Chicago -- Part One

***We interrupt this regularly scheduled lack of blogging to bring the the previously promised picture of our vacation to Chicago. Between wedding plans, family reunions and a long series of unexpected medical tests for Cabana Boy, consistent blogging has reached a new low!***
Goodbye, Happy Valley. We'll be back soon!!!
The Ballerina and Blondie get set for the plane ride. Blondie has a real talent for taking pictures of herself. :-) Remember...I left my camera at home, so I'm at the mercy of my girls.
Here's our humble abode that Cabana Boy found on Craig's List. Although it may look like a prison from the outside, the place was pretty nice inside. Just don't ask about the rats in the alley!!! We really enjoyed the neighborhood and all of the shops withing walking distance.
After we got settled into our condo we made a quick trip into the city. Of course, the first stop was the American Girl Place. The Ballerina emptied her piggy bank before we left in preparation for an AG shopping spree!
This place is little girl heaven. Big girls enjoy it, too! I think we were there for at least two hours and completely missed the downpour outside.

Mission complete!
Blondie must have taken this shot of the Ballerina and me as we walked across the square toward the water tower. Not my best side...oh, well.
Dream Girl and Blondie flashing gang signs (and pulling funny faces) in the Hershey's store.
Blondie loved the candy and the stuffed animals.
Me? I loved the cupcakes!

Oh, my goodness! The gal in the shop gave me and the Ballerina instructions on how to decorate cupcakes to look like theirs. We haven't yet had a chance to give it a try, but I'll be sure to post pictures when we do.
After an evening of shopping we made a stop at Giordano's for their famous stuffed pizza.We weren't three steps outside the restaurant door when Soccer Guy gets taken for an $8 shoe shine. You know, everyone needs their sports shoes shined. A sucker is born every minute!!! I'm pretty certain that this guy's magic polish was nothing more than Mop n' Glo in a water bottle. Welcome to the big city, son.
On Thursday we went to Navy Pier...
...and the girls headed straight to the stretched mirrors.

The kids enjoyed our spin on the swings...it just made me feel sick.
Later, we sat back and enjoyed an architectural cruise up the river. I posted one of the pictures from the boat ride on my last post, but decided not to bore you with more pictures of buildings. Instead you get to see a picture that Blondie took of herself on the boat. See, I told you she has talent.
Cabana Boy, Blondie, the Ballerina and Dream Girl playing in the fountain near Navy Pier.
That night we went to a ball game at historic Wrigley Field.
The Cubs took on the Atlanta Braves and won. It was a perfect evening for baseball.
Soccer Guy and Dream Girl are huge baseball fans. I'm sure Soccer Guy feels lucky to have found someone who enjoys and understands the game.
On Wednesday we spent a few hours at the Field Museum. That wasn't nearly enough time for College Girl, who went back for more later in the week.
That evening we went and saw Wicked, the musical, at the Oriental Theater. Our family saw Wicked in Los Angeles last year, but this was Dream Girl's first time.
The performance was fabulous and we all had a great time!

Thanks for stopping by. Just think...this post was nothing more than watching your neighbor's vacation slide show and you didn't even get up and leave. I feel flattered!!!

I'm going to have a special give away later this week, so be sure to stop back and get your name in the drawing!

Chicago Trip -- Part Two

Hey! Long time, no post! Have you been wondering where I've been? Of course you have! LOL! The fam and I took a wild and wonderful trip to Chicago. Being the good blogger that I am, I loaded my camera into the docking station to charge the battery before leaving. A blogger's camera always has to be ready, you know. Well, guess where my camera was when I arrived in Chicago. Yep! At home in the docking station!!! No matter, though...everyone else in the family had their cameras, so I just use those.

I'm actually starting this travelogue with the second part the trip, since the pictures from the first part are on Cabana Boy's laptop.
What's a trip to Chicago without an elevator ride to the top of Sears Tower?
What a view! We were very fascinated by the spider outside the window of the observation deck. What the heck was he doing way up there?
It's much better to be safe and sound inside like Blondie.
Our future DIL, Dream Girl, is a humanities major and enjoyed going to the museums. Soccer Guy did a great job acting as though he really loved going too. We made a quick stop at the Chicago Institute of Art and then Blondie and I hit the Magnificent Mile for a little window shopping (no one can actually afford that stuff, can they?) while Cabana Boy and the Ballerina hit the beach of Lake Michigan. College Girl was at the Field Museum.
Gotta love the Hershey's store! The smell is heavenly!!! I think I got some pictures of their amazing looking cupcakes that I'll share next time.
Here we are in front of the Chicago LDS temple.
Dream Girl and Soccer Guy on the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier.

Last Friday we enjoyed a Chicago White Sox vs. Colorado Rockies game at U.S. Cellular Field. For Soccer Guy, this trip was all about the ball games. You'll see pictures of the Cubs game in my next post. Typically, we would have cheered for the Rockies, but decided to root for the home team this time around. Safer that way, ya know?
This is the Ballerina ten minutes into the game. Yep. Sound asleep.Here she is later with me and Cabana Boy. You can see that she woke up after a home run was hit three row above us. Boy, that sure gets the blood flowing!!! I was afraid it was coming right to me and the only thing I could think of is that a ball flying that fast would certainly ruin my nails. So ya know what I did? Crouched down and covered my head. That's what I did. Good thing it didn't hit me! lol! Another home run was hit three rows below us.

You won't see pictures of Soccer Boy and Dream Girl at this game. They had the sweet seats 18 rows behind home plate. How does that work? We pay for the tickets and they get the good seats. Hmmm..... I need to talk to the management.
Blondie and College Girl contemplate the finer points of baseball. Or they're thinking about boys. You decide.
On Saturday we took a walk down to Bleeding Heart Bakery. Now I see why they get so much love from Cupcakes Take the Cake blog! I think it took us nearly 20 minutes to decide what we were going to order. Dream Girl and Blondie are "modeling" the Chocolate Slut cupcake and Raspberry Lemon tart. College Girl, Blondie, Dream Girl and I split them both four ways and took a HUGE lemon bar back for the other three to share. BTW, it was a mile each way to and from the bakery, so I'm pretty certain that we walked off all of those calories. Don't ya think? Yes, I think so, too.
We had a great time at the Museum of Science and Industry. The Ballerina and Blondie both made personalized toys that they brought home with them.
On our final night we stumbled across a fabulous Italian restaurant called Mario's. I ordered my favorite Margherita pizza and was not disappointed! The Ballerina ordered angel hair pasta with Alfredo sauce. It, without a doubt, was the best Alfredo sauce that I have EVER tasted. I think I'd go back to Chicago for no other reason that to eat at Mario's!
This is the end of our stay in Chicago. Cabana Boy got held up in security screening and the Ballerina and Blondie found these pint sized animal chairs where they sat and waited.

After a week away, it sure was nice to finally arrive home. Nothing like sleeping in your own bed, right?

More to come.....

Better Late Than Never?

It took me long enough, but I finally finished this little bag. It's about time! I started it at the end of March as a birthday gift for someone special, but it's taken me until now to finally get it completed. It was those blasted little handles that hung me up. I've used this pattern before, so I knew that the process of making the handles would be tedius and time consuming. I guess that's why I put off finishing the bag until now.

I really like the way that it turned out. I used the Country Tote pattern by Indygo Junction. The little rectangles were cut from a Chocolat charm pack and since I was able to cut two pieces from each charm, I have enough to make another bag. With a different type of handle, of course. lol!!! My friend, Amy, made me a bag using this pattern a couple of Christmases ago and I use it all the time! It's the prefect size for those days when you're on the go.

So, now it's time to fess up...
Do you have a project that you've put off finishing for way too long?

Field Day!

Friday was the last day of school for Blondie and the Ballerina. On Wednesday I went and spent the day with the Ballerina's class during field day. Does this take you back?

Now on to summer vacation!!!