Home Improvement

Handy Andy was back all weekend, working on transforming our downstairs kitchen into a playroom for Kyle and Peanut Butter. So far he's removed all the cabinets (and relocated a good majority of them to the laundry room so that we still have plenty of storage), built a large closet along the right hand wall, framed and added an actual door to the room, and installed new baseboard all along the floor. So far, so good!

Pirates' Cove

Saturday morning we packed our bag of essentials and decided to make an appearance at the Pirates' Cove Kiddie Park in Elk Grove Village. As an energetic two-year-old, Kyle was definitely able to enjoy a lot more this year than last year. He LOVED the merry-go-round with the horses ("Giddy Up!" "Yee Haw!" "Riding like Woody!"), the train tracks, the bumper boats (although he was thisclosetojumpingin .. such a fishy), and, of course, the bounce house. For some reason Kyle was not really into any of the slides (usually a favorite of his), including the giant fun slide, which Chris had to strongly encourage him to go down.

Franklin Girls' Night

Friday night I met my elementary school friends (Lindsay, Allison, Steph, and Lauren) for dinner and laughs at Coopershawk. We had an 8pm reservation, texted our friend Lauren at 8:20pm asking where she was, and welcomed her ridiculous 9:00pm arrival, having learned that she fell asleep and woke up to the sounds of our texts. Oh dear. Some things never change :)We stayed until about 11:45, closing out restaurant, so obviously lots of fun was had by all.

Steph, Lauren, Me, Lindsay, and Allison

Rice Pool with the Aunties

Friday Kyle, Auntie Sarah, and I drove out to Wheaton's Rice Pool to splash around with Auntie Jan (she took a half day off of work to enjoy the sunshine with us). Sarah and I remember going to this pool when we were little, especially the year we got to poke fun of our cousin Sean, the new life guard on duty. This pool is neat for kids of all ages. The have three water slides and a few lap lanes for older kids and adults, and two little wading pool areas with water falls and a sand pit for younger kids like Kyle. We stayed for 4 hours! He totally enjoyed it!

Kyle is now a fan of having his feet buried.

Ice Cream with a side of balloon(s) :)

Thursday afternoon Chris' company took a "booze cruise" along lake Michigan. The train he finally caught was scheduled to get in just before 8pm, so Kyle decided to take a late night bike ride to the ice cream shop in town (near the train station). Kyle loves that they give out free balloons to kids. As usual, he requested a red balloon just like his idol, Christopher Robin (in this case, not his dad :)). Just when I went to get him a booster seat to sit in, Ky let go of the balloon and it proceeded to taunt us from the ceiling above. The manager came over and kindly offered to get him a second red balloon. This time I tied it around his wrist. All was going well. We were enjoying our soft serve vanilla kiddie cups when Daddy knocked on the window. Somehow in his excitement, Kyle shimmied the balloon off his wrist, and it too proceeded to taunt us from the ceiling right next to its buddy. When Chris got to our table, we pointed up, filling him in on our stressful evening. He asked for yet another balloon for Ky, but by then they only had orange balloons left. We were grateful, and took what we could get. It's now Sunday night, and Kyle is still saying "lost two red balloons." Sorry buddy. That's life :)

Half Monkey :)

We're going to have a little Olaf for Halloween!

Ever since our trip to Hilton Head this summer, Kyle has really taken a liking to Frozen, and to Olaf in particular. Every time he sees circle shaped objects he starts putting them together and says "building Olaf". I decided I better preorder him an Olaf costume for Halloween before it's too late since they seem to be flying like hot cakes.

Hope he likes it!