Last Day in Chicago

On our last day we made a quick trip down to Millennium Park and did a little shopping on the Mag Mile. We needed to pick up souvenir gifts for the kids and other family members.

I love the idea of the Crown Fountain, just wish the faces rotated through a little faster, as I wanted to sit and watch them but Bryan got bored. We really wanted to see someone get "spit" on but no such luck!
Our last trip on the El,as we headed to the airport. Hauling 2 suitcases, a carry-on, my camera bag, and a purse up the stairs to the El is not something I want to do again anytime soon!

Good-bye Chicago!

Hello Nebraska!

Even though I am terrified of heights I loved having the window seat.

Gardening

I had so many plans for the side shade garden this year, but haven't been able to do anything myself and can't talk the kids into helping either! I had hoped to add more perennials, a picket fence and arbor, lots of colorful annuals but as you can see it isn't very colorful. It is a huge improvement from 3 years ago when it was a rocky mud hole, but not quite where I would like it to be. Miss Brainy has a couple friends that may be willing to help out so I may be enlisting in their help to get the fence up and painted, might cost me a little more than pizza and

soda this time around.

My hanging baskets and new baskets on the railing are looking really good, except when I forgot to water them last week. We have been getting so much rain lately that I was slacking off and forgot that they would dry out faster. They did bounce back quickly, so no harm no foul.
I picked up this cute little tray at an antique store for $4 and thought it looked good with a few impatiens in it. I moved my furniture around and now I can sit outside when it is raining, which I love. Usually I can be outside by myself, since I am really the only one who loves storms, it is the perfect get-away. I got the large wire-basket on clearance last year at Hobby Lobby for $12, with intentions to hang it on the garage, but I think I like it here better. I picked up the enamel bowls and teapot from my favorite antique store, Antiques Paradise, for less than $5 a piece. I used them last year on the patio but found that they dry out very quickly in the sun so I moved them to the front porch this year. I am thinking about giving the bench a coat of cream or green paint but haven't decided yet.

Little Buddy helped me plant some more hanging baskets. I noticed that in all of the recent images he is wearing this shirt, he does own more clothes, it just happens to be a favorite.

I bought him a pair of Diego gardening gloves last year and he knew exactly where they were, so he asked to help. He does a pretty darn good job!

Fireplace Renovation

I spent a couple days last week stripping the old fireplace mantle. It had a couple coats of ugly brown and gold paint, which came off pretty easily, except around the detail work. I had planned on giving it a coat of poly and leaving it natural wood, but there are a few stubborn areas that I can't seem to make look nice no matter what I try. My plans have now changed to painting the mantle, trim, and black insert a nice creamy white. Bryan started tiling the base and I will texture the area above the mantle.

I love the existing tile, which I have found to be very tough to match. I did finally choose a gray/green/brown ceramic tile for the base with brown grout. I would have loved to have found some of these antique tiles, but it would have just broken my heart to not be able to afford them, so I didn't look too hard.

Windy City Birthday

Our first thing on the agenda for Chicago Day 4 was the Field Museum, which as I said before was cool sure, but not worth the hype. Bryan was starting to feel sick and I was getting worn out so walking around this huge place was probably not the best choice for us, but we had bought the tickets so we decided to go anyways.

After the museum, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap! Bryan was sucked into a Cubs game on t.v. and ended up not sleeping but I sure enjoyed my 2 1/2 hour siesta. That doesn't happen very often around our house!
We decided to head off to the Navy Pier for the evening, but didn't take into account the cold lake breeze, and poor Bryan only packed shorts for the trip! We wondered around taking pictures and picking up a few gifts for the kids. Luckily one of the shops had blankets on sale so I picked one up to keep us warm later on the boat.

I chose Bubba Gump's for my Birthday meal, which in my opinion was the perfect choice. Bryan and I shared the shrimp (what else do you expect) and my birthday sundae. I kicked Bryan's butt when the waiter gave us a Forrest Gump quiz!!!

I thought a sunset/firework lake cruise would be a great end to the evening, but I might have been mistaken. We did enjoy it, but dang was it cold and windy! The fog rolled in and blocked most of the fireworks and skyline, but it made for some interesting images.

Play Ball

I had fun watching Little Buddy and Bryan playing baseball in the front yard the other evening. Little Buddy is getting pretty good, he can hit the ball when pitched to him and can catch most balls, but forgets to put his hand on top to keep it from falling back out. Bryan was trying to teach him to get the ball and then tag the runner, but he kept forgetting to get the ball first. So he would just run after Bryan and hit him with his glove. After he would "tag" him, he would shout, "I'm the winner your the loser, haha!"

Guess he needs to learn to be a good sportsman too!

There's something about this girl

Little Miss AlleyCat doesn't even realize that in about a month something is going to rock her world. AlleyCat is going to be a big sister!!

When I pulled up to drop Little Buddy off at Grandma's the first thing I noticed was AlleyCat's hair. She looked so grown up, sitting on the big tricycle, wearing her sister's jacket, sporting these big ol' piggytails
It is funny to campare BeanPoles to Alleycat. When BeanPoles was her age she was so quiet, would sit perfectly still when you took her to the store, and laughed and giggled at everything.
Miss AlleyCat doesn't know how to sit still, she is into everything, and she thinks she is as big as everyone else and wants to do whatever they are. She has always had this look, a cross between inquisitive and scowling. I can't wait until she starts to talk just to know what it is that she is thinking. She has me wrapped around her little finger though, whenever she calls me Coyie or waves and tells me tata, she is sucking me in just a little bit more!
There is just something about this girl that keeps you laughing. In the short 30 or so minutes I was at my in-laws yesterday Miss AlleyCat managed to dump a bowl of beads, throw 2 cars across the table at me, pop no less than 5 beads in her mouth, dump and pick up a box of stickers, stand up in a chair and nearly fall off the table, and open the front door and try to go outside by herself all the while flashing that ornery AlleyCat smile. She sure keeps Grandma on her toes!!

That's not my name

I have been thinking about what a small world we live in and how you can never be too careful when it comes to the safety of your children. I will be spending the day renaming my kids( with some help from Miss Brainy), for the blog only, to keep their identity a little more obscure. I don't know if there is anyone out there that takes the time to read this except my mom and my mother in law, but I just feel this would be a little more fun! From now on they will be known as:

#1- The Boss

#2- Miss Brainy

#3- The Chatterbox

#4-Badger Boy

#5- Little Buddy

Although some of the ideas Miss Brainy and Little Buddy came up with were hilarious, these are the ones we have settled on.

THE GAME

Our trip had been planned around this game, as anyone who knows Bryan knows just how much of a die-hard Cubs fan he is. We arrived 2 hours early, waited for the gates to open and got to our seats in anticipation of watching batting practice. We were disappointed to see the tarp over the field, but it wasn't raining at the time so we were hopeful the game would go as planned.

The grounds keepers pulled the tarp off just as the stands were starting to fill.

Marshall pitched and I was able to get an action series in before my camera had to be put away, because it started to rain a little harder.

I did get a few images from early in the game. I have to say the view of first base wasn't so bad!

There are no more images after this, the rain really started to come down and then when it started to lightning they called the game. No 7th inning stretch was sang, no peanuts or cracker jacks were eaten, but it was a great time and I am happy to have spent it with my favorite cubs fan! He has already started talking about our next trip and taking the boys to see a game!

Snippets of Day 3- Chicago style

One of my favorite and least favorite parts of Chicago was the El Train. I do not like ridding backwards or standing up, which in a crowded train sometimes becomes your only option. I also did not care for the fabric on the seats, which in my mind only masked the possibility that the previous occupant of said seat may have had bladder control problems. Other than that our outings on the El were quite entertaining. We almost always started our trips at the Lake street stop, which was nicely lit and had the better entertainers. I regret the fact that I did not get a picture of our favorite guy. He sang a hilarious song about the love affair of his stuffed Tiger and Beyonce'. That was one time I wouldn't have minded waiting a little while longer for the train to arrive.

On this day we headed to the Shedd Aquarium. I'm sure that most people would really enjoy visiting here, but since we live so close to the Henry Doorly Zoo we are a little spoiled by the awesome aquarium there. We both agreed that the time and money spent here could have easily been better spent somewhere else (the same goes for the Field Museum which we visited the next day).
The skyline taken from the patio of the aquarium.

Yes, we found Nemo!!

A little more blue sky, teasing us, making us think that maybe the game wouldn't be wet after all! Images of the big game up next!

Happy Birthday Poppy

Today's my dad's birthday, sorry I'm a very bad daughter and I really don't know how old he is, or else I would post it here! I also notice that I need to convince him to let me take more images of him, since this is the only one I could find on my hard drives and it is almost 4 years old.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Portillo's

On the recommendation of our tour guide we ate at Portillo's, which turned out to be the best meal we had in Chicago. We wanted to go back again but didn't make it. If we had stayed at the original hotel we would have been just blocks away, which I think is the only thing we have found that would have made staying there worth it.

I loved walking around with all the traffic and people. Bryan was a little nervous being out and about after dark, but I could totally see myself as a big city girl!
Bryan ordered a couple Chicago dogs, which smelled as bad as they look! He would have stopped at every vendor, restaurant, cafe, or deli that served these if I would have let him. He has since bought all the fixin's and is waiting on Miss Fun to come home so that he can make them, since
no one else in our house is crazy enough to eat them.