Labor Day and Chicago

When we moved to Ohio I thought we'd visit Chicago and our friends who live there many times. Two years later I'm kicking myself that we haven't gone before! Here we are with our friends the Broughs (from Boston) by their home and Lake Michigan. We had such a good time!
Greg:"When I was little and we would visit the city with my Grandparents, we would drive right here under the Chicago Stock Exchange."

Oak Park, SO amazing!

Mimi and Baby checking out one of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses.

Seriously, one of the best days ever!

Greg SO wanted a good Chicago Hot Dog--Super Dawgs

Playing by Lake Michigan.

Can you spot the 4 brides in this shot? We saw a few dozen this day.

The one thing I wanted to do was see Mimi see more Dinosaurs. On the advise of several people that know Mimi's love of Dinosaurs we visited the Field Museum. It did not disappoint.

There was even space for Baby to play. The sign read:"Infants and Toddlers, be aware"

The Art Institute of Chicago according to Mimi and Indiana

I miss talking about art, this was so fun.

David Smith, Tanktotem I, 1952

Indiana:"I don't know what it's supposed to be..."
Me, gearing up with a explanation and defense of abstract art.
Indiana:"...but it's pretty cool."
Me, just fine with that.
_________

Gustave Caillebotte. Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877.
Indiana:"I think those people are in NYC, oh wait, they're in Paris."
My guess is he thought the building was the Flat Iron building.
__________

Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930, Oil on Beaver Board
Mimi:"Those people look sad."
__________

Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte -- 1884, 1884-86
Me:"What do you see in this picture?"
Mimi:"A snow man."
__________

Me:"Why are they all naked?"
Mimi:"Because they are getting ready for a bath for 6 days."
__________

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, Oil on canvas

Me:"What is the feeling in this painting?"

Indiana:"There is none."

Me:"Does it feel kinda lonely?"

Indiana:"Yeah, it's late they should be home asleep."

__________

I'll never understand why someone would go to a museum just to take pictures of works of art. Pictures already exist, especially now with the internet, you can see what the painting looks like in photo taken by a professional. Besides there are all sorts of copyright laws and stuff, and almost no one knows how to turn off their flash, just don't try, people!

But two people that day took pictures that I really liked.

1- a couple had their picture taken in front of a famous painting-- now that's a good vacation picture.

2-a man took pictures of people's faces as they looked at and crowed around a famous painting. He actually took a bunch of me with the kiddos while we were talking about Nighthawks. My hope is that he got my expression when Indiana told me the people in it should be asleep.

magnetic

Mimi:"I'm going to stick things"
Greg:"please help set the table"
Mimi:"No, I'm still sticking things"
__________

Greg:"I think I fixed the weed-whacker, but I didn't test it"
Indiana:"are you going to do a test whack?"
__________
Random picture of Baby C with the plug-in night-light that he unplugs about 100 times a day. The best toys aren't toys.

A Plethera of Peaches

What we did with a bushel of peaches:
Bottled Peaches
Peach Crisp
Fresh Peach Bee Hives-The Kiddos favorite
Pork Chops with Peaches
Peach Syrup for Pancakes
Peach Curried Turkey Burgers-Greg's favorite
Peach Butter
Plain
Chicken with Peaches
Watching Baby DEVOUR them-my favorite

lefty

Indiana:"I'm more of a worker on the left then on the right."
__________

Greg:"What muffins should we have?"
Mimi:"EAR MUFF-ins!"
__________

Mimi:"2+2 equals..."
Indiana:"Fantastic 4"

Off to 2nd Grade!

I still don't feel like the mother of a second grader, and yet, it's true.
Also, I don't like school in August, but what can it do about that either?

Just as confident as last year, Indiana dressed himself, dirty shirt and shorts, nails un-clipped (because he dislikes it so much), and no hair cut (a reward for a great dentist appointment--that made the dentist and hygienist laugh so hard).

Sounds like a party!

Yummy lasagna...

__________

Mimi:"That was so yummy it messed up my face."
__________

Mimi describing her next birthday party:
"It will be a princess party AND a transformer party. Transformers move then meet the princesses! And they will combine to fight evil crime!"

Dining Room Conversion

Well, the builders 20 years ago may have thought this was a dinning room, but in the 2 years we have lived here it has been so much more.

empty (again, wrestling space)
a place for boxes
or tools
Legos
But after much thought we decided to turn it into a

Computer Room!

I know lots of people are doing it. We are hoping we get popular by doing it too...

Dinning room before:

Looking from the kitchen into the dinning room.
Standing in the dinning room looking into the kitchen, look closely at the UGLY chair rail.

My dad pulled the chair rail down while he was here at Christmas, he patched up the holes and my mom primed. It took me a while to pick out the right paint, but I finally listened to my wise sister and went with the same blue from the living room that we love SO much. Baseboards are coming, just don't look too closely!
(How can I blame her? For two years I have been throwing paint on the walls! Why shouldn't she?)


Computer / Map Room after:
new chandelier
new walls
new floor!
Re-purposed rug
some old furniture
some new-to-us furniture, mostly from Craig's list
Stain Glass window that Sonya found on the street and Mom refinished
We'll get some new curtains when we are feeling rich, but otherwise it's perfect

A brief moment of clean, I had to take pictures before the mess piled up again. I kept telling Greg how awesome this chair was, so now in complete seriousness, Indiana calls this the awesome chair. As in, "ah! Baby just crawled under the awesome chair!"
A little space for crafts, homework, or learning to walk with--Baby C is pulling up on everything!
My busy desk, only slightly organized.

For a better view of the great chandler check out the living room post.

Living Room

This picture is from the front door looking into the eating area, dinning room and part of the living room. Check out that chandelier--shivers.

We've been doing lots of random things around the house, but we really haven't done a whole room lately. While it doesn't feel like I've done a whole lot to the house, looking back on these photos helps me realize that we actually have done a bunch.
This picture is from the kitchen eating area looking at the front windows and those half walls in the living room. From this angle you get a good look at the vertical blinds. They were the first to go.

Currently the living room isn't actually complete (of course), there are few more things to do. But seeing as how slow I'm moving with all this, I'm going to consider us finished for a while.

So here's the changes we made...

First off, the living room stayed empty for 6 months--wrestling space.

Then at Christmas '08 my dad mercifully took out the half walls (I cringed every time I looked at them). Once upon a time there were spindles that lived between the upper and lower half walls, but they were taken out and painted long before we lived here.

Here's during the wall re-do. Check out that light fixture. Also, one of the first things to go. Then Dad filled in the gap on the ceiling. From here you can see one of the rare, cute things about the house, look at that red door. I love it.
Then we bought some furniture (some new, some from Craig's List) and put some stuff on the walls, that was nice.
Mimi's response to the new furniture:"couchy" and "it's a little giant"

Next step was the floor.

A big step.

Somehow I talked my dad and mom into coming again to take on the project. July 2009. The plan was to put down hardwood floor in the living room and dinning room. It was crazy hot and our A/C wasn't working well, sorry again, Dad. It was a little tricky getting the right tools rented, but luckily we have great friends and neighbors who let us borrow saws and stuff. Also getting home 14 boxes of hardwood was a chore, but Greg could fit almost anything in his old car!
Clearing out the room
I'm pretty sure I was driving my dad crazy with all the pictures.

Pulling up the carpet.

Why, oh, why is there EVER carpet in a dinning room? And while I'm asking questions about this silly house, does anyone know why in a house of this modest size would we need a giant eating area right next to a breakfast bar, that's right next to a formal (carpeted) dinning room?
Indiana was actually quite helpful, but Mimi wanted to do her own thing, so she got out her tools.
Indiana loved this part--carrying boards to Granddad when he needed them. From this angle you can get a sneak peak of the eating area--more to come on that.
The kiddos reacting to the air compressor.

My mom and sister Sonya painted the walls, and played with the kiddos.

Now the floors are my favorite part of the whole house! This is absolutely the only room in the house that is ever remotely clean. The whole rest of the house looks like it's been hit by a tornado on a regular basis, but somehow it stays decent.
Looking in from the front door again.
Turning slightly to the right.
Looking back at the front door.
Even though it's taken a while and it's not quite complete, I'm pretty comfortable here... Ahh...

Rock Band

__________

Greg:"What are you going to play for Rock Band?"
Indiana:"I'm going to SING!"
Mimi:"And I'm going to dance to your rocking!"
__________

Mimi introducing herself:"Hi, I'm Mimi, and sometimes I don't listen."

Growing Garden

Mimi:"Where are we going?"
Me:"To buy flowers."
Mimi:"No!"
Me:"What do you want to do?"
Mimi:"Not buy flowers."
__________

The real words:
Oh! There ain't no bugs on me, there ain't no bugs on me.

What Mimi sings:
Oh! Rainbow bugs on me, rainbow bugs on me.
__________

While watering the hydrangeas, forget-me-nots, and box-woods.
Mimi:"Are these 'don't forget me-s'"

Summer School

Mimi:"4"
Indiana:"6"
M:"7"
I:"1"
M:"1"
I:"...and...and 2!"

Indiana doing flash cards. Mimi trying mess him up or guess, I'm not sure.