Yep, that's right....it's almost the end of October and here I am finally getting to July! Perhaps I'll get caught up by the end of the year and my New Year's Resolution will be to stay current! Gotta have a goal, right?
On the 3rd of July, the 4 of us went up to Wisconsin and took in the fireworks show at the Grand Geneva resort. The kids always have a good time running around on the hill and it's actually a pretty good show. Here's a pic of me with the kids:
Since the 4th of July was on a Wednesday this year, we ended up getting a nice long vacation. We went to the cottage on Tuesday and stayed until Sunday. We had plenty of lazy days on the lake - here's Darin's big catch:
The kids always love the fireworks:
This guy always has a smile for the camera:
We spent one last day on Nuts Largo before Jenny traded it in for a pontoon boat:
I like this photo of my two favorites at Gage Marine. It just screams "summer" to me:
After our relaxing weekend, I spent an evening at Ravinia with many of the moms of QAS. We saw Natalie Merchant (who was not really at her best - she forgot the words to one of her songs!).
I was lucky enough to have Jenny come along and of course, she arrived in style!
The next day, the Marino kids went to Jenny's house for Wacky Wednesday with all of her high school friends and their kids. It looked like a public pool with the amount of people there!
Gratuitous Megan and Jenny photo:
On a rainy July day, my crazy kids and Francesca got all dressed up in random stuff. I have no idea what they were doing here:
Jake's baseball picnic was in July. He earned his trophy with his mad baseball skills this year.
Megan and Jake both got pretty comfortable in the pool this year. They even started doing tricks with Darin:
Under water is no longer a problem!
Best buds:
Eileen Neis celebrated her 50th birthday with a big neighborhood party in their backyard. Here's the whole crew:
And we ended the month at a Sox Game. It happened to be one of the hottest evenings of the summer and it took us at least an hour to get there in traffic (and our AC in the VW overheated and stopped working on the way there). Not a very pleasant experience, but hey.....the tickets were free. Ugh!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
July 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
June 2012
June was another month that was filled with activity - all good stuff. Our Jake continued to play well on his baseball team. And he got out of school a week earlier than Megan, so I took him out golfing. He had a great time on the course - it wasn't crowded at all in the middle of the day on a Monday.
I think the highlight of his day may have been when he drove the golf cart. He sat in the driver's seat for a photo and then was pleasantly surprised when he pressed on the pedal.
I had a lady in the parking lot take a photo of us as we were packing up.
On Megan's last day of school (which was exactly one hour), a bunch of families headed to Loyola Park Beach for an end of the school year celebration. It was pretty fun to have so many of their friends there. Check out the size of this crowd:
Here's my little slugger looking serious at another ballgame:
Since our summer started out so nice and hot, we were able to spend lots of time at fun Aunt Jenny's pool. This is Jake "surfing" on one of the rafts. It's a little harder than it looks (at least for me).
And here's Megan with a BIG jump!
Megan and Francesca were feeling a little entrepreneurial one day and set up a lemonade stand in the front yard. Their best customer was the Fed Ex guy who bought a cup and gave them $1.00. They thought that was pretty cool.
Papa came into town for Darin's annual Pleasant Lake Golf Outing with the guys. They got in a little front yard baseball before the weekend.
Jake celebrated his 6th birthday on June 13. This is what he woke up to:
He opened his gift before breakfast. It was the Lego Black Pearl Pirate Ship. Fortunately, he had Megan to put it together for him.
For his special breakfast, he had homemade waffles with a scoop of ice cream.
We had his birthday part at LegoLand since Legos are a big favorite right now.
Here's the whole group:
Papa snapped a family photo of the 4 of us after the party:
We spent Father's Day at Jenny & Flip's house. They made Frogmore Stew (also known as "The butter dipping dinner" to the kids).
My little fish:
We made it up to the cottage a few times in June. This was taken by the beach on Pleasant Lake (although it looks more tropical in the photo!)
And here are the cousins exploring a "secret beach".
We ended the month with the Balmoral Ave. Inaugural block party. I'd say it was a success for a first-year event!
The kids sure liked being able to help themselves to lemonade and water (which ended up as a water fight as evening approached).
Our DJ got all of the kids dancing!
All in all a fun month!
Friday, September 14, 2012
May 2012
I seem to have a common theme here. Busy. I don't really feel frazzled all the time, but I look back at all of our activities over the past few months and it seems that we do a lot. I guess it's pretty telling since I am 4 months behind in updating this blog.
May started out with a bang. We started the month with a First Communion practice. Here's a photo of Megan with the banner that she made. My Wisconsin Marathon happened to be on the same day as First Communion. I left on Friday morning for Wisconsin and Darin handled the homefront. Jenny was kind enough to come over and take Megan to Salon Blonde for a fancy updo. Megan loved Irene (she's really funny) and decided that's where she'd like to get her hair done all the time.
I made it back from Kenosha in time to get myself ready. Darin took Megan to the church to get her set up while the rest of us trailed behind. Here's the beauty:
I was able to snag a photo with her afterward:
May 5th also happened to be the running of the Kentucky Derby. We had a little gathering at our house to celebrate her First Communion and randomly drew numbers for a little wager on the derby. Jake was the winner for the day and I believe he cleared around $80.00. Oh, and you'll notice that he's in his baseball uniform. That was also the day of Jake's first ballgame of the season. So Darin left straight from church and took Jake to his game. I told you it was busy!
On the following Wednesday, Kathleen Brennan hosted a Mother/Daughter tea for the First Communicants. It was a beautiful day and her yard was perfect for this.
It also gave the girls a chance to wear their fancy dresses again! Here's another pic of me and Megan (a little squinty)!
All of the activity for the first part of the month, caused this family to get some great sleep. I happen to like this photo of Darin and his mini-me. :-)
I was able to make it to Jake's next ballgame. He now plays "Coach Pitch" baseball. If they can't hit the ball after 6 or 7 pitches, then they hit off of the tee. We've got ourselves a good, little hitter here.
Fielding can be kind of boring sometimes, but every now and then a little action comes his way.
On May 20, it was warm enough to swim at Jenny's house. It's always a good time there.
And, tiring as well. This is on the way home!
We spent the last weekend of the month at the cottage. Megan caught her first fish of the season and Irena helped to take it off the hook.
We ended the month with Jake's Junior Kindergarten graduation. He was a great performer (he sang a song with all 50 states!). He knew all of the moves, too. Here he is with his buddy, Joe, in the background.
And it looks like I was able to sneak myself into quite a few photos this month. Here's my last one:
