Family, Animals, Baseball and Sledgehammers

What a combination!

Kris and Tom celebrated their 40th anniversary this summer, and to commemerate the occasion we spent this past weekend in the City with the two of them and Pat, Deanna and Connor. We headed in Saturday morning (that's right, we planned this weekend in conjunction with the Air & Water show, as we realized just last week...but quite honestly we weren't inconvenienced with traffic or much else as a result) and checked into the hotel, had some breakfast and then met up with Pat, D & Connor and headed to the zoo. We checked out a lot of animals, who were out despite the heat, and then later that evening went out for some great pizza & drinks. The next day we all had breakfast together and then went to the White Sox game (yes, a bunch of Cubs fans took in a Sox game because they are Gma Kris' favorite team). We had really good seats and had some yummy ballpark snacks & drinks and even got to see some home runs!

Griffin LOVED the entire weekend...since he's into trucks he really enjoyed seeing some big ones, and a lot of them up close, on the packed City streets. He couldn't stop pointing at everything...he took in all of the animals...and he was SO good at the baseball game. He fell asleep on me for a bit of the game (after the sun was off of our seats and it cooled off a bit) and I think he was pretty amazingly well-behaved for a 16-month old without good naps in the heat. We are very, very lucky. :)

THEN, after the tiring, hot weekend...and the drive home after the game...Ben decided to finish the dining room by renting a nail gun and nailing in the quarter-round. Then somehow, and I'm still not exactly sure, the rest of the evening progressed a little something like this: "look how AWESOME the dining room floors look! I can't WAIT to finish the living room this week! You know, babe, these baskets that hold Griff's toys are going to definitely scratch these new floors... You know, we really don't need an office... Man, this office furniture is BIG. [Tom]: You know, Ben, that was my stuff that I got for free a long time ago... [Ben] It's so BIG...I don't know that we'll be able to get it to the basement. Where's my drill? Let's take it apart [insert a lot of drilling, unscrewing, hammering, and driving wood apart with a wedge, some cursing]... [Julia] Don't we have a sledgehammer? [the furniture is taken to the yard]... This is FUN! This really sounds like gunfire! It's after 10pm, I think our neighbors may call the cops. Quick, let's get these pieces in the garage and close the doors!!! Now, just how many garbage stickers do we need for this stuff?!?!"

And tonight after some more organizing, voila! Griff has a playroom. Curtains, some artwork, and a bulletin board will complete the space soon...but it looks so nice, and though we may be down an office, we gained a ton of great play space for G-man. It was a great decision. A lot of great decisions are made by exhausted family members after a very tiring (but fun) weekend. :)

We had an awesome time with Tom, Kris and the Murphys over the weekend and Griff wants to give Connor a quick shout-out for being SO good with him, for sharing, and for being someone he loves to look up to. And thanks, also, especially to Tom for hanging so late last night and helping us destroy a lot of stuff to create something great.

I took some pictures over the weekend, and have posted a few here...but once I get some more pics from Kris I'll post those, too.

Hanging out on the corner with Grandpa taking it all in

LOOK!

His first couple of cab rides!


Showing Daddy the LIONS...I'd say those were his favorites.



Daddy's inappropriateness.

Heat + too much to see = necessary napping.

Being silly with Connor

Cute pic of the two (I think Griff is howling)

Checking out the mascots at the game

The destruction begins...

We all took turns...even me!!!

I think if all activities involved sledgehammers, life would be way more fun! :)

Lots of Birthdays

We spent much of last weekend celebrating birthdays and just hanging out. First, I turned the big 3-0 last week...Ben and I went out for dinner to celebrate on the actual day...and I thought we were going to hang out with some friends on Saturday night and have some drinks to further celebrate. So, when I answered the door on FRIDAY night (wearing a Cubs t-shirt and Adidas pants with my hair braided to the side from the pool, still a bit wet, holding Griffin who happened to be wearing no pants at all) I was quite surprised to find friends at the door who informed me that they were ready to "party." And Ben had cleaned the house, purchased lots of drinks, and even made apps that day without me knowing. After a quick 10-minute spruce-up, I enjoyed a great evening and it was so sweet and thoughtful of Ben to put together the surprise. :)

Ben took a weekend hiatus from golf, so we were also able to go, pick out, and purchase new hardwood (mahogany) floors that we are (read: BEN is) going to install in our living room and dining room. We also had dinner at the Atkinson's to celebrate Liz's birthday (three days after mine) and Hannah's sweet sixteen (four days after mine). Lots of getting older going around!

The pictures I took over the weekend were COMPLETELY random, but here are a few:

The girls subjected poor Griff to some dress-up...here he is modeling the latest (Hannah's) furry boots

Enjoying some apps while still rocking the boots

Showing Mommy his toothy grin: at least two more teeth came in this week, on the bottom this time, so it evens out his little smile a bit more

We got to log a LOT of daddy time, which we both loved, and we even had a park date

Who says Griff gets all the fun?

Late on Friday night (likely early Saturday morning)

My M&M vase that the Atkinson family made me...they sorted the entire giant bag of M&Ms and layered the colors in a vase for me as they know I love my M&Ms!

The beginning of the PROJECT (why does it seem like we are never without one?!?!?). Somehow on Sunday Liz & Dave stopped by to say hi while they were out running errands...Ben had started his project....and in the span of a few minutes while the girls were out of the room he and Dave ripped up the carpet and the padding and both were rolled up in the garage waiting for garbage day. We then had no choice but to march on with the prep. Ben spent the rest of the day pulling up staples, nails, and other un-fun things that held the carpet in place. So far this week we've bleached the subfloor, sealed it, and as I type this I hear the saw going downstairs and I'd estimate that 1/4 of the dining room is hardwood right now. I can't wait to see the end result!

Beach Baby

We headed to the Crystal Lake beach one evening last week with the Castros and Atkinsons. Griff had a great time (as did the rest of us) but I think he especially loved the sand and the boat ride...after his bath that night, I honestly think we could have filled an entire sandbox!

Reading & Kissing

We've established that books are Griff's favorite way to entertain and be entertained right now...here's a cute video of him last weekend at breakfast w/ Great Gma Lea, Great Gpa Henry and Grandma Cathy "reading" his new book of words...you can hear him tell us what some of the things are ("choo choo, etc) but you'll also hear a lot of his editorial comments, squeals, and singing.

And he's also big into kissing and hugging. If you ask for a hug, he will (usually) come over and give it to you, along with pats on the back, and he loves to blow kisses and say "MUAH MUAH".

Grandmas and a Grandpa

Last weekend Grandma Cathy and Great Gma Lea and Great Grandpa Henry came to visit...we had a great time. Griffin loved the attention and kept grabbing books and taking them to (especially Grandpa's) laps, climbed in, and handed the books over to be read.

Weekend Craft

Some changes are going to be taking place in Griff's day-to-day routine in a few weeks: he's going to be a pre-school dropout at a very early age. :) We've decided that instead of Goddard, we are going to go the nanny-route from here on out. And to make it even better, Griff is going to get to spend every single day with his best bud Ty, because we are going to nanny-share with the Lackes (only Ty, Luke is going to a big-boy program).

So we've been doing some preparing around the house for the big change...I'm ordering a kiddo table from Pottery Barn Kids to put in the kitchen area where the boys can eat and have art-time, AND I've been organizing Griff's toys. Because Griff's toys are primarily in baskets, I thought long and hard at how to best label them so that the boys can learn with the nanny how to help pick up, and that all of the toys have a certain place. After many trips to Michaels and Target, my final template was a plain wooden plaque that I painted, decorated, lacquered so nothing would peel off, and then tied on to each basket with suede strips. I was pretty pleased with the outcome and wanted to share. Below are a few examples of what I did...from dinosaurs to bugs, books, art supplies, and just general boy junk, now Ty and Griff have a visual of where to put the "stuff" after playtime.

Had to have a basket for miscellaneous boy stuff....

And of course Disney figurines...

BALLS!

Cars & Trucks

Books (and more, and more, and more BOOKS! Griff got even more this weekend and they are his absolute favorite way to spend time)

Dinos (another of Griff's current favorite subjects)

He Poos....

In Blue!

Great-Grandma Lea bought Griff a surprise treat today...the treat of couture diapers. :) The commerical is pretty hilarious (see it HERE) , and she wanted Griff to try these out!

His diaper is full....full of CHIC!