when we moved into our house last year in april…it was pure chaos for a bit, so when our peony bush bloomed, i was too distracted to notice {unfortunately}. but this year, i was able to watch it bud, slowly bloom, and full on, become a pretty little bouquet of beauty.
peonies are my favorite flowers. i do love ranunculus and garden roses, too! such beautiful flowers each. i soooo wanted peonies for my wedding bouquet but getting married in september meant they were out of season. i mean, i could have still gotten peonies for my bouquet but they would have been very expensive. plus, i wanted all my flowers to match, so the next best thing for me were ranunculus and garden roses! just as beautiful, romantic, and exquisite.
anyhoo, buying this house and finding out that there were beautiful peony bushes in our yard was such a bonus! watching them bloom every year is such a treat. they are so fragrant and pretty.
the other day, hc suggested that i cut a few stems for our house {duh!} and so i did. olive and i went outside to nab a few pretty ones for our dining table. she was so funny…the other day when we were by the bushes, i smacked one of the flowers to distract her. so, when we went out to the flowers, again, she remembered what i did and proceeded to smack the peonies around. soooo funny…and what a memory!
i picked three stems per vase and arranged them on our dining room table. the next morning, when i awoke, i headed out to our kitchen and when i reached the threshold, the floral, sweet scent smacked me in my face! it was so fragrant and lovely. those flowers smell so delicious!
[peony buds]
[slowly blooming]
[slowly opening]
[full bloom]
[fresh from the garden]
ahhhh, i love our peony bushes! my own little flower shop in our backyard! cheers to spring flowers everyone!
i was a bit sad because it was the very first father’s day i didn’t spend with my dad. i wanted hc to do what he wanted to do…it was his day and he wanted to spend the day with his dad, so be it.
so, up to his parent’s house we went. it was a beautiful, very warm day. when we arrived, everyone was sitting out on the patio, enjoying the day. olive immediately wanted to go to the swing set. as you can see in the pic below! big sister grace so graciously took charge and carried olive down to the play set. such a great sister she is!
[itching to get down to the swing set]
[having fun with her sister]
the kids played by the swing set for a bit, while aunt wendy grilled our food. of course, i had to snap lots o pics of my baby girl in her cutesy outfit! as we played around in the yard, we got the call that lunch was ready!
i prepared olive’s plate and finally got myself some food. we ended up eating inside only because there was one less chair available outside and besides, it was cooler inside and easier for me to manage olive without sweating to death! i love warmer weather but humidity can take it’s toll. i just can’t risk melting. haha!
after lunch, we cleaned up a bit and got ready to go onto the boat! it was the most perfect day for this. since it was so warm out, speeding around on the boat creates the most balanced temperature and it’s quite nice!
olive was amused. she loved being in gramma’s arms while we were riding along the river. the sun was shining, the wind was perfect, and i greatly enjoy seeing all the boats cruising the river.
after a bit, we settled on an area that was quiet and the kids jumped onto the tube. olive was super curious on what was going on! then off we went with the kids in tow. olive had to watch what they were doing! it was too cute to see.
[ready to go boating!]
[boating time!]
[fox river]
[olive jelly of the big kids]
[her expression is priceless…watching the kids tubing]
[here we go!]
[it was perfect day to be out on the water]
after cruising the river for quite some time, we pulled into the no wake zone and the kids jumped out onto the water. you could tell that olive really wanted to go out as well. oh boy, i succumb to it. how could i not let her go out into the water and have fun?! so hc jumped in and pulled olive down into the river. she was a bit confused at first. she’s so funny with extreme temperatures. if it’s hot or if it’s cold…it’s all hot to her! hahaha! she gets upset if something feels too hot or cold, so she’ll say “hot! hot!”.
she cried a little bit when her skin first hit the cold river water but then she got over it! she was loving the tube and the water! she had a blast out there. she splashed, she screamed, and she unfortunately drank a little bit of the river water {eewwwwwww gross!!!}.
after quite a bit of fun in the tube, it was time to pull her out and she threw a fit! oh no. she was not having it. she cried and cried and cried. i changed her, got her dressed, and she stood at the end of the boat looking out at the kids with such sadness. she totally wanted to be out in the water with them. my heart broke over her sadness. awwwww, poor babes.
we then went on our merry way back home. of course, it was a beautiful, perfect ride back to the house. olive got over it and was completely content in my arms as she watched grace and daniel have fun in the tube.
[olive’s first time in the fox river!]
[she was soooo excited to be in the tube]
[olive was soooo not happy missy was sitting next to her! haha!]
once we were back, we all noshed on some delicious chocolate pie jane had bought and dick opened up his father’s day gift. we stayed just a little bit longer, relaxed, and finally packed ourselves up and headed home.
it was a wonderful, perfect father’s day indeed. we all had such a fabulous time on this beautiful, sunny day. thanks dick and jane for hosting us! we love you guys so much!
i love summer and i love creating a list of fun things to do every year. sometimes we can check all of the lovely things off our list and sometimes it’s just a list to inspire us and sometimes we just don’t get to all of it. though, it’s definitely something to aspire to every day!
getting outside to enjoy the weather is so great {as long as it’s not stifling hot and muggy…that can be a sticky situation…no pun intended. hahaha!}. summer is so short lived here in chicago. we get the wonky weather transition during spring {good days and bad days}, it’s when the weather app is your best friend. you’re trying to figure out if you need a coat or not or how will you dress your little one for the day but come summer, you always know it’s shorts and tanks.
so, without further ado, here is our summer list of things to do!
1. go to a carnival
2. buy ice cream from the ice cream man
3. go to the pool {you would think that this was easier to do…}
4. make s’mores
5. catch fireflies
6. eat funnel cake/snocones/popsicles
7. go to the farmer’s market
8. blow bubbles
8. go boating
9. pick berries
10. go to the zoo
11. created sidewalk chalk art
12. go to the museum
13. go to an ice cream parlor
14. go to a cubs game
15. eat alfresco as much as we can
there ya go. our summer to do bucket list. i am hoping we will accomplish everything on this list this summer. it seems easy peasy enough…although i did feel like i always missed the ice cream man every time last year! i might stalk him this time around.
anyhoo, what’s on your summer bucket list this year? i am hoping to possibly add to this fun round of activities…we’ll see how fast this set will get accomplished! cheers to warm weather!
we had planned a day where carol and ted were to come over for dinner. it started out early for us, carol wanted to beat traffic and head out to our house in the early afternoon. well, of course olive was completely off schedule that day! she didn’t nap the day before and she went to bed late that night. well, she woke up super early the next morning {6am} and was exhausted by the time 8:30am rolled around. she crawled up onto our bed, insisted on nursing, and fell asleep for another four hours! baby girl didn’t get up until almost 1pm! holy cow!
so you can probably imagine, that threw my whole morning off! i did a whole bunch of stuff around the house {which was great! cleaning, organizing, ya know…all the good stuff i love}. what i really needed to do was go to the grocery store and pick up food for dinner that evening and i can’t do that with a sleeping baby!
olive finally woke up and i needed to feed her, get her dressed, get myself ready and head on out to the store {plus, i hadn’t had my coffee du jour and i was dying}. carol was already on her way but thank goodness she said she could stop by a store while i did some shopping. but ugh, i felt so rushed. i hate feeling rushed. i really do. i buzzed through the grocery store {with the feeling like i was forgetting something} and rushed home in hopes that carol wasn’t at our house for too long.
we were actually minutes apart. she had just arrived at our home as i was pulling up. purrrrfect. i still can’t believe carol has three kids! shelby, the newest addition, is sooooo stinkin’ cute. love that little baby.
we just did our thing. we talked and talked and talked about life. and in-between that, we catered to our kids. man, it was interesting to see olive with other kids in her territory. she’s at an age where she doesn’t understand how to share. if you coax her and ask her, she will eventually relent but it’s hard when other kids don’t have that patience and thought process. overall, she was pretty good about giving and taking. mackenzie is only a few years older and she did her best to share but travis, being six, was so good to her. he really was so sweet with miss olive, he was constantly sharing and giving her things. so nice!
after a few hours of hanging out, hc and ted finally arrived together, hc picked ted up at the train station with his jeep. hc walked ted around the property and the house, i never realized that ted has never been to our place! after the tour, i prepped a nut mix and cheese cubes as an app and hc started dinner on the grill.
[daddy and shelby]
[cheeseburgers, corn on the cob, and veggies]
[parents – happy, kids – not so happy]
[the kids loved using the shed door’s as a slide]
we had dinner and dessert and we hung out all night {many libations later!}. i bathed olive, all the kids got into their pj’s and ‘destroyed’ the living room. the couch turned into a trampoline. haha! it was pretty awesome. love them, love their family, and we are so happy we were able to hang out with them while they are in town.
carol and ted are a pretty awesome couple with a few cutie kids. we are thankful to know them and have them in our lives.
oh boy! i would have posted this one sooner but this darn wordpress site wasn’t cooperating with my iphone, so i couldnt make any edits! argh! well it’s working now, thank goodness!
i wanted to do a shout out to the amazing dads i know. first off, my dear father. bless his heart for everything he’s done for us, for our family. he has always been selfless, loving, kind, and giving. my dad has done everything he could for our family to always be in a better situation, whether it was always working overtime, keeping things in order for us to move to the next, or providing love and care for us. i will always be thankful and proud of all that he has given to us
next up, is my husband. he is a wonderful father to olive and grace and an amazing husband to me. he does his best to provide a wonderful home to our family and humor with love. he’s quite the goofy dude and he is so sweet to our little girl. he finds something comical in almost everything olive does; he has such great patience with her that i am always in awe and admiration over it.
i have to give props to mr. terry. he’s such a good guy. as good as they come. i must say that we are fortunate that we {us siblings} have married into some pretty awesome families. terry is super nice, caring, loving, and supportive. he is such a sweet dad to his two little boys, reagan and bennett.
last but but not least is mr. h. also known as dick, dad to junior. he is so loving and kind {notice the common theme here?}. no joke, one of the kindest people i know. no judgements here, we only get love and support at all times from him {them}. he is hc’s best friend and confidant. they are also super grandparents to miss olive, well, we are so blessed that both sets of our parents are super grandparents!
i am proud to call all these dudes dad! i love every single one of them and feel so fortunate that they are a part of my life. happy, happy dad day everyone!
our first outing with the fam was at shelby’s baptism. it was up in lake forest at a church ted’s family worships at. as usual, we were running behind, mainly because olive was still sleeping {late} and we didn’t want to wake her. we finally got ready and were on our way to the church {of course, not without a starbucks stop!}.
the church was packed and there wasn’t any parking! ugh. we were so late! we finally created our own spot and scurried on in. we weren’t sure on how to get inside the church, we spied some doors and heard the ceremony going on inside. we almost busted through the aforementioned doors, thank goodness this gentleman stopped us and redirected us to the end of the hallway! when we were finally seated inside, i saw that the doors that we were going to bounce through were actually right next to the altar and we would have been walking in through the front, smack dab in the middle of the baptism! that would have been embarrassing!
anyhoo, we totally caught shelby’s rite of baptism and sat peacefully through the rest of the service. olive was entertained by her surroundings and i was at ease. when it all ended, we headed towards carol and famille to say our hello’s. it was so great to see them and little shelby is soooo darling! what a sweetie. we snapped some family photos and went on our merry way to ted parent’s house for brunch.
[there they are!…carol is in the long green dress]
[my little moment with the baby…we hid this from jelly olive]
[mackenzie entertaining shelby with sophie]
when we arrived at john and nancy’s beautiful home, we snapped some more pictures out in their gorgeous backyard. so green and pretty! after this photo sesh we escaped inside to the cool house {in ted’s words: “i feel like i’m in a turkish bath house right now”}. yes, it was quite humid outside. hahaha!
[the beautiful family]
[kagann/johnson’s]
[such a sweet shot of mackenzie in her lily pulitzer dress]
[looooove this pic of them]
[olive obsessed with travis’ birthday balloon]
[look at that pouty face!]
inside, we were greeted with bellini’s and brunch. carol made an amazing baked french toast concoction with challah bread {deeeeeelish}, there was fruit, croissants, quiche, and a few other decadent dishes being served. i couldn’t stop noshing on carol’s delightful entree. it was so yummy…did i mention it was good?! hehe.
[shelby in her lily pulitzer]
[my precious cutie]
[longtime friends]
[fruit, french toast, and quiche]
[i die over this! she was staring out the window and i realized that she matches the curtains! hahaha!]
[god bless shelby indeed]
after brunch, cake was served. we relaxed, mingled, and chit chatted with the group. it was so great to see everyone! ted’s parents are always so welcoming and sweet. it was great to see perry, krista, their kids, leslie, and colin too! definitely a fun bunch of peeps.
after several hours of hanging out, we called it a day. olive needed a nap and only a car ride would suffice in fulfilling that void! overall, it was a beautiful day…we were happy to have witness shelby’s baptism on this gorgeous day, to have hung out with some wonderful people, and to finally see carol, ted and their lovely family! cheers!
i was waiting for the day to come when jodi and kt were stopping by for brunch! it had been awhile since i have seen them both, so i was looking forward to this! it was a cloudy, rainy day. i was hoping it was going to be sunny so we could sit outside and eat but alas, the weather decided against that.
jodi arrived right on time, as usual. she is always so prompt! oh, jett…he’s is just the cutest! what a handsome little dude and he is oh so sweet! olive doesn’t get many kids her age in the house {jett is about nine months older than olive}, most of them are much older, so it was interesting to see how she would interacted with jett.
kt, of course, was running behind! she totally lost track of time and had no idea that she was suppose to be at our house at the time she finally hit the road! ohhhhh, kt!
well, while jett and olive played {chaperoned by jodi} i started our brunch. on the menu were scrambled eggs, with cooked onions, cream, salt & pepper. crispy bacon & hash browns. fruit. toasted bagels with butter, jam, and cream cheese. juice. coffee and a donut tower centerpiece!
as i was finishing up, kt finally arrived! yaayyy! we prepared the kid’s plates and sat down for a scrumptious brunch. we talked, and talked, and talked. olive and jett were not interested in eating at all. they totally took a few bites and scurried away to go play {again}.
[my doughnut centerpiece…definitely not too sweet to eat!]
[cooking up some eggs]
[jodi entertaining the kids while i cook]
[on the menu: savory bacon, seasoned scrambled eggs, crispy hash browns, bagels with butter, cream cheese, or jam, and fruit. not without mimosas, watermelon juice, and coffee]
[the kids entertaining themselves]
after noshing, we cleaned up a bit, and plopped into the living room to chill. the kids were so crazy! we tried to put a movie on but that captured their attention for two seconds, they were more interested in the toys…which was perfectly fine! jett loved the minnie mouse vacuum that gramma and papa had given to olive for christmas. they played with the blocks, puzzles, games, etc. until everything was scattered everywhere! olive was a bit tepid about sharing but overall she was pretty good. they both really wanted the ‘phone’ {again something gramma and papa gifted} but olive would eventually share it. thank goodness! it’s so hard to teach them how to share at this age!
then they discovered jumping on the couch. the end. haha. ok, no, but it was crazy. they had such a fun time plopping around, falling backwards, and landing on their butts all over this couch. a bad habit to learn but they sure did have a great time!
[okaaaayyyyy, a year and a half later, i still have crazy, crazy baby hair from the pregnancy!]
[this cutie]
[so then they learned this…jumping on the couch!]
[what’s up with my hair?! i look like i have a pageboy ‘do! haha!]
[olive jumped onto her rocking horse and jett loved the rocking chair]
[this cutie patutie!]
[oh!]
[my pretty ladies]
[love this girl!]
after much eating, talking, and caring of these wild kids – it was time for them to go. jodi was timing out jett’s nap as well, knowing that he would sleep on the car ride home.
yay! somewhat on time this time! hahaha! may brought us warmer weather and a lot of rain! isn’t suppose to be april shower brings may flowers?! it was like april coldness brings may showers :p
well, we celebrated mother’s day this past month, as well as our mom’s birthday! every few years, my mom’s birthday will fall on mother’s day or right around it, so sometimes it’s like a double celebration in one! we had a wonderful time on mother’s day, we hosted my family and my brother in law’s family at our house. it was sweet, relaxing, and a blast to decorate for. it was a fun time, indeed.
there was a lot of hanging around outdoors. we ate a bunch of dinners alfresco, we were able to go to a flea market we have had our eyes on for a bit, we had brunch with our friends at restaurants with outdoor open dining spaces…so many fun things to explore when the weather is nice!
as you can tell, my most favorite thing to do is eating outside when it’s warm at night and ONLY if there are no mosquitos. when we were in the city, it was so easy to do so, because there weren’t many, if any mosquitos. but here in the ‘burbs, they thrive so it’s a challenge and a battle to be able to sit outside and relax without getting bit!
anyhoo, please enjoy our may snapshots:
[i love this photo of her checking out the lady next to her!]
[peek a boo under the pillows]
[antique shopping]
[my dad’s favorite way to hold her]
[the classic oh baby olive look]
[she crawled into bed with me and fell asleep by my side. *sigh*]
[holding terry’s hand at a point where she wouldn’t hold anyone’s hand]
[eating alfresco]
[observing the scene]
[goofing around with her cousin]
[this cutie waking up from her nap on mother’s day]
[these two cuties!]
[mmmmm, waffles]
[dad’s birthday]
[sleeping away]
[hc and me!]
[her first starbucks drink! vanilla bean frappucino]
[hanging out with her favorite sister]
[me and my soeurs]
[hanging out at target]
[ahhhhhhh!]
may was a blast and i can’t wait to share all the joys of our month of june!
i love this picture of matt, hc, and me! we are at the bellagio in vegas. well, we just booked our trip to vegas {a week or so ago} and it is making me excited! i love vegas. it’s such a fun place to visit for a weekend. it’s got everything for a fun time. everything is 27/7, there are soooo many great restaurants, and it’s seriously the best people watching evah! there’s something so relaxing about vegas for me. i don’t know if it’s the amazing hotels and service or the spas or the pools or the relaxed attitude of everyone? i love the room service, i love the environment, i love the craziness of it all. it’s so over the top and nutty and that is what makes it so enticing.
my favorite part of vegas are the pools. we love renting out the cabanas and being lazy all day long. you get a ‘private’ pool, personalized service, and a great tan! since only a few cabanas share a pool, we love chatting it up {and maybe getting a little tipsy} with the other cabana folks!
the last few years, we have been going with our dear friends matt and johann. matt’s wonderful sister, liz, lives there with her husband and two kids and we love visiting them every time. matt and johann are the best traveling buddies…they are laid back and flexible on what we do and want to do. ditto for us. we are pretty open when it comes to our schedule and what we will do…we are just happy to be there {with them}, anything is possible!
anyhoo, i can’t wait until we go. it’s going to be a fabulous time no matter what. what trips do you have planned for this summer/fall? any favorite places you just love visiting? well, lovies…i hope y’all have a fantastic friday and weekend! muwah!
i was hoping to see my friend andrea again, while she is on her maternity leave, and we were able to make it happen. i’m so glad we did because this lady {who is a traveling fool} was jetting out {again} and wasn’t going to be home for the rest of her leave!
olive and i started the day with her wellness check up. it’s so cute, just so cute. everything about her. i love her. she is the most precious thing on earth. my heart just melts looking at her. she gets so scared by strangers and clings to me…and i just melt over her cuteness. i love being her momma and i love protecting her.
she did just fine this time…every visit gets better and better as she becomes more aware, wiser, and knowledgeable. she got the thumbs up from her wonderful doctor and we went on our merry way to andrea’s house.
[my sweet baby girl]
[my heart melts for her]
it was such a beautiful, perfect day. i was super excited to hang out with andrea and annabelle. after we arrived at andrea’s, we set out to walk the neighborhood and find a place to eat. i love wicker park…it’s such an eclectic, artsy area.
we decided to eat at milk and honey on division. we nabbed a seat outside and enjoyed our delicious meal. the avocado and smoked gouda sandwich was ah-maze. after we finished eating, olive wanted to be out of her highchair, so i let her roam around the table. she is always so good about staying close, it amazes me that she does that {so far…}.
after brunch, we did some more walking. we headed towards the actual wicker park to hang out. as we cruised there on this beautiful sunny day, i soaked in all the city goodness. i love the craziness, the people, the scenery, the energy of it.
[olive checking out miss annabelle]
[the beautiful baby girl]
[mmmmm….juice]
[such a sassy lady, ootd: shirt by shop childish, shoes by target]
[no selfie shtick]
[this avocado and smoke gouda sandwich was deeeeeeelicious]
[her interest in annabelle peaked and waned]
when we arrived at the park, we found a spot where i could nurse olive. i figured she would be so distracted that she wouldn’t nurse that long and i was right. she ate for a bit but then she wanted to explore her unfamiliar surroundings.
as we walked towards the playground, olive was tagging behind us {and the park was not crowded}. she was, maybe, 15-20 feet away from me {with my eyes on her the entire time, constantly calling for her} when this women on a bench yelled out “she’s too far away from you!”. ummmmm, ‘scuse me?!!! i proceeded to yell back at the women. she said it again and i said, “too far away?! too far away for you. i’m her mom and you have no right to tell me what to do or how to watch my child! how ’bout you MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS?!!!!”. well, i was seeing red and i’m sure what i said came out something like that! as i retorted to this nosey women, another passerby chuckled at our exchange of words. by that time, olive was standing by my side and we moseyed along to the park without a flinch. hahahaha.
[she looooooves the swing]
[and the slide]
[and the tunnel]
[and the stairs]
as we were leaving the park, andrea suggested that we stop for ice cream. yay! hooray for ice cream! duh…i can never say no to ice cream! they had just opened up a jeni’s on milwaukee, so it was the perfect pit stop. olive was too stinkin’ cute drinking her root beer float. i ordered myself some sorbets and we were happy campers noshing on our afternoon treats.
[at jeni’s splendid ice creams]
[intense root beer float drinking]
after delicious brunch, a play in the park, and a sweet stop for ice cream, i’d say it was the most perfect, sunny afternoon! i had such a great time with andrea and annabelle. it was so gorgeous out {great weather is the best!} and we had the most wonderful time walking around. we love you andrea and annabelle! muwah!
