Chicago

For the past 3 summers, we have visited a different MLB stadium and see a game. Our travels have included Atlanta, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. This year we decided to go to Chicago and see 2 baseball games. Chicago is really fun and exciting city. When I was younger, my family went several times to see the Cubs play. It was neat to be able to take Jackson and Drew to the Windy City. On Saturday, we drove to Chicago and ate dinner at Portillo's (a fun hot dog place) near our hotel in Skokie. Their chocolate cake shake was amazing! On Sunday morning, we ate breakfast at Walker Brothers Pancake House. It was yummy...Andy ordered their famous apple pancake which was a huge apple fritter.Jackson and Mommy enjoying our pancakes and french toast.
After breakfast, we decided to make the 40 minute drive to Wisconsin. Why? Well, Andy and I would like to visit all 50 states and neither one of us had been there. After a short photo shoot at the welcome center, we headed back to Chicago to ride the train to US Cellular Field.

Both of the boys enjoyed the White Sox game against the A's. Jackson decided he wanted some nachos (which he and Drew devoured) and a "throwback" Sox hat.
Family photo at US Cellular Field
When we left the game, we went to eat dinner at Giordano's, a Chicago style pizza place. Here is the wonderful pizza that we all enjoyed.
Jackson and Drew loved it!
Following our delicious pizza meal, we walked to Millennium Park to see the "bean." Here are the boys posing under the bean.
Here are the boys in front of the Buckingham Fountain.
Jackson loved that we got on the El train at Jackson station. One of Drew's favorite parts of the trip was riding the train and the shuttle bus.

Holiday World

Jackson and I went to Holiday World with some friends of mine from college and our sweet kids. We all decided to take the older kids, and they had so much fun. Melissa, our friend who lives in Kentucky that we miss so much, has a sister that lives in Santa Claus. Jennifer was a wonderful hostess, and the kids loved her playhouse. When we arrived they played outside until dinner and then went back outside to play some more. They all had a big sleepover downstairs! Jackson loved it! The mommies had lots of fun chatting upstairs. The next morning we headed to Holiday World. We did several rides in the park before heading to Splashin' Safari. This water park is huge and incredible. Jackson's loved the wave pool and kids' slides. All the kids had so much fun together! We are going to try to do this every year.Katie Anne, Sawyer, Jackson, Carter, Emma, and Grace take a break from playing

The whole gang before heading to Holiday World

UT Picnic

Last Thursday, we decked out in our Big Orange and headed to the UT picnic to meet the new coach Derek Dooley. Drew really wanted to see some football players and watch a game. Jackson was excited to wear his jersey and meet the coach. Andy won a contest on 104.5 and we got an opportunity to meet Coach Dooley prior to dinner. As a bonus, we also got to meet Bob Kesling. Our family was very impressed with Coach Dooley. What a gracious and nice man (a change from last year)! Only a few weeks until "It's Football Time in Tennessee!"

Mother's Day

Birthday and Bon Jovi

For my birthday, Andy took me to the Bon Jovi concert at the Bridgestone Arena. We had so much fun rocking to the songs. I remember singing You Give Love a Bad Name in the hall in the fourth grade. Bon Jovi has been a music staple for so many years, and it was amazing to see them in concert. Also, thanks to our amazing babysitter-Miss Emily!

After the Country Music 1/2 Marathon, we celebrated with dinner at The Cheesecake Factory...yummy! I was also very blessed to have a "surprise" at Baskin Robbins with some of my sweet friends...thanks!

Trunk or Treat #2

Buzz Lightyear and little monkey man had so much fun at Trunk or Treat with their friends from church. They were so excited to see what their friends dressed as for Halloween. Drew liked sampling all the suckers. Each time he would get a new sucker, he would hand us his old one and want to open a new one....silly monkey!

Trunk or Treat #1

This year the boys were able to go to Trunk or Treat at Aunt Amanda's church on the Sunday night before Halloween. Amanda and her friends had quite the Halloween display. The boys had so much fun looking at all the decorated trunks and getting candy. Drew was obsessed with a little boy dressed as Elmo. I think he assumed it was the real Elmo. He kept following him and smiling.

This year Jackson chose to be Buzz Lightyear. He loves the Toy Story movies, and we cannot wait to see the new movie in 3D. He wanted Drew to be Stinky Pete, however we decide he would be a much cuter monkey.

Halloween Parties

On Thursday, we were so excited to have not one but two Halloween parties. Jackson's preschool party was in the afternoon. His class loved making silly pumpkin faces. Jackson thought it was so funny that his pumpkin had donuts for eyes. These sweet children have so much fun together every day and it was fun for me to be in his classroom and hang out for a few minutes. Drew loved playing at all the fun centers in Jackson's classroom.

On Thursday night, our neighborhood had its annual Halloween party at the Clubhouse. They have food and all kinds of games and crafts for the kids. Above is a picture of Drew and our neighbor Sam. Everyone, including me, thinks they look so much alike. Their birthdays are one month apart and they are big buddies. Below is Jackson fishing for prizes at the party.

Here are the sweet kids that live in our cul-de-sac. We love playing with them and are so blessed to have great neighbors. Tiger Sam, Dora Lilly (she looks so much like Dora in real life this was the perfect pick for her), Elmo Darren, Monkey Drew, and Buzz Jackson pose for the camera.

Baa, Oink, Quack, Moo...Drew turned TWO!

For Drew's second birthday, we celebrated at Walden Farm in Smyrna with lots of his buddies. Drew loves cows so a farm theme was chosen. All of his friends had a blast playing at the pumpkin farm. It was a great location for a birthday party because of all the kid-friendly activities. Thankfully the weather cooperated and it was a gorgeous fall afternoon despite a rainy start to the day. The mud did not stop these kids from having fun in fact I think they enjoyed. Not sure how the moms liked it!

We are so blessed by sweet little Drew! Each day is a new adventure with him. This was our chance to celebrate him and all he means to us! We love you, Drew!

**Lots of birthday posts below. It was so hard to pick just a few pictures so I did several collages with pictures from the afternoon. You can click on them to enlarge if you would like. Also, a huge thanks to my amazing friend Christine who took lots of these pictures for me.

Let Him Eat Cake!

For Drew's birthday, we had a fabulous barn cake complete with animals made by the extraordinary Emily High. It looked amazing and Drew was really excited about eating it. After we picked it up, he kept saying, "me cake." After the party he chewed on one of the sugary pigs. Not only did the cake looked good, he also tasted great. It was a sweet ending to fun afternoon at Walden Farm.