk at the daycare costume party

Amelia was ready to hit the streets for trick-or-treating. She clearly is old enough to remember past years now so she knew what she needed to do to fill her pumpkin with candy. 

ready to go!

Amelia is a trick-or-treating master. She said Happy Halloween, please AND thank you at every house I  could listen in on. She wasted no time running between houses. In fact I couldn't get her stop long enough to pose for a picture with Sophia.

Juliet sans-cape. No clue what happened to it. She rode in her stroller for the first couple of houses and then quickly caught on and HAD to do what the big girls were doing. She would climb up each set of steps and stand there with a huge smile waiting for her treats. She wouldn't put them in her pumpkin so she walked up and down the sidewalk with her little fists full of candy.   

Backlund Family Rebellion

Thank you SO much to everyone who organized, brought food and thought of the idea to meet up in the Dells. The Wisconsin Dells are half way between Chicago and Minnesota so it was a perfect place for a Backlund Family Rebellion. I think next time we have to make a point to get a family photo so while so many of the family is unaccounted for in these photos we had an amazing weekend with everyone! I didn't get any photos actually in the waterparks but hopefully I will get some from others.

Well most of the photos I got were of Juliet because she wasn't quite old enough to keep up with the other kiddos. It worked out pretty well for her as she got spoiled by the whole family. Luckily for Juliet, JuJu is always willing to spoil her. This time it was reading Good Night Moon a bunch of times.

When JuJu had had enough of Good Night Moon, Juliet moved on to Aunt Amy.  Folks can't resist the baby of the family.

Then she moved on to Nana Gayle for a nice conversation over pizza.

We did manage to get all the girls together for a photo. Amelia, Ellie, Juliet, Georgia and Lulu after an exhausting day at the waterpark. With Juliet's hair getting lighter, Amelia is currently the only Backlund baby to be sans-blond. Those Swedish genes are pretty strong.

She tried so hard to keep up with the big kids....

and this is why we didn't pictures of kiddos other than Juliet. They were running to who knows where the entire time we were there. Nine kiddos under the age of ten (I think that is how old Dylan is) make for a fun, wild and EXHAUSTING weekend!

Girlfriends

This fall we have gotten lots of QT with girlfriends. Just when Mark didn't think he had enough ladies around we got to spend back to back to back weekends with the Meyer ladies, Mills and Ms. Hand! Maybe next time you ladies can plan your trips for the same weekend!!!

Amelia, Greta and Norah enjoying a picture perfect fall Sunday at the park.

We don't get to see Mills NEARLY enough so by bathing the girls together we got a  little bit more time for Penny's, wine and a very missed Chicago friend!

How many Kansas girls can fit into a tiny Chicago bathroom?

Seriously, putting your kids in the bath together is the best way to prolong a  fun night.

A posting about girlfriends would not be complete without a pic of Amelia's BFF Sophia. This was taken during their preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch. They appear to be having a serious discussion about the 2012 election.

Chicago Tourists

I had a grand idea that we should be tourists in Chicago while Papa was in town. We headed out to Navy Pier on a picture perfect fall evening. Amelia had been asking about riding the ferris wheel so we set out with that as our only goal for the evening. I also had a grand idea that Papa with his awesome camera and photography talents would get a picture of us on the ferris wheel. And naturally it didn't turn out that way...

Juliet had no intentions of sitting down or cooperating in any fashion. Amelia, I think, was very overwhelmed by the size, being up high, etc. She just wanted to be held tight by her dad and certainly didn't want her picture taken.

Amelia was fairly distraught when we got off the ferris wheel but a ride on the carousel got her back to herself.

Al Fresco dining on the Pier

Amelia got (I think) her first ice cream cone. Typically we get her a cup and maybe a cone but it still is always in the cup.

Juliet helped herself to all of her dad's ice cream. We should learn by now that Juliet demands her own ice cream...

Happy Birthday Daddy

Papa was in town over Mark's birthday weekend so I decided to take advantage of the extra set of hands... While Mark was at work Friday we pulled together a mini-surprise party. We spent the day making a cake from scratch, wrapping presents, making homemade pizzas and decorating. I have yet to make an angle food cake for Mark which didn't end up ruined. I don't know what is wrong but I just can't seem to pull of angle food cakes... This year was no exception although I blame Papa for the ruined cake this year. Luckily we saw pre-made angle food cake at Whole Foods earlier that day so I made a quick trip to buy one. We of course thought we could pull it off. The first thing Amelia said when Mark walked in was, "daddy the cake came already baked." Oops, I defer to Ginnie from now on for making Mark his birthday cake :)

(and Happy Birthday to Poppy who we didn't get to celebrate with on their actual birthday as he was celebrating his birthday in England!)

Circus and Dinner

We spent a lovely fall Saturday evening attending a Chicago Park District fundraiser circus at our one of our neighborhood parks. The circus had two 45 minute halves but we only made it through the first one. There was not a chance that Juliet would sit remotely still for 90 minutes... So we decided to cut out early and go enjoy dinner and cocktails.

I think Amelia's favorite part of the circus were the clown noses and popcorn Poppy bought before the show started.

Cheers to al fresco dining.

Nope, Juliet has still not learned how to eat without making an enormous mess. When she is really hungry and/or likes her food she fills both fists up with food and shoves both handfuls in her mouth at the same time. She misses her mouth, a lot. When watching her eat it is amazing that she is only in the 1% for weight...

Week in Kansas

We spent a great Labor Day week in Kansas. I  didn't manage to get a lot of pictures but nonetheless we had a great time with friends and family. It started with a great bbq at the Fogt's house in KC. My KS girls and I have always known how to throw parties. Oh, how times have changed as this bbq's wild stories came from a yard full of kiddos and one awesome bouncy house! And I took no pictures. (p.s. Kels, I know you have a fulltime job and two young kids but whenever you find a free moment, which I get may be in 5 years please pass along pictures!). Oh and I also managed no pictures of our fun park outing with our Lawrence friends.

Someone wasn't real happy about nine hours in her car seat...

Amelia maybe slept for five minutes total if you add up her sleep time there and back...

The girls LOVED the pool at GranAnn's new place. We quickly learned that take-out dinner at the pool was the perfect end of summer dinner and was such a brilliant idea that we did it with pizza, Italian and Mexican.

Juliet behind the wheel. 

We took the girls to their first KU football game. Oh KU football sometimes you win which is special and the rest of the season we just sit around waiting for basketball to start. Evan, Norah, Amelia and Elise proudly showing off their KU tattoos.

So that whole thing about how we used to throw good parties... Yes this is our kids looking into the house next to where we were tailgating and mesmerized by their game of flip cup.....

Norah, Elise and Evan - Stop corrupting our girls with your tailgating ways! I blame Carson if my 3 1/2 and 18-month old now know what flip cup is.

cute girls

Amelia loved her Jayhawk face tattoo so much that she demanded to keep it on the whole car ride back to Chicago Sunday AND wear it to preschool on Monday. She was so proud of herself when we walked in and her teacher said, "Amelia did you go to a football game this weekend?" 

Juliet got all dressed-up in her Kansas blue to go to the game too. Thanks to Juliet we didn't even make it to half time before we had to leave...