May 2019- Chris' Birthday

Happy Birthday my love!!

Birthdays are fun, am I right?!?

We decided to accept an Airbnb reservation for Chris' birthday weekend, so we spent it up at the Lake which was delightful. I can't remember why, but no one else was up, so we had a weekend to hang out just with Team Kramer :)

Hang time at the Lake

Lulu & I are so lucky to have Chris as our Daddy/husband respectively. We try to make him know this all year round, but especially on days like his birthday! 

Nothing better than swinging in the "hammock swing"

Lulu & I picked up Chris at the train station closest to the Lake and decided to stop for food on the way back to the house. Which is how we ended up having dinner on Chris' actual birthday at our new favorite "restaurant" (its actually more like a drive in, there are only outdoor picnic tables, no indoor space) at the Lake; Meggy Moos. It has way better food than I EVER would've imagined - cooked fresh & arguably the best fried cheese curds we've ever had - light & crispy breading, hot gooey cheese, just perfect. Plus soft serve and/or hard scoop ice cream (complete with toppings - Lulu's fav - rainbow sprinkles, my fav - what they call "twinkles" or crunch coat....sweetened chopped peanuts with rainbow sprinkles). Its just so good. Its just so unassuming. We've been frequenting it since we "discovered" it on Chris' birthday. 

Waiting for Daddy's choo choo train (on tracks that are NOT in service - I'm not a crazy person!)

Birthday dinner at Meggy Moos

Because birthdays are so darn fun, we continued the celebrating at home with Mom & Dad in Glenview! I made a batch of brown butter cupcakes with brown butter buttercream icing for Chris's family celebration - they are from the Nigella Lawson cookbook "How to be a Domestic Goddess"

her recipes make about 1/2 as much as most American cupcake recipes do, but for our purposes - it was perfect. Obviously they are easily doubled for larger groups :)

Let the fun continue back in Glenview

Cupcakes I mentioned above - really delicious!

Do you & your family have any birthday traditions? We really do just the typical - cake, ice cream, dinner with family. I am always interested in how other people celebrate - I'd love to know what you & yours do for birthdays!

Reindeer Round Up - Christmas Edition - 12/28/18 - Wonderland Express, Santa Cruise, Forza Meats, BoBo & Bump Time, Cousin Love

Whoosh. For as much as I love Christmas - this past week was a bit of a challenge. Poor Lulu was sick, first with a stomach bug, then with a cold that then led to a double ear infection. If you have littles in your life you might or might not know that sick littles = not a ton of relaxing for their grown ups. Our week of fun, food, adventures with family, Ho Ho Ho, and holly jolly quickly turned into puke, snot, screaming at family (Lulu), How Are We Going to Make It, and not so holly jolly. We did have fun. We did have some hours that were mostly scream free. We did not have a lot of naps. We did not have a lot of fully formed adult thoughts or conversations. But we did have time with family, which took some of the edge off of the Bug being so upset/uncomfortable/flat out miserable.

It was humbling to have the Christmas week not go anywhere near as I planned.....we still did all of the activities we'd hoped/planned to. Just with a lot less joy on my part. It is hard for me to enjoy myself when my littlest Bug is monkey clinging on to me while also swatting me/screaming in my ear. I'm sure that seems shocking that I wasn't having the time of my life ;) That is life though, right? Things don't go as planned. Particularly with kids involved. But they still were great. Different. Louder. Less relaxing. But still great because we were together.

Without further ado, here are some of the merry & bright moments of the past week!

1. Wonderland Express at the Chicago Botanic Garden

What fun to see the train display at the Botanic Garden through the eyes of Lulu, Hennie & Neva!

The girls were super jazzed, Lulu kept saying "choo choo" "choo choo" which was really sweet.

These are the types of photos that truly show how sick Lulu felt :(

We all know how much Chris loves trains - I have to admit that I am beginning to fall under their holiday spell as well.

I love that we have traditions that are fun and appropriate for all 3 generations of our family, I'm pretty sure BoBo & Bump get a kick out of seeing the trains each year with the kids :)

2. Santa Cruise up at The Lake

This was our first time trying this fun experience; I loved it! The novelty of a winter time boat ride (our boat comes out of the water in October), festive lights along the way, a bit of caroling on the boat, a lakeside Santa cameo, candy canes, and just fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat!!

3. Delectable Sandwiches from Forza Meats

If you live or work in or near Glenview, run don't walk to Forza Meats. Having grown up in Glenview & watched the development of the Glen pull resources & interest away from the downtown area of my town, it makes my heart SO glad to see interesting new businesses making downtown Glenview home. I am aquainted with the guys who started the business & they seem to be quite heavily involved - in a good way :) Both were in the shop the day my mom & I popped in.

We tried 5 different sandwiches & they were all awesome. Oddly, I loved the vegetarian one - I realize that sounds ridiculous given "meat" is in the name of the business- but it was incredibly flavorful & full of different textures. Oftentimes the veggie sandwich option is a throwaway disappointment - not this one! From what we saw - you can't go wrong with the sandwiches.

My mom bought pork shoulder to prepare for Christmas Eve dinner (our "main" Christmas meal) - it was also top notch. Added bonus - one of the co-owners telling us about the farm where the pigs are raised.

I picked out some jarred delights for Chris' stocking, there were ready to bake pizzas, frozen sauces, fresh pastas, salads, olives, all sorts of delights waiting to be discovered.

Check out this new spot - I promise you won't regret it!

4. Imprint Music Concert

A classmate & close friend of Marg's is the VP of the newly formed non profit Imprint Music. They are awaiting their 501(c)3 status - but a cool idea for an organization! The group brings together alum from Glenbrook South (& maybe other places too) to perform beautiful choral concerts benefiting other nonprofits!

We grabbed dinner before the show and loved listening to Christmas carols sung by such talented people. Bonus - the concert was held at the church where I attended preschool 30+ years ago. Fun to be back in a place that I spent so much time when I was tiny!

 5. BoBo & Bump Time

There is so much to be said for the kids having time with their grandparents. My only regret is that because Lulu (& to be fair - Hennie & Neva too) really weren't feeling 100% - they were clingier than they usually are.

Wonderland Express fun with Bump & BoBo

Do you think the girls were getting tired?!?

In a normal day - the girls love to hang with BoBo & Bump. This Christmas they seemed to stick closer to mom & dad - but such is life. Thankfully they all got some time despite the germiness!

Taking a break from the ice skating adventure with BoBo

Lulu wasn't really enjoying Christmas morning - but had time for a heart to heart with Bump

6. Cousin Love

I'm not terribly close to any of my cousins, except those that live across an ocean in Ireland & Germany.

I suppose that is part of the reason it makes me so happy to see Lulu really developing relationships with her cousins.

Despite the fact that a bunch of our family got sick - the kids still really loved being together. If that isn't what this season is all about - then what is??

Friday Round Up 11/9/18 - Goodbye Hondapants, Leaf jumping, first snow, vintage trolley ride

Man oh man I am soooooo behind on my blog!! We're going to make this one quick as I try to play catch up!

1. Goodbye dear old Hondapants
On Monday we decided it was time to say goodbye to the greatest car ever - Hondapants :( It made me so sad. Here's the "tribute" I posted on Facebook:

Tuesday we said goodbye to dear old Hondapants. My sweet girl had been mine for 14.5 years! So many milestones with such a great car; college graduation, first big girl job, G.R. & Tara’s engagement party at Wrigley Field, Margaret & Kobi’s wedding weekend at the lake, our own wedding weekend (remember walking back up to get her at Architectural Artifacts the day after our wedding Christopher??), long drives up north for both Sarah & Dan’s wedding & Cody & Matt’s wedding (also me chopping the parking garage sign at the Diversey Trader Joe’s parking lot in half with our bicycles on the roof rack. Of course it happened on the morning we were driving up for Coot’s wedding), shorter drives to so many other wonderful weddings ❤️, rescuing our first dog (you’re a mostly good pup Owenn), and both Chris driving us to the hospital while I was in labor (Prentice had never felt so far away) & bringing our Lulu bug home a few days later.

There were fabulous road trips with wonderful friends, visits to faraway family & friends, so many drives to & from the lake, and many a Christmas tree tied to her roof.

She was a great car who (99.9% of the time) would go when I wanted her to & stop when I needed her to. She tolerated my seemingly endless fender benders but was never in a serious wreck.

I hope someone else buys her, loves her & keeps adding to the nearly 158k miles we put on her.

Cheers to 150k more Hondapants. You have earned something delicious to drink (perhaps a fill up of Costco’s finest unleaded??)

Thanks for being a most excellent car for my entire adult life Hondapants. You were a truly great car.

Also, we got a new to us car delivered tonight- it was really dark when it came. I’m sure I will grow to love her too. She doesn’t have a name yet, but she does have seat heaters which is something 🙂

It’s the end of an era to be sure.

The only thing I forgot to include was the fact that Hondapants also moved me into my first big girl apartment, my condo & then moved Chris & me into our forever home. So many great memories with a great car!

2. Leaf Jumping
Lulu was my helper when I was desperately trying to cram as many leaves as possible into our yard waste bin before it snowed for the first time on Friday!! She had a blast jumping in the bin to try to pack them down for me!! Thanks Bug :)

3. First Snow of the season
Always makes me really happy to have the first snowflakes come down! I was a tiny bit stressed this year because the first snow fell on the same day as my flight to New Hampshire/Vermont to spend a weekend away with my Mom & sister! Buuuut, our flight was not cancelled - only slightly delayed & we still arrived on time!

4. Vintage Trolley Ride

Our wonderful friends came up to the lake to enjoy some fall fun last weekend! Luke & Jackie packed up their 3 sweet kiddos & we had a great time together. One highlight was taking a ride on the East Troy Railroad. We rode a vintage trolley car up to one of our favorite spots, The Elegant Farmer, and then back to where we started - the East Troy Railroad Museum. A great way to spend our rainy & cold Sunday!! The kids got a kick out of it & so did we. Lulu DID NOT like the trolley's whistle blowing (most of the railroad crossings were pretty minimal - so barriers to cut off car traffic........so the trolley blasts its whistle as it approaches the crossing as a warning to cars!) Outside of that though, it was a complete & total success. Thank you Luke & Jackie for treating us to our tickets!

Friday Round Up 9/21/18 - "Be an Includer" blog post, Mary is a Catholic, Fall Fun at the Lake, Free Tickets, Bday Dinner, Beach Day

Hap-hap-happy Friday to you!

1. Raising Girls Who Are Includers

The title of this blog post is misleading because I feel like it misses the fact that plenty of grown ups need a reminder about the importance of being an includer & of course plenty of parents of sons need to teach them similar lessons. Maybe even the same lessons. As the mom of a young girl, I gobble up what I see as good advice for raising a happy, healthy, well adjusted daughter. I read about ways to make sure she respects her body, is empowered to use it for all kinds of good, respects her heart & others' too. Despite opening with a critique of this post - I really do appreciate its message.

My own Mom always taught me to be inclusive. There was no space for mean girl BS in our house (except the physical fights my sister and I engaged in........siblings are often each other's enemies before becoming best friends it seems to me!!). When I complained as a grade schooler to my Mom about the annoying girl who always wanted to sit with me, play with me, etc - she showed me how to reframe my negativity & straight up get over myself. "She just wants to be your friend" my Mom would say. "She wants to sit with you because she likes you" (duh - how could I be so blind as a kid?? Though, if I am honest - I, in that moment, probably didn't want to be her friend- she likely wasn't "cool" or "popular" as I've grown up - I've learned that cool & popular aren't necessarily all they are cracked up to be).

I am still a work in progress, but I do strive to be an includer in all aspects of my life. When I take the time to think about what my life's purpose might be, I come back to the idea of connection. I think making connections might be my purpose - whether it is connecting me to others or facilitating connections for others. It is my sincere hope that the Bug will learn to be an includer and relish the positive role she will have in her community as a result.

2. Mary is a Catholic!

Chris & I were honored by the invitation to serve as Mary's Godparents! She was baptized on Sunday surrounded by 4 generations of her Mom's family & 3 of her Dad's plus some close friends. 

The weather was beautiful, she was a rockstar & didn't so much as bat an eye when Father Foley poured water over her head! Tara & GR had a fantastic dinner party to celebrate after the ceremony was over. Congratulations to sweet baby Mary & welcome to Catholicism dear girl!

Sometimes you need a rib. I get it Bug.

Too bad I didn't take anymore photos. #fail

3. Fall Fun at the Lake

We hosted our first guests in our home via Airbnb last weekend! Eek! I feel really happy with how it all turned out, the family was great & had an awesome time in Evanston! But it meant we needed to not be at home since someone else was staying at our house :) To the Lake we went & enjoyed ourselves quite thoroughly! The weather was all summer but some of our activities screamed fall!

We have started going to the Apple Barn Orchard & Winery to pick apples - its closer to the house than the Elegant Farmer  & though we still love the Elegant Farmer - at this stage of the game, less time in the car is a really great thing.

Then we headed over to Pearce's for their customer appreciation weekend. Lulu took her first hayride (though there was no hay.........) to pick a pumpkin! She was still so little last year when I took her to the zoo's pumpkin patch.......she didn't really get it! But this year she was all about it. Picked out an acorn squash & a nice looking pumpkin!

Lulu's 1st (hayless) hay ride!

Trying to find the perfect pumpkin

This one. This is THE ONE.

4. Free Bears Tickets

Pretty great seats!

What a pleasant surprise to get free tickets to a Bears game! I hadn't been in years & the weather was ridiculously warm & summery (opposite of the last time I went when I couldn't feel my fingers or toes because of the cold). 

Unfortunate shot of strangers' butt & crotches...

A last minute date night was a great time. A good reminder to say yes to things even if it seems like a lot.......we had just gotten back into the house post-Airbnb guests checking out, we'd run around having fun all weekend, we were tired. So what? Free tickets don't come along everyday! I'm so glad we motivated & went! 

Brian Urlacher was inducted into the Hall of Fame during halftime

5. Birthday dinner with friends

I adore Mexican cuisine & am quite certain I would happily eat it weekly. So when we planned a dinner with 2 of my great friends, the restaurant here in town Taco Diablo came immediately to mind! They have the most ridiculously good chips & salsa, chunky flavorful guacamole & stand out tacos. The bartender was knowledgeable and friendly, the service is always top notch, and it has funky, fun decor. Check it out if you find yourself in Evanston - you won't be disappointed!

I appreciate the fact that these friends & I have been consistently celebrating birthdays together for the better part of 10 years. Despite the fact that life is hectic & busy & jobs are stressful  & one friend has 3 kids, we make it happen - dinner out 3 times each year!

Oftentimes we will make or buy birthday cake or cupcakes for each other's special day. Oftentimes the restaurants we choose offer their own desserts - so they don't particularly want us bringing in outside dessert. Oftentimes we eat the treats while sitting in a car together!! The weather Wednesday night was comfortable - but it had POURED rain before we met up & who wants to sit in a puddle? Not I! So birthday cake, complete with candle, in my friends car topped off a great night of catching up & delicious food. Pretty great indeed!

6. September Beach Day

It was 90+ degrees outside yesterday! Crazy hot & quite humid too! So the Bug & I went on a bike ride to the beach. What a treat to be swimming in Lake Michigan in September! We also ran into a friend from my mom's group who was having a beach day with her daughter - added bonus!

7. These Two

Total I suppose its three - but the Owenn pup rocking out with the Bug & snoozing with Chris both make me smile from ear to ear.