Let's Hear It For the South Side!

School's out!  It's summertime!  Let's have some fun!

One of the best ways to start out the summer is at the ballpark. 

This year, I enrolled the kids in the White Sox kids club, which happens to come with free tickets to a couple of games.  So on our first day of summer vacation, the girls and I picked up Dave from his office and headed to the South Side of Chicago for dinner and a baseball game.

For dinner, we chose Manny's Deli.  We hadn't been there for a few years and were craving their huge, delicious, magnificient corned beef sandwiches.  I tried to get Dave to share a sandwich with me, but he wanted his own, so I bravely tried to eat a whole one by myself.  I guess it's probably a good thing I failed and ended up throwing 1/2 away :)

 

After we finished eating, we headed over to US Cellular field.  I swear nothing is prettier than a well-groomed baseball field.  The only downside was the temperature.  I'm not sure you can see it on the picture below, but in the left hand corner of the board the temperature reads 90 degrees!  What it doesn't include is the humidity.  Needless to say, we were little sticky, but fortunately our seats were in the shade and as the sun went down the temperature dropped making it  more comfortable.  Even better the White Sox beat the Mariners!

We know that in Chicago loyalties are divided between the North Side Cubs and the South Side Sox.  We don't mind the Cubs, but we're Sox fans.  I actually prefer to take my kids to Sox games--I think it is a much better environment that has lots of entertaining activities for kids.  Go SOX!

A Visit from Elizabeth!

Last weekend we got a surprise visit from my cousin Elizabeth.  She lives in Dallas and the last time we saw her Paige was a baby, so we were very excited when she called and said she would be stopping by.  She just came up for the weekend.  She and a friend had tickets to see the live Glee! show.  Elizabeth flew in a day early and stayed with us.

She happened to come on the last day of school, which also coincided with 90 degree temperatures and my promise to take the girls swimming.  Elizabeth was a good sport and hung out with me poolside while the girls were swimming.  She also played a little Just Dance2 with the girls.  This is becoming a requirement of our visitors!

Later that evening, at her request, we had deep-dish pizza for dinner--Giordano's of course.  We went to downtown Naperville to eat, strolled the riverwalk, and got some frozen yogurt for dessert.

Elizabeth left the next morning for her concert and a night in the city.  It was short but sweet and we were so glad to have her!!

Peak

Last month, a friend in the book club recommended we read the YA book, Peak by Roland Smith.  It's about a 14 year old boy who tries to summit Mt. Everest.  Of course, I was all for it because I'm a little obsessed with Mt. Everest and am always willing to read another book about it.  (For the record, I like to read about Mt. Everest, I've studied enough to know I don't want to climb it!)

Anyways, of course, I enjoyed the book, so much so that I recommended it to Ashley.  As part of a year-end English assignment every sixth grader had to pick a book to read and then give a book talk encouraging other students to read it.  It was called "Survivor".  After the book talks, each class would vote for the "survivor" book from their class, that would then go to compete against winning books from other classes.  In the end, there would be one remaining book or ultimate survivor.

So, Ashley decided to read Peak and loved it!  This was her first Mt. Everest book so she was really amazed by it.  She worked hard and prepared a convincing book talk and ended up getting the most votes for her class.  As a winner she got to go to a pizza party lunch and won a $5 gift card to Baskin-Robbins!  Way to go Ashley!

The final winner was selected by random drawing because there was a snafu with the final, grade-wide vote.  Ashley didn't win the drawing but we will never really know which book was the "real" survivor.

Memorial Day Weekend

What a wonderful weekend we had full of fun and family activities.  It really was an all-American celebration, made possible by the continuing sacrifice of the men and women who serve in our armed-forces.

Of course, we were so busy that we didn't get any pictures...not one!

On Friday, we had a sleepover.  Some friends of ours celebrated their 10 year anniversary and so we agreed to babysit their kids overnight.  Paige was thrilled because one of the kids is a good friend of hers.  We ate grilled hamburgers, the kids played outside, then watched a movie and after that bedtime.  It went without a hitch!

On Saturday, we all kind of went our separate ways to run some errands and go to activities, then in the evening Dave and I went on a date and tried out a new Thai restaurant nearby.  Yum, Yum gets a thumbs up from us!

Sunday, I was just thankful to get home from church before the sky turned black and a torrential rainstorm blew in! 

Who could have guessed that very next day, Memorial Day, would be a hot and dry scorcher!  90 degrees and very humid.   Ashley went to a friends house so Dave, Paige and I went to see Kung Fu Panda 2--loved it.  After the movie, I made good on my promise to take Paige to the pool while Dave mowed the lawn and almost got sunstroke it was so hot and humid. 

Fortunately, we all survived and enjoyed a bbq with another family who lives in our neighborhood.  Their daughter is very good friends with Ashley.  They are moving to California and so we invited them over as a little farewell.  Good times, too bad we waited until they were moving to have them over.

Garden Girl

Garden time!  I love to vegetable garden, so much so that even the heavy work of getting it ready doesn't bother me too much.  By the far, the hardest part is putting up the rabbit fence.  It is a real pain to have to bury the fence a few inches into the soil.  This chore sure reminds me how pesty those rabbits are---they are not cute!!! 

In the veggie garden this year, I'm trying three new items---broccoli, green onions and spinach.  I started most from seed and was a little worried after some torrential rain, but so far everything is up, so we have a good start!

Our family spent a couple weekends getting everything ready to go.  I mean "most" of our family.  Somehow, Ashley always seemed to have some other plan or activity to go, so she literally missed all the work.  Thank goodness we had Paige around to help. 

First, she helped me plant a few flowers in pots. 

Then she helped Dave sand and sweep the paver patio as well as fill the bird feeder.  We have had an old bird feeder hanging from a tree by our patio since we first moved in, but we have never bothered to fill it.  Dave thought it would be a fun activity for Paige to work on, but when he touched the bird feeder it just cracked up and broke.  So he and Paige went and bought another feeder and some bird seed.  And it has been so fun.  Paige loves to just sit and watch the birds.  We have attracted all sorts of song birds, finches, cardinals, blue jays, etc.  Our only problem is popularity---those birds can empty that feeder in less than two days.  I told Paige we are going to have to ration our bird seed.



Paige sitting at the backdoor watching the birds

Paige also helped me finish up our 2nd garden---what we are calling the sunflower and pumpkin patch.  As her reward, the three of us (Paige, Mom and Dad) went to Cold Stone Creamery for dinner.  We even let her get a waffle bowl.  She deserved it!