2014-12-13: Well, you'd think I'd have some Thanksgiving era photos in here, but I apparently dropped the ball on that one. There's some leftovers from Halloween and some recent Christmasy ones, so I guess it averages out. Andrya and Josh took a bunch of these, so thanks to those guys for helping to keep the yelling at me by various grandmas at a minimum.

Here's Niklas's Halloween Parade from school. That's all I've got on that.

Here's Zoe showing off an awesome glow in the dark headband she got trick or treating.

I... hmmm. This is what it is.

This is a preview of Zoe's Christmas dress. You're all embargoed from discussing it until 12/25.

Well, I've already played the "I have no idea what's going on here" card, but I've got a whole hand of them.

Here are the kids acting a fool while waiting on the Santa train.

Santa Train is definitely worth the wait, by the way. here it is in action last year.

Here's Niklas working on the Lego set St. Nicholas brought him.

Zoe used her St. Nicholas stuff to one up Magritte.

Here's Niklas with one of the many presents his Godfather brought him.

Zoe is ready for sleigh pulling and Who robbing.

This is about right.

Here's a self portrait by Niklas.

Zoe is a big, but she and Josh are dwarfed by the big tree at Navy Pier.

I don't know what the official results here were, but Zoe assures you that she won.

Here's Zoe in front of a tree celebrating the only Chicago season other than winter.

This is a view of Winterfest from high atop the Ferris Wheel.

And this is me and Zoe on the Ferris Wheel. Stay tuned for more Ferris Wheel related photos!

This is the kind of thing you might see before losing consciousness

Here's Zoe on the merry go round. Later, she rode a chicken.

Here we are before we started going really fast on the cocoa cups.

Jump! Jump! Jump! Just watching Zoe can be exhausting.

Here we are on the tilt-a-whirl.

And this is the lighthouse drop, which was built for people smaller than me and Josh.

Ferris Wheel.

FERRIS WHEEL

FERRISWHEELFERRISWHEELFERRISWHEELFERRISWHEEL

Zoe got an early lead over me in the tube slide race.

But my superior mass helped me to close the gap. Thanks, gut!

I'm smiling because the children are behaving for once.

Here are the kids waiting for Santa. Mr Claus seemed to think they were well behaved, so things are looking good for the Nice List.

And here they are with Santa. The kids are clearly in cahoots with the photographers at the zoo as their official portrait with Santa is much better. I'll get that scanned in here one of these days.

Here's Zoe wearing my coat. Moments later, feathers started pouring out of it. Coincidence?

While we were waiting for Andrya to pick up the kids' picture with Santa, Niklas did some one armed pushups against the wall for some reason.

This is a small section of the Zoo Lights.

This years tree is named Mr. Surly. It's apt.

2014-11-16: The bank near our house is currently decorated in snowflakes and scarecrows. Sounds Halloweeny to me.

Here's Niklas warming up for baseball. Warming up was relative that day, I assure you.

Zoe: "Daddy, take my picture." Me: "Okay." Zoe: *this face*

Here's Niklas working on turning a pumpkin into a literary character. It's no Lone Ranger's nephew's horse, but it turned out pretty well.

So here's Greg from Diary of a Wimpy Kid in his Halloween costume.

And here, for your reference, is an unauthorized reproduction of the book.

This is a rare photo of Zoe admitting that she's tired.

Speeeeeeeeeeeeeed king!

Here's Zoe ready to Halloween it up.

Children love pizza.

I wish I had video of this, because Zoe is kicking Niklas for some reason.

Much less kicky, here. Niklas is Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy, by the way. His costume was recognized exclusively by men 25 to 35 years old.

Here's Zoe showing off the braid the lady at the gym playroom put in her hair.

And here she is swinging in front of the train. Quite Chicago-y, that.

Zoe vs Leaf Pile: Winner - Zoe

Zoe's Attempt to Tunnel Through Leaves: Winner - Leaves

Pumpkin guts! Woooooo!

Here's some further pumpkin hollowing.

So this was Zoe's pumpkin.

And this was Niklas's.

Here's Niklas bobbing for apples. I don't think the googles were neccessary.

The kids disagreed with me.

Apple bobbing this year was much more successful than last year, as the kids actually got some apples out of the pot.

I'm not quite sure what's happening here, but some fools are probably going to lose some money.

2014-10-12: So here are a bunch of pictures that are somewhat out of order on account of how I saved them from different sources and am lazy. It turns out that Niklas and Zoe's birthdays are not back to back.

This is the kids playing at park that used to be a petting zoo. Fitting, I'd say.

The monkeys, they are loose.

Here's Niklas making a rock angel, as one does.

Zoe's a big fan of R2-D2. They are of similar stature and attitude.

Here's Niklas and me at the Pirates game. They beat the Cubs twice in one day and Niklas ate a ton of junkfood.

Let's go Bucs and also ice cream.

Here's Niklas schooling it up at the old school house.

So is this.

And this is Niklas with his co-workers.

Here's Zoe waiting for school to open. She's very positive about school.

This is Zoe's first day of school and her "Duty Now For The Future" pose.

Here's Niklas on his first day of school. It's the fifth year in a row (counting preschool) that he's been excited about it.

Zoe's not about to let two pictures get taken without her in at least one.

So here are these guys with a plastic chicken.

This is from August when we were in Wisconsin. Zoe and I are stomping Zack and Jared on the go kart track.

This is the same, but smaller and less blurry.

Here's a picture Zoe took of Niklas and part of Aaron's hand.

Here's Niklas's drawing of Iron Man in Super Hero Magazine. His figures used to all be posed so as to flip the viewer off. I miss those days.

Here's Niklas again with his non-bird flipping drawing.

Puffy coat weather came early this year.

Action coat!

This is me and Zoe at the City Museum in St. Louis when it was decidedly not puffy coat weather.

Here are me and the kids climbing through a tube. They had and easier go of it than I.

This is Zoe with her birthday loot.

Zoe C. Four let's you know how old she is. It's four.

Here's Zoe successfuly not catching her hair on fire.

This is a different wave of Zoe's birthday loot.

Do most four year old girls ask for ninja gear for their birthdays? They should; it's cool.

Zoe's new found love of Legos definitely gives her and Niklas something to do together.

And here we are at Niklas's birthday. Time flies when pictures get shuffled.

Here's a hug, one would assume after Zoe gave Niklas his birthday present.

This is Niklas with a WiiU game and Zoe with a mischief face.

Captain Niklas pilots his bumper boat in the Dells.

And this is Zoe telling me to squirt Niklas.

Here's Zoe in a park in greater Belleville. She has a flower necklace.

Zoe's comedy stylings are up on the wall of the Orange Room.

As is this self portrait. It's pretty solid.

This is Niklas's crazy face. We took the kids to get their pictures taken and he displayed it prominently.

Here are the kids negotiating the bike safety course at Alcott's Fall Fest. They both got certificates of completion, but I think they were graded on a generous curve.

Safety!

Here's Zoe launching a fish into a penguin's basket. Obviously.

This is a preview of Zoe's Halloween costume. She's a cat.

Zoe spent some time with Grandma and Papa in Bloomington. Here she is making cupcakes.

Schooooooool.

Schooly school.

Schooly school school.

Apparently, photo ops are a big part of school these days.

The children's pillow fights have escalated.

Here are the children not listening to me.

Baseball is somewhat secondary to climbing on the fence these days.