Vacation to Columbus

Due to our bought with the flu, we ended up spending 3 days in Columbus instead of the week we had planned. We still had a great time at Grandpa and Grandma's house. We found this caterpillar on a hike. Lauren wanted to hold it . . .Annika just wanted to look at it. We celebrated Lauren's 3rd birthday - complete with new orange bike.

Annika was in a tree climbing mood, but there were no branches to climb so she didn't get very far.

Audrey and Samantha were able to enjoy (eat) the fall leaves.

Fun with Uncle Eric.

Quick - take the picture before our arms fall off.

I love fall.

Piling up leaves for a jump party.

Annika taking a hike with Uncle Eric.

Giant spider! Uncle Eric identified it as the Banded Garden Spider.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Uncle Eric and Aunt Lesley gave the kids some really cool musical instruments.

First time in the bath tub together.

Audrey and Sami met Great-Grandma Hall for the first time.

One of Lauren's favorite birthday presents - a Hello Kitty umbrella.

Nothing says 3 year old birthday party more than artificially colored Elmo cupcakes.

Joker?!

Grandma was a big help feeding the babies.

oink oink

We're pretty sure we got the "swine" flu. I've been wondering what it would be like if all of the kids were sick at the same time. Now I know what it's like with all of the kids AND me sick at the same time. Thankfully, everyone is mostly better now. Unfortunately, it delayed our vacation to Ohio by a few days. Here's the Pollack pharmacy. I ended up taking the 4 kids to the doctor only to discover that they all had ear infections.

This is Annika during one of her "I think I'm feeling better, can I please go to preschool?" moments.

Audrey was only miserable for a couple of days. She was a trooper.

Lauren got it the worse. She was down and out for a week.

Do NOT enlarge this photo - poor Sami had trouble breathing through that stuffed up nose of hers.

Karl was the only one who didn't get it. If you ask him he'll go off on his "dominant male antibody" theory. I was just thankful there was someone well enough to take care of all of us sickos. Isn't that kind of Lauren to share her contaminated eggs with Daddy?

October Happenings

Aunt Lesley came for another visit! We ventured out to the Garden for their annual fall festival. Aunt Lesley did a great job entertaining the babies while A and L enjoyed the activities.

Hard at work coloring seed packets.

It was Annika's turn and . . .she changed her mind. Better watch out cow - there's always next year.

To her credit, however, she did dare feed the llamas.

"Maybe I should have milked that cow. . ."

Lauren was very focused while making her hat. Note to self: do not bring a glue/glitter decorated hat into the house.

Karl's high school friend Rich and his family stopped by for a quick fun visit on their way from Omaha to their home in North Carolina.

A trip with Aunt Lesley to the zoo. I'm pretty sure she is lifting Lauren up to see the Giant Anteater.

I snapped this photo on picture day at preschool. Why? you might ask. Well, she didn't want the photographer to take her picture . . .and when Lauren doesn't want something, it more than likely isn't going to happen.

Lauren claims she didn't stick her tongue in the nutella container and try to lick it out. The circular evidence around her face disagrees.

Sister shots

Thanks for the skirts, Mandy! Now all they need are some rackets. . .

Watch out, here they come!

Nothing says "Pollack" more than. . . a princess outfit?!

I snuck in and took a picture of Annika and Lauren sleeping last night. Yes, they have separate beds. However, ever since watching "Little House" the girls want to be just like Mary and Laura and sleep in the same bed. It's so cute. . .but based on their crankiness lately quality of sleep may be an issue.

Balloon Glow

Every September 70 hot air balloons come to Forest Park for the start of a big race over St. Louis. The night before they all light their fires for "balloon glow." We figured it would be difficult to take the twins so we arranged for a sitter and decided to make it a fun night with just Annika and Lauren.

Apparently Lauren did not get the memo that it was supposed to be a FUN night. It was all over as soon as she saw the giant energizer bunny hot air balloon. She has been scared of bunnies ever since she saw the Easter Bunny at the Bontanical Garden last Easter. Needless to say, we did not stay long. We quickly moved on to. . .

Mr. Wizards! Not exactly the way we had planned the evening, but that's okay. :-)

The next day Ashley joined us to watch the balloons race from our back deck.

Weekend Separation

Karl, Annika and Lauren went to Columbus for a long weekend in mid-September. That's a long way to travel for a short trip you might say. . .well, not when OSU is playing USC under the lights at the Horseshoe. Not only did Karl have a great time at the football game (despite the loss) the girls had a wonderful time hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma. . .they especially enjoyed not having to share any attention with their baby sisters. In the meantime my dear friend Shanda came (kid free!) and spent a wonderful girls weekend with me and the twins.

Cousin Danial introduced Annika and Lauren to glow sticks while Great-Grandma watched.

Searching for rocks to throw in the river.

Lauren's face is worth a close-up look. I'm guessing she was a little worn-out.

Dress-up fun at Grandpa and Grandma's.

School Begins

Can you guess where Annika and Lauren are going to preschool? As you can see, they were pretty excited to head off to school. So far loading all 4 up in the van twice a day 4 days a week has gone well. Most of the time the twins take a nap during preschool and I can get some things done around the house. Yeah!

Labor Day Weekend Fun

We were going to have a campout in the backyard, but it rained so we moved it to the basement. Here they are watching their first episode of Little House and eating popcorn.

Good thing we were inside. . . otherwise there would have been no way for Lauren to "check her email" on our old laptop.

We went downtown on Labor Day and just happened to run into the Labor Day Parade. As you can see there were lots of semi trucks and union-promoting vehicles (that loved honking their horns). As you can tell, Karl was VERY excited to be there. We quickly moved on the to the bike races.

The Tour of Missouri started downtown.

A trip downtown wasn't complete without a stop at the Citygarden (this time we remembered swimsuits!).