Kicking off the three day weekend!

Joyce and Ron are our next door neighbors and they are just so dang nice!

They invited us over for dinner the other night and Sue and Stuart from across the street joined us.They are here on assignment with HSBC for a two year contract from England. Kind of funny how small the world can be.

 We had Salmon, corn on the cob, chicken, potatoes, asparagus, salad and for dessert we had strawberry shortcake with fresh strawberries!

Hello Summer!

Joyce and Ron have grandkids that visit often so our kids were very entertained with all the "new" toys. We had a really nice evening and lost track of the time. It was nearly nine before we got home and started bedtime. :)

We will miss them lots!

Ron, Sue and Stuart.

Kira getting some loves from her daddy.

Joyce and Ron let Evan bring the legos outside. He was thrilled.

Stuart played some ball with Kira.

Joyce cooking the salmon. She had three marinades and even though I'm not a fan of fish, I tried all three.

Maybe I'm growing up because I actually enjoyed the fish. We brought home leftovers. It was good. Evan didn't care for it, but Kira devours fish, and I'm pretty sure she is going to be really happy when we add it to our menu rotation. She loves the stuff.

Joyce also gardens and the yard is just gorgeous.

Take me out to the ballgame...

The final post!

Are you sick of baseball pics yet? I know I am. But that may be because I'm the one sorting, editing and trying to narrow them down so as not to bore you all to death. I *love* to read blogs when people include lots of pictures, but I always feel like maybe that's a bit boring when they are my pictures.

So first are some shots of Wrigley and then some of the players. Followed by a really cute story about Kira. :)

The buildings all around W have bleachers on top. Pretty cool I thought!

Jackie Chan threw out the first pitch.

So Kira had a fun little surprise.

One of the attendants at the game walked up to us and handed Kira this envelope:

She was really surprised! (So were we!)

Needless to say, she *loved* it. :) (It's a picture of Randy Wells, she has no idea who he is and she doesn't care. It is special none the less. ;)

Both kids got this certificate after the game too. Kira's picture was blurry, but Evan's turned out cute.

That's it. Thanks for reading about our adventures in baseball!

Edited to add my picture of the signs after the game! I can't believe I forgot to include these!

CUBS FANS ROCK!!!

There was the obnoxious guy next to us, but he got kicked out. ;)

But then there was the group of guys behind us (and one girlfriend) who were so awesome to my kids! If you guys ever randomly stumble on this strangers blog, let me just tell you again THANK YOU! (I did tell them in person after the game).

They high-fived. They fist bumped. They jumped up and down and cheered and they even tried to watch their mouths. ;)

They truly made it a fun, happy experience for my kids. That fans are a community of people with a passion. And that there is nothing more fun than making friends where you had none!

Eating, having fun, eating...eating...wow. We ate alot!

After we arrived we had to get food. It was dinner and we got there early so we could watch batting practice in the hopes of some autographs. (That didn't happen but it was fun to stand right on the field for a few minutes anyway).

These guys were so fun and friendly, I almost didn't mind the prices. ;) 

We started the kids off with Pizza. And then it just went down hill from there if that is possible. I was getting very nervous. Evan has the weakest stomach. He over does it and pukes and I cannot handle vomit. It makes me very leary to feed this kid at a fair or game and then know I have to ride in a car with him.

The view from our seats:

Not too shabby!

Here are some shot of us watching the game:

Go Cubs!

So I would have to say that at 3-0 victory for the Cubs at Wrigley Field is the ideal way to experience your first major league baseball game! I am so glad we had the opportunity to take the kids! They have never seen a MLB game before and what better way to start off!?

Heading to the game on the shuttle (much smarter choice than parking near Wrigley! You pay $6 for the parking/ride over instead of $35 for parking and walking. And it was really easy to use. 

The fun part is the whole bus was filled to the brim with Cubs fans all decked out in red/white/blue shirts. I am really happy I splurged on shirts for all of us! We fit right in!

Lousy pic from the bus window. It's the best I could do under the circumstances. ;)

Here we are waiting for the game to start!

I took over 300 pictures. I'm still editing/sorting. But I'll have more later! Check back. (I have to go eat some breakfast first!)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Land of beer and cheese.

We didn't eat any cheese, unless you count what was on the kids burgers. But we did find the beer. ;)

Last time Kira and I went up we found a gift idea for my dad. I didn't get it, but after talking with Shawn we decided to go ahead and do it. (Look for it in the mail this week, sorry it's late Dad!)

So we took a day trip again and did some shopping and had lunch out.

The kids were being terribly cranky and whiny all day, but Shawn and I tried to ignore them and pretend we weren't their parents and for the most part enjoyed ourselves in spite of them.

We had lunch here. Good food. And apparently good beer. (Like I would know?)
Shawn bought a six pack for home, so it must be tasty.

The kids had their rootbeer and it was really good.

I had a Diet Coke. ;OP

After lunch we thought about taking the brats children home for a nap. But then on the way to the van I saw this: 

And so I mumbled something incoherent to Shawn about kids, food, van, blah, blah, something, something, and went in.

It was like a little slice of heaven. If I ever get that beach cottage I dream of I will shop for the whole house at Anthropologie. Because I love it so much I want to marry it.

I dream of a rusty table with mismatched chairs in a fragrant overgrown flower garden. (See why I need a beach house? You can't have anything over grown in Tucson unless you make over a million bucks a year to pay the water bill)

There was more eye candy than I could bear. It is just such a cool store.

And these shelves. I actually want to put shelves like this in my house in Tucson, so this is my reminder picture. And the candle is something or other aloha and it smelled like heaven. Or at least what Heaven would smell like if I had created it. But I couldn't find the size I wanted and I couldn't part with $18 for a candle. 

This was the back side of a display. Cool backdrop, too bad I got really bad exposure on the shot. But at least the kids weren't hitting, punching, whining, crying, complaining or bitching at me at that exact moment. So it's a good picture.

So we left and drove around Milwaukee just to see the place. This building is cool. Here is the top:

and the rest of it:

Then some of the houses we saw and thought were pretty:

On the way home the kids conked out so we stopped at A&W . :)

The end.