Chicago: Part 2

Not only are we lucky enough to have friends in Chicago, but our friends just happen to be in the fish business and Lauren is currently really into fish.  It started with the book "My Visit to the Aquarium" which lead to more books and DVD's.  

Ryan is the owner of Blue Thumb Chicago and was happy to have a few employee's in training for the weekend.

Our Chi-town visit had to include a trip to the Shedd Aquarium.  I was surprised what Lauren could remember from books or dvd's.  

"There's a lion fish."

"That's a trigger fish."

I won't sugar coat the whole experience...it was great to show her all the fish, but we thought she was kidnapped more than once and she was over it faster than one should be a $30 a pop!  The dolphin show was a great finale to the visit for Lauren, but William gave up halfway through.

I just wanted a nice family picture with the Chicago skyline in the background.  

This is what I got...

I attempted a pep talk that was about ten years over their heads and got this.  

I guess I'm still searching for this year's Christmas card pic.

Lauren refused to be in the group shot...and then cried when we actually took the shot without her.

We LOVE our kids!

They both were sleeping before we exited the parking garage, no wonder they weren't in the mood for family pictures:)

We ended our trip with a little water fun (you work with what you got:))...

and some kite flying.

Thank you Regan and Ryan for being such great hosts!

You are so welcoming and always make us feel like we're right at home.  Till next time:)

XOXO

Aubrey

Chicago: Part 1

We made our annual family trip to Chicago last weekend and wanted to share our fun filled time with our amazing hosts, Regan and Ryan!

We quickly unpacked the car and grabbed a quick cocktail to calm the nerves after a six hour car ride with some unpleasant passengers.  I may or may not have been one of those unpleasant passengers.   After legs were stretched and blood pressure lowered we headed  to dinner.  Greek Style!  Opa!

We hadn't had greek food in forvever and while the food was fantastic, what normal one year old wants to sit after sitting in the car?  Hmmmm...  

Bing, bang, boom...dinner over.

A little gelato on our walk home and we called it an early night.

Regan and Ryan hosted a bbq on Saturday with some friends.  It was great to see some of their friends and catch up with some of ours.

9 month old J.J came to play too.  I don't know what it is about cellphones, but kids love all kinds.  Our kids were texting away on his blackberry.

These two pictures are cute, but they would be even cuter if Billy was holding Wills.  But he was outfit twins with JJ.  Notice we match expressions too:)

Lauren was in a picture taking mood, so I went with it.

Billy even got a cute one with William.

The party was a ton of fun until William got sick.  He couldn't keep anything down and nothing really calmed him.  We took turns with him inside until he fell asleep, and you thought I was ready for a drink earlier:) 

In this moment I had just gotten William down and poured that glass of wine...

Billy continued to snap away when all I wanted to do was sit.  I literally sat down and both kids woke up...I gave up and went to bed. 

C'est la vie!

XOXO


Aubrey

Choo Choo at the Zoo

Finally, a little computer time.  Besides checking in with email, I've barely been on the computer.  It's been busy but aside from a second power outage in two weeks, it's mostly good stuff.  The camera was full of pictures after a weekend to Chicago, but I had to post another zoo trip because it was everyone's first train ride.  

We went with some neighbors that we've really gotten to know this summer.  Sloane and Kai live around the block and are right around the same age as Wills and Lauren.

Per Amy, Sloane's mommy...she's in the witness protection program:) 

We visited our usual spots and incorporated a scavenger hunt that I found here.  We improvised a few things, but the kids liked the game.

At the end we took the train back to the front gate. I don't think I'll get out of a train ride any longer:)

Pardon my face full of hair, but I had to document William too.

 Happy Friday!

I hope to play a lot of catch up this weekend and post about our great trip to Chicago.

XOXO

Aubrey

William's Room: DIY Fabric Letter

I tackled my latest project last night and early this morning.  I would have more pictures for a tutorial, but I was multi-tasking.  Last night while watching TrueBlood and this morning while making the kiddos breakfast.  

How about a little hot glue on your french toast?

I found inspiration from these letters and followed the simple tutorial.  

via pinterest via littlethingsbringsmiles

Supplies were simple.  Fabric, scissors, fabric glue, padding, sharpie, hot glue gun.

Oh, and the letter, pictured below.

A little hint...just cut bigger and gradually go smaller.  You can always cut more, even after gluing.  I also glued one side of the letter and then the next, pulling tightly.  The tutorial suggested gluing the face and then the sides.

I'm not a crafting genius and besides a few glue burns, it was easy.  Maybe an "R" or "B" would be harder.  When doing the sides, I simply eyeballed and cut a long stripe that was a little bigger than double the width of the letter.  I used the fabric glue to fold over the fabric so there wasn't a frayed edge on one side.

I just hot glued the other side to the back of the letter.  I did make cut outs (if that makes sense) to help make sure the sides were tight.

 I do have rest of his monogram and enough fabric to complete the project.  But I'm going to wait until we get the room more complete in case I want to throw in a few other patterns.  

I think it matches pretty well:)

 I am linking up this post as part of a summer pinterest challenge project with some pretty talented home bloggers.  Check out Young, House, Love, Censational Girl, and Ten June.  

Warning:  you can get pretty lost in clicking on some of these projects:)


XOXO


Aubrey

Fourth of July Fun

We have hardly ever celebrated our nation's birthday at home and not because of a love for fireworks all over the US...mainly, it's one less vacation day to take.  Those were precious in my working days.  I took a little trip down memory lane to see just how long it's been since we were in town...2005.  We had just come home from our honeymoon.

It was a nice change to be in town, even extending the holiday a day early with an overnight to Casa Crawford Senior.  It's Crawford family tradition to put on a "Lame Fireworks show," a first for our family.  It was scheduled a day early, purchased from a grocery store and properly displayed during daylight hours.

There was a moment of fear at the awe-inspiring fireworks.  She was then accompanied by Grandma to the farthest point of the viewing area.  

The rest of the show was all smiles.

We held a simple picnic at Grandma and Grandpa's pool for the fourth.  It was a scorcher of the day so we were in the water more than we were out.  Billy even dusted off his swim teachin' skills and gave Lauren a private lesson.

We were both extremely proud of our beach chairs.  He simply enjoyed a chair his size, I was full on salesman for our Tommy Bahama beach chairs.  It's a backpack, cooler, and chair.  But who wants to spend $84 when you can get it for the bargain price of $26.99 at Costco!  

We had a great day!  I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

XOXO

Aubrey