Trudy turns ONE!!!

It only seems like yesterday that I found out I was having Lenny and Faye and now Trudy, our sweet, little surprise has turned one. It's been a great year. Crazy, yes. Occasionally overwhelming, sure. But fabulous, never-ever gonna be sorry we did it, fantastic!

Two days before the big day. Another cool August day (seriously, what city do I live in?). And Faye wore pants! I know, after over a year of "I'm-not-waring-anything-that-isn't-some-sort-of-skirt" she wore pants. I was floored!





Lenny still loving his pirate sword.










Our soon to be one year old!










She's ONE!!!!! Isn't she sweet when she wakes up from her nap? She's so happy!









Lenny and Trudy spent most of the day just chilling.









Faye did A LOT of interpretive dance. She gets this from her uncles.









Sweet little baby!










The big 1!










Daddy comes home and it's time for cupcakes and singing "Happy Birthday!!!!"






Yummy!!!!!







"Want to share?"








Lenny and Faye enjoy the frosting mostly.





On Sunday we had Trudy's party at the forest preserve by our house. This is her Uncle John, the grill master!





Aunties Paula and Cory.







Lots of Nichins.








Ed, who made it all possible!










Uncle Arnold, Auntie Lora, Uncle Ken, Uncle Jimmy and Auntie Fleurette. These are the uncles of interpretive dance.





Uncle Joel, Uncle Jim (of ring-around-the-rosie fame) and Aunt Elaine.






Harry, Gabby and Faye play bags.







The birthday girl's chair.










Faye demonstrates her bubble blowing prowess.










My princess!










The birthday girl, crown and all, blows out the candle (with some help from mommy).






My grandparents and Grandpa Boyle.







The spread.





Ed, the cake cutting machine!







Trudy, before the destruction begins.







She does love that cake!







Delicious!!!!







Faye tries the crown out that evening at home.











So it was a fabulous day, we all survived and I no longer have an infant in my house, just three terrific toddlers!!!!!

Train ride

Ed's been meaning to take Lenny and Faye for a ride on the CTA trains for sometime and on Saturday he finally got his chance.

Lenny, decked out in his engineer's hat and Faye had quite the time.







After the train ride, they met up with Lenny's godfather, Arnold, and all went to a toy store. You may imagine it was a fun day for the kids.

Hooray for Carnival!

After our fabulous experience in IA, when we heard one of the local Catholic schools was having a carnival, Ed jumped at the chance to take the kids.

Lenny and Faye ride the Dragon!







And the trucks....







and the motorcycles!







Lenny, an avid fan of the many motorcycles in our neighborhood, LOVED this ride!






Ed then took the kids to sit down for some lunch, but Faye was only interested in jamming out with the band!




She's a dancing queen!






Back in the trucks.....







drive careful, it's getting dark!







Lenny picking out his pirate sword at the strong man contest.






Good night, Carnival!!!







Trudy discovers the pirate swords the next day. Avast ye, maties! Hand over the milk, you scurvy dogs! Aaarrrggg!!!!

Why, oh why, do I get behind????

I know, I know....what on earth are you doing, Heather, that keeps you away from your own blog? A blog dedicated to your children?!?!! FOR SHAME!!!

Ok, now that the guilt's out of the way, here's what we've been up to the past few months:

Well, an exceptionally cool summer. This is from July! Lenny's wearing jeans and Faye has on a sweater! Surely it's a sign of the end of times when Chicago has a July without 100+ temps. I'm just saying, if toads start falling from the sky, well....we're in trouble!
















I finally got updated portraits of the kids. Yes, I did order some to hand out. No, I never got around to actually handing them out. They're in the mail, people! At least, I plan to put the in the mail. We'll see how well that works out!





























Trudy starts to pull up. I know, exciting times! Well, there's more, of course, but I broke it up again so see below!

Traverse City, here we come!

So Ed and I were nervous. The last time we went on a road trip with the kids, Trudy screamed for two hours straight. Not wimpered, not cried, WAILED at the top of her lungs. She made Faye cry. It was bad.

But Ed and I are crazy, I mean dauntless, so we decided to pack 'em all up again and head to my mother's newly renovated place up in Traverse City. Oh, and did I mention that Ed drove my grandfather's RV up there? 'Cause he did. He even had to back that puppy up on the high way!!! Yeah, that's how my man ROLLS!!! Tee-hee!

Anyway, everyone did great. No crying, not even from me, and we made it there in one piece and excited about our weekend.

This is my grandfather's RV. It's big. It's hard to steer. But Ed mastered that thing. And now it's in Michigan TO STAY!




This is my mom's place at the top of the hill.




Here's the far side you can't see in the previous picture. You can kind of see the wrap around porch that lines the back part of the house.





Here are the grape vines! They do produce a small crop of grapes each year and contribute to a local winery. This year's crop went to Left Foot Charlie wine.


A close up of the grapes. They won't be ripe until Autumn.







So, as some of you know, my kids get up early. Really, really early. And wake up everyone around them. So, in an effort to get them out of the house so everyone else could sleep, we took them out to pick wildflowers for my mother's birthday.



Lenny discovered this field quad the other day and just hopped up on it. He decided it was his toy. Thank God he didn't know how to start it up or there would have been trouble!!!




Here my two trouble makers out for a joy ride.










We decided to take the kids for a walk to the alpaca farm next door. Unfortunately, next door is like three miles away. The kids did well. This is a picture of the long drive down the hill from my mom's place to the street.






And here's one of the alpaca. They're sweet, but we bored them once they realized we didn't come bearing snacks. Oh well.