Happy Father's Day!

Daddy with his kiddos on Father's Day before breakfast at Ann Sather's.  After breakfast, Dad got to take a 3 hour nap and woke up to a card and pictures for his office.  His big gift was tickets to see the White Sox and Indians play a few weeks ago with Papa and Jon Papajcik.  Food, nap, pictures of his adorable children and baseball.  What more can a man want?  

South Bend

Rosa called off sick for the first time in almost 3 years, and she technically didn't even call off.  When I came home Thursday night it was 85 degrees out and Rosa was wearing a sweater telling me she just couldn't get warm.  She then started to cough, so I had an inkling that I wouldn't be making it to work the next day.  She then called me at 8 a.m. on Friday to tell me that she had the chills and barely slept, but just asked whether she could come in an hour late.  I told her to stay home and feel better.  So knowing it was just me and the kids for the day, I decided to take a drive to South Bend and meet up with Maura, Ed, Zoe, Zane, Zia, Zander, Zella and mom.  They were all in South Bend for 10 days hanging out at a nice bed & breakfast while Zoe attended soccer camp and Zane went to football camp at Notre Dame.  We had a really fun day.  It all started with a little walk around Notre Dame campus.  Then while mom, the girls and I headed back to the b&b to rest after lunch, Ed, Maura and the Z's took Finn to the zoo.  He had a BLAST hanging with his cousins and riding the train.  He also loved watching Zane and Ed toss the football around and wanted to get in on that action as well.  Since Monna and Jim had already planned on coming in that night, Joe hopped the train to South Bend after work and we ended up getting a room in the b&b and heading back to Chicago the next day after another walk around the campus.  Oh, and Sabine decided to hit another milestone on this trip.  She started waving.  So cute!

When we first arrived, the Z's all wanted to get their hands on the girls.

Finn was so happy to see his cousins!

Finn still talks about how much he loved getting pulled around in the wagon at the zoo.  

Finn, Zander and Zella getting to better know a goat.

The much anticipated train ride!

Hanging out in the swing back at the b&b.

Getting a football in the face from Zaney Brainy.

Making wishes at the Clarke Memorial Fountain at Notre Dame.  Zella wished the the twins would stop crying.  Poor twins!

The Girls are Nine Months Old!

At their nine month checkup, Lourdes weighed 16 pounds and was  27 inches long.  Sabine weighed 13 pounds 13 ounces and was 26.5 inches long.  A lot of milestones were reached this month.  Lourdes is now crawling and pulling herself up to a standing position.  She also got her first two (bottom) teeth!  Sabine army crawls around the house with a quickness, sleeps through the night and has the cutest laugh.  They are growing up so fast!    

A visit from our European relatives

Mary, Colin and Lucia came to visit the weekend of June 11th.  It was so great to see them and we had so much fun hanging out.  Since this was their first time meeting the girls, we did our fair share of hanging at the house and chilling with the babies.  But we also wanted to show them some of the sights, so the kids and I took them to the Adler Planetarium on Sunday afternoon.  None of us had been there before and it was very cool.  We mostly hung out in the kids play area, but we did a bit of walking around and checking out the exhibits.  Next time we go, I totally want to take Finn to one of the shows.  I think he will be especially into it now as he is obsessed with astronauts! And then on Monday before Mary and the kids headed back to Ohio via Indy, we all went on the architectural boat tour.  Colin especially enjoyed that!

Colin helping Finn with his Build a Road birthday gift.

Lucia cooking up a fabulous dinner while the boys did their construction work.  

Our budding astronauts at the Planetarium.  

 Lucia and Finn launching rockets.

The kids LOVED the earth movers!

The point of this exhibit was a bit unclear to me, but the kids enjoyed burying vegetables in sand and then uncovering them again.

Everybody loves the boat cruise!

Afternoon at Pickles

The new craze in Chicago are cafes with indoor play spaces for the kids.  It started with Family Grounds and now we have Little Beans cafe, Pickles and Kookaburra.  I'm not complaining as having a place in the winter to go get a latte while the kids play is a godsend.  And the kids certainly aren't complaining either.  Here are a few pictures of the kids tearing up Pickles one Friday afternoon with Rosa and I.

Little Gym

Finn takes a tumbling class at The Little Gym on Thursdays.  At the end of each quarter, the gym invites parents and friends to come to the last class for a show and an awards assembly.  So Joe, Rosa, the girls and I went to Finn's class to see him show off all that he has learned.  Finn obviously loves this class because he was just running around and playing on all the equipment like a madman.  Here are some of the highlights.

Finn's floor routine.

Followed by the bar routine.  

After all that work, a kid needs a little break!

Dad helping Finn on the balance beam.

And because it can't be just tumbling ALL the time, there is a soccer component.

Rosa and Beanie got into the action as well.

Finn LOVED his medal and still wears it around the house from time to time.  

Training Wheels!

Aunt Maura, Uncle Ed and the Z's gave Finn a very special birthday gift this year - a big boy bike with training wheels!  It was delivered on a Thursday and I promised Finn we'd put it together that weekend.  Well then the weekend arrived and Dad had to work 24-7.  I tried to put the bike together myself, but gave up on direction 1.  Finn was beside himself.  So I called in a very big favor from his godfather.  Uncle Jon Papajcik came up BIG TIME.  He came over on Sunday and had the bike assembled in a little over an hour.  Finn is SO excited about his bike.  It is still a little tough for him to peddle all by himself, but by next year I know he'll be zooming around the hood on it.

Memorial Day Weekend!

What's not to love about summer?  Every weekend is full of fun activities!  We started our summer out right by hosting Molly, Lyle, Xavier and Isabelle for the weekend.  When they arrived on Thursday afternoon, they picked up Mr. Finn and headed to the Museum of Science and Industry for a few hours.  Finn could only stay an hour because I had to get him to his big 3 year old check up.  Finn grew a lot this year!  Well ... at least a lot for Finn.  He is now 26 pounds and 35 1/4 inches tall!  Although, next to Isabelle in these pictures, he still looks like a shortie.  On Friday, I had to stay home and work in the morning so Finn went with Molly, Lyle, Iz and Xav to check out Millennium and Grant Parks.  They took some cute pictures in front of the Bean.  

After that they started walking down Michigan Ave and ran into this outdoor art installation at the Museum of Art.  I totally want to check it out soon because from the pictures it looks really cool.   

I took some vacation time that afternoon and met up with the group for the Wendella Boat Tour.  LOVE that tour!  I've taken almost every visitor on it at least once and I never get tired of cruising down the Chicago River and out into Lake Michigan.  Finn never tires of it either.  He likes looking at the waves as they crash on the boat.  This was a particularly frigid boat tour, however.  It was about 50 degrees and so I was wearing my winter coat and, at times, my hat too!  Who would have thought that just 4 days later, we'd be roasting in 90+ degree temperatures.  Ahhh Chicago weather....    

On Saturday, the girls and I went to Gymboree and did some cuddling while Dad and Finn joined the group for a Cubbies games.  In typical Cubbies fashion, they lost 10 to 1 to the Pirates.  But everyone still had a good time!

Finn needed to catch some zzzz's so that he was up for watching movies with his cousins that night while the adults went out for a fabulous meal downtown!

Throughout the weekend, Xavier and Iz gave the girls a lot of lovin'!

And our last fun event on Sunday before our guests left for Ft. Wayne was to hit up the Children's Museum.  ALWAYS a blast!

The kids digging for dinosaur bones.

My budding paleontologist!

Even Teeny Bean had a good time hanging with her Daddy.