A Visit and a Birthday

Not a lot of time for an update, but wanted to add some recent pictures.  Last weekend Aunt Sue and Kathy were in town visiting Caroline and of course we managed to make some plans with all of them as well.  It started on Friday when I met up with the ladies on my own to hit up dinner at a restaurant we'd been wanting to try for a while.  It was AHH-Mazing.  It was one of those places where you order plates to share and we picked amazing things - I never thought I could love a beet salad as much as I did, but every dish just kept getting better than the last.  It was not a late night as I was beat.  I had been in Austin for work Weds and Thurs and almost didn't make it home due to weather issues both in Dallas and Chicago.  Let's just say I considered myself lucky when I crawled into bed at 3:45am having seen people curled up on cots in both airports due to cancelled flights.  So after skipping out on work for a bit Friday to give Mark a breather, he was most kind to let me take off for some time with the ladies.

Don't worry, I repaid the favor on Saturday when he went golfing with friends as well.  Saturday ended up being quite a crazy day on my end as well.  Start with all the normal weekend stuff - bank, gas, farmers market - all of which take longer when you have three kids you're ushering.  But we made it and hopped in the car to head downtown for some fun.  It was a beautiful day so we met the ladies in Millenium Park.

Some pics of the girls checking out the bean...

 Sue brought the girls goodie bags and Isla didn't part from her dots all day.

Margot was a little fussy.  Girl was tired but couldn't get to sleep and so Aunt Kathy carried her all over the city.  She says her arms and back were fine the next day, but not sure I believe her - our girl is getting so big I certainly would have been sore.

We headed over to Buckingham Fountain and there was a frame on the ground for people to use.  Caroline picked it up, and this is my favorite picture of the whole day.

We ended up grabbing lunch at a cute spot, one I'll have to go back to during the work week sometime, and then hopping back in the car. While we had already accomplished a lot that day there was more to do.  We (tried to) hurried home because we had to meet Mark at our friend's house for a BBQ, and had a grocery run to make so that I could quick whip up the two apps I had offered to make.  Upfront planning would have been good but the work week was busy so it just never happened.  At any rate, I'm pretty sure someone took our picture in the grocery store so we must have looked ridiculous.  If at all possible I do not grocery shop with any of my kids.  They slow me down and beg for stuff we/they don't need.  But that day I had loaded Sawyer and Isla into the grocery cart and was carrying Margot in my arms while pushing the cart.  Now I only needed about 5-10 things so we weren't there long, but I can imagine that we looked ridiculous.  We managed to get home, get the apps made, get me and the baby changed, and head off to the party without being too late which was a bonus.  Needless to say, when we got home at 8:30 that night everyone was pretty darn tired.

Of course, we also had some important activities this past week as well.  Our big girl Sawyer turned 5 years old.  She was beyond excited, and for several days in advance would tell us how many days till her big day, and when she woke up Weds morning she promptly told Isla that she turned 5 in the middle of the night - because I had told her she was born in the middle of the night.  She was very excited to get a crown at school, and had requested a purple cake.  If you look carefully there's the outline of a 5 on that cake, although it looks a bit more like an "S"...either works.

The cake was a family effort.  We made the cake before Sawyer went to school, but Isla, Mark, and I decorated it while she was at school.  You may notice some open cake spots - Isla took a liking to the frosting immediately and had her little fingers in it, so the cake didn't get 100% covered.  She did enjoy singing to her big sister though.

 A quick snap of the four girls.  Picture makes me laugh.  Isla has such a fake smile, Sawyer is a total poser, Margot looks like she's dreaming about eating real food, and I am just awkward in pictures.  But for better or worse, it captures us all pretty well and makes me smile.

 And finally, blowing out the candles.  We have no pictures from opening presents pretty much because Sawyer opens them the minute they get here.  She's been very lucky to receive gifts from her Grandparents and other family but the minute she sees any package come to the house she has to open it right away.  We need to be better about hiding things as they come.  Note to self for Christmas.  That said, she LOVED everything.  I think it worked well that she opened things at intervals because she'd have some time to play/wear the things she got and not get overwhelmed.  We've done lots of the craft projects - a favorite in this house - with more to do, and have worn new clothes, etc.  Girl thinks she's the cat's meow.

We have already discussed that Mark's birthday is next and that he will need Green Cupcakes.  Isla had requested an Orange cake, but may have changed that to Green because Sawyer asked her to pick another color.  We might have to go to the store for that one, unless Grandma wants to get creative when we're at her house.  And with that it's time for bed.  I'm sure we'll have more pics this weekend as we're doing a special day together Saturday for Sawyer's birthday...hitting up a jump house place and then ChuckECheese for lunch....Sawyer's request.  Let's hope it goes well.

A Trip to the Orchard

I have lots of pictures from this weekend and thought I'd post them up.  Saturday was a crazy beautiful day here in Chicago - blue skies and about 65 degrees.  I had found out about an apple orchard online last year, but with apple season mostly washed out we had to wait till this year to really get some apple picking in. This Saturday seemed like the perfect opportunity so we hopped in the car and drove about 45 miles west into the real heartland.  We spent about 2+ hours there and everyone had a great time.

We climbed up hay...

 We climbed down hay...

Just ran around and had some fun...

 Visited with some farm animals - Isla's favorite were the pigs

 There were also goats, donkeys, chickens, and a turkey.

 There were lots of places for photo ops...

 Which provided good entertainment as we waited for the tractor

 Isla liked going into the barn where the chickens were kept, and was surprisingly brave near all the animals

But next up was apples...we hopped on the tractor for a little ride to the ripe apples

We weren't sure how quickly we'd go through the apples so we went with just 1/2 peck.  Sawyer did most of the picking but we helped Isla grab a few too.  She liked to go for the low hanging fruit so we had to lift her up to get the good apples.

 Very happy about her first few picks

And of all the miracles, Sawyer will now eat whole apples.  She has made me cut off the skin on every apple and cut them in pieces, but one trip to the orchard and she's now a fan of eating them with skin on.

This weekend we picked Gala's.  There's a bunch of different kinds maturing over the next few weeks though if we want to go pick different ones

Isla was just happy to be there. She was the only one who did not eat an apple while in the orchard.

 Walking back to where the tractor will pick us up

 Next up we headed over to the raspberry patch.  It was a nice big plot and each girl got a bucket for picking.

Sawyer was quite excited and ran up and down the aisles.  Isla was the best picker though - she was very careful and surprisingly good at picking out the ripe raspberries.  She was funny though and would say "this one's smushed gotta eat it".  Despite that, she still had more berries than Sawyer.

 Before we left the field we had a few snaps near the corn...

And then we headed on over to the barn for some lunch and to buy some apple donuts.  All in all, this was a perfect little day out and one we'll have to do again.  I made an apple pie today and we still have lots of apples left so I'll have to get more creative ideas before we get more.

Life Goes On

I'm pretty sure I've used this title before, but it seems to be especially relevant once you go back to work and things start to return to normal levels of busy-ness.  I haven't posted in awhile because that's just what has happened.  We're settling back into what will be normal for us.  Mark is staying home with the girls these days which means that our home life dynamic has changed a bit.  We are no longer rushing in the morning to get everyone out the door by a certain time, or talking about who can cover picking up the girls on a given day.  It's actually proved to be less stressful which is nice.  But it brings about a different kind of busy - the girls are always looking for things to do, or suggestions on new toys to play with, and my goodness do we go through a lot of food/dirty dishes these days.  Sawyer continues to love school and every day comes up bubbling over with things to tell us, or pictures to give us.  Isla would like nothing more than to join her, and wears her backpack every day as Sawyer is dropped off and picked up, but hopefully will benefit from this time at home.  Margot happily goes along for the ride on everything and still seems to be just the happiest baby on the block.  And as for me, it almost feels like I've been back at work forever.  I've had to jump right back in and have quite a busy couple of weeks ahead of me....sidenote to Margot - this would be a great time for you to start sleeping fully through the night!

We're enjoying the last bits of summer and have had quite warm weather lately.  Mark got out the pool for one last hurrah but actually there wasn't much interest in it.  I did make him snap a picture of Margot in her little bathing suit though.  I bought it for the beach but never ended up bringing her near the water since I didn't want her getting sun and I was worried about any bacteria in the lake.

 And the older girls having popsicles...

 Margot continues to be getting SO big.  I mean aside from just size, which is crazy - can't wait till end of month to see what she weighs now, but she's just growing up on us.  She's definitely found her hands and wants to paw/grab at pretty much everything.  When she's taking a bottle you have to let her hold onto two of your fingers - one of her hands around one of your fingers.  She's also getting more interested in her play mat now - it's not just a place where she lays and stares, but she's grabbing away.  I snapped a few quick shots today...

 Times they are a changing - please note Daddy dress code - hot pink pants and the red/navy sweater.  Mom would never have mixed that combo, but that's become less of my job these days.  It's been a weird exercise in trying to let go for me.  And with that, this update needs to come to an end as I have three minutes to my next call.  Hopefully I'll get back in a rhythm of updating...though I'll have to put Mark on picture duty as well...