Botanic Gardens

Last weekend, we packed a lunch and headed to the Botanic Gardens with the Martin's. It was a nice change of scenery and the kids loved it. Actually, they loved throwing rocks in the fountain and we had a hard time getting them to leave that place. Even though we didn't get through much of the gardens with the kids, but they had fun and Charlie took a long nap that afternoon. What more could we ask for?

 (We could only get him to laugh by making funny faces) 

 (Hugs all around) 

 (AWW!) 

(Charlie aka monkey boy!) 

Self Portrait

Charlie figured out how to use my I Phone to take self portraits. Isn't he adorable?

Garden Walk

For the past couple years, I have seen the Children's section of the garden walk and knew that when Charlie was old enough he would love it and I was right! We met Emma at the Garden Walk and the kids had a great time. They went on pony rides, fed the chickens, rode the piggy coaster, jumped in the jumpy house (a new favorite) and took a ride on the Ferris wheel. There are no Ferris wheel pictures because I was holding my breath the entire time hoping Charlie didn't try to get out. Despite my fears, Charlie is loving street festival season in Chicago.

Music Man

Charlie loves music, but especially guitars. He can turn a fork, a mop, a box -- you name it -- into a guitar and start jamming. His teachers have actually mentioned it to me on several occasions because they find it so funny. Due to his love of guitars, we decided that a good gift for a big boy who willingly gave up his boofs (pacifiers) would be a real guitar. After we gave Charlie's boofs to the babies at his school we went over to Old Town School of Music and Charlie picked out his first guitar. Needless to say the boof thing didn't stick, but hopefully the music thing will last a little longer.

Sweaty Mess

I have had to reschedule several hair cut appointments for Charlie because he had a long string of illnesses in June. Once he was finally feeling better I tried to make an appointment with the girl who does the best job with his hair, but she was not available for another week. I took one look at my kid and the mop of hair that was stuck to his head and knew I could not wait. After Charlie's haircut I felt cooler looking at him and I know he did too. We celebrated with a dip in his new pool.

 (Sucker for being good. They should really give out apples in those places instead. Do you know how hard it is to convince a 2 year old that suckers are bad?)

(Nice and refreshing!)