Sleeping beauty

I can't resist snapping pictures of my kids when they're sleeping - so sweet and peaceful.

Oh, no

The Target gift card L got for her birthday is burning a hole in her pocket just as if it were cash. Today we did a little shopping and she bought a Hannah Montana wireless microphone that amplifies her voice through the radio. Here she is singing "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus.

Pudding pops

One of the treats the kids like in summer is homemade pudding pops. We just make the pudding as it says to on the package and then freeze it in a popsicle maker. Today we made Oreo pudding pops. Mmmm.

Camera play

Today I decided to determine whether my Nikon digital camera really does take blurry pictures or there's an operator error. I've never been happy with the sharpness of the photos and have ruined quite a few memories using the camera and ending up with blurry photos. I was playing around with the camera today - manual in hand. I'm still thinking the pics are blurry, but it does have some neat things to do with the prints. The question is, who needs all those bells and whistles? I'm looking at a Panasonic or a Canon. We'll see.

Birthday surprises

Today is L's birthday! She's 8 and officially out of her booster seat. We took a drive this morning to Target to see how it feels riding in just a seat belt - and to spend her $15 gift card she got from Grandma yesterday. L loves getting packages and surprises in the mail. In addition to the gift card, Grandma sent a package of Werther's caramels (L's favorite) and a "Girls Rule" T-shirt in pink (L's favorite color). Cindy sent a $15 Disney gift card that L can use on our vacation next month and a Webkinz lizard in - you guessed it - pink! L had been waiting for that package to arrive in the mail since Wednesday so she was very excited when the mailman came yesterday.

With Andy out of town and the birthday celebration already dragging on a week, L didn't have much left to celebrate today. However, she was bouncing up and down to find an envelope with her name on it inside our front door this afternoon. It was a card and a pack of glow-in-the-dark arm rubber bands from a boy/friend, F. And guess what - they're in pink!

Rain, rain

It's been so hot here that I was ready for a nice rain. We got a lot more than that, though. It stormed about three times during the evening and overnight, and this morning when I got up to watch the news, I saw that a lot of the Chicago area was under water. I heard on the news the Eisenhower Expressway was closed, but got to see it this afternoon on a walk.

In this picture, facing east toward Chicago, you can see the El and freight train tracks that run along the south side of the Ike were under water, and there was no traffic on the Ike itself - a weird sight on an expressway that's busy at all times of the day and night. I had to take some pictures of it since Andy is out of town. While I was there with L and B, a state trooper was leading traffic through on the westbound side, reopening it to traffic (bottom picture).

How many kids ... ?

How many kids does it take to make L's confetti angel food birthday cake? Four.

With Andy off to Portland for a clien'ts golf tourney, it was nice to have E's friend over to help sing Happy Birthday to L.

An early birthday

Last night we took L out to dinner for her 8th birthday. She turns 8 on Sunday, but Andy will be out of town. We let the kids pick where we eat for their birthday and L chose Chuck E. Cheese's. E's friend, who says she's too old to go to Chuck E. Cheese's, gave us lots of receipts for points from games. L was able to use the tickets she earned that night, along with the ones from E's friend, to get a basketball game for her room. E and B combined their winnings and selected socker boppers and a big inflatable boxing glove.

L also got an early birthday present - a Webkinz from Door County. Here she is on the pier at Egg Harbor holding her Webkinz, a rainbow armadillo.

Another one

I was out shopping with the girls this morning, trying to find shorts. It's the middle of July and no stores have a decent selection of shorts left.

L loves to spend money and she loves to play crane games. She got lucky today and won this White Sox bear on her first try. Not bad for 50 cents.

A 'yes' vote

After 18 months of searching, our church voted yes and hired a senior pastor today. Andy's been on the search committee, spending hours in meetings, reviewing profiles, interviewing candidates. I'm so glad that's come to an end.

I stayed for the vote and the lunch afterward, Starship Subs - yum!), but came home before the planning meeting started. It was soooo hot in the church and B wasn't feeling well.

Governor, scrapbooks and church

This morning Andy was taking E to various banks trying to set up a checking account for her (to no avail) when they stopped at the Oak Park Farmers Market. Andy can't seem to stay away - has to check on the church's doughnut operation. Anyway, Governor Quinn was there signing a bill about produce and E got to shake his hand. "It was weird," she said. "Very unexpected." He asked her what grade she was in, where she goes to school - the typical politician stuff.

Later this morning, I took E and her friend A to Elmhurst to a scrapbooking crop. I got seven pages done in my book, Halloween 2009 through most of Christmas. It's hard to concentrate on creating pages when you two table mates are consistently asking to borrow your tape, your pens, your stickers, etc.

Tonight we were at church for a potluck to meet the woman who could be our next pastor. The congregation will be voting on whether to hire her tomorrow after worship. Andy's on the search committee and a positive vote would be a good way to end a one and a half year process.

E's plush monster

E and her friend A went to the Main Oak Park Library this afternoon for a free teen workshop to make a plush monster. E said hers is called Mouthless Q Stub Man. He's called Stub Man because she couldn't pull his left leg out.

Heading home

We left Door County this morning and took the scenic route home, driving along Lake Michigan instead of heading to Green Bay. It was really foggy by the lake which was really neat for the kids to see.

Boat ride

Today we rented a pontoon boat at the harbor in Ephraim. Last year we rented a pontoon boat in Sturgeon Bay, but decided on Ephraim this year because the area is more scenic. Andy took a quick lesson in how to drive the boat and what the various buoys mean, and off we went. We drove past Peninsula State Park where Andy tried to get a picture of the kids with the lighthouse in the background. A few pictures are OK, but it was pretty windy.


We also sat for a while near the Peninsula State Park beach and in Horseshoe Bay. It started to rain a little bit while we were out on the boat, but not enough to even get us wet.

We got really wet, though, tonight at the Red Putter Mini-Golf (not before E made a hole-in-one in the first hole!) The sky was cloudy when we started the game and the man who runs the business told us if it starts raining and we finish all 18 holes, we'd get a bumper sticker that says, "We finished our game in the rain at Red Putter." I'm all about freebies and really wanted the bumper sticker even though I know Andy wouldn't let me put it on his Buick. It started to rain when we were near the fifth hole. The man gave me an umbrella and we continued our game. A few holes later, though, it was really pouring and we got soaked. We gave up and decided to call it a night - no bumper sticker for us. The man, though, did walk us to our car with the umbrellas and gave us coupons for five free games. Guess we'll use those next year.

Happy B-day to me!

Today's my birthday - I'm 29 again. Unfortunately, it rained most of the day. We went for lunch at PC Junction, a restaurant that serves meals via train car. The kids get to sit at the bar and Andy and I sit behind them at a small table. The kids don't mind the wait as they get to play games in a building next door to the restaurant and ride go-karts - for free - through a wooded maze.



We spent most of the afternoon in the pool and hot tub. Before dinner we headed across the street (in the rain) to John Henry's restaurant for some cheese curds - yummy!

Parade

We woke up early this morning and drove to the "quiet side" of Door County (the Lake Michigan side) to see the 10 a.m. Fourth of July Parade in Baileys Harbor. The kids got lots of candy and were enjoying the parade until water balloon fights broke out between people on some of the floats and a group of kids in a building behind where we were sitting. I'm not sure why people on the floats would arm themselves with water balloons, but apparently it has something to do with past parade experiences. We didn't get too wet and the water felt kind of refreshing on the hot day.

Egg Harbor had its parade at 1 p.m. that afternoon, but we skipped in and stayed in the pool instead.

In Door County

Today we left early and arrived in Door County, Wisconsin, early afternoon. As usual, we drove up through Green Bay then stopped in Sturgeon Bay for groceries before heading to The Landing in Egg Harbor. Our room had a king-sized bed in the loft, a queen bed in an alcove on the first floor (for the girls) and B took the sofa bed.

We grilled hamburgers for dinner then headed to the harbor to sit and wait for the night's fireworks. Andy took his tripod to get some decent fireworks shots. L made fast friends with the two boys sitting next to us.