We got a sitter for the girls and met up with Gus and Missi for a birthday celebration at Bonefish. It’s her favorite restaurant and since we’re such kind friends we go there once a year for her. No more, no less. 

After dinner we had a drink at Bar Louie

Then of course back to our house to relieve the babysitter and to tell some more jokes. 

We had a great time and hope that Missi had a very, very happy birthday!!

We celebrated Rhys’ birthday with a pirate themed shin dig at a park near Lance and Sheila’s. The kids enjoyed hot dogs, hamburgers and plenty of birthday cake. They were entertained with a pinata, water ballon fight, playgound, volleyball, decorating beachballs, and of course lots of swimming in the pool. Fabulous party!!

After a busy, busy vacation we spent our Friday evening relaxing at home! There was much unpacking, laundry, and cleaning to be done. All work and no play makes for unhappy little girls so we threw in some snow cones. Ahhhh…its good to be home. 

Up at 3:30 am, we caught our VERY early flight and headed back to Colorado. Such a fun vacation and so many wonderful memories with my family and my fabulous little girls. It’s always really hard to leave Chicago. It still feels like home when we are there. 

My absolute favorite restaurant. If I could choose my perfect meal, this is exactly what it would be: glass of red wine, tomato and onion salad, and cavatelli arrabiata. Phenomenal!!! 

I really love living in Colorado. It’s a great place to live and raise kids, but one bite of that cavatelli and I start thinking about packing up my bags…

Spaghetti face!

tomato and onion salad with just the right dash of cheese

eight finger cavatelli (never made by a machine – rolled by hand with eight fingers, no thumbs!) and a perfectly sweet and spicy tomato sauce

need I say more….

the girls shared spaghetti and meatballs. there was no complainin’ at this table.

After dinner we walked around the city — you gotta walk a few miles after a dinner like that. We ended up in our old stompin’ grounds. We swung by an old favorite, Jake’s where the girls had an ice cream and we watched some of the Olympics. 

Our last girls days in Chicago and we had lots to do! 

The girls picked out these shoes the day before and walked around the city for two days wearing them. Heals walking for miles and miles? I was waiting for the complaints or blisters, but didn’t hear a peep out of them. They were happy as can be and love these silly little minnie mouse shoes. 

Waiting for the bus to Navy Pier

Annabelle loved the public transportation in Chicago. Buses and trains with no car seats or boosters! A five year old can get use to that.

We watched the live version of Beauty and the Beast at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. This is Gwyneth’s favorite show — no disputing that. She sang along to each song and clapped her little heart out when the Beast turned into a prince. She is so very passionate about this show — she’s a crack up!

Holy cow! We sat outside for lunch at Harry Carey’s. I gotta admit it was a bit too hot and humid outside for these Colorado girls (we were all three a bit grouchy) and the food wasn’t very good. 

Such a busy week for my baby girl. She feel asleep about 10 minutes in and slept the rest of the tour. She needed the sleep and was ready to party after her rest. 

The city can be dirty — Annabelle hand sanitizes. 

A stop at Water Tower place

The girls and I had a snack at the hotel while we waited for B to meet us after work. Still going strong after a super busy day.

We met our fabulous friend, Cathleen at Wrigley Field! 

This was Gwyneth’s first game at Wrigley. They managed to survive quite a few innings, but not quite the entire game. We took the red line back to our hotel and at 10:30 pm they were tucked in bed and within seconds they were sound asleep. Phew!

The girls and I spent the morning at Becky’s house with all the cousins. Becky goes back to work in the fall so I wanted to hang out at least until she got home from her in-service morning so I could see my little sister. We had lunch together and then I took my girls downtown to explore. 

Our first stop was Soldier Field – which Annabelle immediately asked if we could go see a Bronco game. Thatta girl! 

There’s a lot to do at the museum, but their favorite part was the dinosaur exhibits. They’ve got some big ol’ bones there!

Annabelle may have liked the dinosaurs best, but I’m guessing Gwyneth liked her ice cream treat better. 

For dinner we got to meet Casey in Greek town! I just love that gal and miss not living near here. We ordered up some flaming cheese – OOPA!!! and shared some gyros. The girls had spaghetti with lamb meatballs. I didn’t tell them they were made of lamb….I don’t really know if that would have made a different. They devoured them!

We checked in our hotel downtown and the girls were in DIVA heaven. The tile was sparkly so when you turned on the lights the entry way and bathroom sparkled. B was not so thrilled, but the girls thought they were in princess heaven!

My entire family was in Chicago to see Little Lily get baptized….or “get splashed” as Gwyneth called it. The service was very nice, Madison was an acolyte, and after Lily was “splashed” the 4 little girls went off to Chidren’s church to play.

Everyone played really nice together this weekend – adults and kids! 😉

I love this picture of my sister and her husband. So proud of their baby girl and happy together.

After the baptism, we went for lunch an then back to our hotel for a rest. YaYa really wanted professional pictures of all the girls together — since it happens so rarely. They did great! (pictures to follow). We grabbed dinner with Becky and Darnell and then YaYa asked to keep our girls at her house for the night. They had so much fun playing with their cousins and getting a break from us!!

At the hotel

While the girls spent the night at YaYa’s, we grabbed a good ol’ Chicago beer at the Morton’s next to our hotel and watched the Olympics. 

Our family flew out to Chicago to meet the newest little Paz girl. My niece Lily Louise McClaney was born in May and I’ve barely been able to contain myself. I couldn’t wait to meet her and my goodness is she just an adorable, loveable, sweet little baby girl. I am a sucker for a baby girl – and lucky for me we have a few of them in this family. 

This is the first time all the cousins have been together! I couldn’t have asked for more.  

First time meeting Lily

Sweet sisters. Madison has been waiting quite some time to have a little sister! Well, worth the wait for this cutie.

She is a really sweet girl and I don’t think I heard her fuss one time. She did spit up on me every chance she could, but never cried. The next day Annabelle told me “I hope she doesn’t slime you again today”. My thoughts exactly!

We had a really early flight – left the house around 4 am, spent the day splashing around at the hotel pool and then off to dinner at Morton’s with the entire family. Busy, busy day for our girls and they as usual made us proud. They really know how to behave for a four hour meal. Amazing!