Summer Kick Off Trip

A trip to Chicago was a great way to kick off our 2018 summer!  Adding the Smith family in only made it better!  Tuesday morning we all got up and headed to the airport.

Lily and Mia sat together and enjoyed a nice flight.

After dropping our bags off at the hotel we walked over to Cupital to enjoy a little pick-me-up.

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From there we headed over to Navy Pier to relax and enjoy the day.  It was in the mid-40's which was a welcome change from the upper 80's we had at home.  As the week went on, the temperature climbed up, but this was perfect!

 After some fun on Navy Pier, we spent the evening at David and Jan's home, where we enjoyed this beautiful view and a fabulous Giordano's deep dish pizza.  Welcome to Chicago!

 The girls say they can't sleep in the same bed with one another...I disagree.

Wednesday was a gorgeous day.  After enjoying some delicious Stan's donuts for breakfast, we walked over to the river to take a 90 minute architectural tour.  The adults loved it, but the kids were over it after about an hour.

 There are so many beautiful places to explore here.

 When the tour ended, we met David and Jan at Pinstripes.  The adults enjoyed a nice quiet meal while the kids enjoyed a good meal while bowling.  What a great place!

 After lunch we headed to the top of Willis Tower...103 floors up!  Lily wasn't having anything to do with this, but the rest of us made it out on The Sky Deck, a glass box over the side of the building.  I'll admit, I didn't look down while standing in it.

  It was an amazingly clear day, so the views were perfect from up top.

 After a little rest at the hotel, we headed to Wrigley to catch the Indians versus Cubs game.  Fun times all around!

 

On Thursday morning, Ryan and David had breakfast together, so I took the girls to Cupital again, a favorite spot.

 After breakfast, we met the Smiths over at The Shedd.  They had the coolest exhibits going.  They looked like animal sculptures, but they were made entirely out of items found in the lake.  Trash into beauty for sure.

 We were all fascinated by this humongous crab.

 We had fun watching the belugas, playing games, and taking in the dolphin show.  This is a great aquarium.  Mia was quite excited to spend her money buying a pink penguin here she eventually named CC which is the nickname for "cotton candy."

When we finished at The Shedd, we headed over to the Adler Planetarium where Jan met up with us. 

We started out by having some lunch and hanging out for a few minutes.  We needed energy!

Then we had felt up to having some fun and exploring!  We learned a ton about space and enjoyed a couple of planetarium shows.  It's very possible that a couple of adults fell asleep in them.

 A couple of fun space cadets here!

 The back patio of the Adler is the perfect place for pictures with the gorgeous Chicago skyline.

 After this, most of us walked back to the hotel, stopping to see the beautiful Buckingham Fountain and cutting through Millennium Park to see The Bean.

Friday was another beautiful day, though it was warming up into the 80's.  We spent the vast majority of the day at The Museum of Science and Industry.  It was so cool!

 They had the actual U-505 here.  This is the only German U-boat captured from WW2.  We paid the extra little bit to take a tour of the inside and learn more about how the capture happened.  Once again, it was overwhelming to think of our brave soldiers risking their lives for our country.  There is so much to be thankful for.

 After the U-boat and WW2 area, there were lots of other fun areas to explore.

 The historical circus area was fun!

 The weather hands-on exhibit was probably the most exciting part for the kids.  They had a great time learning about weather patterns, forming tsunamis and wind tunnels, watching a lightening storm, and all sorts of other cool things.

 The girls had a good time on the mini-climbing wall.

We finished up the evening with a cookout on David and Jan's patio.  It was the perfect night to be outside grilling burgers.

Saturday arrived, and we had to leave.  We had the morning available though before our flights, so we decided to take advantage and hang out at Maggie Daly Park.  This is always a hit.

Mia headed straight to the rock climbing walls.

 She did this for nearly an hour...it's exhausting!

 Lily branched out and tried roller blading.  She loved it and now wants a pair for her birthday!

 Grandma Jan joined in the roller blading fun for awhile with Lily, and then we let Mia take one lap around to give it a try; no surprise, she loved it too!

 Eventually, we had to say our goodbyes and head to the airport.  This was another fun trip, and we can't wait to get back.  Why?  Because "My kind of town, Chicago is!" as Frank Sinatra would say!

Wrapping Up Spring in May

I'm catching on to what's happening here.  Now that the girls are older, there aren't as many "cute" stories of funny things they have said and done.  That means I don't update nearly as much as in the past.  I think this once a month bit is working out fine.

We wrapped up May which always includes the hectic end of year activities at school.  "May-hem" as many people call it!  Still, lots of excitement in the air for our family as it feels like a new year since tax season has just ended, and the dawn of summer is upon us.  Here are several things we did this past month.

Lily made a delicious lemon cake and made this super cool polka dot fondant design on it.  It was delicious, and how cute is she making it?!

 I love when Mia reads to me.  We enjoyed several chapters of Lemony Snicket together.

 Lily found a nice place in our front yard for studying one lovely afternoon.

 Lily performed "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter at Stonehaven's talent show.  I am so proud of her to play in front of everyone, and she sounded great!

 Ryan went on Lily's field trip to the Bible Museum down in Lagrange.  He and Lily both loved this trip and said it was an excellent place to visit.

 I took several days off and went to Gulf Shores for a long weekend.  I needed to decompress after a hectic tax season, and this is always a great way to do that.  It was absolutely beautiful weather.  I loved watching the sunset each evening over Mobile Bay.  Stunning.

 Lily made this red velvet cake for Mother's Day.  I love how she decorated it to make it appear the flowers were cascading off the cake.  She used the money she earned from filing at my office to buy lots of new piping tools, and she was excited to use them on this cake.

 The two reasons I love Mother's Day, right here.  I'm so thankful to be their mom.

 We were glad that Mom and Dad and Wayne's family were able to come over on Mother's Day evening for dinner.  It was a fun (and delicious) time!

 Lily's class had a "Hobbit" themed end of year party at our house.  Lily volunteered to make the goodies, and she came up with these spiced cupcakes with tye-died icing.  She called them "Dragon's Breath" cupcakes which I thought was so creative.  They looked and tasty so good!

 Mr. Scheidt with his 5th grade class.  This has been a great year!

I had a lot of fun on Mia's end of year trip to the zoo!  I love being with these fun kids.  One of the groups of boys went off on their own path (with a chaperone of course), but most of us stuck together and enjoyed exploring together. 

 At the end of school awards ceremony, Mr. Edwards thanked Elizabeth and me for our seven years of serving on the Board of Trustees.  It has truly been my privilege to do this.  

 5th grade girls.  This has been such a good group of friends.  We're going to miss several of them as they go to a different middle school next year.

Mia was quite excited to get this new Nerf Crossbow in her summer basket of surprises!

   Our family decided to try Bark at the Park this year with Decker!  It's such a fun idea.  They set aside a few sections in the park for dogs and their owners; they given each dog a Braves' leash too.  They have lots of little kiddie pools set up to keep them cool along with tons of bowls of ice water.  King of Pops is also there selling their King of Pups frozen treats.  It was a fun event, just very, very hot!  We made it through the fourth inning before we decided to head on home; it didn't help that the Braves were down 6-0 at that point (though they came back to win in the 9th!).

 At one point, a foul ball was hit, and the sound man rang the doorbell like he usually does.  This time though about 30 dogs started barking wanting to know who was at the door!  It was pretty funny!  Decker was on the big screen once; how could they resist such a cute puppy?  Kelsey (the girl who adds commentary throughout the game) gathered a group of a few people to stand around her with their dogs during one segment, so Ryan and Decker were on tv with her!

 The girls have been using their creative skills now that school is out which I'm thankful for.  I hate to think of them sitting around watching tv or playing on an ipad all day.  One day they came up with something called "The Everything Show" and recorded various segments for it.  They were cute to watch.  We played their recordings on the Apple tv so Ryan and I could watch.  Here's Lily as the host of a trivia game show with Mia as the contestant.  She won.

This has been another great year at Stonehaven, but we're ready for summer!

A Few April Pictures

Well, we're here at the end of April.  I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.  This was by far the most difficult tax season I've worked through.  We are all grateful it's complete.  The majority of these pictures were taken by Ryan and sent to me; they would brighten my day!

Ryan and the girls had a lot of fun in Birmingham for Easter weekend and the start of the girls' spring break at school.  They went to church at Shades Mountain, colored eggs and simply enjoyed hanging out with family.  It was a beautiful, wonderful weekend!

 I thought this was such a cute picture of Mom and Dad!

 I love when Mia reads to me, and doesn't she look beautiful in her new glasses?!

 Not even sure why Lily had all these Peeps on a stick, but it was a cute picture.

 Mia and Ryan have lots of fun playing the Wii together.

 Ryan and Mia had a fun morning at Chuck E Cheese one day during the break.  Mia was quite proud of her ticket count.

 Ryan took the girls to a Braves' game during the break too.  Everyone always enjoys a trip to The Battery.

Lily is such a creative artist!  She colored this beautiful picture on the left, and then she made a self-portrait emoji on a strawberry cake she made from scratch one day.

 Mia spent several hours one day working on a new script for the next Descendents movie.  I love when her creative juices start flowing!

 I couldn't resist snapping these two pictures of Lily sleeping.  For a few weeks, she made a little bed on the floor and enjoyed sleeping there with her Christmas lights going.  We had the Casey family over a few weeks ago to watch Secret Church with us, and they spent the night at our house.  We pulled the girls' trundle beds out and both girls have enjoyed sleeping on those too.  Apparently, Decker really likes sleeping on Lily's trundle as well!

  Always glad to have the Smith family over (even though I missed this fun and beautiful evening because I was working).

I came home the night before the deadline to see this on my kitchen counter.  The note was telling me not to peak.  After school on deadline day, Lily brought these treats up to the office to pull us through the last few hours.  She had experimented with blondies with a homemade caramel sauce, and they were quite tasty!

 

 Mia's class dissected owl pellets to see what the owls had eaten.  I love the look on Mia's face right here as she realized her friend Gabe had picked up his pellet with his bare hand!

 This girl is in the kitchen as much as possible which we all love!

That's about all going on around here!