Mother-Son Dates

We had some contractors over to the house to do a project one morning, so John needed me to stay home to take William to school.  Since we needed to get out of the house so they could get started, we swung by Starbucks for coffee and Dunkin for donuts!

The next day we had date night at California Pizza Kitchen to use a free kids meal voucher while Daddy has his first softball game.   While waiting for food, we were discussing my yoga classes.  Here he is showing me how easy eagle pose can be!   Even though CPK is right by our house, we had never been there.   William remarked that it was "very fancy," and he enjoyed his kids meal pizza a lot.   I've had it a number of times catered into the office, but decided to get a salad and new flatbread - both which we tasty.  The real treat, however, was the giant hot fudge sundae dessert we shared!  Actually the real treat was the hour of amazing conversation we had.  He had so many things to tell me about; his stories are so good! Really warmed my heart to have this one-on-one conversation and hear about some things he doesn't always share.. 

Cub Scout Catch-up

As a reward for their great popcorn sales, the Cub Scouts had a fun event at a local gym to do the rock climbing wall.  It was fun to watch William and his friends, and I even tried to climb myself!  I must admit that the day after has been pretty painful!  My first post-tax day, and I did hot yoga, rock climbing and tennis with William, and lots of picking up around the house.  My arms and legs are tired!   But my heart is happy!

 

I also got the newest patches added to his brag vest.  He was adamant that his "Dozin' with the Dinos" match from their Field Museum campout go on the pocket.   Looks pretty cool actually!

 

 

Joffrey Ballet

Ryan invited me to be his guest at the Joffrey Ballet 60th Anniversary Gala which was a ballet showcase followed by dinner and dancing.  It was an amazing evening!  And for someone who has never been to the ballet before, it was quite a spectacle! 

Spring Break

William enjoyed spending his spring break at his grandma and grandpa's house while mommy worked on taxes and daddy was on a business trip.   Grandma Hilary had a full schedule planned for them:  trips to the Indianapolis Children's Museum; visits to cousin Lily's house; video games at cousin Jake's house; and ice cream twice a day!  What a week full of treats!   I picked him up on Saturday morning, and took him with me to my office for the afternoon.  He does always enjoy a trip to the office, but he seemed especially happy to see me and gave me lots and lots of hugs!  What surprised me the most was that on the drive from the pick up point to the office (about an hour), he spent some time briefing me on his week (and his new Lego Wookie Gunship) but he actually sat in the backseat and read a book to himself.   I couldn't believe it!  So grown up!

That picture is a "crazy pirate" that he drew on my dry erase board.  He was so happy to sit in the visitor chair at my desk and eat the snacks I brought and watch ipad!   He entertained himself for nearly 4 hours before we headed home.  I asked if he wanted to go to the movie theater where they serve dinner, and he chose to go home to play Star Wars Battlefront on the PS3 and eat frozen pizza. That's my little introvert!  He was just craving some home time after all that.  

Easter Sunday

Continuing on with our Easter traditions, we went to Ryan's house for our Easter brunch and spent some time along the lakefront playing and exploring.  But we started the day with an egg hunt in our yard (courtesy of the Easter bunny's helper, our super sweet neighbor) where William was super excited to find a toy robot!  I made him do a picture on the bricks because I have one from Easter 2014!  No surprise, he has grown up a ton in just two years!

 

 

Ryan was very clever and used the tool box he made in high school (junior high?) shop class as the basket!  They also got out the paw print making kit that Ryan had been gifted at Christmas to make an Ernie paw.  It was a total fail!  They ended up tearing the clay into two pieces and each making an ornament decorated with the dyed Easter egg shells.  Good save!

Easter Saturday

The Saturday of Easter weekend is the traditional end of winter hibernation ritual for our neighborhood.   Chickster was retired after 6 Easters and a new Minecraft-like basket was gifted to the 1st grader.   Since he needed it for the egg hunt, he got his goodies on Saturday:  Encyclopedia Brown book set, Ninjago Lego dragon set, bubbles, and a white board.

 

 

The day turned out to be sunny and beautiful, so the boys played outside for most of the afternoon - enjoying swings, scooters, and Dylan's jeep.  I'm worried when these two have real wheels!

Dancing with the Chicago Celebrities

Seems like to get a date night, we are either attending a charity event or a work party!  This weekend we had the a combination of those: the Deloitte table at a breast cancer charity fundraising event hosted by Arthur Murray Studios.   It was a fun-filled night of local celebrities (mostly TV reporters) and corporate leaders paired with professional dancers in an energetic competition.    

 

 

After the event, we had to take advantage of the fact that we were in the city for the night and went for a drink at Cindy's Rooftop.  We texted our selfie to our neighbor but she apparently wasn't impressed and didn't engage us in witty banter about escaping the suburbs for the night!    On Saturday morning we stuck around in our hotel long enough to watch the green dye spread on the river before I headed to the office and John headed home.  

A Very Special Mystery Reader

Uncle Ryan made a surprise visit to 1B to be the Mystery Reader!  Ryan looked a little frazzled when he got home.  The kids' energy and enthusiasm for guests can be overwhelming for the novice!  William was equal parts shocked and elated to see that the Mystery Reader was his guest.  And since the mystery reader comes for the last 30 minutes of the school day, William got to skip his after school program to come home and play with Uncle Ryan.  They took advantage of the beautiful day and played t-ball and in the sandbox.  I was watching when they first started their ball game and was surprised to see my lefty bat right-handed.   He ended up switching back and forth.   When they described their sand box creation, they said they were trying to replicate their Castaway Cay beach creation from our vacation last year.  A pretty perfect Tuesday!

Library Card and End of Soccer Season

Saturday was the last day of the indoor soccer season.  Not sure if he has any more organized soccer seasons in front of him.  He enjoyed it but I can already see the divide between the "sports" kids and those just playing for fun.  When they play indoors, you also don't get to meet the other parents or kids as easily as at outdoors where you're all in your lawn chairs.  We're switching the coach-pitch baseball for the spring.  

 

William and I went to the library on Sunday to get some choose your own adventure books and looking for the non-fiction reference guides to the Magic Tree House series.  We found one on polar bears.  But the big excitement was applying for his VERY OWN library card!  He was so excited to use it instead of mine to check out his books!