Beginning of Summer

Summer has begun, and I admit, there has been a little bit of television watching. 

 In our defense, the weather has been crappy. On one recent day, the kids had taken a bunch of their stuff up into the little house to spend a rainy morning with books and drawing. However, the radar looked stormy, so I made them come down before getting stuck up there. We made a fort on the porch instead. Carrie dubbed it a "forch."

 Frederick has been on the move in a serious way, and getting into everything. It takes about every last ounce of energy I have to keep up with him.

 Northbrook has had quite a bit of rain this season. Last week was the second time we got hit with so much in a short amount of time. This is about the only time Pete and I are glad we don't have a basement. When there was a break in the weather, I made sure we got out of the house while we could. We went to check out the flooded Village Green. It gave us ample opportunity to discuss respect for Mother Nature.

 There was also ample opportunity to find big, fat worms.

Henry was getting excited for his end-of-season playoff games. It's the first year his team has been old enough for the playoffs. I was feeding the baby or something and the next thing I knew, both kids were dressed in full baseball outfits and ready to play. Clara is sporting Henry's uniform from kindergarten.

 Last weekend we went to Iowa City just for one night. We took some time on Friday afternoon to celebrate Eleanor's birthday with her. After lunch we had a little time to play on the toy downtown. Frederick took his first slide. He loved it.

 Henry enjoyed tormenting the girls with these silly glasses.

 Eleanor and Clara just enjoyed playing together. Here they were involved in a serious session of Ponies.

 The reason for our visit was the City High class of '93 20-year reunion. Gosh, I'm old. I was excited to go, but also unsure of how fun it would be. Turns out we had a pretty good time! Here's Amber and me with some of our Longfellow Elementary compatriots. Seth (far left) was in our kindergarten class and used to come over to play with my dollhouse. I remember him being afraid of Sheng. He now has an MFA in film. Andy may have been the first boy I "went" with. I think it lasted about 4 days and consisted of phone calls after school. Amber broke up with him for me. Ben was still a friend into high school. Doug just snuck into the picture. He wasn't a Longhorn, but he was our CHS class president, and he was wearing school colors, so we let him stay in the picture. Finally, if you know me, you know Amber. We agreed it would have been pretty fun to have more Longfellow folks at the reunion, or just to have our own private party some time.

 Here's our pal Greg, who made a surprise appearance at the reunion. Greg was in my homeroom and was always a computer nerd.

Saturday morning we got up early and drove back to Chicagoland for a continuation of the reunion, of sorts. Our friend Andy, from high school, was getting married downtown. The wedding was held at this place; the Casino Club. It was totally nondescript and unmarked from the outside. The inside was cool and classy, totally 1920's style. It's apparently been there forever and seems to be a fairly exclusive Chicago social club. We tried to Google it and could find precious little information. Here's a fun tidbit I found in an old article: "The most socially prestigious club in Chicago, the Casino,195 E. Delaware Pl., occupies an obscure and somewhat peculiar looking one-story, green-and-black Art Deco building tucked in behind the Hancock Center. Given the staggering price of real estate in the area, many have wondered how there can be such a drab, diminutive structure on that valuable property instead of another monstrous high-rise. But that's the point. The club was not to be uprooted by some mere developer or insurance company. In the 1960s, when the Hancock people wrote to the longtime Casino president, Doris (Mrs. John) Winterbotham, asking to buy the club property so they could have not one but two high-rises in their project, she tossed the letter into a desk drawer, where it was found after her death years later. She had never replied, and the developer decided to leave well enough alone."

The place was all class and we had a great time. Here we are during the cocktail hour. Amazing hors d'oeuvres, accompanied by a top-shelf open bar. 

 Here are Pete and I a little while later...

 And...towards the end of the evening, after much dining, drinking and dancing. This is our subset 'class of '93' photo. 

 Oh, and here are Pete and I taking a self-portrait in one of the giant mirrors. We were just enjoying looking around and soaking in the surroundings.

Monday night, after a day's recuperation, we went out to Henry's (rescheduled due to weather) baseball game. Here he is on the bench with his teammates. Chewing his nails (argh!!)

 And listening to his coach for field positions.

 Here he is, about to...

 ...and making a great catch. Sadly, they lost the game. Still, it was a pleasant night, Bampa was able to make it out to watch a few innings, and we got to have ice cream afterwards. Henry said he was upset not because they lost, but because he didn't get a chance to play another game.

 Finally, here's our smiley little guy who is starting to enjoy his time sitting up. We have to put him in this position, he doesn't push up to it himself. However, he will stay up for a while, especially if we put the piano in front of him.

 Yes, his eyes are still blue.

 Can you believe he's 9 months old?

Tomorrow: Baby's first fireworks!