catching up

honestly, I haven't been taking a whole lot of pictures lately.  still, here are a few just to try and catch up.

fun family weekend!

We spent a long weekend in Chicago catching up with family.  We also managed to squeeze in lots of fun family time too.

First was a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  We always love a good zoo in our family!

 Had to get our faces painted, of course.

 We went to see Laurie Berkner in concert.  This was very exciting, especially for Ayla!  She is Laurie's biggest fan!

 We took pictures of ourselves making funny faces until the show started.

 There she is!  She was awesome!

 We went to a park on the beach in Evanston next.  We again took pictures of ourselves and played a rousing game of duck-duck-goose.  Lots of running.  It's a good thing.

We had a breakfast picnic on the beach on Sunday morning.  It was wonderful!

A great time was had by all!

what do you do when it's 106 outside?

First you watch your movie of choice on your own DVD player....

Do a giant floor puzzle...

Talk to grandma on Skype...

Eat apples in your PJ's...

Watch another movie....

Enjoy a 'no-cook' dinner...

Followed by homemade oreo ice cream (so good!!)

We are hoping for a break in the heat today so we can get outside a bit.  It's been a hot week!

Here's what else we've been up to the last few months....

Ayla had her very first dance recital (a daddy/daughter dance with Dan to 'Twist and Shout' by the Beatles)

Xander had his Spring Program at School where he sang and danced to Beat It by Michael Jackson (complete with single white glove), did a Maypole Dance and sang a song entirely in Russian.

We goofed around in Indy.  On this day we went to visit a Toy Museum but arrived to find it closed for good.  Instead we found a delicious pie company and snacked on Chocolate Chip (for Mommy and Xander, of course!) and Raspberry Pie (for Daddy and Ayla).

Ruby is recovering nicely from her radiation treatments and we are very grateful!  She has had a rough few months but is such a trooper and has won over the hearts of everyone who takes care of her.

We played on campus (always a favorite)...

...and finished a soccer class (complete with medals and certificates).

And we said good-bye to one of the best graduate students ever.

We spent some time with our dearest friends and some more time in Indy...

 ...and took a quick trip to Chicago where we stayed in a hotel (always fun), played on the swings and in the sand, took the kids on their first subway ride (they loved it!) and ate 'fruitshi' (yup, that's fruit sushi, of all things and we were not fans)

We played in the sprinkler and tried to stay cool through what's been a very hot couple of weeks.

 And that's about it!  July brings us two birthdays, three more weeks of camp, another trip to Chicago to hopefully see the Laurie Berkner Band live and in concert (the kids are insisting!) and a couple of visits from grandparents.  Busy, busy, busy!