Blue and Silver bash

The first weekend of school, Ali and Logan's school has a party. Ali volunteered at the event and Logan played in his football team's scrimmage. 

MJ

Eli had a very successful lawn mowing business this summer (he started with 4 lawns a week, but by the end of the summer it was just 2 who still had him come regularly), and his big goal for the money he earned was to buy a leopard gecko (and all the things he needed for him). By July he was ready and we welcomed MJ (short for Michael Jordan, of course) into the family.

Eli spent a lot of time first learning about geckos and their needs, and then acclimating MJ to him. His hard work has payed off and now MJ likes to be held by his daddy. 

Picture Books

Jake has long since graduated from the reading level of picture books, but we both still enjoy them, so I keep the best ones on the bookshelf in my room and often he and I will read a pile. This day was a Llama, Llama day.

Football

This summer and fall meant a lot of one thing for Logan (and us): football! Logan joined his high school football team and spent part of most summer days at camp, every day after school once school started at practice, and Friday night at football games. Since he didn't play last year, he did not play much in the games, but I was really proud of him because he worked hard to learn the plays, gave his all in practice, and had a good attitude about mostly standing on the sidelines at the games. Their team had a winning record of 5:4, with most of the losses being very close.

Jason was the only parent who volunteered to be on the chain gang at home games, so I sat in the stands alone. I love my son more than I love football, so I always brought a book. More than one spectator had a chuckle at that.

Eli was one of the heroes of the season because he watched Jake for us every time (after the first game that everyone went to) so Jason and I could go. I REALLY appreciated that. I also really appreciated one of Logan's teammate's parents who carpooled with us; I didn't even meet them until most of the way through the season, but they are some of my new favorite people.

Logan has said he learned some good lessons during his season: life isn't fair (the whole team doing up/downs because a handful of teammates were mouthing off), how to advocate for himself, how to ask questions when he didn't understand, how to work hard for a goal, and more. It was a good experience for him.

Back to School

Three back to school events and four confident kids equaled great first days of school. 10th, 7th and 3rd grades are going to be wonderful! Jason and I are so proud of these four.

Let It Burn

We saved a lot of things to burn when we cleaned out backpacks at the end of the year, and we finally got around to doing the fire a couple of days before school started again. It was a BIG fire that lasted a LONG time!

Cantigny

Not sure if it would be summer if we didn't go to Cantigny. I'm glad Logan and Jake wanted to come with me. 

I went for a quick walk around the grounds by myself after we did the tanks and the museum. I could walk around there all day!

See the toad in the top left of this one?

Happy 21 Years

On our anniversary Jason and I got to go to Eli's summer band concert...so a couple of days later we went downtown to have dinner in the Hancock Building at their 95th floor restaurant. The views were amazing and the company was even better. 

Friends

So grateful for a good friend who came and brought Jake to her house for a few hours when I was out of town for the funeral.

Grandma Blau

My Grandma Blau passed away on July 31, 2023. She was 94 years old, so it was one of those happy funerals; she had been missing her husband for the last 10 years and was beyond excited to join him. I was grateful that Jason was willing to support me in going out for the funeral. I was happy to be there to support my mom and see family I hadn't seen since my Grandpa's funeral. It was honestly a lovely weekend.

Riverwalk

Another summer staple is to spend an afternoon at the Riverwalk. Ali, Eli, Jake and I explored the river.

We also took the Bell Tower tour. It's been under renovation for several years, so it was fun to go up it again.

We also decided to paddleboat at a little lake there. We'd never done it before, but the kids asked, and it wasn't as expensive as I expected, so I decided to go ahead and do it. It was one of the last summer outings, after all.