Caught

We have entered a new phase of parenthood. Ellie took me by surprise when I picked her up from school on Friday.

The story starts on Thursday morning. Ellie asked if she could wear her sparkly earrings to school. I told her "no". Two reasons for my "no". One is that she is only supposed to wear jewelry in "moderation" for her school's dress code policy. Two is that these are clip on earrings that are quite tight on her ears and cause her ears to turn red and eventually hurt her.

I didn't think another thing of it, until I picked her up from school on Friday. As I was walking with her down the hallway to get her backpack, I noticed she had her sparkly earrings on. I immediately stopped and while asking her why she had the earrings on was trying to put together what was going on. She quickly covered her ears and looked like she was "caught".

Turns out that Ellie Catherine decided that she wasn't going to obey her mom and hid her earrings in her backpack on Thursday morning, wore them to school on Thursday and removed them before getting picked up by Dad. Same thing happened on Friday, except for the remembering to remove them part.

I was completely shocked that my little girl premeditated this whole thing. She has lost all of her jewelry for a week. This punishment caused tears at first, but might not be quite tough enough for the crime. Hopefully, the punishment along with our discussion about the incident is enough.

Bee Cut

I've been after John for about a week to agree to get Austin's hair buzzed. Here's how I decided it would be a good idea. We never like how his hair looks when we go get it cut. When he was a baby, I just thought he was super adorable with his short hair. And, summer was coming, wouldn't a buzz cut just feel great? I worked on Austin most of the week, too. I kept telling him how cool a buzz cut would be ;-) He got confused early in the week and called it a Bee cut. (get it, Bee...Buzz..., get it? haha)

John did it himself in the garage. You may notice that big sister, Ellie, is not too sure about the whole thing. She does not like the "new" Austin hairstyle. I kind of like it. Austin loves is, luckily. John is still trying to get used to it.

She's our star!

I'm not even sure where to start. It seems that one day Ellie is a baby, the next day she is a cute little 3 year old and now she's a big girl that doesn't need her mom and dad for everything anymore. As I sat in the school auditorium anticipating Ellie's Kindergarten music program, I kept wondering if she needed anything, or was she nervous, or did she need a drink (because she was eating spicy Cheetos on the way to the program), or could she even walk in her new sandals. But, I had to just sit there and remember that she was a big girl and would be just fine.

A little note about the sandals: I bought her these very cool sandals at Once Upon a Child and she has been dying to wear them. She can't wear them to school because of the dress code, but I told her that she could wear them for the music program. Well, I got her dressed in the van prior to the show and as we began walking through the parking lot, heading for the school, she was walking or should I say VERY awkwardly making her way toward the school. I stopped her. Obviously, she could NOT walk well in these platform style shoes. I had brought a back-up pair of sandals and told her we needed to change her shoes. She piped up and said "I HAVE to wear these shoes!" "Why?" I asked. "Because I told Jessica I was going to wear them and I CAN NOT LIE!!" At that, I gave in and let it go. I then made her walk all the way to the bathroom to go potty before heading to meet her classmates, to give her a little more time to get used to walking in the fancy shoes.

Back to the show...

We watched the kids file in and take their places on the risers. We were lucky that Ellie was on the end of the top row - because of her height, of course. We had a nice clear view of her :-)

Ellie has always been a bit shy, but she sang all of the songs and did all of the motions. We were SO proud of her. Other than the major blister on her foot from her new sandals, everything went well. Good job, Ellie!

Chicago Trip Finale

John arranged a surprise for my birthday. I thought that our trip to Chicago involved the American Girl store on Monday and the Children's Museum on Tuesday. While I took Ellie to the restroom at Gino's (a great Chicago pizza place), my parents sneaked in and hid around the corner. Ellie and I returned and I got a very big surprise to see my parents there...in Chicago! My mind was racing. Why were they there? Were they going to the Children's Museum with us?

Nope. They were there to take the kids home with them and give John and I some time alone in the big city! Wow. They all definitely surprised me!

We got the kids on their way to Nana and Pop's and John and I checked into the Crowne Plaza. Our room was AMAZING. It was a suite (free upgrade for my birthday). Two large rooms and LOTS of windows. I think we were on the 30th floor. It was cool to look out over the city and see the lake, the buildings, the traffic, etc.

We walked to Navy Pier. That turned into a much longer walk than we expected. After seeing the sights there, we headed back toward the hotel. On the way back we stopped at a restaurant for an appetizer. It was called the "Purple Pig". It was kind of a fancy place that specialized in wines and cheese. The cheese was interesting and the wine tasted great. I've never been to a place like that, so it was fun to try something new.

That evening, John treated me to The Blue Man Group. We took the train to the show, which of course was an interesting experience :-) We ate at a great restaurant around the corner from the theater. All I had was salad, but it was great. The dressing was garlic/dill. YUM. There is a picture of the restaurant included here.

The show was indescribable. I can't even put it into words what it was like. John and I ended up being a part of the show. They prepped us by saying "all you need to remember is Captain Crunch". Well, we couldn't imagine what we would have to do...with Captain Crunch. All I'm going to say is that we were in the spotlight for about a minute and the Blue Men were singing to us. It was awesome to join in the show!

I think that's it. We had an amazing time. Thanks to John for arranging all the fun. Thanks to Nana and Pop for driving to/from Chicago and keeping our kids for two nights. We should do it all again sometime!

American Girl Part II

So, a lot has happened in the last week and I'm just getting around to posting the rest of the American Girl Chicago trip.

We had a great time. We had dinner at the American Girl Cafe, which had disappointing food and high prices. But, I guess it is the experience that matters, right? Ellie loved that her doll could sit at the table with us. Austin wanted a baby chair for his gun/sword. (We bought him a gun/sword at the Disney Store on Michigan Ave. after we left the American Girl store. He deserved a little reward for dealing with all the girlie doll stuff.) He carried that gun/sword everywhere during that trip. And as you see, he even stuck it in some of our pictures.