Monday, July 30, 2007

Four Parties in Three Day!

I need caffeine! That said it has been a great three days :) I already wrote about our party Saturday with the Leahy's. Sunday we were up early to get ready for a small family party for older son's birthday. We just got food from Browns Chicken and make a couple of snacks. I went with a Cubs cake this year since it is older son's favorite team and his gift this year was Cubs tickets. We ended up talking and laughing most of the afternoon. We were watching the new show, "Just for laughs". We tape them so far and my sister hasn't seen them. I thought the show was fun, but watching them with her made it hysterical. She lives for things like this! My family left at a few minutes to 5. Older son's friends arrived starting at 5. He ended up having about 10 kids over. They played video games and watched movies. I ordered pizza for them and they hung out until after midnight. Older son and I cleaned up and put things away. Younger son was in bed almost as soon as the last person left. I love that older son includes younger son in all the fun and activities. The most surprising event of the day is Milo almost seemed friendly! He really enjoyed the family party. The friend party he tolerated well.

Today we went over to a friends house to have lunch with friends of ours. We have know each other for years now. I met two of the families in a group when we started homeschooling 9 years ago. The other family moved here a few years ago. The boys have grown up with these friends. We have done so much with these people over the years. The kids all had lunch together played ping pong and swam. Older son had to leave early and go to work. Older son's vacation is over so it is back to work for him.

I would like to say we are sleeping in tomorrow since older son is done for the summer with school, but younger son has a dentist appointment in the morning. I made the mistake recently trying a hazel nut iced coffee at McDonalds and I love them! I am not usually a coffee drinker and I do my best never to have caffeine, but there is something about this drink that I really like. So we are swinging past McDonalds in the morning for an iced coffee :)

Friends



Katie S., Katie A., Dan, Brad, Katie G., Older Son and Younger Son. These are homeschool friends the kids have grown up with. Older Son is in college, Katie A. is going away to college this August and the rest are a year or two away. Younger son is the youngest. We met two of the families when older son started 6th grade and we began HS'ing. The third family moved to the area several years ago. The things we have done together have been amazing. The last couple of years the kids have not seen each other as much. Some went to high school and some stayed home. We still try and get together a couple times a year. I truly miss our adventures together!

The Moms

The Birthday Cake

Older Son and His Cake

Older Son With His Friends

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The Leahy Family Portrait

Party With Debbie's Family!!

Today we had a great day! We almost didn't go because of older son's party tomorrow, but decide to go for a few hours because Debbie's sister, niece, and mother are in from Florida for the party. It was Debbie's brother's granddaughters party. They were turning 3 and 1. It was a huge party. About 50 people. They had a water side, pony rides, and their own personal ice cream truck stop by! My enjoyment of the party really didn't have anything to do with the extras (ok, I did like the personal ice cream truck!) but I love this family. It is a second family to me and the kids. We have known everyone about 32 years now. Hard to believe. Not only have we all grown up together, but now some of our kids have kids! Debbie's brother who I had a crush on for a couple of my teen years, is now a grandfather. Mind you he is still 4 years older then I am and started young, but a grandfather :)

It was so much fun seeing everyone and getting to talk today. I of course took lots of pictures. They asked me to do a family picture. All 5 generations were there and all out of town family was in. I should post that one too so you can see it. I'll do that next. I should be cleaning and making stuff for the party tomorrow, but I wanted to work on their pictures since Debbie's mom and sister go back home on Tuesday.

Tonight Older son has a graduation party again for an other one of his friends. He left almost as soon as we came home. He is DJ'ing the party too, so I am sure he will be late. Well, I am off to clean and cook up a couple of dishes. I will post the family picture first. I would have loved to have a 5 generation family picture. I was lucky to get a 4 generation one years ago. Every time I see their grandma Gert at the parties I go to I am reminded how much I miss talking to my grandmother. That is why these family pictures hold so much meaning for me. I love seeing the history.

I better get off and start my other stuff. I am sure I will have more pictures tomorrow after Older son's party!

The Party Begins!

Me and My Boys :)

Having Fun Dancing!

Watching the Pony Rides

The Ice Cream Truck at The Party

Older Son & Marnie

Older Son, Julie, & Younger Son



My best friends daughter with the boys.

Kids and I Leaving the Party



Here you go Tammy, this is the one you took and told me to put on the blog :)

Thursday, July 26, 2007

The Birthday Boy

Cubs Fan

Older Son Hours Old

Older Son 3 Months Old



This is older son with Great Grandma (who the cookbook is for) and my niece. This is one of my favorite pictures.

Older Son About 9 Months Old Easter 1989

Happy Birthday To Older Son

Today 19 years ago I became a mom. One of the happiest days of my life. He was born by cesarean section after about 12 hours of not very productive labor. I was awake and was able to see everything through the doctors glasses. My whole family was in the waiting room waiting for news. I felt like I could run a marathon after giving birth I was so happy. In contrast with younger son I was exhausted and slept nearly two days before the nurses wouldn't let me sleep anymore. Something about bonding :)

I remember sitting in a big chair looking out the window on one of the first nights older son was home. He was crying for two days straight. I remember holding him all night thinking please remember everything, it is going to go so fast. Making myself remember how it felt to hold him all night and how he smelled and looked at me. It is one of the first times I marked an event with him that I can look back on. Telling myself I need to remember this in 18 years. Here it is 19 years latter and I still remember that instant. There were many nights like that. Matter of fact older son never ended up sleeping in a crib :) The first bed he actually slept in was when younger son was born 4 and 1/2 years later and we bought older son a big boy bed. Younger son went in the crib his first night home and older son went into his new bed.

I am putting up a couple of baby pictures today. I enjoyed going through all his baby pictures. We have had photo albums all over the house lately since I am trying to find pictures for the cookbook I am doing.

This morning older son got up and went to take his final. He is so happy to be done with school for a few weeks. We had a very early dinner and cupcakes to celebrate the day. Younger son did all the dishes and even Milo loved having a little gravy over his dog food. Older son loved the DVD's younger son and I bought him. We already watched The Bourne Identitiy with Matt Damon. We will watch the second one later. We want to see the third one at the show when it is out. He is now making a slide show for his VBS class tonight. He is enjoying volunteering with his friends this week.

I am off to put up a couple of pictures. It was weird fixing and cropping pictures from 19 years ago! Home photography has come a long way. The pictures aren't great quality, but that is part of what I like about them. They are starting to look like older pictures.

Have a great day!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

This has been a fun week. My best friend's mother is in town. We were all able to have lunch together. I haven't seen her is so long. She lives in Florida for most of the year. Debbie and I even managed to go see a movie this week. I think it is the first move we have seen since we had kids!

Older son is on vacation from work this week. His 19th birthday is tomorrow. He still has school this week. Tomorrow is his final and then he will be off school for about 3 weeks before school starts back up. He fit in a dentist appointment and Friday he has a physical. Both kids are volunteering in an evening Vacation Bible School this week too. At different churches. Younger son is local with a friend of his and older son is a little farther away with his friend. So it has been an unusual week for me too. I have had my evening free this week.

Younger son and I went shopping today for older son's birthday gift and cards. He picked out a few DVD's for him. I made the mistake of buying really cute tissue paper to wrap them in. I didn't notice it was covered in glitter! Now our living room is too :) I am making older son his second favorite dinner tomorrow (well actually lunch since VBS is in the evening), drunken chicken. It is a whole cut up chicken with cream of chicken, cream of celery, cream of mushroom soups. With 1/3 cup of sweet vermouth. You mix it up and pour it over the chicken and bake it. It is really wonderful and makes a great gravy. I already made him his favorite meal at the beginning of his vacation. His favorite meal is pork chops made with stuffing on them cooked very slowly. Younger son would pick either McDonalds or mac and cheese :)

I have received a few more recipes for our cookbook. It is great seeing all the recipes coming in. I am still going through pictures. My brother is bringing old slides from my grandparents with him next month when we will be at my sisters. I can't wait to look through them again.

Younger son had his music lesson today. Milo loves when the music teacher comes. We don't get to the lesson until Milo gets his attention first :)

Well I am off, younger son should have called by now and older will be home soon too. Since his final is tomorrow I am hoping he is home early and get some rest.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Were All Done!

Older son finished the book yesterday. Younger son finished this afternoon and I received my book 3p.m. yesterday & just now finished mine. Best book yet!

Saturday, July 21, 2007

It is Sure Quiet at Our House Right Now!

We are back with our Harry Potter books. It is almost 2am. We were out of the store by 12:10am. It was a fun experience, but a long night. We arrived about 6:45 and the store was not crowded at all. Younger son, his friend and I sat and had drinks and had fun watching the parking lot from the second floor tables. Older son arrived by 8:30 and all the festivities started at 9 pm. We had pictures taken, made frames, pin the wand on the wizard, out smart the wizard and a lot of cool costumes. By 11 pm we went to the front of the store to start the line. About 15 minutes after that the store announced the starting of the line. They lined up in groups of 25, so I am glad we went up early. The only one ahead of us was the costumes contest winner. Part of the prize was to be first in line. I met a wonderful family by being in line so long. Their son won the contest so we were able to talk for about a half hour. They travel with her husbands work and have just recently moved back to the states from Africa. The boy and his family have lived on three continents and he was only 10. Her sister lives in England, so they hear a lot about the whole Harry Potter thing. She is interested in homeschooling, but her husband wants the boy in school. They homeschooled for their year in Africa, but when they came back to the states they put him in school. They put him back a year because of his age and he is bored to tears. After talking, I think she is going to think a lot more about homeschooling again. Illinois is such an easy state to homeschool in. They were a very interesting family. It is funny, the people I stood in line with this morning I kept running into tonight. We didn't exchange names in line, but I heard a few times, hi there, number 1 :) We remembered what order we were in, and didn't know any names.

The boys are sitting here reading. Most likely older son may make it all night, but I am betting around 3am younger son will give in and go to bed. I told them they can stay up as long as they want.

There was an upsetting thing that happened on the way home tonight too. Diving home we ran across a car that had a very large poster on both sides of their car saying,"In the 7th book here is who dies" and listed all the names! I couldn't believe it, what is wrong with people? Luckily it was very dark and the names of who died were too small to read in the dark. I just don't understand thinking like that. Why ruin it for other people? Oh well, we are safely at home reading and if we don't turn on the tv, radio, check the Internet, or read the paper we should be safe for a day or two.

I am off. My book arrives in the morning, well a few hours from now. Originally we were just getting two books, but older son ordered one for me on Amazon. So we will all be reading this weekend!

Younger Son with Whomping Willow and Moaning Myrtle

Younger Son and His Friend with Frames They Made

Younger Son with Professor Snape

Younger Son, Me, and Older Son in Our Harry Potter Glasses

Playing Pin the Wand

Where Younger Son Pinned Wand

First in Line With the #1 Bracelet

Paying for the Book

Outside of the Store With Our Books

Friday, July 20, 2007

The Fisrt Bracelet Given Out

It's Finally Here!

I am of course talking about the day we go to the book store for hours and hours with a million(ok, only 500 allowed) people. I was up bright and early to go stand in line for a bracelet to be able to get our books at midnight. They have a party starting at 9pm so we will arrive about 7 pm so we are in the group of 500 let in. The shocking/fun/lucky/there goes the lottery news is I was the FIRST person in line and now have the #1 bracelet! The kids were excited to hear we are #1. The line at Barnes & Noble wasn't too long when they opened this morning, but right across the street at Borders the line was down the sidewalk and to the street. It may have something to do with Barnes & Noble telling people a different time each time you called when the bracelets will be available.

Younger son is bringing a friend with us tonight and older son is meeting us there after he gets off work. We may check Borders out first since our store doesn't start it's activities until 9pm. My boys are a little old for most of the activities, but the atmosphere and costumes are always fun. Harry Potter is suppose to be there for pictures too.

Not too much other stuff going on. Older son is on vacation all next week from work and has his last class on Thursday. That is also his birthday. I'm not sure what we are doing the day of his birthday, but Sunday the 29th we are having the family over for dinner and a few of his friends over in the evening. I ordered a cake for him today done in Cubs, his favorite baseball team. Since I got him Cubs tickets for his birthday gift I thought it would be cute to do the cake in Cubs too. I did a massive grocery shopping spree yesterday and today. We were out of everything. The fridge was so empty that I was actually able to wash the shelves without moving anything. We have been eating out too much lately! I haven't spent this much money on groceries in a long time. I spend my normal monthly budget in two days. I have a couple of new recipes to try too. With all the going through cookbooks and recipes for the cookbook I am doing I found lots of things I wanted to try. Younger son is the pickiest eater ever. I already warned him not to complain until he tries it. This is the kid that wont even eat mac and cheese if the box looks different.

Younger son has had a couple of practices at church for this Sunday. He is singing with a Tenor/Brass choir. He is a Baritone. They are doing 2 songs this Sunday for both services. It is going to be hard getting us all out of bed in the morning after staying up all night tonight and late Saturday reading Harry Potter :)

I guess I do have some news. Younger son has decided to go back to Boy Scouts and work on his Eagle badge again. I am a little surprised, but he has a newer friend in the neighborhood that is a few years younger then him. The boys father is a scout master and has been recruiting him since younger son met this boy. I am hoping it will be a good experience. He only has 3 merit badges to complete and a project, so we will see how it goes. It is a small sized troop and he will be one of the older kids.

Well I imagine I will be off the computer for a day or two reading too. I will put some pictures up of tonight if I have any good ones. Have a great weekend everyone!

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Happy Birthday Tom Boy!

My Best Friend's Family



Bob, Julie, Tom, Debbie, and Julie's boyfriend, Paul

Tom Boy's Birthday

Not many other events mark the passage of time more then either my children's, niece and nephew or my best friends kids turning 18! Mind you we are having our second out of the group turn 21 next month. We were all close in our teen years. My sister, my best friend Debbie, and I. We have gone through all our adult life together, the ups and downs of life. Laughing and crying with each other. Today was Tom Boy's 18Th birthday. I was going through our pictures yesterday for my cookbook project and came across his first birthday party pictures. Maybe it is because I am getting older and time seems to go faster, but it only feels like I blinked and our kids are grown. I have the youngest in the group at 14.

We had a great time at his party today. I missed Debbie's kids party last year, so I haven't seen most of her family in two years. Her mom lives out of state and is in for the summer. It's fun just to sit around and talk with people you love and have known for so long. Tom is autistic and wonderful. He read all his cards out loud and thanked everyone before blowing out candles and having cake. Tom is one of the happiest kids I know and that is mostly due to Debbie. I am so proud to have a friend that has shown so much grace, strength and love raising Tom. Never believe what doctors tell you a person will be able to do or not do, would be my advise. Debbie never did and look what she accomplished! We all need a parent that will fight for us, love us unconditionally and always push us. Tom is the lucky one, his mother did just that. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM BOY!

Friday, July 13, 2007

He's back!

I went to pick up younger son today at my sister's. The house is just not the same without him here! How did I ever get through a week of summer camp years before? I really only didn't see him for 3 days. Monday I dropped him off and Friday I picked him up. He had a great time. Not only did he have theatre camp for two and a half hours a day, but my sister and her family took him to see Harry Potter, the drive-in to see two movies, swimming, and lots of fun at home with her. Every time I talked to him they were either coming home from somewhere or playing games. My sister's family and my family love to play games.

My week was quiet without him. Older son and I mostly hung around and caught up on movies. Between work and school, he's only home a few hours unless we stay up all night after he gets home from work. We have done that before too.

Cookbook update.... I took everything to my sister's today. I went early and spent the day until we had to pick up younger son at theatre camp. My niece took the day off to spend with us. We went through the cookbook publishers and finally picked which company we are going with. I also brought along all my grandmothers recipes and cookbooks. I had my sister and niece go through everything I did not pick to see what I missed and what they would like to include too. We have the basic layout of how the book will look and most of the recipes we want to use of my grandmothers. My sister, niece and I have to go through ours yet and wait for other family and friends to reply. We have one color picture for the cover, a family picture in black and white for the dedication page and we are picking 8 or 9 other pictures to print in black and white for the index dividers. I was SO happy to have other opinions! You look at so many option and after awhile you can't decide anything. I had in mind what I wanted to do and their suggestions really added to my vision. Since my grandfather liked to do the outdoor cooking and was in scouts we decided to make the book for both of them and include an outdoor cooking section. So we have to find a good picture of both of them for the cover. That is why we are going with the family picture for the dedication page. Dave and Tammy.... if you are reading this, can you believe we are using your wedding group picture! Younger son was only a baby, but that is the last family picture with everyone in it. My grandfather passed away not long after that. We are printing it in black and white and it is not a tradition wedding picture with a gown. It is outside and a little more casual. The only picture that we really had to decide where to use is a picture of their house up north. I thought the cover and my sister and niece think the cover should be of my grandparents. Which will look very nice. So I am making the house one of the dividers. So that is the cook book update :)

After we picked up younger son, my sister, niece, nephew, younger son and I all went out to dinner. We missed older son, but he was at work long before dinner. We had a nice dinner and by that time younger son was ready to come home. He kept saying he couldn't wait to see Milo.

Milo was a pretty happy dog when he saw younger son come in! He started shaking and wagging his tail to hard it was almost a weapon! He followed him around all night. Very unusual since he hardly ever leaves my side.

Have a great weekend!

Younger Son at Crown Point High School



Last day of Theatre Camp

Younger Son and CJ



This is younger son's favorite high school actor. He has been the lead in many of the plays at Crown Point High School in the last couple of years we have gone. He is off to college now, but I am betting you will see this face again! He is a wonderful actor. He helped out at the theatre camp with the kids.

Theatre Camp 2007



I was in the upper seats way in back taking this. Younger son is to the far left in the picutre in the white shirt. I really should have brought my tripod! Younger son said the game they were playing is called ships and saloirs.

Milo Missing Younger Son

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

View by Our Condo

Blue Skies Today

Monday, July 09, 2007

Day One of Drama Camp

Yesterday was a quiet day. The kids and I went to church and then out to breakfast. Younger son hates tyring anything new and just wants to go home. We talk him into coming with us. It was only a pancake house not some strange foreign food he has never seen :) He ends up ordering pancakes and loves them. We spent the rest of the day at home. Older son and I are still getting through all the seasons of CSI Miami and The Soprano's. We are on the third season of both. We rent through Netflix. We both loved the regular CSI and have seen all of those. Both kids are reading the 5th and 6th book of Harry Potter getting ready for book 7.

Today I went and had my hair cut before we drove out to Indiana. It was about 92 degrees and very sunny (right now we are getting a big storm front going through). I dropped younger son off with all his stuff for the week. He knows a couple of people there helping out from all the plays we have seen there and some are friends of my sister's family. My sister picked him up when it was over. He already called and said it was great. He loved the t-shit they all were given. My sister took the week off to do stuff with him and take him back and forth. He is really looking forward to the week.

As for me, I will have the day to myself tomorrow. Older son has school and then work. On Tuesdays he sometimes goes out with friends after work since there is no school on Wednesdays. I have been working on the cookbook. I am planing on putting a family tree in it too. I have always been interested in genealogy and worked on mine several years before kids. I am back a few generations on three sides. While working on the cookbook I dragged out all my genealogy stuff to go over too. I am planing on tomorrow hitting three cemeteries that I have planning on doing for years. I want to take pictures of headstones for dates and records. Maybe find a relative or two among the relatives I already know are out there. I will have to make a separate trip to Indiana for an other cemetery one day and I am thinking of driving out to Iowa for my grandfather's side. I just don't know if I should take my car that far. I am making headway on what type of cookbook and different pages I would like to include. Friday I am going to my sister's early and have her look through all the information too. My niece my take the day off work and spend it with us. It would be fun for all of us to go through all the cookbook information together.

So that's the plan! I am going to make up a couple of maps tonight and call the cemeteries in the morning to make sure I have the right location and off I go. I really wish I had a partner coming with :) At least it will be during the day!

Well, it is still thundering so I better spell check and get off. Looking back on some of my entries I am amazed at some of the spelling that gets through. You wouldn't want to see my writing without it!

Saturday, July 07, 2007

7/7/07

You know I had to post today with a date like that! I guess it is a huge day to get married. Today may set a record for the most people married in one day. I was hoping today would have been the day the 7th Harry Potter book was released. Instead of updating I would be reading:)

Lets see, Yesterday was a quiet day. Older son didn't get home from a sleep over until 11a.m. and then he left for work already by 1:30. Younger son went with a friend to the pool and swam until about 4:30p.m. I had the afternoon to myself. I use to dream about days like that when the kids were little, but now it is happening more and more! Once younger son is driving, I am thinking it will be rare when we are all home together during the day. I used the day to work on the cookbook I am doing dedicated to my grandma. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! The dilemma I am having is my grandmother has hundreds of recipes. A lot of hand written ones, ones on little pads of paper from when she worked at the bank, and of course cookbooks she used. I am not sure which she used all the time and what her favorites are. I am hoping my aunt can shed a little light on that. So I have a few dozen picked out and I am waiting for the input of more family and friends that may have had favorite she cooked.

This week younger son is going to my sister's house from Monday to Friday for a drama camp at their local high school. It is the best drama program we have seen. Better then most local colleges. I am dropping him off at class Monday and picking him up from class Friday evening. He will be at my sisters and they will take him back and forth. While he is there him and my nephew will of course see the Harry Potter movie this Wednesday night. Older son and I are going to wait to see it until next Saturday when all three of us will go see it together.

I am now starting on my recipes. I am hoping to get that done before younger son is home next week. Then it is a matter of typing everyones recipes into the computer program and deciding which company to go with. I have had 5 companies send me their packages. There are hundreds of choices! So far I am thinking of putting my grandparents house in Wisconsin on the cover. The inside cover will have a picture of my grandmother. Beyond that, I'm not sure yet.

Older son left this morning at 9 am to go see a movie with friends. He has a graduation party for a friend this afternoon, so I am pretty sure he is gone until late tonight. Younger son is packing and getting ready for next week. I did 6 loads of laundry so younger son could pack ;) Looks like the rest of the day will be quiet. I'm glad I am in today. I ran out earlier to the bank and post office and it is 92.

Keep cool!

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

Today was a pretty quiet day. We all slept in late. Older son was off school and work today. We were home most of the day. We decided to go out to dinner and then older son went to meet friends to go see the fireworks in a different town. Younger son and I came home. He insisted staying home to take care of Milo. With all the fireworks Milo has been very scared. He has a pill to calm him down. We started giving it to him Monday and will continue until this weekend. I did end up going out for a hour or two because I wanted to try out the camera with fireworks. I need some help with that! I took about 130 pictures and only down loaded about 80 of them. Out of that I ended up with about a dozen on the Flickr site. Still none were great. I tried the auto setting with no flash and then the night setting with no flash. The night setting seemed to capture more color. It's a hard thing to practice since it is only a half hour once a year. When I got home younger son said Milo did pretty good. So next year younger son is going to come with again.

I finished my book today, "The Good Husband of Zebra Drive" by Alexander McCall Smith. It is a series of books called No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I really have enjoyed them all. Older son actually ordered an other copy of the 7th Harry Potter book. Now we will each have a copy. We are afraid by the next morning the ending will be all over the news. So we decided no computer, tv or papers until we are all done reading it :) We get the first two copies at midnight and the one older son ordered will be here that next morning. Older son is off work all that next week and school will be over, so we will have lots of time to read.

Hope everyone had a safe 4th!

Chocolate Graduation Caps



These are the chocolate graduation caps I made for my nephews party. You just need small chocolate covered gram crackers, mini Reece's peanut butter cups and fruit roll ups to make the little tassel. You can use either a decorating gel or a dab of peanut butter to attach it all.

Monday, July 02, 2007

June 23rd Graduation Party & June 30th Zoo

I went and spent the night at my sister's the night before my nephew's high school graduation party. We always have so much fun! We got a late start because that was the day I picked my best friend up from the airport. Are we starting to see a pattern here? :) After I got to my sister's we actually decided to go out to dinner before we started cooking for the next day. I made pasta salad for 80, set up my chocolate fountain, and made 80 graduation caps out of chocolate covered graham crackers, mini Reece's peanut butter cups, and fruit roll ups. It was a LONG night and little sleep :) We took our last load to the church to use their refrigerator at midnight. The next morning we arrived by 9am to decorate, get the drinks on ice and set up food. I was of course going over pictures in my mind :) It was a great party. lots of good food with family and friends. The boys came out that morning. It was the first time they were home with me gone over night. They did really well. Older son DJ ed the party. One little boy at the party ended up putting his fingers in the chocolate fountain and just eating from there. I tried to get him to use his plate and let the chocolate drip on that and wanted to help him wash his hands, but he liked his way better. The adults pretty much stayed away from it after that :) I did get a cute picture of him with his chocolate hands.

I was glad to get home after the clean up. Milo was sure glad to see me!

That brings us up to last Saturday! Can you believe it! Is anyone still reading?? I took younger son to the zoo. We haven't been in awhile. Older son spent the night at a friends, so he didn't come with. We are members, so we get free parking, admission, 4 tickets to the dolphin show and 4 tickets for the trolley rides around the zoo. When we arrived we went right to the dolphin show. We had about a half hour until it started. We got our seats and waited. The dolphins play around before the show so we were able to see that too. The dolphin show has always been one of our favorites. Next we went to eat lunch. Lots of people, long lines and average food, but we were really hungry by then. Afterwards we saw two new exhibits. The had a stingray exhibit where you can go in and pet the stingrays. Kevin loved it. You could stay as long as you wanted. You had to be patient and wait for them to come to you. Younger son had many go past him. When you come in they ask you to roll up your sleeves and was all the way up to your upper arm. On the way out they had more water and drier areas so you could wash when you were done too. The next exhibit was my favorite. It was a small structure that housed butterflies. Beautiful butterflies. I want to go back during the week when fewer people are there and take more time taking pictures. I am getting 6 of the pictures I took made into 5x7's and framing them for my bathroom. My colors in there are a light peach and foam green. I think the butterfly pictures will look nice.

Now we are at yesterday. I took the kids to the show to see Ratatouille, It was cute. Then we went to lunch. The rest of the day the boys just did stuff around the house. I wrote letters to my chemo patient, senior patient and my child I sponsor. I sent some zoo postcards and my chemopatient is a little girl who likes penguin's. I found a penguin box that opens with a necklace of a penguin! It was too cute and reasonably priced. Younger son talked me into buying him a tee shirt that said, "I Survived The Cicadeas Invasion 2007" It was funny, if they had my size I may have bought one for me too :)

Today we all slept in late. Older son and I stayed up late watching all three Die Hard movies. We have never seen them before. We wanted to see the new one, but want to see the others first. Kevin volunteered at the library and then went swimming with a friend. We joined a pool for the summer just a few blocks from our house. I have been going at night with younger son too. Today I stayed home to finally get my blog caught up.

My newest project is to make a family and friends cookbook dedicated to my grandmother. It is a little more involved then I though :) Isn't that always the way! So any special recipes, just let me know. I am guessing this will take months so there is no hurry. I am still looking into which company to go with. The last couple of days I have been going through all my grandmothers recipes. Hundreds of them. I am ready to start looking through mine too.

I think that catches me up!

Enterance to Brookfield Zoo

Dolphin Show

Enterence to the Stingray Exhibit

Younger Son Petting a Stingray

Younger Son Showing Me a Butterfly

On The Way Out of the Zoo

Me, My Nephew, Older Son and Younger Son

Older Son DJing My Nephew's High School Graduation Party

Happy Birthday Milo :)