Light Parade

We decided to go downtown tonight for the lighting of Michigan Ave. We ate some dinner in Water Tower Place and then headed out to enjoy the fun! It was pretty packed with people but we took turns holding Sophia (and our arms about fell off) and she got a pretty good view. It's kind of fun to start off the Holidays with a big holiday parade. Sophia loved the Mickey and Minnie floats and I loved the giant Rudolph. It was like a dream come true to see a giant floating Rudolph- ha. It took us awhile to get back home because of the el being so crazy busy with the masses of people- but I think it was all worth it :)

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Beach Day

We decided to see swimming season out with one last fun swim in Lake Michigan. We drove to Indiana Dunes-which is only about an hour away-for the morning and had a blast (why have we not been there before!). Sophia was a bit iffy about all the sand and water at first but she quickly warmed up. She loved being in the waves with Ben and actually, the water felt really good. We left about  noon so she could nap, stopped at the outlets on the way home, and hung around the house the rest of the night.

On the way to the dunes Sophia was "reading" her book in the back seat:





Reading from Christy on Vimeo.


Here are a few iPhone pictures from our beach trip:

Worn out after a long day....

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Zoo Day

Before we talk about the fun we had at the zoo today I'm going to fill you in with the activity that has caused me to be super tired today. I have been hoping to re-paint our dining room and decided to do it yesterday. The painting kept me up until about 12:30 pm BUT I love the results. I liked the color we had in there before but it was just too dark AND too close of a match to the other rooms. I decided on Valspar Oatland Subtle Taupe and had Home Depot color match it to Behr. So here is a before picture from a few years ago:

And here is how it looks now....with some iPhone pics-so they aren't all that great looking-sorry:

You can't really tell the color too well with these pictures...but just trust me, it's better and feels much lighter and bigger.  

This morning we decided to go to Brookfield for a few hours with Sophia. She is so into animals so we knew she would love it..and she did. Thankfully the rain held off until we got home and thankfully we live only about 5 minutes from the zoo.

Trying to get a better view of the turtles:

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Zoo

The weather was so beautiful today we decided to take a little trip to the zoo. Since Sophia naps after lunch we used a few hours in the morning to check out all the animals. Sophia loved it - which made it all the more fun for us too.

We saw all sorts of animals like this cute fox and some turtles

Yep, the turtles were having a little Saurday morning fun. The lady next to me told her daughter they were playing leap frog- which made me laugh all the more.

Before we left Sophia, once again, was showing off her best moves

Later in the afternoon I set up one of our tents in the backyard for Sophia to play in and she loved it.

Can I just add that....I.LOVE.SUMMER!

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I Want This

Except it is 2500 bucks dang it! I came across it in my Martha Stewart Living magazine. If only I had 2500 to blow....

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Blizzard 2011

Well, it seems that we survived the blizzard.  I believe our area got about 20 inches. So crazy and SO. Much. Snow. We went out this morning to shovel and take pictures. We played in it a bit too...I mean-- how can you not play in a snow drift that is almost as high as your garage!?

View out the front door this morning:

Side door and backyard before we finished all the shoveling:

Alley and garage:

Front of house:

Sophia was ready to face the winter weather and enjoy the snow:

and then it was our turn to play in the snow:

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