June 2019 - Welcome to the World Baby Pearl/PK!!

Welcome to the world sweet baby PK!

Hip hip hooray! Marg & Kobi welcomed their 3rd daughter, Pearl (PK) early in June in Reno, NV! I was lucky enough to meet her the day she was born and she is just an absolute delight!

How many girls is too many girls in a Target shopping cart?

$20 Target baby pool was a great investment!

Just relaxing by the pool with Uncle Kobi

Maybe the last photo of the Platt family as a party of 4!!

There were lots of treats....

Headed to the nursery so PK's birth mom could nap

I spent a few days with Lulu, Hennie & Neva in Reno while Marg & Kobi spent time in the hospital with Pearl. What fun we had going swimming, to the children's museum, to parks and in the hot tub at the rental house! Thankfully we had beautiful weather our whole stay and were able to enjoy lots of time outside. Marg & I snuck in a run every morning before she & Kobi headed over to the hospital which was a good way to prepare for my day with 3 girls 4 & under :) Must preserve one's mental health whilst caring for so many kiddos!

Waiting to meet PK at the hospital - these 3 are such goofs!

Waiting to go meet Baby Pearl for the 1st time

Proudest big sisters anywhere

Platt Family, party of FIVE!!

These 3 :) 

Proud Aunt

Proud parents of Pearl

Proud cousin Lulu

Hard to believe Baby K #2 will be the next baby to join Pearl & the rest of our crew

Nice face shot Neva. Real nice.

Sweetest sweet PK

Trouble makers ;)

I love H's face here

Ready to hit up the Children's Museum

Once Pearl was discharged from the hospital, we all set out for Lake Tahoe (by way of Truckee, CA) and a different rental house. What an abundantly beautiful part of the world Tahoe is!! Holy moly, I can't wait to go back. The beaches are wonderful, the water is crystal clear and the mountains are snow capped even in June. Kobi found a ridiculously nice Airbnb for us in Incline Village, NV. It truly felt too nice to have kids in it.......but they were listed as family friendly!! It had a big, beautiful deck overlooking the Lake where we had s'mores over the fire pit. It was giant, lovely & incredibly comfy.

Pearl is home from the hospital!

CA bound!!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM 

Exploring Truckee, CA

It is s'mores o'clock

Lovely morning run in Tahoe 

Take me back there - it was so darn beautiful

The Bug & Neva checking out Lake Tahoe

See any fishies? 

PK & Nevie having breakfast at the beach

Just unreal in how pretty it was

Beach fun in CA

Lulu & I had a lot to do back at home, so headed out almost as soon as Mom & Dad arrived! At least we got to have an afternoon at the pool and dinner together before we left. We were sad to say goodbye to sweet PK and the rest of the crew, but it was a wonderful trip!

BoBo & Bump made it to NV!

Couldn't get enough pool time

Delish dinner with BoBo & Bump

Look who is wide awake?!? PK with her big beautiful eyes

After waking at 330am to catch our flight, not too surprising that Lulu was ready for a nap on the plane

Welcome to the world PK, we are thrilled to have you here & part of our wild & crazy family!

Sweet home, Chicago :)

5/18/19 - Cody's Baby Shower

What could be more fun than being pregnant? OK, honestly - lots of things could be......as typed by the woman who is 28 weeks into pregnancy #2...... but the "right" answer is being pregnant with your best friend!!

The 3 of us have been best friends since we were born. This fact makes me truly happy.

We celebrated Cody & Baby C in style at her parents' house in Glenview. Her big sister, Maggie & her mom threw a wonderful party to celebrate both Coot & the baby!

Our little ones will be about 6 weeks apart and I can't wait for them to meet :) Our bumps have had some quality time so far this spring & summer, I only hope the babies can get together as much.

Chris brought Lulu to pick me up at the end of the party, she was pleased as punch with the cake!

Also loved Auntie Stacey's willingness to do big jumps :)

Friday Round Up - 1/25/18 - Change in Plans, Snow!, Cousins Skate, "The Disease of Being Busy"

Happy Friday! 

The Polar Vortex is ripping its way across the Midwest.....

the temperature is expected to be approximately

 -1 with a wind chill of -19 when this post is published! 

Yikes. 

At least we like Old Man Winter around here!!

1. Change in Plans
We have some travel coming up & due to the freezing rain/sleet mixture our area had this week combined with Lulu rocking a fever.....we changed our travel plans! We virtually never do this, but our plans were flexible for once & there were very few downsides! Thankfully we are visiting my flexible sister & her girls - so our lodging didn't need to be tweaked at all!

The notable one is that my parents are taking us to the airport in the 5am hour......and I will miss my Mom's Group Dinner Club. The theme is "Dinner in the Hamptons" and everyone is making one of Ina Garten's recipes. I love the Barefoot Contessa - I love her recipes & her vibe! Sad to miss out on this theme, but it made the best sense for us.

Why punish oneself with the possibility of flight delays or worse, cancellations when your airline offers to change your flight for free??? I'm not a crazy lady - so I went with the change in plans :)

2. Snow!
We have had some good snowfalls this week! We've had enough snow to cross country ski, sled, and romp around happily!!

A few highlights of the snow this week:

I cross country skied up to one of our favorite coffee shops, Backlot to read my book and drink an oat milk latte that is, in my humble opinion, one of the best on the planet.

We met friends to sled with babies & dogs. It was cold, snowy, windy - so we didn't last too long....but we were invited back to their home for a cozy winter dinner. I love that Lulu is getting old enough to be interested in her friends. It makes my heart feel full to watch her play with some of the little people in her life!

Lulu & her friend Lilly rocking the teeter totter in the cold & dark :)

We took Owenn skiing with Lulu in her stroller with the ski attachments! What a great purchase that was - Lulu can be cozy under the cover of the stroller, in a nest of snowsuit & blankets while we get a great workout in hauling her along!

3. Cousins Skate

Despite Lulu's cousins, Aunt Tara & Uncle GR having a bonkers weekend, they invited us to skate on their backyard rink this past Monday! 

Again, cold, windy, sort of polar vortex-y, but Lulu loved it. She had so much fun being pushed around on the ice by her big cousins! She certainly doesn't have the hang of skating yet - but loves to talk about it anyway! BoBo & Bump came out to watch the antics, as did Lulu's cousins' Nana. A very fun afternoon topped off by hot chocolate made by Kane & a fire in their fireplace. Winter perfection!!

4. "The Disease of Being Busy"
I often listen to the program "On Being" on weekend mornings on WBEZ. I appreciate its commentary on faith, spirituality, religion, and all things in between. This post made me realize I should look at the program's website more often than the never that I currently do! A woman who I went to sleep away gymnastics camp with shared this article on Facebook (I'm almost sure I've read it already....can't be sure if I've shared it here.....sorry if this is a repeat!) this week & it struck a chord with me.

It seems to me I've read a hundred articles/posts about the benefits of allowing ourselves (& our kids) to be bored. To allow space for deep/big thoughts, creativity, wondering, imagining. Lots of good things can come from being bored it seems. And yet, it is so hard for us, (in the age of screens everywhere) to give ourselves this time/space.

Do you make space for boredom in your house? For yourself? For your kids? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and the ways that you do it (if you do)! I don't know if I leave enough space for boredom - but it is on my mind, which is probably the first way I'm going to be able to accomplish the goal, right??