Jacket Weather

First Day of School

Well, the dreaded first day of school has come around again. This year Max starts 5 days a week preschool. I cried, but he didn't. I think he's really loving it this year.



Around here we are always having spontaneous dance-offs.



Look at Max's face in the back. He knows she's beat him this round.

My Kinda Town

Over Labor Day we went sightseeing in Chicago. We had a great weekend filled with Italian beef and sausage sandwiches (amazing) and nature. Chicago has all sorts of fun, free places to visit. First we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.


Then we stumbled across an interesting statue in a park.

Then we found a beautiful water garden.

We also went over to the Conservatory, a beautiful Victorian-era botanical garden. Here are the kids admiring the sausage tree.

Leo thought he was bigger than this leaf, but he was wrong.

Then we headed to the formal gardens.

We also visited the largest indoor aquarium in the country. No flash photography was allowed inside, but here's Ryan and max enjoying the skyline while we waited in line to get in.

We couldn't believe how many parks there were right in the middle of downtown. Here's another one we stumbled across. Max told me I'd better get a picture of how high he could climb.

All in all, it was a great trip. Now I know why people love Chicago.

Fernwood Botanical Gardens

The kids and I decided to take a little trip to Michigan to see the Fernwood Botanical Gardens. We had a lovely afternoon looking at plats, flowers, and bees. It wasn't nearly as spectacular as Longwood Gardens, but we still had fun. The kids especially loved the little railroad garden. Here is Evie sitting in front of the miniature "Golden Dome" of Notre Dame.


Here's Max by his favorite bug train.

Evie's Birthday Weekend

Evie turned 2 last weekend and we can hardly believe it! Here are some of the pictures.

On Friday we celebrated at McDonalds for a Happy Meal.

On Saturday we drove around Michigan and stopped at the beach. Here's the boys in nerdy matching T's.

On Sunday we had a little family party in the backyard.

Max drew Evie a picture and she loved it.

Here's a picture of Leo, just so he doesn't feel left out!

Gender Differences

My ballerina and my astronaut.

Leo's Blessing

Leo was blessed on June 11th. We were so lucky to have lots of family in town to participate (including my sister-in-law Kim the talented photographer who shot all of these pics -nasfellphotography.blogspot.com) Here's some of the pictures.