Last Days of Summer

 Last night, as I was flipping through my magazine called "Family Fun", I realized that we only have two weeks left of summer! And what have we done? We've moved. We've settled in. We've played outside. We traveled to Ohio. We've ridden bikes. We went to the zoo once.

That's it. And now the busy, rigid school schedule begins and we won't have time to go do fun things, except on the weekends. So I decided that I would wake up bright and early this morning and make a list of fun things we can do~outings and crafts, etc for the next two weeks.

I did wake up bright and early but I wasn't quite bushy-tailed, I admit. So I did a little research and today we headed off to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's free as long as you can find parking. And by parking, I mean circling around with all the other vultures waiting for some poor soul to start backing out of a spot so you can squeeze your car in the too small space and call it a day.

Thankfully, we found a spot in the nearby neighborhood and just in time since the boys were begging me for a bathroom! Ah, the joys of parenthood:)

We had a nice but tiring time but it was just enough to fuel my plans for more last-minute summer fun. Those pictures are to come tomorrow but for now, some modeling pictures of my little pickle in my favorite dress ever!

Please excuse her. She's not exactly ladylike in this picture but we have to tuck dresses into the diaper covers so the little busy-bee can crawl! She has places to go and people to see, you know!

 She spent a lot of time at the backdoor yesterday watching her big brothers play. She loves this new mobile life!

 I first saw this dress last fall when I was piddling around on gap.com one day for fun. It is $30 brand-new which I would NEVER spend on a baby girl's dress! But I fell in love with this simple white summer dress and could easily imagine my baby girl in it.

 But isn't she wearing the dress you saw online, you're asking? Why, yes she is! I was a good girl and got off that website as soon as I felt the fingers of temptation calling me and lo and behold a couple months later I happened to spot the dress at a Once Upon a Child for $8. Still a bit pricey but it was worth every penny! I was awfully excited when I spotted my treasure;)

 Especially now that she fits in it and I can see how pretty and girlie she looks:) Of course it did get a little dirty with all that crawling around.....

 I love this picture! It startles me to look at it because all at the same time, I can see both Ben and I in it. I bet my mom would look at it and see me as a baby right away and I bet Ben's mom can see him in it immediately. She is such a perfect blend. Ben is already planning on buying a shotgun to strategically clean when she starts dating.....

My poor Samuel had an unfortunate bike accident today:( He lost control of his bike around a corner and crashed into one of our neighbor's grills. I was upstairs getting ready to bring E down and heard him screaming. I came running downstairs just as he came in clutching his face. It made me so sad to look at it all day. He asked me to take a picture so that he could see it since it's hard to see sideways in the mirror. He looked at the picture and said, "Oh, that's not too bad!"

His head hurt for awhile today and tonight as he was eating dinner, he told me his brain hurt. I can imagine it's very sore! I feel sick when I think about what might have happened had it been 1/2 inch higher and hit his temple. He has been instructed to wear his helmet at ALL times when riding his bike. Which he doesn't want to do, of course.

Parenting is joy and pain all rolled into one sometimes!
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I am off to bed early tonight. Ben is going out of town once again, this time for 4 days, and I have to drag my chickies (and myself) out of bed at 4am to take him to the airport. I admit I am not looking forward to it and am praying for a better attitude.

I hope I can plan enough fun activities to get us through the next few days! If you have any ideas.....