First Day of School -- Kindergarten and Second Grade!

 It's been really hard basically being a single parent for the past 6 weeks. I really wanted the first day to be relaxing and stress free for the kids. All was going according to plan until when, at 8:15, just as we were getting ready to take pictures and head off, Juliet dumped an entire bowl of cereal all over on of our rugs. I was especially annoyed because she had done the same thing the previous week, and we had talked about how you need to use 2 hands and be careful. I had to haul up the carpet cleaner, because I didn't want our house smelling like stale milk. I already felt like our house smelled from living so erratically for the past month, getting vacuumed less, and getting less maintenance in general than it usually has. After cleaning the rug with our carpet cleaner, I went to take out the water to dump it and it came unlatched spilling dirty water all over another rug. Seriously. Not the first day I imagined. Poor Juliet was crying and I was frustrated. 

 We quickly took a few pictures before heading to school. When we got there, because we were so late, and every parent was there with their kid(s), we had to park at the Fire Station and walk through the cold grass to the school. Juliet kept saying, "This is not the first day I wanted!" We will remember this first day for the rest of our lives. 

 Juliet loves the bible. She is sad to leave Real Life Farm and bible story time. 

We had a pretty good first week back. Both kids love their teachers. We are all getting back into the routine of school. We've been going to bed early every night. I love having both kids at my school. It is so much fun to have them both in my office before and after school. I love seeing them in the hallway and meeting their friends. It's going to be a great year! 

 On Sunday, we ate breakfast and then played at the Bean and the Fountain for a bit. Chris went and got his hair cut and then we went to the beach. Luckily, it was much warmer and enjoyable than when we had been the previous week. 

  

  

 Apparently, you can't have booze on ANY BEACH in Chicago. The police walk around and you can get a huge fine. I'm not sure I agree with this. The beach was crowded, but we rented chairs and got pretty close to the shore. The girls had fun playing in the sand and making new friends. The water was freezing. FREEZING. 

 Leah buried Juliet in the sand and made her look like a mermaid. I didn't notice that she had made a tail, too. What they both made sure to point out was the boobs Leah created for Juliet. They both thought this was hysterical. 

 After this, we went out and got pizza and went back to the hotel. We left right after breakfast the next morning to get home for the first day of school the following day.

Adler Planetarium and Architectural Boat Ride

 On Saturday we came back to the Adler. We were there for about 3 hours because they were having some technical troubles with the movie that they play in the dome. We honestly weren't that impressed. There weren't many exhibits--many were extra ticketed. The girls thought the best part was the room that had a STEM challenge with Legos. The movie we waited hours for wasn't as impressive as we had imagined. Without the technical troubles, we could have easily done the entire place in a little over an hour. 

 After the Adler, we went on an Architectural Boat ride. I bought tickets online an hour before the tour. With traffic, it took longer to get across town than we planned. Then, the taxi driver dropped us off and told us where to walk down to catch the boat. When we got there, the people at the bottom were like, "Wendella boats? That's on the other side." So we ran up the stairs and across the bridge and down to the other side of the river. Those people were like, "Wendella, that's on the other side." We were like, "What? We were just there?" Turns out there are like 6 docks for these boats that each have individual entry points from the roads above. So the original people we talked to meant the other side of the bridge, not the other side of the river. There's no walkway along the river that connects the docks on the same side of the river. We missed our boat, but it was super easy to exchange our tickets for the next boat. 

  We decided to have some beers after all the craziness. The boat ride was awesome. I would definitely take another one. The building above was one of my favorites. I think the style was "European Industrial". They talked a lot about the Great Chicago fire. We had read about it on one of our drives into the city. Most articles claim that a overturned lantern at a house began the fire. However, on the tour, they said it was likely a meteor shower or a lightening storm, because there were other big fires in relatively close proximity. It was interesting to hear how they replanned the city, and how almost every building since the fire has followed the same 100+ year plans.  

 This above building was some sort of catalog building that had it's own zip code at one point. Apparently, Chicago was once the catalog capital of the world. Also, employees were required to wear roller skates to get around. 

 The girls really like this tour. They both love boats and had fun waving to people along the way. I'm not sure they were really listening or learning, but that's okay. Once, Chris went down to get more beer and bought them each a pack of Twizzlers. They thought that was the best thing ever. 

 I don't remember anything about this building, but I remember thinking, "If Bodega Bay had huge ocean front condos, they would look like this." 

 By this point, we had had a few beers, so I'm not sure I remember anything about this building. One of the buildings has a road that actually goes through it. They planned it, then the Great Depression happened, so they left a giant hole in the building. 30 years later (or something like that), they finally built the road. I thought that was pretty cool. 

 The building below was the building that Abraham Lincoln (I think) was nominated for president inside of. 

These "corn cob" buildings are my favorite in the entire city. Apparently, because there are no straight lines in nature, this architect decided there shouldn't be any straight lings in buildings. Even the walls inside this building are curved. One day I'm going to see if there is an Airbnb in here. I always admire these towers. I love the parking garage on the bottom floors, and all the cars you see sticking out. They're centrally located, on the river, and very distinct. I would love to stay here.   

 Sunset was a great time to end this cruise. After this, we got the best middle eastern food I've ever had and picked up Chris' laundry. 

Random Chicago Fun

 We left Chicago on Leah's birthday, and came back to Michigan for 4 days because I had to work. We weren't sure what exactly what we were going to do Labor Day weekend, but decided, at the last minute to go back for the long weekend. I went into the baby-sitters on Thursday afternoon, and told them to hurry up because we were driving back to Chicago. It was like the girls had no idea that was a possibility and were completely taken back. It was funny. 

 Chris didn't have trial on Friday, so we got to spend sometime with him as we moved hotel rooms for the second time and found a place to take his clothes to get washed and dry cleaned. He worked a little bit, too, and the girls and I went and got manicures. It was Juliet's first time, and she was very proud and impressed and kept telling me, "Now, I'm such a big girl. I get manicures." Never mind the fact that he manicure didn't even make it out of the shop before it was all smudged. It was only $5 and she got well more than $5 enjoyment, so I was okay with it. 

 We wanted to go to the Planetarium, but it closed earlier than google told me, so we ended up back at The Field, seeing their special exhibit, Jurassic World. Some of the animatronic animals were so real and life like. Juliet was totally freaked out and wanted to get far, far away from them. The best exhibit was the raptors which was a guy in a costume running around like a dinosaur. They made us all put away our cameras prior to him coming out, or I would have taken 1,000 pictures. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Juliet couldn't decide whether it was hysterical or slightly scary. 

 We walked back and got some yummy Mexican food. It was a fun day. 

Ollie and Tilly

Because this summer wasn't crazy enough, we got a kitten! Yup, we are the crazy people with 3 cats.

Matildo James came to us via Real Life Farm, where Leah took him home 2 weekends in a row as part of their animal check out program. At the farm, he was named Eevvee (yup, that's how they spelled it) even though he is a boy. Every time he came home with us, he was such a perfect house guest. He never had any accidents and loved playing with Ollie. His and Ollie's favorite game to play is where Ollie moves him all around by carrying him in his mouth. Ollie is still such a pup, and the cats are old and want nothing to do with him, unless they are stealing his food. There's no ill will, but they mostly just ignore him.  

After the second long weekend with "Eevvee" we asked the farm if there was an adoption list. We started the list, and 3 hours after getting home from Maui, we picked up "Eevvee" and immediately changed his name to Matildo James. Juliet was been saying that she wants "her own pet" like Leah has, with Ollie (even though Ollie is obviously a family pet), for a long time. She's always said she's getting a little white dog named Matilda Jane on her 6th birthday. Instead, near her 5.2 birthday, she got a black and white kitten named Matildo James. When he is being extra fancy, we call him Tilly. 

Matildo James loves to play. He is constant motion. He loves to attack Brain and Annie. Brain is often annoyed, but plays with him, and now seems more playful, in general, than he has in years. I was nervous about bringing Tilly home because Brain has lost fur and seemed much older over the past year or so. However, since we got Matildo, most of his hair has grown back and he seems less elderly and frail. I know this amount of pets is a little crazy, and I've cursed my decision a lot as I've vacuumed morning AND night almost every day that we've been home this summer (the amount of fur these animals shed as they play is insane), but I honestly believe Tilly was made for our family. 

Now our pet family is complete for a LONG time. I've already told Leah and Juliet that NO kittens can come home from the farm next summer. But, I'm glad that they get to experience growing up with a kitten. He has almost as much energy as they do! 

Happy Birthday, Leah!

 Leah woke up bright and early on her birthday. I tell her that she was born after 9:00 at night, so she's not *really* her new age until then. It's funny to hear her tell people it's her birthday, on her birthday, then say, "I'm *going* to be 8." Even though he had a ton of fun in St. Louis and Chicago, it really wasn't the same without Chris. Even when we were in Chicago with him, we rarely saw him. It was nice to do Aladdin and her birthday morning together as a family. For her birthday, Leah got Kanani (a retired American Girl that she had been admiring for a while), a big Lego set, and potholder craft set. Juliet got her a set of Decedents books. 

 Leah wanted to go to the American Girl restaurant to celebrate, so we did. I even splurged and got the "party package" which is the only way to get a cake. I was skeptical, but it was worth it! The cake was really, really good.  

 At 8, Leah loves to read more than anything. She loves all sorts of books, and can always be found with a pile of books in her hands. She brings a book on every car ride and loves to go to the library. She is always quoting facts from "Weird But True" books. I love hearing her use the language from some of the books she reads. She will say the funniest phrases sometimes. 

 Leah still loves chicken nuggets, pretzels and hummus, and fruit. She's rarely hungry in the morning. She loves to go out and eat, and is always asking to do that. She loves candy you suck on like mints and gum. I can't keep those things in my purse because she will constantly ask for them. 

 Leah and Juliet are still best friends 99% of the time. They love to play and imagine together. They set up elaborate forts, beauty salons for their dolls, and  host "sleepovers". They always complain about sleeping together in real life (like on vacations), but I find them cuddled together almost every morning on our vacations. 

 Leah loves swimming, and did well enough to join the Goldfish swim team. She also loves to dance and do gymnastics. She tried out (and made) our studios Christmas show, and is very excited to dance with the competition dancers. She would really like to try out for that team, too, but because she has so many other interests, it's something that we would need to carefully consider. This summer Leah learned how to do a one handed cartwheel and has showed it off all summer to anyone who would watch. I'm so proud of her! She also loves school and learning. I love hearing her come down at the end of each school day and excitedly talk about what she learned about. 

 For her birthday, Leah really wanted her ears pierced. She apparently decided to do it after she jumped off Black Rock in Maui. After telling her every thing that could go wrong, all the work that was involved, and any other potential danger I could think of, she still wanted it done. We were reluctant to allow her to do it, I wish she would have  wanted to waited anther year or so, but we thought the American Girl Store, on her birthday, was pretty perfect. There was also a little guilt about how little she was seeing Chris. 

 She lady who pierced her ears took a long time explaining the process. The longer she talked (which was for a while), the more frightened Leah looked. I noticed tears falling down her face and went over to her and started crying, too, telling her she didn't have to do it. She was beautiful just the way she was! She still wanted it done, but was just feeling a little overwhelmed. I'm sure everyone that walked by thought I was some sort of a crazy stage parent. 

 When it was done, she was so happy! She kept looking at herself in the mirror and smiling. She takes the care of her ears very seriously. She was definitely ready. 

 Leah, we love you so, so much! We are so excited to see what year 8 brings you. We couldn't even begin to imagine life without you!