Bridesmaid decisions

I just ordered my bridesmaid dress after a few weeks of debate.  I went for a dress fitting with my sister for the first round and then came out with the two I liked the best.  The one that I absolutely would've gotten no questions didn't fit the criteria of what the bride wanted (bummer).  So, there was a sexier dress but less comfortable and a more comfortable dress that seemed to be more bridesmaid appropriate.  Even though I liked the sexier dress style better I ultimately went with comfort.  And, rumor has it, you're not supposed to outshine the bride.  haha.  This is the dress I went with... I think I made the right choice.




JVG

IKEA and Baz's batizado

We have been wanting to go to IKEA for awhile to get the kids some chairs ("the one like Papas!") and we had an opportunity to combine trips.  I know that it's not that far away, but it is when you have small children.  I realize that our kids travel well, but... its just more efficient to combine trips.  :)  We luckily got to go see Baz's batizado and see some friends there as well!  The IKEA trip went really well and we ended up getting the chairs and then this awesome swinging chair.  It looks like a space pod but it hangs from the ceiling and it supports our weight too.




I like going to Baz's events because they are at the athletic club where he works and there are a lot of things for the kids to do.  :)  And, I have the worlds' greatest husband and father so he is all about taking them around to explore and play.  That means I get to hang out with friends and watch capo!  The kids found the outdoor playground and spent the entire time playing there until the event was over.  It was a good day that was productive and full!  :)




JVG

Treat Street

As many of you know we are big fans of froyo.  Like, so much, that I can't remember the last time we got actual ice cream.  However, G had a meeting up at school that lasted a bit longer than we thought it would, so after I got done getting groceries with the kids Jane invited us to go to a Mom's Group outing with her.  They were going to get ice cream at Treat Street, which was a little shop I had seen plenty of times but never went in.  It was fun going to hang out with Jane and to get a nice little surprise afternoon treat with the kids.  This place reminded me a lot of the old soda fountain places where you could get candy, or ice cream or little specialty treats at the counter as a little kid way back when.  At first the kids both said that they wanted blue moon so as I was ordering a blue moon Lucy said that she wanted coffee.  So, now I had a coffee, and a blue moon, and then Dude said that he really wanted mint chocolate chip... I hadn't planned on having ice cream myself, but I couldn't get Lucy an ice cream after she changed her mind and then stick Dude with the blue moon (when we all know that mint chocolate chip is better) so Norah and i ended up sharing the blue moon.  It was fun!  The kids did a great job with sitting and eating their ice cream, which was a lot more ice cream than I thought they were going to be getting.  It also felt really nice being able to take the kids out on my own, and knowing that I can still juggle them all  :)  it's also really nice to be able to treat them because they are such good kids and I want to be able to reward them and show them that I appreciate how good they are.  This is one proud Momma and I hope that I tell my kids enough how special and wonderful they really are to me.  :)




JVG

Oval Beach

This summer we didn't get a chance to go to the beach a lot, but we did try a lot of new beaches!  There are lots of beautiful beaches around and this one fit right in.  Its hard to find a beach that isn't super crowded but this one is in Saugatuk and pretty tucked away.  It wasn't very busy and the beach was clean.  :)  We had Holly's two oldest kids for the weekend, so Dad thought that it would be nice to take them to the beach to occupy them for a day (and, who doesn't want an excuse to go?!)  They were really good and helpful.  They had a lot of fun trying to bury Eli and see if he could catch a seagull... haha.  We hadn't planned on going to the beach before we packed to come to Mom and Dad's, so the kids just went in the water in their PJ's and I didn't really go that far in.  Luckily, Gaetan had a suit that he borrowed so he could play with the kids.  At the end of the day everybody was good and tired which was just how we wanted it.  :)  I highly recommend Oval Beach!  Very cute and the price isn't too bad to get in either.




JVG

Dude turns 5 (His actual birthday)

After a weekend full of birthday festivities and everything really being about him, his actual birthday arrived.  We asked him what he wanted to do and he said get breakfast at Sophia's.  For those of you who have visited us and haven't had the pleasure of eating there it's definitely worth spending the night for.  They are SO FAST and their quantities are Momma approved and their prices are very reasonable.  It also helps that everybody there likes our family and I think we get preferential treatment ;)  They gave him free birthday breakfast which was this huge stuffed french toast (about the size of his head) and even gave him birthday presents.

We spent the day doing other things that he enjoys which included a very special game time with Ms Quyen at the library.  Everytime he sees her he asks if she can play a game, and usually she can't because she is working, but today she was just getting out of work and wanted to show him a new game.  HE LOVED it.  It is nice being around a community of people who are invested in your children and care about them!  Makes it feel like home.

I can't believe that my little boy (not so little) is 5.  I vaguely remember the day he was born but he has been such a blessing ever since.  He is so incredibly smart and very sweet.  We catch him teaching Lucy things at night time which I think is adorable. Happy birthday big buddy... we love you.

JVG

Dude turns 5 (Sun Edition)

Sunday morning we went to church and then headed up to Gracie's cottage.  It has been so sweet foraging a relationship with Gracie and her parents... and it is so sweet to see how much they care about our kiddos!  Of course, the idea of playing in the lake outdoors all day was just what he wanted.  It was perfect.  The weather was gorgeous and the water was nice too!

They got him some Winnie the Pooh things (which Lucy laid claim to the Pooh right away), this cute board game, a Yoga watch/card and water canons!  They made delicious birthday cake and it was all around a great way to celebrate our Dude.

JVG

Dude turns 5 (Sat edition)

After Oma and Oma Oma left we quickly packed our stuff and headed to my parents early so that they could go camping in the backyard.  We have been wanting to do this all summer, but it has been so busy!  I checked the weather and it said that it was going to be rainy Sat night so we went up early so that they could.  Lucy got a chance to camp in the tent this time and they LOVED it.  I thought I was going to have a nice quiet evening because Norah was the only one inside, but she was teething so she kept waking up so I got about 4 hours of sleep... We ended up sleeping together on the floor because she kept wanting to roll out of bed!







Saturday morning I got a chance to go running with Holly so G took the kids to the playground.  Then, instead of naps he took them to the airport viewing area so that they could watch planes... and apparently, they hit it at the right moment because there were so many plans coming and going!  Dude thought it was awesome!  The cousins were busy that weekend so it was a quiet pizza and beer night, complete with an awesome Hobbes cake my mom made!  Dude loved it!  They were completely exhausted, but we still had a big day ahead of us.























JVG

Dude turns 5 (Friday Edition)

I know that I say this every time one of my kids gets older, but... I can't believe that Dude is FIVE!  He lucked out and had quite the birthday weekend.  I'm hoping that he doesn't think that it's always going to be like this, but if we can, then we probably will.  Filled with a lot of fun, friends and family.  :)





Friday Oma and Oma Oma rolled into town for the afternoon.  They came in for the afternoon, which was a good amount of time.  That allowed us to do whatever we needed to do in the morning, get the kids down for some downtime and then be ready for them.  As usual they were about an hour late, but we have now come to expect it so it doesn't throw a wrench in our day as much.  Oma got him a talking globe (which is something he had been asking about) and he LOVED it.  He does such a great job with it too.  GeoSafari makes a bunch of different learning tools and this is one of them.  The globe will ask questions and Dude always gets at least 80%, which I find really good considering it's for ages 8+ and he just turned 5!  He had expressed interest in getting some lunch so we went and got some lunch and then the older kids played putt-putt and I took Norah to the library.








Putt-putt was apparently a huge success.  Dude was really good at it and Lucy seemed to figure out that the closer you put the ball to the hole, the easier it was to get in... haha.  So, after awhile she was just putting the ball about 3 feet away from it and then would hit it in.

After that, it was time for them to go so it was a quick, short, sweet visit.  Everything seemed to go well, which was another good thing!  Just the beginning of Dude's birthday weekend!

JVG

Chicago

This year we took everybody to Chicago by train.  Last year it was a boys trip but Dude insisted that Lucy and Momma get to come this year (and Norah too).  Grandpa Don came along as well, which the kids were thrilled about.  This is the first time that Norah has been on a train and the first time that Lucy would've remembered.  Our train left fairly early in the morning so we packed a nice little breakfast so that we could have it while we were getting to our final destination!  Lucy said that she was happy with the trip already because she just wanted to eat on the train haha.  She had heard stories about how the boys ate on the train on the way back from their trip and wanted to as well.  We had an interesting omen while waiting for the station and that was a bird pooped on Gaetan and Norah!  G was holding Norah and this bird must've been aiming because he got him square on the shoulder and the residual splatter got Norah's jacket.  Seriously.

The train ride went well.  Norah was a little difficult to entertain, but we found a car that had all the seats together so it worked out well.  We mostly snacked the entire way there and then we were ready to go!  G did a wonderful job planning everything out making sure that we had enough time and that the different points of interest coincided with proper modes of transportation.  We did get to ride the subway and the L and dude thought it was great... more trains!  We first went to Millennium Park because it said there was places for the kids to run around and enjoy the outdoors.  The bean is also there which was a huge tourist attraction.  They were holding free concerts there at night and the orchestra that was going to be performing was having a dress rehearsal so we got to enjoy their music.  We found this little water thing that the kids thought was fun to dip their feet in and then Norah just ended up hopping in, so we had to change her entire outfit.  The kids started to get hungry by then so we went to Giodarno for yummy lunch. They wanted to go last year but ran out of time because it takes so long to cook that delicious deep dish pizza!  This time, however, we decided to get it early enough in the day so that we KNEW we would have time to eat.  And, it was worth the wait.  :)













After that we walked to the Hancock Building and if you say you're going to get drinks in their restaurant on the 96 floor you can go up for free... if you want to pay lots of money you can go to their viewing deck on the 94 floor... So, we went up and the view from the women's bathroom was amazing.  Apparently, the mens bathroom was this little closet with no view at all haha.  The kids really enjoyed their time there and liked looking out and seeing all of Lake Michigan.  however, around this time Norah was so tired but refused to go to sleep, so she was screaming in my ear because she was in the backpack.  Turns out, she had pooped and wasn't thrilled about it.  We found this out when we headed to the beach afterwards and we were changing her clothes.  Poor girly...  The crazies had a BLAST in the water though.  At first it seemed rather chilly, but after you were in it it was really refreshing.  There were some awesome waves coming in because there was a pier type thing there so it was crashing off of there and coming in from the boats.  I honestly think the kids would've stayed there all day, but who wants to come to Chicago just for the beach?  We did a little finagling and got them into their dry clothes (which was the last pair I had brought them) and we headed towards Navy Pier.








On the way there Norah finally fell asleep and was OUT.  It was nice that she finally gave him and stopped screaming.  The kids wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel, which I did not, so I hung out with Norah while they rode.  Lucy absolutely LOVED it.  They all said that she was very good and sat and just enjoyed the view.  After that, we headed to catch the water taxi back to Union Station.













The day was planned out very nice with enough time in-between everything and we got everything we wanted to do done.  We had a bit of a set back after getting off the water taxi, which made getting to our train a little more rushed than I would've wanted but, we made it!  We were gonna get the big burritos that they got last year, but there just wasn't time.  We seriously got to our train and walked right on.  Whew.  It would've been a much more expensive trip if we had missed it since it was the last train that night so we would've had to get a hotel.  I highly recommend getting a water taxi.  It's really relaxing after all that walking and its a nice way to see all the different buildings in Chicago without having to worry about walking into the street.  :)
















Back to the poop omen... So... while we were getting into our seats Norah had pooped up the back of her clothes and had gotten it on her trike, Dad and she was on her last outfit.  She then proceeded go to go again later that same train ride but luckily it was contained (we took disposables because I really didn't want to mess with cloth there).  When she had pooped on the way to the beach she had pooped up the back too.  Ridiculous.

Overall it was a great trip.... exhausting, but good.  The kids stayed up the entire ride home on the train which was impressive.  Whew.  What good memories though!

JVG