Cars staged on the Michigan Avenue bridge over the Chicago River
Funny signs. Erik and I were laughing at all the misspelled "Business Access" signs. Oops!
Fake fire department vehicle on Michigan Avenue
All the combat gear awaiting the actors along the Chicago River
"Damaged" boat docked along the Chicago River
Last weekend, Erik and I sent the kids off to Grammy & Grandpa Brown's (where they had a GREAT time, more on that in a minute!) and we enjoyed a night on Lake Michigan. West Monroe Partners held a dinner and evening boat cruise for a small group of employees and their spouses. It was such a beautiful summer night! Warm, but breezy on the water, and we had a great view of the city skyline for much of the evening. And great people to spend time with too, so we really enjoyed it! We stayed overnight downtown, slept in (nothing beats that these days!), and then came back to our house to tackle some home improvement projects that have been too time-consuming to start and complete with little ones around. It was great because we were able to squeeze in relaxation with some productivity. And we were so happy to 
see the kids again when Sunday evening rolled around!
played in a giant pop-up tunnel and tent in the backyard. Cassidy loves to play the old Hammond organ with Grandpa in the family room. Gavin had fun drawing chalk pictures on the driveway. Cooper was also visiting for the weekend, so they got doggie time too!
We had a fun 4th of July in Rockford with the Reder clan. We spent most of the time either in the pool or shooting off fireworks with Grandpa! We also celebrated our cousin Ellie's 8th birthday, complete with a pinata and a homemade flag cake made out of cupcakes. Yum!
and went in from the edge of the slide for the first time. She had fun swimming freely with the help of her water wings. Gavin liked lounging in the round yellow floatie and was happy to have an adult gently pull him around the pool as he chewed on pool toys. We had bright sunshine and hot 
temperatures, which made the water feel even better!
We've just returned from a wonderful family trip! We spent a week with the Brown side of our family at a rental home in Manitowoc, WI. It was the four of us, Grammy and Grandpa Brown, Aunt Mel, Uncle Aaron and our favorite dog-cousin Cooper.
and we were so lucky to have sunny, warm weather almost every day of our trip. We also had amazing views of a clear, bright moon shining down upon the water each night. A beautiful sight!
We spent the week mixing relaxation with recreation. Erik and I 
got out to play both golf and tennis - so much fun! Although our scores were not impressive (that's putting it mildly, really), we just enjoyed getting out to play. We also visited a maritime museum in downtown Manitowoc, and the kids had a fun trip to the local zoo with Grammy and Grandpa. The rest of the time was spent relaxing with family - either at the beach, on the sunny deck, or inside watching movies, cooking, or playing catchphrase. Everything a vacation should be!
Cassidy turned 3 while on our trip! We had fun celebrating with wonderful
gifts from family and a birthday cake as an afternoon treat. Cassidy also loved going to sleep each night in her cool Dora bed tent from Grammy and Grandpa!
Since Cassidy's actual 3rd birthday will take place on our upcoming trip to Wisconsin, we decided to hold a little birthday party for her a couple 
weeks in advance. She chose to have a Thomas the Train theme - she is a huge Thomas fan these days! We are embracing her little inner tomboy. She requested a train cake from mommy. I told her I'd give it my best shot. The idea was to make a cake with tracks, and then at party time we could gently place her little wooden trains onto the cake as the final touch. But it turns out that sounded "too yucky", so the trains just sat nicely below. We had a really fun party with her toddler friends and their parents. We made a train craft and played with 
toys, opened gifts and ate cake! She is still very hesitant when it comes to birthday candles and singing (somehow the whole thing is scary), but she made it through OK and even helped blow out her candles this time. It was a really fun celebration!
We were SO excited to have our great friend Megan and her 2 kids (Madeline, 3 and Charlie, 15 months) come to visit us a couple weekends ago! They were back in town for a whirlwind trip to spend time with friends and family that they haven't seen as often since moving to Nashville. We squeezed a lot of fun into 
our 24-hour visit. We spent some time at our neighborhood playground and stopped by our friend Mandy's house for a playdate with her 2 boys (6 kids under 3 was pretty comical - but they kept each other busy!). I love this picture of the 2 girls - they look like a couple of teens sharing some good gossip or checking out a cute boy. Ha!
The boys had their share of fun too. They are so busy that I never actually got a photo of the two 
of them together! We played in the backyard, on the swing and in the sand table. The boys toddled around the house looking for trouble, trying to mess with the plans of their big sisters. At one 
point, we found the girls trying out Cassidy's new big girl bed - perfect for jumping! Meg and I also enjoyed a dinner out with a glass of wine or two, and we were sad to have to say goodbye the next morning. But luckily we have these blogs to check out each week as a way to keep up with each other! If you haven't yet checked out Meg's fantastic blog, click from my list onto "The Vlach-Tastic Four" and give it a read. She's a really gifted writer - so much so that at our dinner out, my other friend Meg (who joined us for dinner, it was so fun!) and I were brainstorming all the different ways that Meg could turn her natural writing skills into a cool new profession. The options are endless! Anyway, we're so thankful to the Vlachs for coming all this way to visit and we hope the rest of their trip is going wonderfully!
