Moving Day 2015

After six and a half years in our first home in Wilmette, it came time for us to move.  We had outgrown our space, growing from 1 child to 3 during our time there, and over the years had gotten a better understanding of all the neighborhoods in town and the different characteristics of each.  We were ready for a "forever" home - time to lay down roots and settle in!  So, spring rolled around and we decided to place our house on the market.  It was a whirlwind to prepare for realtor photographs and showings, but we whipped it into shape and took off for spring break in FL.  Never did we imagine that we'd get a call from our realtor just a few days into our trip to let us know that we had buyers!  It was really great news.  We started the search for our new home as soon as we returned.  After a month or two of looking with no real success, our realtor asked us to come look at one other house she had a feeling would be just right for us.  We were so happy as we walked through this home and had that mutual feeling that it would be a perfect home for our family.  We signed lots of papers and made it official!  The next few months held lots of packing and preparing, and even included an extra dose of chaos when our buyers' financing fell through only a couple days before our closing.  My sweet Mom had flown in from FL to help watch the kids during the move - we couldn't believe it was delayed!  But very luckily, things got back on track for them and we only had to postpone for a few weeks.  In mid-July, we made the move to our new home.  From that first day and each day since, we feel grateful that things all worked out the way they did.  We are so happy that our kids will have lifelong memories in this happy home!  Onto the next chapter...

We loved having Grandma Reder visit!  We took this photo at the airport as she headed back to FL. 

Moving Day!  We'll miss our old house!

Adios, kitchen!

Grammy and Grandpa Brown were a giant help with the kids as we moved.  This is the first "meal" in the new house - breakfast donuts! - as Erik and I were back at the old house with the movers.

Happy family after a LONG day of moving!

First night in their new bedroom

Aunt Mel came by the next day with Jack and we set up the kitchen while the kids played with Grammy - such an enormous help.  You can't do much without a kitchen!

Grammy helped the kids make this cool dolphin display out of fruit

Since we hope to live in this home a long time, Grammy started our new tradition of marking the kids' heights on our cabinet door.  Love it!

Chalking the front walk

Happy

Playing in the backyard 

Happy 4th!

I always love the 4th of July.  Such a fun occasion in the heart of summer.  Relaxed but festive - what's not to love?  We had a great time this year celebrating on both July 3 & 4, as has become our tradition here.  Wilmette holds fireworks at the lakefront on July 3rd, and our neighboring town, Winnetka, holds them on July 4th.  So we make plans for both days and enjoy seeing friends.  On the 3rd, we joined some friends for a casual BBQ and then headed to the beach to take in the fireworks display.  We had a big gang of kids and they had so much fun!  The the next day, we headed just north to the Neal's house for the next round of fireworks.  They have an annual party that's always a great time.  It also just so happens that Matt drives a yellow jeep - and for whatever reason Tyler has become obsessed with both jeeps and the color yellow, so he got to take a ride around the neighborhood in Matt's yellow jeep.  He was so excited!
Happy 4th, everyone!

Cassidy Turns 8!

Our little Cassidy has turned 8!  We had a great time celebrating her birthday.  She had a shared birthday party with her great friend Brynn, who has a birthday one day after Cassie's.  They invited all of their school friends to Pump It Up, a bounce house gymnasium and had an absolute blast!  Cassie loves to think up a new cake design each year, and this year her vision was a drawing of her as an artist, holding a palette and drawing a horse on a canvas!  Thankfully the local bakery loves to get creative right along with her.  We also enjoyed dinner on her actual birthday with Grammy and Grandpa Brown and Grandma Reder (who was in town to help us prep for our move).  With the moving chaos, we decided to keep it simple and had a wonderful celebratory dinner at The Cheesecake Factory!  We had cake to get to at home (a Pokemon one this time - this girl had her fair share of cake!), so we opted to skip dessert at the restaurant.  However, since they'd heard it was her birthday, they brought her out a bowl of whipped cream with candles and sang to her.  Very sweet!  The birthday girl was beaming.  She had a wonderful day and we all loved celebrating with her.  Bring on another fantastic year of being a kid!