Outdoor Fun

Grandma Vicki made the awesome "Olivia" skirt.

Simon enjoying his first popsicle

I love, love, love this little grin.

Chicago

Here's the photo dump from our roadtrip to Chicago.

Waiting for dinner at Pizzeria Uno (I was a bit disappointed but then again, I'm not much of a fan of deep dish).

Smiley boy

Navy Pier

Kid's Museum

"Block Party" at the Kid's Museum

Homage to Papa Allen (she's a natural, dontcha think?)

My two cute boys

Being a paleontologist

Being contemplative

Hot 4th of July at the Navy Pier

Watching fireworks

In the Family Fun tent at Centennial Park

Having a ball at the splash pad at Centennial Park

Simon was enjoying himself so much.  Piper had a great time too, especially making friends on the fly.

I was glad for an excuse to get my feet wet; it was so dang hot.

Roadtrip to Chicago

For the Fourth of July (Rick's birthday) we took a roadtrip to Chicago.  It was fun all around despite the heat.  These are the only pics I took during the actual roadtrip portion.  I had never been to Chicago before and Rick wanted to show me the town. 

Ugg Booties

I made this pink Ugg booties for my friend Emily's new baby.  This was the second pair I had made but the first pink pair.  I think they turned out well.

Parade the Circle

There's a big parade and festival in Cleveland's University Circle every year called Parade the Circle.  We went this year and had lots of fun.  It was very steamy though.  We did some crafts and had some food.  We managed to run into some good friends too.

Here's Piper watching a puppet show.  The show wasn't of the highest quality but fun nonetheless.

 

Splash Pad

Here's Piper at a local splash pad.  I planned for her to get wet in her clothes and so I brought extras.  She had a ball and was the envy of the other clothed kids.

Updates Forthcoming

So I've been completely lax in updating my blog.  I haven't written a real post since Piper's birthday.  I'm uploading pictures of the last two months but in the meantime here's what's going on in our lives currently.

Piper is a character; she is both a hoot and a handful.  At her four-year old check-up in June she weighed 37lbs (75%) and measured 41.5 inches (90%).  She is such a cut-up and makes us laugh all the time.  Sometimes Rick and I will lay in bed at night exchanging stories of funny things she's said.  The trouble that we've been dealing with lately is that she bites everything, and I mean everything.  I recently found teethmarks on her window blinds.  I can't count the number of times every day that I say, "Take that out of your mouth."  She's also started biting her nails.  She likes dress-up, drawing, making "inventions" (usually two pipe cleaners taped to a piece of paper), pretending to be a spy, watching shows, and swimming.  She wants to be an artist when she grows up.

 

At Simon's nine-month check-up he weighed 20lbs 3oz (50%) and measured 30 inches (100%).  Now he's hiking the stairs multiple times a day and cruising around the furniture.  He has six teeth and is very smiley.  Simon loves his sister; she makes him giggle so much.  He loves to pull her hair.  He loves to eat though he can be picky.  He is a little beggar too; anytime one of us is eating anything he wants some.  I can't believe he's almost a year old.

Misty is just keeping busy.  We go to the swimming pool a lot and having been trying to keep cool.  We read a lot of books from the library and Piper and I have still been doing preschool every Wednesday.  This month our theme is art so we're learning about artists and drawing and painting.  I've read Notes from the Small Island, and am currently reading In Praise of Slowness, Omnivore's Dilemma, and Piper and I are reading The Wizard of Oz together.

Rick has made big strides lately.  Three and a half weeks ago he quit his job.  His work has something called Search Time.  It's in his firm's best interest that he get a good job so that he could then hire McKinsey as a consultant.  So currently he gets eight weeks to look for a job.  At the end of that eight weeks he could ask for an additional four weeks if he still hasn't found a job.  Right now we're nearing the end of week four and today he had his first interview with a company in L.A.  He's working on going out in a few weeks to do an in-person interview.  Keep your fingers crossed.