Apple cake October and a rather artsy November

This post is dedicated to Aunt Sharon, because she said she keeps checking my blog for an update! Also to Jenna. Love you two!

I read this great post yesterday called "I miss blogs" and it got me all nostalgic for when I used to blog more often. I was all "Grainy photos and stream of consciousness ramblings? YES. That's me. I got this!" So here we go.

We went apple picking in October. It was a gorgeous and fun day with our friends.

But then we had all these apples. So I did what no normal person would, and decided to try out every recipe for apple cake I could possibly find.

That would be FIVE apple cakes I made in the month of October, using four different recipes. I made Jewish apple cake, French apple cake, Irish apple cake, and German apple cake. Frank and I taste-tested them all to decide which recipe was best. They all had subtle differences between them, such as that the French one contained rum and that the Jewish one had a crumb topping. The clear winner was the German one, though, because it included cream cheese frosting. It was the only one I made twice. Did I take a single picture of any of them? No! That's how you know I'll never be a real blogger. ;) But don't worry, I will share the recipe for the winning German apple cake. You are welcome!

Halloween came and we went trick-or-treating in my sister's neighborhood. Oh yes! She moved back to Chicago and bought a house, and our boys are the best of friends as we hoped they would be. It's a blessing beyond description to have them back in the area.

We dressed the boys as a lion and giraffe and filled their little red wagon with stuffed animals. Our little lion got really into character and ran around the house roaring all day!

In November, I discovered that the Art Institute—where we've been members since we got married, but hadn't visited in a while since I assumed it wouldn't be baby-friendly—is actually a fantastic place to take toddlers. Thanks to this fantastic Mini Masters board book series Frank bought him for Christmas last year, our boy was fascinated with the Degas and Monet exhibits. I'm sure it helped that we read the books on the train on our way in. On top of that, the museum has a newly installed education center that is a dream come true for toddlers—art books, puzzles, blocks, animals, the works! And you can rent a complimentary stroller! We plan to visit many more times this winter.

It's just been a good fall for museums in general. We've also taken the boys to the gorgeous Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, where they got to walk through the butterfly exhibit and pet a turtle (while Lillian and I hilariously translated the museum biologist's very detailed and scientific description of turtles into toddler-speak... "Turrr-tle. Belly. GENTLE.")...

... and to the Chicago Children's Museum, where they loved roaming through a toddler-sized grocery store, log cabin, and CTA bus!

And we occasionally dressed them matching, just to confuse people as everyone asks "Are they twins?":

What can I say? Our boys love this city of ours. And we do too.

Oh! And my in-laws came to visit (woohoo!) and I turned 26, but that was all the way back in September.

We did an evening boat cruise on the Chicago river...

And Grammy gave Frankie his first haircut! He looks so much older now.

Well that's all for now. Thanks for reading!