Chicago

What to say, what to say? We just had THE BEST time together for our 10th anniversary trip to Chicago. Great city, great food, great company. We had such a relaxing time and were so grateful for the opportunity to just be Geof and Laura for a few days. It's so easy to get distracted from one another with work, three busy kids, activities, etc., so it's nice to be reminded of the fun things that make you love each other. And who knew that we can indeed talk about something other than the kids over dinner?! We weren't even disappointed when the trip came to an end, because the whole week had been just perfect. No disappointments and recharged for the next 10 years! (and there would be those sweet little faces waiting at home. :)

my handsome date for A WEEK!



evening view from our room at The Drake

re-lax!




Signature Room at the 95th (Hancock)



one hot and spicy vacation!

10 years married, looking forward to a lifetime

"When you're good to mama..."

We did not see the musical Chicago while away in the windy city, but the trip indeed was good to mama. I will be sorting through the pictures for the rest of the summer, but I think this picture sums up how I feel about my getaway with my sweet wonderful Geof. Let's not wait 8 more years to do it again!

Long Weekend with Friends

Yesterday we spent the day at the beach. Something we have never done before as a day trip, but something we will definitely do again! All the more fun with friends squashing into the van with us and coming along for the ride! We found a great public parking area right by the aquarium complete with shaded picnic area, bathrooms and showers and beach access. Free and easy! Hi-Hat also overcame some fears of the waves and was having so much fun with his little buddy playing in the waves. Funny part of the trip was that we realized Fancy had taken off her bathing suit at home before we left, so when I went to take her sundress off there was nothing there! She had to do the beach in her dress, but it didn't seem to put any damper on her day.

Today we had some friends over, with the plan being to tie dye t-shirts for the 4th. We thought the kids would really like tying and squirting dye on their own shirts. Not so much. But Heather and I had a great time! We have the hands to prove it. This afternoon we tried out Loco Pops downtown ('cause we can't get enough of locally made frozen summer treats!), and they were so good that we treated ourselves to seconds! I can highly recommend the chocolate mint, which has crushed candy canes mixed in. I do not highly recommend the lemon sage, unless you are buying boutique hand soap. :) Then a quick jaunt over to Pullen Park, but I think the kids had had enough of sun and sand, so we just rode the train and came home. Yes, we ALL rode the train. The train goes through a tunnel. This is a BIG deal. Second fear overcome in two days for Hi-Hat - waves and tunnels! Yippee! Now if I can just drag him out to the fireworks tomorrow night, but I'm not holding my breath.

Happy 4th!

Found A Blueberry Patch!

There is indeed a local pick-your-own blueberry farm right nearby - only about 20 minutes from the house! Yippee! We were there this morning and picked 4 pounds. Hot work, but well worth it as I have bags of berries in the freezer now. :) Takes a lot longer to fill a bucket with blueberries than it does strawberries. They are open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 7am-noon. Leave me a comment or email me if you want the details.

Have Dog Will Travel

I'm very new to this whole dog thing, but did you know you can put the dog in the car and GO places? :) Kind of just dawned on me that we don't have to just walk in our neighborhood. Duh. So we went to a nearby park tonight and it was so lovely. Felt like the temperature dropped 15 degrees under all the trees. We were hoping Alex would show off and venture into the water (aren't poodles bred for something having to do with water?), but he was very skittish. Surprise surprise. We did watch a beautiful standard poodle/poddle mix jump right in and swim around. Alex just stared from the banks. And I purposefully left the camera at home. Oh but wait, my phone has a great camera now. Darn. Must take pictures! I'm thinking we make dog walking field trips a habit.

I often find him holding the dog. He thinks it's fun that Alex is so little and likes to be held. I realized he never really held his baby sisters for me! I'm thinking Alex will be quite spoiled.

Took a little coaxing to get him out of the car. He was really skittish at first.
If we're by the water as the sun sets, I have to get pictures of Fancy.
so much for trying to protect his head from the sun...I guess I call this one sun burn.
yup - my little camera phone and i will get along just fine... :)

OK, and we're trying to plan our Chicago itinerary and we're getting nowhere because I'm making Geof figure out latitude and longitude coordinates for Chicago so I can use a solar calculator to determine what time would be best photo lighting-wise for use to take the architectural boat cruise. Can you say romantic anniversary trip? :)

This project's in the bag

Anyone remember this time 2 years ago when I had a brand spankin' new baby in the house, along with 3 and 4 year olds, and I managed to have a super duper craft project just about every day? How on earth? And where did those organizational skills go? Well today we finally had a project to do. The kids illustrated their own reusable grocery bags! Exciting, I know. But it was a fun project and they are thrilled that they each have their own personalized bag. I have about 6 more that we can do, but I'll save those for other hot days when we need something to do.
It's really easy. You just need:
- child's drawing
- scanner or camera and printer
- iron-on transfer paper (such as Wilton's transfers for dark fabrics)
- iron

Have your kids make a masterpiece, and then either scan the image (or do what I did and take a photo of the artwork and load it into the computer). Resize it if necessary, and print the image onto the iron-on transfer according to the package directions. Then iron onto the bag. Viola! Pretty easy and a fun way to remember those precious childhood drawings. I'm thinking I might raid Hi-Hat's folder full of artwork that I have saved over the years and transfer some of those onto the bags, too. Thanks to Family Fun mag for this great idea!

Dinner is SERVED!

OK, some of  you are GREAT at doing the cooking ahead thing.  I'm so-so at it.  I do it in phases.  I seem to be in a phase of dinner time denial these days.  Anyway, here's the solution for all of us who have trouble now and then with dinner... :) 

Bon appetite!

(this post inspired by Geof, who suggested that dinner would be much easier if we could just find dinner pellets)