a long holiday weekend...

Busy, busy weekend again!  Friday night Clara had an extra ballet class to prepare for their final presentation.

Saturday morning was spent running errands (Clara needed a new bike helmet).  That afternoon Clara had her usual ballet class and we all went downtown to drop her off.  I went because the Memorial Day Parade was going on right past where she has class which meant all of the streets nearby were closed off.  Jeff was able to drop us off a couple blocks away.  I walked her over and then met back up with the boys.  Next we went over to the Merchandise Mart to pick up their Bike the Drive packets, then grabbed some lunch.  When we got home, Alex went next door to his friend's house to play for a while.  As soon as Clara was home from ballet, we scattered in different directions again... Jeff and Alex to the ER and Clara and I to the movie.  If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that Alex has had some issues with staph infections in the past... once with MRSA and another time with just plain ol' staph.  He had a mosquito bite on his wrist from our weekend in Michigan that was swelling and turning bright red versus healing, so with the thinking of "better safe than sorry", Jeff ran him to the ER to have him checked out.  Thankfully, it wasn't staph in any form, just a regular, run of the mill skin infection.... which is clearing up nicely now without even getting his prescription filled.

While they were at the ER, Clara and I went with her friend Amelia from jazz and tap and her mom to see the movie First Position.  The girls had been wanting to see it... and so had us moms (but we promised that we would sit nowhere near them).  It was really a good movie to see with Clara.  We've had a lot of interesting discussions since viewing it.

The next morning, they (meaning everyone in our house, but me) got up super early (5:30ish?) to do the Bike the Drive.  It was going to get hot, so they wanted to get out early.  Jeff took pictures for me and emailed them to me when they took breaks.

Clara and Alex at one of the water stations...

 

Clara biking the drive...

 Alex out in front...

 

And the kids at the park for the pancake breakfast...

We totaled it up and we think they rode between 22-24 miles that morning!  This is Alex's fourth year and Clara's third... they really enjoy doing it!

After that, they came home, showered and then vegged for a while.  Mid-day, Clara had her Broadway Jazz class to go to and then later that night we went to our friends' house for a bbq.  Good friends and good times!  Clara ended up spending the night and Alex and I came home to begin a Doctor Who marathon.  We watched just a couple of episodes last night, but finished up season one on Netflix today.  Clara stayed with her friend and swam and played all day and didn't get home until dinner time.  She was so worn out that she asked if she could go to be early... like I would say no to that!

I think this is our last REALLY crazy week of the school year, so bring it on!!!  :-)

(I still have to go back and post last weekend's photos plus some video I took this week... mustn't forget!) 

last weekend...

... in random instagram photos.  I took "real" photos too... just haven't done a darn thing with them yet.

The Mango pup, crashed out on her pillow in my lap on our way to Michigan...

And here she is asleep again on her favorite chair at Bearski (yes, we've named the cabin/cottage/house Bearski... it started as a joke, but it stuck)...

Saturday night we went for our usual ice cream and drive in movie outing.

First up was ice cream... Alex and I had glaciers...

 ... an incredibly fabulous combination of slushie and soft serve ice cream.

Clara and Jeff had shakes...

Since the sun was starting to set, it was time to head to the Cherry Bowl...

to see Dark Shadows (and get bitten by mosquitoes which we're paying for now with a trip to the ER for Alex... sigh)...

... thankfully the concession stand sells bug spray so we were able to end the feeding frenzy before it got too out of hand.

And finally, almost home...

I promise I'll get to the real photos soon!  (plus all of the other stuff I've taken photos and/or video of lately)

we're back...

We ended up going away for the weekend and I'm behind on posting again!  With NATO in town, pretty much all of the kids' activities were cancelled.... we never have a free weekend!  So we decided to take advantage of it and headed up to our place in Michigan.  Next weekend, although it's a long holiday weekend, it's full of kid stuff so we're staying in town.  I have a few photos from the weekend (not many), and I hope to get to them later in the week. 

This is one that I meant to post before we left.... Clara before her last show...

I really thought I was putting on heavy make-up for her, but here it doesn't look too bad (except for the crappy job I did with her lipstick).  My new love... liquid eyeliner!  Not for myself, but for Clara's stage make-up. It was so easy to put on!  I can't believe I didn't start using it sooner... would have saved me a lot of headaches during Nutcracker!

random instagram photos...

It's been pure craziness around here this week already!!  It's not even the kids' activities (those are slowing down)... it's just other random crazy things.  More about those later.

A week ago, I took Clara and her friend down to rehearsal for Cinderella, here are the girls on the train...

 To entertain themselves, they played with their phones....

I think this was Tuesday, or maybe last Wednesday, but I got to sit with Alex while he had his dinner...

Oh!  It was Tuesday... I remember now... I didn't eat because I had eaten with the girls earlier.  It's all coming back to me now!  :-)

Opening night of Cinderella...

 After Saturday night's show of Cinderella...

Notice anything different?  Yes... significantly more make-up!  She had on a ton by the last show.  Her teacher told her that she was a bug not human and proceeded to add more blue eyeshadow.

Monday night, Clara's ballet classes were cancelled, so we got to see the boy in his show...

The theater was very dark, so the photo is VERY grainy.

This was the day our fun began this week.  As you may know, NATO is coming to Chicago this weekend.  Everything is sort of out of whack due to this.  Right as Alex's show was to begin, they announced that the police were shutting down the building in half an hour.  We could stay for the show, but the doors would be locked and we would have to leave as a group.  We had no idea why or what we would be walking out into after the show.  Still not entirely sure what was going on as it seemed really quiet (almost eerily quiet) out on the streets as we left (and it ended up that we didn't have to leave any special way).  The building was shut down though (it also houses a branch of the library and a visitors' center)... everything was dark and locked up.  All very strange.

While we waited for Jeff to pick us up, Alex showed me his elephant he had made out of clay...

Today's excitement started with a motorcyclist wiping out right in front of us as Clara and I were on our way to get Alex.  He insisted that he was okay and didn't need any help.  He didn't look injured but his bike left a trail of parts.

Then... Alex left his phone on one of the city buses!!!!  I had no idea until Jeff called and said that he had just received a call from a man who had Alex's phone.  I called him and we arranged to meet for me to get Alex's phone back.  Alex was at his music lessons and had figured out his phone was missing and was in quite a state.  I walked over to let him know that it was okay and I was going to get his phone back later.  He was relieved, but so upset.  After Clara's dance class, we ran up and met the very nice man who had picked up Alex's phone and tracked us down to give it back.  All in all, everything has turned out much better than expected.... but I could do with a little less excitement the rest of this week!  :-)

cinderella has opened...

My butterfly...

I have been lugging my big camera to the rehearsals, so last night for the opening show, I just tucked my point and shoot into my purse.  It was a really beautiful production and everyone did a wonderful job! 

watching...

On Saturday, Clara watched a lot of ballet!

First, she spent from 12-4 in rehearsals for Cinderella.  Their cast didn't get to rehearse with the whole cast that day, so she spent a lot of the time just watching... 

(I was there taking photos for the marketing dept. and hoping to get a shot of Clara in costume... sigh)

After rehearsal, she rushed home and got all fancied up for her date with her daddy...

(like the dress?  pretty darn cute for $9.97... gotta love the sale racks at Macy's!)

They were off to dinner and then to see the Joffrey Ballet's Spring Desire.  Clara had a wonderful time.  Jeff said that she was just mesmerized the whole time.

a day off...

Friday, Alex had the day off from school.

This is what he did...

In his pj's all day, playing minecraft with his friends from school.  They had a Skype conference call going too.  They had so much fun.  They built an arena to have some kind of battle and then had the battle.  Which Alex made a video of and had planned to post to youtube.  It was pretty funny to listen to them all screaming and laughing!

He finally managed to get dressed when I went to pick Clara up from school (she had her first day of basketball at school) and then we went to baseball.

Alex concentrating really hard on something as we waited for our table for dinner...

My two goofy kids...

Can you believe that this is the best photo out of about 10 that I took?  :-)

what a week!

This week has been CRAZY!!!  Not only have I not posted this week, but I haven't really taken any photos.  After Aladdin, I put my big camera down and haven't picked it back up yet!  I need to get better about that.

My lazy self did manage to take a few photos with my phone though...

Battle of the Books competition...

Anxiously waiting for the results...

They didn't place in the top three, but they did really well!  I think they had the top score of the room they competed in though (three teams per room).

 Later that day we went for ribs...

 We can sure trash a table!!

However, this time we did not set anything on fire!!!  That's good for us!  Two other times we've been there, we've managed to set either the roll of paper towels or used paper towels on fire.  They might know us now, because although they were lighting the candles on other tables... no one came and lit ours.  :-)

I'm behind... but I finally added instagram to my phone.

Here's a shot of the boy...

... totally in love with his new skullcandy headphones.

And finally, the hail from last night's storm...

I would promise to take more "real" photos, but we have another crazy week ahead.  I'll see what I can do!  :-)