Red Hot Chili Pepper

Our fiery girl like her food the same way. Tonight she joined dad in loading her pizza with crushed chili peppers then said, "it's not even spicy." Mark's breaking out the Tabasco for her scrambled eggs tomorrow...

8 Years Strong!

Just two crazy kids in love...

Mark and I celebrate our eight-year anniversary today. Well...not much celebrating today, given work and Lainey's ballet class, but with the help of Lonnie and Frank, we did sneak away Saturday to enjoy the Pitchfork Music Festival and a kid-free night downtown at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel. It was a short break away, but perfect in every way.

The weather couldn't have been any better. The music was just okay. I was really pumped to see Brian Wilson, but the sound was not good during the set. I didn't see any complaints in the reviews, so perhaps it was just where we were in the field. Sufjan Stevens was the headliner, but he was lackluster as well. Mark and I just aren't fans of his Age of Adz album and he mostly played from that. We ended up ditching out before the end. But, on the bright side, because we skipped out a little early, we were able to hop right on the Green Line without waiting and get back to the hotel in time to hit up Shake Shack for some late night grub. Soooo yum!!! I'd love to say we played like the cool kids and hit up Cindy's on the rooftop afterward, but we didn't. We just enjoyed having a quiet room to ourselves. That's what makes us good together...we like comfort and relaxation over being trendy and hip.

We ended our little stay-cation with brunch at The Publican. Good coffee, spicy Blood Mary's (with beer backs), and delicious entrees. All without cutting up someone else's food, taking someone to the bathroom, or whisper-shouting, "Stop that!"

Beverage Spread

It was only 20 hours, but it was just the recharge we needed. Thanks to Lonnie and Frank for making it happen! And a very Happy Anniversary to the love of my life. You're good people, Mark Brandi! I'm glad your mine!

Fourth of July...A Week Later

Continuing my recent trend of posting a full week after events take place, I'm finally getting around to our very busy, very happy 4th of July weekend in the QC. Hoping to turn that trend around as I have FINALLY watched all five seasons of Scandal and now have to wait patiently for the fall debut to get my Olive Pope fix.

Our weekend in Moline was fantastic! We missed the “Other Brandis,” who were on a fabulous summer trip, but still had a ton of fun. Tim and Rebecca hosted us out on the boat on Saturday. The temperature was cool, but that didn’t stop Lainey from swimming almost non-stop. Nick took a few dips in the water and enjoyed tooling around in the kayak, but he was mostly into sand play. And then this happened…

He was shocked, but fine—and, yes, we’ve watched that video about 1,000 times. Sadly, my first thought when he face-plowed through the sand was not necessarily for his overall well-being, but rather “not the face!,” because we our good friend Josh Ford was lined up for a family photo shoot the next morning. Luckily the sand was very soft, so it just moved right along with Nick’s face—no marks! What the video leaves out is Mark’s warnings that this was not going to end well, while the rest of us encouraged him to the top. In fairness, I did call out for him to turn around half-way up (but, then said—eh, let him try it!)

Happier times on the kayak

Saturday night we did the final celebration of Lainey’s birthday—this time with a Hello, Kitty cake. After cake and presents, Grandpa dazzled the crew with some fireworks and sparklers. Nick was not so keen on the noise, so Uncle Tim hooked him up with some ear protectors. The picture does not do justice to how adorable he was.

Sunday we did our photos with Josh. The weather was perfect and the kids cooperated very well, so it was a quick and painless process. Lainey even asked if she could take pictures with Josh forever! (Check out a little of his magic at the very bottom of this post!) That night it was off to the fireworks. Another very cool evening, but we didn’t mind—no bugs! The kids loved all the fun glow necklaces and bracelets that Grandma brought (and all the gummy worms and butterflies that Grandpa brought.) Everyone enjoyed the show and Nick didn’t even ask to wear his ear protectors until the finale.

A fun weekend that, as always, went too fast! And now we prepare to tackle the rest of our very busy summer…we are officially booked every Saturday until September 17!!! YIKES!!! So, perhaps even with my hiatus from Scandal, I’ll still be modeling this blog after John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight.

Five and Fabulous

Well, that was a fast week! Whoosh! But, it was a good one. My family made it to Chicago to celebrate Lainey and her amazing five years--and thank goodness all four came, because we hosted a drop-off party for nine of Lainey's preschool friends. Mark and I never would have survived alone!

It may have been chaotic, but the party was a big success! It was a beautiful day, the bouncy house was a hit, and no one got a concussion while whacking the piñata. (There were a few close calls though.) Lainey loved her Lion King cake, but refused to let us sing to her. Other than that moment, she was totally in her element being the center of attention. I thought she did a very nice job of making sure our two little neighbor girls got introduced to everyone from school and felt included. Such a big girl!

After her party, we presented her with her present from us...for the FOURTH year in a row, Lainey got a new set of wheels! She was soooo excited!  Now we just need to squeeze in time to let her practice riding it and get those training wheels off! 

                           Hit it, girl!

             Flanked by her besties

          She'll be two-wheelin any day

On Sunday, we finished off Dad's birthday bucket list with a brunch cruise on Lake Michigan. The weather wasn't looking too promising, but we ended up with sun and the perfect breeze. (Until we got off and it was ridiculously hot and humid.) The kids had fun and even got to visit the Captain's room. Check out Captain Lainey below!

After the cruise, Lainey got to be showered in gifts AGAIN by her grandparents and uncles and we treated everyone to some Smoque BBQ--which was really a treat for me, because a) it's awesome b)  I didn't have to cook--win-win! 

We had to say goodbye to everyone Sunday night and early Monday morning (Lainey's actual birthday) and that made the birthday girl pretty sad, but she bounced back when presented with her birthday crown at school. We kept things pretty simple that night. I made up a scavenger hunt with rhyming clues leading to two small Zootopia dolls (I mean she has to have something on her actual birthday, right?), and stuck some candles in a leftover piece birthday cake. She permitted singing that time. 

And that was a wrap on celebrating Lainey's first five years--until tomorrow that is, when we celebrate with the Brandi crew; we're in the car right now being asked every two minutes if we're there yet. No, Elaine. No, we are NOT almost there yet. You'll be the first person we tell--I promise!

Happy Birthday anyway, my little love!

The 35th Anniversary of my 2nd Birthday

I've been a little blog deliquent lately. I could make excuses like "we've been so busy" or "I've been enjoying the great summer weather," which are true, but the honest answer is I've been binge watching Scandal on Netflix and it takes every spare moment of my life. I'm not proud, but I'm not ashamed either. This show is fantastic! The good news is I've finally made it to Season 5, so my addiction will soon be ending--until September and Season 6.

Since we last met, yours truly had a special day creep up on her. On Monday, I turned a grand 37! The day kicked off with Lainey throwing a tantrum, because I wasn't throwing her a party on my birthday like I did last year. So, not a great opener, but things quickly picked-up from there. I pampered myself with an afternoon at the spa complete with massage, facial, mani, and pedi. Despite my itch for Olivia Pope and her badass speeches, I turned off all electronics for the afternoon and just basked in the glory of quiet and meeeeee!!! Lovely.

That night we had a quiet celebration at home with cupcakes (or as quiet celebration as you can have with a three-year-old and soon-to-be five-year-old). Lainey picked out my candle--hence the title of this post. It was perfect.

Here's to another 37 and beyond!!!

That's a Wrap, Pre-K!

Lainey had her Pre-K graduation on Friday. Of all the kids, she had the biggest smile and most excitement. She rocked her part in "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"--no fingers-in-the-mouth shyness this year. She stood tall and proud! We may need to work on the right way to sit in a dress though...

Congratulations, Laineybug! We're proud of you and look forward to seeing you in Kindergarten in the fall.

Enjoy the pictures and the video!

She's a Star!

Getting her Diploma

Proud Parents

Besties

Hard Copy Memories

Part of the reason I try to be so diligent with this blog, other than to satisfy the craving of my massive following of nearly a dozen readers, is to keep a record of our family's major (and not so major) events and milestones. But, what happens in ten years when Blogger is defunct, and we're all communicating through tiny microchips in our brains? How will I get to such fine memories like A Walk to Remember or Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay? Enter Blog2Print. With a few key strokes, I customized a printed book of all my blog posts through 2015. I love it! They lay out the entire thing for you based on your choices. My one gripe is the photo captions don't stay with the pictures. They either just end up at the bottom of the post or sometimes randomly end up in between paragraphs. But, it's a small glitch that I'm happy to accept to have a printed and bound book of everything.

Another keepsake success is a completed photo book of our 2015 photos! At Thanksgiving, I started a project of curating of all our electronic images. After years of just doing a massive upload every so often, we are left with THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of images, most of which aren't good (like when we hold the button down and take 50 snaps, hoping we get ONE half-way decent shot with both kids looking, and maybe even smiling, at the camera). I've made my way through 2015 and 2014 and am being disciplined about uploading and cleaning up photos from both Mark's and  my camera each month this year. Pretty proud of that progress, but the next step of getting them into some sort of album was proving too much.

Shutterfly's Make My Book to the rescue! You can upload up to 800 images, and a design consultant will lay out a book for you for a $9.99 service fee. Hubbawhaa??? Um, YES, please and thank you. You can choose to use all your photos or have the consultant curate them for you and pick the best of similar shots.  You get to proof  the book before you buy and can add and rearrange pictures. I just got the book today and I love it! (HINT: Shutterfly is always running crazy  promos, so if you think you want to try this, keep an eye out. I got this book for 50% off). I can't wait to order my 2014 book!

I'm so excited to have these hard copy treasures in the house! There's just something about holding a book and turning pages that speaks to me and make the trips down memory lane a little richer. Happy lady right here!