Last weekend of summer

School starts Monday, so this weekend was our last weekend of summer. I felt a responsibility to make it spectacular. I don't think I really hit that goal, but we did squeeze in some last-minute fun activities.

First, was City Mini Golf. It is an 18-hole miniature golf course that travels around the city to schools and parks to assist in fund-raising and provide family fun. It was fun! It also cost $28 for the boys and I to play and buy drinks, and that seemed a little steep to me, but who cares! It was the last weekend of summer!

This weekend the little traveling carnival came back to our neighborhood, so we visited that too. I love this little carnival, even though the rides are old, the attendants are tired, and there is absolutely no shade in the middle of the street. We've been taking the kids since they were too young to walk and it feels so...quaint?....to walk down the block to a carnival.

This year the boys wanted to ride the ferris wheel, which is something I've never done in my life - until today. I talked Jett out of riding in his own car. He actually wanted to ride in his own bucket on the ferris wheel, all by himself. I think he was feeling confident after riding the ferris wheel with Grammy at Bay Beach. Thankfully I talked him in to riding with Kai and I (and half-way through he admitted he was glad he was with us). My hands were sweaty as we swung round and round in that old rickety red bucket of doom, but I kept the boys busy with my nervous chatter. For better or for worse the boys were too short to see as much I could see and I was too nervous to lift them up  for a better view. They never asked me to, so I think they were nervous too. But they could look in to a bunch of apartment windows and over the roofs of the buildings, so there was lots to talk about and I think we all enjoyed it. They were definitely very proud of themselves for having ridden it, and honestly I felt the same way.

Good-bye summer!

He's a hugger

Kai is still a big cuddler. He prefers to fall asleep with his arms wrapped around one of our necks. He's even developed a strategy for night-time cuddling. When I'm snuggling with him at night, he now asks me to tell him when we are in the middle of snuggling and when we have one minute left of snuggling time. I haven't asked him why he needs to know these things, but I think it is because he has certain snuggling positions he wants to get through before I leave the room for the night. His end-of-snuggling position is always the same. He rolls over on to his side and asks for my arm, which he then pulls across his body. I love it.

I love this picture of Charlie and Kai. This is snuggling pose #1. Aren't they sweet?

The impossible recap of 6 months

It's been so long since I posted on the blog that I don't even know where to start. I think I'll play catch up by scrolling through the photos on my phone and picking out my favorite ones.

Here are two of them from the night that we took the boys to see the Jungle Book movie at the Millennium Park Summer Film Series. I wasn't sure if the boys would go for the Jungle Book, since the movies they seem to like the best are more adventurous, more complicated, more sassy, and more modern. But they did love it. They laughed out loud at the right parts, and strained their necks to see around people who stood up or walked in front of us. And when the Bare Necessities song came on and the whole audience started singing....well, that was something else. I had no idea it was so popular among both kids and adults.

At times like this I love living in Chicago. Sitting on the lawn of Millennium Park as the sun set and the skyscrapers lit up, friendly families and adults all around us on a cool summer night. I think it's amazing that my kids might never be in awe of the city like I am, since they are growing up right in it. Will they ever marvel at simple scenes like this? Will they be astounded by the beauty of the skyscrapers at night with the setting sun behind them?

Maybe not. Frankly, poetic ruminating aside, I'm just happy that I got the kids downtown at least once this summer.

We took the train there and two buses home. It was a late night. Both boys fell asleep on the first bus and they continued to sleep while we sat on a bench and waited for the next bus. It wasn't easy carrying  a sleeping Kai while we walked that last block home, but Jett was a trooper and made it easy on us by walking. I think it was 11:00 before we all tumbled in to bed. It was a great, late night.