A trip back in time..

While Daddy is away for a couple of days on business, us girls are doing our best to keep ourselves busy. Yesterday after a little shopping, we went to Sonny Acres pumpkin farm in West Chicago and had a blast! As a kid, I went here every fall so it was so much fun to bring Makenna there now. Nana and Mommy had fun watching MC enamored by it all, running from one thing to another. Some days I feel like I surely can't keep up with her. She definitely has an independent soul and a fiesty spirit but it is still such a cuddle bug too! Oh BTW, Happy 19 months Makenna Claire....

This has to be one of my favorites...I see it on the wall already!

Here's a pumpkin Nana..
Peek a boo!!!


"I went so fast I fell off the bottom of the slide. One more time please!!!"
What fun!! We love and miss you Daddy but all is good at home. Finish up your work so you can hurry home!! And keep running...you are doing AWESOME!!! You are almost to the finish line and we can't wait to see you accomplish the Chicago Marathon in just a few weeks!! xoxo

Watch out....HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!

Hip hip horrrraaayyyyyy!!!! We did it...the Cubs clinched the NL Central division today!!!! Wowwwie!!! It was awesome and I know we are going to go further than last year. Let's see a World Series, right????!!!! Even MC is saying "go CUBS!!!!", claps with excitement and gives high fives with runs. Way to go CUBS...we have faith!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aka3gzfLbg4

WoW...what a RAINY weekend!!!

But we still had so much fun!!! On Saturday, we decided not to sit in the rain at the Northwestern Football Game, so we stayed home and baked all day. Yummy!! I made home made scones, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies AND a potato corn chowder for dinner. Awesome!!!


On Sunday we braved the weather and cheared on Kirsten and John as they ran the Chicago Half Marathon. This was Kirsten's first big one and she did great. Congratulations you two!!! ( This picture was taken before the race....at the end everyone was soaked to the bone and we all were drowned rats! My elph couldn't take any more rain. Boo hoo... )
The kids were such troopers. Makenna and Jack tolerated the rain and did so great despite being soaked. Here they are waiting for John and Kirsten to run by mile 5. Jack looks like he might see them, doesn't he???? so cute!! And the day had more excitement in store for me. Mom and I jumped on Chicago Cubs tickets that were sold on Saturday night. Because of hurricane Ike, the Astro's Cubs game was moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We sat right behind home base and watched the historic game.....Cubs won and Big Z got his first (and Cubs first in 36 years!) No, no...A complete game with no hits!!! Oh my golly was it exciting. Of course the stadium was filled with Cubs fans as only cubs fans can do, and it was thrilling to say the least.


We couldn't of been happier!! Go Cubbies....we want a World Series!!!

An overnight date in Wisconsin

We love our daughter dearly, but every once and a while mommy and daddy need to take a little time for themselves to get away and have some fun.

So Thursday afternoon we bid goodbye to MCC (thanks for babysitting, Nana!) and headed up to Madison to see one of my favorite bands, Great Big Sea. They played the historic Majestic Theatre
in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. Sometimes people will use the word "Bandbox" to describe a small space; this fit that description perfectly. It was general admission and doors opened at seven.
We had dinner at a nice restaurant adjacent to the theatre (the chicken pesto rigatoni is highly recommended, but not if you're going to be dancing and clapping and singing for several hours thereafter) and got in line about 6:30 or so and were given our "tickets". The tickets were
off a roll purchased at Office Depot like you'd get after dropping a buck or a two for a raffle at the local school.

We were standing right below the marquee:


Sadly, we weren't sticking around to see String Cheese Incident on Friday night, but I'm sure the concern would have had a wee different vibe than the one that we went to. There were lots of different people to talk to in line who had traveled from different places to see them; Milwaukee, Eau Claire, Chicago...some folks were even going to see them Friday night in Minneapolis or were planning to see them tonight playing Celtic Fest in Grant Park.

The doors opened promptly at 7:00 and we walked in and were front and center, two feet from the stage. Wow. Once you've seen a band like them up close, there's no point in seeing them in a larger barn. They fill places across Canada like the Molson and Air Canada Centres (think United Center for Chicagoans) and while I'm sure the energy from the audience is palpable, there's no substitute for being that close. I love them for the high energy up-tempo music that's a mix of influeces from old Irish standards and sea chanties from their native St. John's, Newfoundland.

They took the stage promptly at 8:00 and played two sets of twelve plus songs each. As great as they are with their instruments, they do some amazing a capella work as well; which given my history as a barbershopper with the New Tradition chorus probably jades my ear a little bit and makes me more critical of a group's sound.

The below photos were shot with my iPhone; cameras were allowed and when we next see them (and I'm only going to see them in small barns), I'll be sure to pack a camera rig.





There was quite the big hair and groupies in the front row; I'll give them credit because they knew all the lyrics to all the music, including the stuff off their newest release, Fortune's Favor.

It really was a great time. The folks seeing them today at Celtic Fest are probably getting drenched and I don't know if they'll be able to appreciate them the way we did after the show, but I hope that if you happen to catch them touring through your town that you can see them; they're well, well, WELL worth the time.

Things that hearken me back to my youth...

When I was a kid (and many of you sit in my age demographic), you remember that one of the great things, I mean the really solid things about The Muppet Show was that they would have the top musical talent of the day do a song or two with the fuzzy cast.

Fast forward to "today" when I've got a little one of my own and to spend some time snuggling on the couch yesterday, I grab something from Crapcast's, excuse me, Comcast's, On Demand service. It works in a pinch and delivers Barney when you need it, kind of like the button that starts the morphine drip. Nice.

Well, we're sitting there and lo and behold, who graces my television but a bunch of Furry Happy Monsters having fun. Oddly, they're having fun with R.E.M. Even more oddly, the sound has a familiar ring to it...