That's a big bag

L loves the clearance racks at Claire's and she usually finds some pretty cute stuff. Who knew, though, that Claire's even had shopping bags this big?

This was August last night. B's friend, L came in from Ohio for the night (his brother auditioned for college music programs today), and August knew there was someone new in the house. He no longer bothers sniffing the shoes of B's friends who are here more often. L was only able to stay for the evening, no sleepover, but we hadn't seen him since November.

More trouble

Guess Muffles like the mantel too.

Pink shirt day

It's pink shirt day at Julian, but for L that means pink hat, pink scarf, pink leggings ... you get the idea. She did something similar last year.

Housing & honey ham

E does a little research on the housing options at U of I.

I think it would be interesting to take some picturs of E when she reads her texts. She always makes a face, then responds. Muffles jumped up by her because he wants some of the honey ham she was eating. It's his favorite treat.

Living in a snow globe

Beautiful snow today.

My artist's creation

L decorated the top of her friend J's birthday present with a Minecraft scene. J loved it. L and some other friends spent Saturday night at J's house for a birthday sleepover.

Wake up

Muffles couldn't wait for L to wake up this morning before taking over her bed.

Purdue in winter

While E was spending time with host at the Purdue sleepover Friday night, Andy was taking pictures of the snowy campus - reminding me once again that he's the one in the family with the photographer's eye. It really is a pretty campus.

'Freedom Summer: Mississippi'

Andy and I went to see the play L was in, "Freedom Summer: Mississippi," at Julian tonight. She played one of the SNCC girls who traveled to Missisippi in the 1960s to help register blacks to vote.

Here she is knocking at a family's door. The play was written by one of the school's speech teacher and the play's choreographer, based on a PBS documentary. They played "I Hear You Knocking." That will be going through my head for a few days.

This scene was at the 1964 Democratic Convention.

And she takes a bow.

After the performance her friend, J, gave her a flower. L left with J and a group of friends for a birthday sleepover at J's house. Meanwhile, E and B were at church working a fundraising chicken dinner for the youth group's trip this summer to Atlanta. We didn't go to L's play performance Friday night because Andy was with E in Purdue for a sleepover stay with a sophomore engineering student. She went to a few of her classes, ate with her and slept in her dorm room. B had his friends IB and B over (and IR for a bit) and they slept over. Busy weekend.

Trouble

Look who's sitting where he's not supposed to be.

Brrr

I've been in the car all day taking the kids to school, dropping Andy off at the train, grocery shopping, picking the kids up, taking L to play practice, and all day the temperature in the car has been at -4. I'm just glad it's not windy and that schools were open today.

CAST shirt

L brought home the shirt tonight for this weekend's play at Julian. It's about the Civil Rights movement.

Yay, E!

Good news we learned on Friday. She's still waiting for the official acceptance letter. She's been wanting to go to U of I since she was in sixth grade, the first year she went to its summer engineering camp for girls. This photo is from her second year at camp, already showing up around the campus.

Candy sale

It's really cold and windy outside today, but that didn't stop L from heading to Walgreens to see what Valentine's Day candy was on sale. She found quite a bit for 50 percent off. I thought this candy bar was pretty funny - the big portion is "Mine" and the small portion is "Yours."

No more cookies

With E graduating this year, it's the last time I'll be buying Girl Scout cookies from my own Scout. Guess we'll have to hunt for the site sales next year.

Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day!

Andy sent me a dozen red roses. Aww.

E made a blanket for her boyfriend and they went to dinner tonight at California Pizza Kitchen in Oak Brook. He gave her a bouquet of flowers that they dropped off at home before going to dinner. She thought if she left them in the car, they'd probably freeze and die. It's about 6 degrees out and falling so she's probably right.

L got dressed up in her band uniform and served us dinner as if we were eating in a fancy downtown restaurant. She got out the wine, lit the candles, dimmed the lights and brought dinner to us. Nothing says Happy Valentine's Day like heart-shaped ravioli.

Cat cuteness

It takes a lot of tries to get a picture of these two together, both looking the same way with their eyes open. Just my luck they were sitting together today and decided to cooperate.

L's conference

Before L's conference at school tonight, she wanted to show off her locker. It's much cleaner than we've seen at previous conferences. Then, she told us, she's also "taken over" the neighboring locker. Still, not too cluttered so we were happy. And her grades are improving. A good night all around.

Crepes for breakfast

It's a late arrival day at the high school so E was in the kitchen whipping up crepes for her breakfast. She's getting quite fancy with her cooking. Last night she made an alfredo sauce and created a white chicken pizza.

Tree work

The village came by and trimmed our parkway trees last week. The workers returned today and took down two trees on our block. It was kind of impressive to watch.

Where'd she go?

Muffles liked to rest on Ruri's hat and gloves. He's wondering where she went.

Bye, Ruri

It was a tearful departure this morning as the Japanese students headed home. One final group picture - Ruri and B are in front holding the Japanese flag, L is the crying one to the right.

My sad kids. B hopes he'll be able to see Ruri when he visits Japan next summer. She left us a lovely album of thank-you notes.

Ruri's last day

Today was Ruri's last day with us :(. The weather was nice, temps in the low 40s, so Andy started off the day by taking her and B to the Hemingway Museum and Birthplace.

Afterward, we drove downtown and had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

We had to have them pose in front of the Picasso in Daley Plaza.

Then we walked to Millennium Park ...

... to see the bean, of course.

The farewell party was full of tearful messages. So sad. After the party, B went an "after party" with Ruri and her friend. They were going to stay for a half hour (it started around 9 p.m.). They called for a ride around 11. I think that's a sign the party was a good time.

Bad kitty

Willis Tower ... finally!

We've been wanting to take Ruri up in the Willis (Sears!) Tower since she arrived. Our first chance was the Sunday after she arrived, but it was snowing and we figured there was no sense in going up in the tower (103 stories) if we weren't going to be able to see anything once we got up there. We went to the Field Museum instead. Then, we were going to try again last Sunday and the big snowstorm hit. Tonight was our chance and the sky was clear! It took us a good half hour to drive into the city because a car in the middle lane of the Eisenhower, backing up traffic. Once we bought out tickets, there was no waiting. I was even able to get Ruri a Japanese audio tour for free because I saw something on the Skydeck's web site. (Never hurts to ask). We might have been among 50 people at the top of the tower. It wasn't even difficult to get our turn to stand out on the ledge. E left after school to attend the Model UN conference in Chicago, so it was just B and L who walked out onto the ledge with Ruri. I walked out too, but can't say I liked it much. It's a loooong way down.

L can't leave a tourist spot without hitting the gift shop and, at the top of the Willis Tower, she found a device that helps you take selfies. She didn't get it, but it's on her list of things she has to have.

And I couldn't resist taking a picture of her in the pizza hat. Just goes to show that some things never change. We bought Popeye's for dinner, brought it home and watched a taped One Direction concert.