Hawks... A Little Closer This Time

So you all know by now that we have our Blackhawks tickets every year where we get to go to 9 games and although split a bit, the majority of those are attended by dad and me.

Well, a few weeks ago was one of those games, but there was a little twist. That day Uncle Brian called and said he was going to the game with Isaiah and Eli, so things got a little more exciting.

So we all went to the game and went to our own seats, theirs being just a little bit closer... ... and by that I mean ours are in the second-to-last row in the stadium and they were in the 11th row.

So we hung out in the concourse at the end of the first period and just messed around a bit.

And then the text came in from Uncle Brian. He said for us to come down there and he and my dad could hang out on the concourse and I could go with Eli and Isaiah down into the good seats for the rest of the game. I was unbelievably grateful, but actually not all that surprised as this is the type of thing Uncle Brian does for other people all the time.

Either way, the rest of the game was amazing, the Hawks won 4-1 and I got to take it in 11 rows deep with my two favorite people in the world.

Oh, and dad got a selfie in with me right after the game, ice level.

Zaya's Milwaukee Birthday, Take 2

So a couple years ago we went to Milwaukee to celebrate Isaiah's birthday and, well, we all had so much fun that Zaya decided this year we should go back.

So we caravan'd up to Milwaukee and met at a small park right by the Lake and did our thing.

Climbed trees, played in the fountain, frosted cakes, blew out candles, gave Zaya his presents and cards (one of which apparently Eli got a pretty big kick out of).

Then we went down to this corner of the lakefront where you can fly kites. Even if you think it's not windy enough, when you get down to the point, it's plenty windy and you can get your kite as high as you want it to go.

Mae and Sophie took a turn...

Pax took a shot at it...

And then I did my thing.

And then as we were going through the pictures from the day dad had a thought and started sifting back through pictures. And sure enough, check this out - the first one is me from May, 2012, and the second one is me from a couple weeks ago.

Looks like a 2018 trip to Milwaukee to fly kites is definitely gonna have to get on the calendar.

Summer Summer Summer Time

That's a line from a famous Will Smith song. And by famous, I mean, not really that famous (or good for that matter), but anyway, appropriate for this post.

Thought I'd give you a little update as to the goings-on this Summer so far, as it's been quite fun.

We had a St. Helen Father's Club outing at the White Sox game, which was awesome on a lot of fronts:

1. I got to eat a TON of junk food because all the other kids were and mom and dad got really tired of negotiating with us (Mabel more than me, she's relentless) so cookies and cotton candy and all kinds of other junk was consumed, and it was fun.

2. I got to hang with my homegirls - that's JoJo on the left and Shea on the right.

3. Pax got his first baseball game of his life under his belt.

It's also been quite a chill Summer so far, lots of fun on the weekdays with our nanny Julianna, lots of chilling out fun on the weekends.

Some sprinkler time for the young's and then the below shot, for example, is what we call our Backyard City Golf Course. A bucket, some mini clubs, and see who can chip it in first.

It wasn't all chill, though. We had a very stressful Stanley Cup run with our Blackhawks, who turned out victorious (if you've been living on the moon the past month). Nana saved some newspaper cut outs for me and I, in turn, decked out my room with my favorite players (Kane, then Crawford, if you're wondering. And Kane is not pictured because Papa didn't get the paper that day).

Dress up has been on the docket, both with ourselves and at a sleepover we went to at Ana and Sid's. Sid made a fantastic Hawai'in Santa Claus. Hm, I don't think I've ever written the word Hawai'in before in my entire life. I know it's wrong because that little red dotted line is underneath the word (and also because there's no way it has an apostrophe in it) but guess what - I'm not going to fix it. I'm not going to go to Google right now and try to type it in and see what comes up. You know why? Because I don't care. I don't think I'll ever write it again at this point so who cares. 

So you'd think I would be done about now, right? That looks like a pretty full first 2-3 weeks of the Summer, on top of piano lessons, reading camp and all the rest of it. Well, it's not.

We've done picnics

And parks

And played our fair share of games.

We've chilled out with our best pal (and sometimes worst enemy)

And our best pals when Isaiah and Eli came down last weekend.

And last but not least, we had a visitor who is royalty. That's right, Buddy came to town. Nana and Papa went to visit Uncle Paul in Connecticut so instead of boarding Buddy (I feel like that could be a name of a movie - "Boarding Buddy") we took the little rascal in and he spent the week with us.

Needless to say it was amazing. He was chill and we snuggled with him a lot (that's him taking his paw and resting it on Mae's foot unprompted while she stood there, like he wanted to hold her hand) and Mae fed him at breakfast and I fed him at lunch and we took tons of walks with him...

And then we left for a little too long and he tore up the recycles trying to get after the empty box of chicken broth which still had some remnants on it. (Uncle Brian took that photo. He just thought it was hilarious that dad had to clean up such a mess).

And when we found him he was like this... just chilling in his bed with an empty beer can in his mouth. Good to know Buddy can sit back and enjoy the Summer with a cold one too.

Christmas Eve (well, kind of) at Nana's

Well, this year for the first time ever we did not celebrate Christmas Eve on Christmas Eve itself. Uncle Brian (the State trooper) had to work on Christmas Eve so we celebrated it Sunday night, on the 22nd.

There were lots of activities...

Some of our favorite cousins (Hannah)

and some gift opening

Side note: Check out the dog in the background to your right in the photo. Doesn't it look like a real dog? Nana probably wishes... that's just a pillow.

And then it was time to tickle the ivory and play some Christmas carols. I rocked my Christmas piano recital songs - Angels We Have Heard on High and Rudolph -

and then Isaiah hit the keys and that boy can play.

And since I had my seat warm there on the bench I hung while Dad and Mom did their thing.

And then Nana did her thing! She's been taking piano lessons, too.

And not to be outdone, next came Uncle Brian. Wasn't a Christmas song, mind you, but he still has one song committed to memory from 30 years ago. Well played, Uncle B.

And while we did our thing, Mae did hers with Buddy.

All in all it was another wonderful Christmas Eve (well, kind of) at Nana's.