August was another busy month and worthy of a second post. Later in the month, Jenny took Megan (and Francesca) to the American Girl store for a special birthday lunch.
This is a pretty special event for Megan - she thinks it's so cool to go downtown (especially with Aunt Jenny).
On a crummy, rainy day, we joined the Swansons for bowling at Brunswick Zone. Patti had a groupon, so it was as good excuse as any to get over there.
Back to the topic of birthdays........Larry celebrated his 70th birthday this year and came into town with Uncle Adam to attend the big, fancy party at Jenny's house. They stayed with us for most of the week and one night we went out to Club Lucky for a nice dinner.
We had lots of fun with them. We had lunch at Red Robin, Adam and I got pedicures, I dropped off Adam and Larry in Millenium Park while I went to an expo for an hour or two one day. Then came the big event! Here are a few photos of party day.
My boys:
This makes me smile:
With the guest of honor:
A grandkids shot:
And my little family unit:
I like this one, too:
Here's a photo of the beautifully decorated yard:
Of course, to liven up the party....my family ended up in the pool in their clothes. But, boy, did they think that was fun!
Our month ended.....along with summer break. The kids went back to school, much to their dismay.
All in all, we really had a great summer!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
August - Part 2
August 2012
My baby turned 8. Where has the time gone?! We had some of her friends over for a slip and slide party on the 3rd. Fortunately, the weather cooperated. We started the morning off right with a trip to Sweet Mandy B's in Lincoln Park for a "fancy" cake. We also ended up with a dozen fancy cupcakes to take to the cottage with us.
Here's her group of gals:
And cake time:
And what's a party without wax lips?
Or a wax mustache, for that matter:
We went to the cottage on the 4th and celebrated with family. We didn't have any candles, so Megan blew out the lighter!
We had a fun weekend with cousins on the lake.
We even did a little evening swimming!
A quick family photo while out on the boat at night:
A campfire at night is always a highlight. You'd never know it from the excited looks on their faces, but I can assure you they really did enjoy this.
Sunday afternoon is always a good time for a boating dance party.
The following week, Darin took Megan out for her first round of golf on a real course.
The cart is always fun.
Look at that form! This was apparently a really good shot!
Later that day......(this happens to be a favorite photo of mine):
I'm not sure whether Darin or Jake caught this fish, but I do know that Jake had no interest in holding it.
My little techie kids:
Fun on the boat:
Always fun with Aunt Jenny:
The Keanes joined us for a weekend. The boys got in a couple of rounds of golf and then we had them take the little boys out fishing for a bit!
Pleasant Lake had their first ever "Lighted Boat Parade". There were about 15 boats that participated. Of course, we had Roman Candles:
And music and dancing:
The kids stayed up way too late roasting marshmallows and fighting with sticks, but they had a great time.
The only downside was that poor Brian got stung by bees - 5 times. Ouch.
July 2012
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!
