One Week And Counting..

We move in a week, our house looks like this, so I am guessing we won't be in it in a week. Which means one of our lucky parents will have 4 new house guests in a week!  I think my parents are sitll recovering from when the 5 girls slept over last week :)

Despite our lives being consumed by the move, we actually are having an amazing summer so far. The girls both finished us their gymnastics classes and had their "shows" there, Lucy did 2 weeks of theatre camp, and we have had lots of laid-back sprinkler afternoons (they realized if it runs long enough we get a huge mud swamp in our yard and they make mud pies all afternoon and I have to give them a bath before their bath, and they give their toys a separate bath and give the bath tub a bath after, because of the amount of mud they bring in.  It's SUPER fun.)  We had a zoo day this week and our first official family trip to the pool (in Skokie) this afternoon The girls were in heaven.  The city has a lot of great things, but the public pool is not one of them.  Or the library or the Target on Elston.

The highlight of my summer thus far, minus the move which might be the highlight of my life when we get moved in and have a whole basement for toys, is that the girls are starting to play together.  It's probably the most amazing thing that has every happened since Leigh has come along.  Now that Leigh can play take direction, Lucy can't get enough of her.  Tonight they spent a good 30 minutes in the shower playing some sort of game that was just opening the door, walking out and going back in. I wasn't sure how they could do this so long but they were playing together so whatever.

After about 10 years here in the city, it's officially our last weekend here.  There's so much we love about it, mostly the fact that both of our girls were born here and we have such great memories of experiencing the city with Lucy over the past 4 years, and now with Leigh.  Although Joe and I had been here years before the kids, experiencing it with kids was a million times better and we are lucky we had these years here with them.  Yes, there is traffic like any city and there are a lot of inconveniences that comes with it (like having to pay for parking to take kids to their doctor and having to do a 6 point turn to get out of garage without hitting a garbage can) but being able to walk to camps, classes, restaurants, get downtown to the lake in 10 minutes, go to the museums and zoo whenever we had a few hours, and having a festival or event to take the kids to any weekend we were free far outweighs the annoyances.  It will always feel like home to us and we love that our first house was here.

But, I love that our next house will be the one the girls remember, and where they have all their childhood memories at.

Lots of pics, just a few highlights from the summer so far...

Summer Camp - Fairy Tale Magic

Pool fun

First sleepover of the summer!

A crazy game of cards with Grandpa - the only one at this table who understands that your cards should face you so nobody can see them. 

First bike!!!

Track for Uncle Vern's graduation party

Outdoor fun

Good-Bye to the Nicholson School

Lucy had her last day of 3 yr preschool on Tuesday - and we are sad to say good-bye to her teachers and friends we have been with for the past 2 years.  I know every parent loves their child's preschool because it is really all we know, but I truly do feel she had one of the best preschool experiences here!  Lucy has grown SO much over the past year - and as she left school we were given a packet with special artwork, her name that she has been practicing all year, the journal she kept all year - including drawings of "Disney on Ice" and "My New House" and all the things she must be thinking of during journal time.  We also received a CD of pics taken of her throughout the year.  Since I don't keep everything she brings home (worst mom...but hey, I filled a bin to keep, she just brings home huge a pile every day, mostly just one crayon mark on a paper), it means so much to have these highlights from her 3 yr program.

These days, Lucy is starting to want/try to read books to us.  She has dozens of books she reads to us, completely from memorization.  She knows all her letters and for the most part, the sounds they make but we are just beginning to work on putting those sounds together.  She can write the alphabet - a few backwards letters but it's amazing because she just started writing her name mid-school year.  And, she is starting to understand counting - putting 10 crackers out and then moving a few and figuring out how many are left, counting on her fingers to add, etc.  Since we have so much downtown time with Leigh still napping 2 times a day, we have been working on preschool workbooks, and lots of art projects.  This is the summer of stickers - she plays with them ALL day, making projects mostly "for daddy" but she's very focused and if a sticker is removed she will notice. I am so happy we moved on from daily painting in the house to sticker play.  I hope we stay in this stage for a while.  

And, finally Lucy got a new - really, really pink bike that she is very proud of.  We learned that if you don't want your kids to pick out a cheap, princess bike, don't ask them to go with you to Target to look at them. You are definitely coming home with one along with a princess helmet. But, she loves it and said after day 1 "I'm ready to take off training wheels."  She's like me. 

The proud artist

Ms. Sarah - favorite teacher if you can't tell!

Ms. Lauren and Mr. Louie 

Comparison Pics!

Last Day - 3 yr preschool

First Day 3 yr preschool

First Day  2 yr preschool

My favorite pic of the girls yet!  Maybe ever.  I just love this because I didn't pose them for it. 

And there's Leigh.  Every morning during drop off she would run to this rocking chair and hang out - or to the top of the loft.  Although we are only there 10 minutes, I can never find Leigh when we are ready to go. I guess she's ready for school.  

Our Rocky Mountain Adventure

We just returned from our amazing trip to visit Jill and Jake in Boulder.  (Wrote this Monday, attaching pics finally on Friday.)  Just like our typical weekend in Chicago, we spent part of the time in the moutains shooting guns (not me, of course) and climbing.  We do that all the time here in Chicago!  The city is beautiful and hard not be in awe when you have a perfect view of the mountains everywhere you go.  For Joe it was love at first sight because we stopped at the Boulder Whole Foods on the way from airport to get lunch and it was about 3 times the size of ours and Joe was immediately in heaven.  Highlight of his trip? Maybe, but then there were Big Star-like tacos, fresh mochi, Jill's should-be-famous Pad Thai and homemade sushi so the food in general was his highlight.

Saturday we spent time relaxing and went to downtown Boulder for an amazing dinner, shopping nad just catching up.  Sunday we took a nice long drive high into the mountains for some shot gun lessons - I get nervous around anything that I can accidently kill myself with - so I just took pictures as usual.  Jake went into Marine Corp mode and it was awesome!! We just wanted him to do some rolls which he never did.

We also went to thir climbing gym - highlight of my weekend.  Joe must love me a lot because he climbed a few times, and admitted he liked it too.  Maybe it wouldn't have been as much fun if we didn't have Jill and Jake holding us up - we knew they were experienced and wouldn't let us fall.  Jill and Jake were amazing and showed us why they have been training 10-15 years.  Climbing is hard and a crazy-man's sport because we saw a guy climbing with a broken arm.

We LOVED Boulder and our hosts :)  But, missed the girls who were having the best time in Chicago.  A trip to Santa's Village with my parents and a special sleepover - and then Bill and Chris brought the girls back into the city and had a special sleepover here.  It's fun when your Nana and Papa sleep over!  The girls were spoiled all weekend and couldn't have had more fun and were in better hands than they are with their own parents so we were happy.

We can't wait to get back to Boulder, or wherever Jill and Jake decide to call home....

Drinks with a view

Shot gun lessons

Rock Climbing

Jill and Jake's fabulous Pad Thai on our last night

And white we were away....

The girls loved their souvenir's - stickers for Lu and a little dog in a crate for Leigh.  

Airport shopping at it's finest!  

                                      

It's good to be home with the girls again!