Passport day

I volunteered to help out at Irving's passport day this morning. My job was to hand the kids their "passports" as they came to the displays. Tables were set up with a different country on each - Ireland, Puerto Rico, Germany, France, Turkey, Malaysia and India. As the kids visited teach table and learned about that country, they got their passports stamped.

Quiet day

A nice, quiet day. B and L both went to the playground after school to play with their friends. Andy came home early from work to have his golf swing analyzed. E went to her karate class.

Good times

Tonight Andy and I met up with some of my former Pioneer Press colleagues at a local restaurant. We had dinner, a few drinks and lots of good conversation. With all of our busy schedules it's often difficult to find a night where we're all available. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does it's a nice night.

This picture is pretty much the same crew, taken in May 2009, before I was blogging. It was taken by one of the paper's photographers, who got laid off with several others of us at the table.

Computer games

Since E got her own Facebook page on her 13th birthday, she's been keeping busy playing Farmville and a hotel game. Today I "harvested" and "planted" her crops while she was at school. I should charge for my services. She's also playing a game where she creates a hotel and has to keep it clean, keep the guests happy, etc. B likes what he saw so now he's doing it too. Where will it end?

Where's the blanket?

L had a cold T-ball game tonight. Temps were in the high 50s, but the wind was whipping and it was cold! When they weren't playing, L's teammates were huddled on the bench wrapped in blankets. And the best part? They won!

Indians lost :(

Today was the first game of the season that L's team lost. They lost by only two runs. Instead of going to the game, B spent the afternoon at Grandma's house. E was there for most of the game, but had to leave early to get to her confirmation class.

Working with Daddy

With no school today, L and E (and her friend A) went to work with Andy. B and I stayed home, did a little shopping then he had his friend, L, over for the afternoon. It was a nice, quiet day.

Ouch!

B had his physical for sixth grade this afternoon. All went well until the doctor told him how many shots he was going to get - four and a blood test. The nurse shot two into each arm and pricked his finger for the blood test. Ouch!

Praise for L

A wonderful note appeared in my email inbox this week. A fellow Irving mom sent me a note about L, thanking us for raising a girl who has eagerly included her daughter (a Down syndrome child) in social activities at the school. The note was so heartfelt it brought tears to my eyes.

Here's an excerpt - "I cannot tell you how much this means to me; for her to be included with her regular classmates, particularly when there are generally a lack of girls in special ed. I want to thank you for your parenting and for teaching your child to be inclusive of those who are different from her. It speaks volumes about who you are. ... Thanks again for raising a great kid and keep up the good work!!!!!"

Wow. We must be doing something right.

It's art

I have to say I was a bit wary when I heard the art teacher at Irving was going to recycle plastic bottles and create an art display on the school's fence. However, I'm pleasantly surprised.

The kids installed the bottles today and it's so colorful. From a distance it looks like flowers, but up close you can see that the kids cut the bottles into strips, leaving the top of the bottle as the middle of the flower. That's the part attached to the fence with a pipecleaner. The bottles have been painted and decorated so it's hard to tell the display is made out of recycled materials. It's one of the events the school is doing for Earth Week.

At top is a pic of B (waving) when he was out this morning helping with the project. Below is L pointing to one of the bottle/flowers she thinks she decorated.

Trial run

L has signed up to participate in Irving's Egg Drop Contest on Wednesday and asked E to help her create a contraption that will allow an egg to fall safely from the school's third floor to the playground. E designed the parachute by taping three plastic grocery bags together and L designed the egg holder itself - two styrofoam bowls taped together. Inside the bowls are more plastic grocery bags to cushion the egg. They did a trial run from L's room and the egg survived. We'll see how well it does on Wednesday!

Jewish bear goes to church

On Thursday, L saw her Sunday School teacher and asked if she could bring one of her stuffed bears to church today. He said yes. Little did he know, the bear would be L's "Jewish bear" - a cute white bear with a blue Star of David on its belly.

E won the bear in one of those crane games. We were going down to the farm for Thanksgiving a few years ago, had to stop for the night in Bloomington because of an ice storm, and when we went to the Dixie truck stop the next morning for breakfast, the kids had to play the crane game. Imagine our surprise when a Jewish bear falls out of a game in the middle of Illinois. We're all for exposing our kids to different cultures and it makes a great story.

A win!

Today was L's first T-ball game of the season. The Indians won!! L played second base and had one good hit. This photo is of her rounding third to make a run. Her second time at bat she was out at first, but the other runners advanced and it's all part of being on a team. Best of all - the snack after the game was a sno-cone.


E's sleepover party guests left this morning by 10:30 a.m. We fed them a hearty breakfast of turkey bacon, eggs and pancakes and off they went. This pic is of E with B and her friends, A and W. They were the last guests to leave and made up their own version of Twister (placing elbows and heads on the dots instead of the usual hands and feet). Finally, they just laid on the game and wanted me to take a pic. Hopefully, that's the last birthday party she'll have for a few years. It was kind of fun, though, listening to the girls talk. Took me back to the days of Darla and I - giggling at anything and everything. We must have drove her mom nuts!

Lace up your skates

Tonight was E's 13th birthday party. She invited 10 friends, nine were able to come. The girls met at our house around 6 p.m. and we took them to the Lombard Roller Rink for a couple of hours of skating, pizza, pop, cupcakes and ice cream. Most of the girls were able to skate quite well; E did better than she did at her party there a couple of years ago.

We left the rink about 10:30 p.m. and the girls got ready for their sleepover. I went to bed and left the parenting of that to Andy.


Here's Andy showing off his Ms. PacMan skills to the girls. I love how they're all crowded around the game.

Beautiful day in paradise?

This morning as I was walking into the Economy Shop to set up for Saturday's sale, a man passed me by and said, "It's a beautiful day in paradise." With temperatures reaching a little over 80 today, it certainly was a beautiful day. But paradise? My idea of paradise - or should I say one version of paradise - is sitting in a beach chair with waves lapping up over my feet as I work on a tan.

My teenager

Today I'm officially the parent of a teenager as E celebrates her 13th birthday. Where have the last 13 years gone? It seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home, marveling at this little girl who's now grown into an independent, smart young lady. Happy birthday, E, and many, many more!

Here's a brief look back - E in May 1997. Awww!


And E in September 1998. Grandma Barbara said we should have named her Sunny Delight because she's always happy and smiling.

Dandelion bouquet

L must have put in a lot of effort to pick all of these dandelions for me while she was playing after school. I know they're weeds (and so does she now that she's older) but I still think it's a sweet gesture. Arrange them in a crystal vase and they look pretty good!

Beautiful day

Maybe spring is here to stay? My daffodils have been blooming for a week already, and the neighbor's tree is full of blooms. I even have one tulip getting ready to bloom. Temps are closing in on 60 degrees.

Growing up

E turns 13 in three days and today we had a meeting at church about confirmation classes. Hard to believe she's old enough to be confirmed. It seems like yesterday we were having her baptized. Our church has decided to create a condensed confirmation program. E's will last eight weeks - two-hour classes every Saturday afternoon, a field trip to Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side and a field trip for a community service project, possibly working at a homeless shelter. Her confirmation date is set for Sunday, June 6. We're debating what to do to celebrate. It doesn't seem right to have a big family party after only an eight-week program. Might be a small family dinner out somewhere nice, and I'd like to buy her a real gold cross.

Bears and Wolves

This morning L went to Oak Park's Maze Library Branch to set up her Care Bears collection display. The displays are so popular it can take a year for a child to be called to bring in their collection. L was so excited to set all her Care Bears in the case. Of course, she couldn't fit her biggest green one in the case, so he got to come home to sleep with her.

Tonight, thanks to B's effort in the American Heart Association's Jump Rope for Heart fund-raiser, we had tickets to a Chicago Wolves hockey game. For being one of the top three fund-raisers at Irving School, B was given two free tickets so we let him bring along his friend, L. It was a fun night out, with lots of fireworks. The Wolves won 6-4 and B got to see his name up on the big board.

Prom

Andy and I went to prom tonight. Actually, it was Pilgrim Nursery School's gala held every two years. All three kids went to Pilgrim for preschool and this was our fourth gala to support the school, operated out of our church. The theme for this year's gala was "An '80s Prom" with '80s attire encouraged. Lots of people showed up in poofy prom dresses, big bows in their hair and lots of beads. A lot of the women looked like Madonna. I went to high school and college in the '80s and don't recall many Madonnas walking around. I think most of them dressed of how they have seen the '80s portrayed in the movies.

I didn't have an '80s dress to wear and have to say, I'm glad for that! I tried to get Andy to wear the Police pins - the ones he wore on his jean jacket in the
'80s - on his suit, but he didn't want to put holes in it.

It was nice to visit with some of the fellow parents we know and teachers at the school who taught E, B and L. We didn't win anything in the silent auction. We were bidding on a rain barrel, but it went for more than we were willing to pay.

Julian jazz

We took the family out for a night of jazz - to the Julian Middle School auditorium. All three of the school's jazz bands performed. E's group, the Jazz Ensemble, was last. Why is it ever concert we go to whatever group E is in performs last? Though she plays clarinet in the band, she plays piano in the jazz band. Here she is practicing at home before the concert.

Phone play

Here's B, eating his dinner and playing Nintendo DS with his friend who's on the other end of the phone. B puts the phone on speaker (to keep his hands free) then they talk about how to capture Pokemon, how to battle them and who they want to trade. It's almost like listening to a totally different language.

E got good news from the orthodontist today - she can wear both retainers at night, leaving her teeth retainer-free during the day. Her lunch friends will like that she's not pulling the top retainer out to eat anymore.

Academic Fair project

Leave it to B to focus his Academic Fair project on his Nintendo DS. He's going to research infrared signals and demonstrate how they work with his new Pokemon walker. He's working on the project with his friend L, a fellow Nintendo fan. I foresee lots of "working on our project" time.

T-ball time

L had her second T-ball practice of the season today. We also got the schedule that shows two games a week for eight weeks or so. She'll still waiting for her Indians uniform - should arrive soon.

Happy Easter!

Here's Andy and a fellow church member making pancakes for the church's annual Easter breakfast. They were a big hit.

Here's L with an Easter lily we bought for display at church in memory of Dad. We bought one in memory of Liz, too.

One more site to see

Before heading home this morning, Andy insisted on driving around downtown Milwaukee until we found the bronze statue of Fonzie from "Happy Days" - really. We found the statue along the river, but it did take a little bit of searching. We couldn't actually find an address for its location on the Internet. We came back in little traffic and a bit of rain. It's clearing up this afternoon and looks to be a beautiful day for Easter tomorrow.

Milwaukee sites

Today we visited the Milwaukee Public Museum and Discovery World. Thanks to our membership at the Field Museum, we were able to free admission into both museums. We had lunch in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward at the Milwaukee Ale House overlooking the Milwaukee River. It was a beautiful day and we sat on the patio during lunch.


We had a 4 p.m. reservation and took a tour of Sprecher Brewery in Glendale, Wis., which makes soda and beer. It claims it's famous for its root beer and B gave it the thumbs up. I thought their orange soda was the best. As for the ginger ale, I'll stick with Canada Dry. We went back to the hotel, spent some time in the pool then ordered pizza for dinner.

Mini vacation

We left this morning for Milwaukee for a two-night mini vacation during the kids' spring break. We stopped at the Jelly Belly store/warehouse in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., first. We wanted to take a tour, but it was really crowded so we just stopped in the retail store and picked up some jelly beans for the trip.


Our first stop in Milwaukee was the Miller Brewery Tour. Andy and I got three samples of beer and the kids got unlimited soda. They were pretty amazed at the production facility. I had to laugh because they were always at the front of the tour group, right up there with the guide.



We relaxed this evening in our hotel pool.