First day of school and I'm prepared

We were only able to spend the weekend in Chicago because we had to be back in town for the first day of school!

I found a printable and had a little photo shoot with her before we left for the morning

she sure loves her silly faces lol

Her good friend is in the same class so we met up with her and her sister to walk into the school. We had a few minutes to wait and then we had to wait some more while the teacher checked in all of the kids - I forgot how hectic the first day of school is! But by the time we left, she was all situated and ready to go!

She is loving her new school so far and I'm so glad I was able to go with her on her first day. It was so fun to see all the kids!

Go to Mr. Jelly Bean

My one request while we were in Chicago, was a Chicago-style hot dog, so on Sunday morning we got up and went to get lunch...

before heading off on our next adventure...

 to the Jelly Belly Factory! 

None of knew what to expect, but we got to learn all about the history of Jelly Bellys, how they are made, saw art made of Jelly Bellys and even learned all about Regan's love of them. And of course, we got free samples and all sorts of treats to take home with us (we still have a bunch in our pantry, actually!)

While we were driving to the factory, we saw a sign for a cheese shop near by so after we finished up, we went to check it out - it ended up being an antique/cheese shop so we looked around for a while before buying some stuff to bring home with us - including honey sticks, which I had searched every where for to get Jimmy for his birthday. I guess I should've just gone to Wisconsin to begin with haha

We made one more stop before heading home for the night - to see a elk preserve right outside of the town Jimmy's dad lives in. It was a nice relaxing, way to end the day and our time in Chicagoland!

Through winter snow, the scarf's a flyin.

A few weeks ago, I signed up for a Scarf Swap organized by Meredith at The Tichnor Family. She's done it for a few years , and this is the second year I've participated (though only the first time I've gotten a scarf lol)

I was matched up with a sweet heart named Camila and was so excited when I came home last week and saw a package waiting for me!

It was all wrapped up so I took my time undoing all of it...

And I was so excited for what I found inside!

I've been on the hunt for the perfect grey infinity scarf since sometime last year and apparently, I shouldn't have just gone to Atlanta to find it haha


I am in love with it! It's the perfect color and I can tell it's going to keep me nice and warm when the weather here starts to turn!

Thanks so much Camila - I hope you like your scarf even half as much as I like mine ;-)

I do it for Chicago.

The birthday girl only had one request for her birthday dinner so of course, we indulged while we were in Chicago...

and she wanted crab.

And not only did she want to eat, she wanted to break it apart all by herself - we were dodging errant pieces of crab shell all dinner long! It was too funny to watch!

Apparently, Jimmy hadn't gotten his fill of the Billy Goat because after dinner we went to the original Billy Goat to grab a drink and look around at the rest of the stuff hanging on the wall. Jimmy has already said that the next time we're in Chicago, he wants to go back so he can look around some more - there was so much and no way we could see it all!

 

Soon, it was time to head back so we hopped on the train again while she dressed up Max in his Tiger gear (don't worry, he got a Cubby uniform as well - but absolutely no ChiSox ;-)

 

 Meanwhile, Jimmy decided he was hungry and couldn't resist the leftovers he had been carrying around all evening...

 

 I'm really not sure why I found this so funny...but I couldn't stop laughing!

Drove to Chicago, all things know, all things know

Once we got to Navy Pier, we stopped at the Billy Goat to get some food - Jimmy was so excited! He's been talking about going to the Bill Goat for months!

After we got a cheezborger and some cheeps, we made a bee-line to the place the birthday girl had been looking forward to the whole trip...

Build-A-Bear!

She picked out a sweet puppy named Max and had a blast building him - the best part was the stuffing and picking out the heart. If any of you have ever been to Build-A-Bear, you know they have a special thing they do with the heart - Rub it on your nose so it smells good, give it a kiss so it's loved, rub it on the top of your head so it grows big and tall, etc - and the guy helping us was so great during this part, he included each of us into his little spiel. She got to rub it on grandpa's heart so he loved his family, on dad's legs so he was strong and - my favorite part - on stepmom's (ie me) hair so he had style! hahaha I about died laughing!

After that, we took a stroll through Harry Carey's restaurant to look at some of the memorabilia - Jimmy and I probably could have spent hours there, it was packed with stuff!

But we couldn't take too long, because we were on our way to a special birthday dinner....

But there's a light on in Chicago, and I know I should be home

Jimmy's dad lives right outside of Chicago, so we decided to take his daughter down there for her birthday and to visit with his dad. She was so excited - she talked about it non-stop pretty much all summer!

We left after he got home from work that night and got in really early on Saturday morning. After catching some sleep, we got on the train and headed downtown.

It started off a little grey and cloudy, but luckily it never really rained! We got pretty lucky with the weather - a little cold, but nothing we couldn't handle :-)

After we got into the city, we got on a boat to travel down to Navy Pier. Even though I'd been to Chicago quite a few times, I'd never actually done this so I was really excited to see a different view of the city.

Next up....

Navy Pier!

Baby, oh, you're a birthday girl tonight

Our first day of vacation started with Jimmy's daughter birthday which was a pretty great way to start!

Him and I stayed up the night before wrapping gifts, decorating and getting balloons for the next morning and she was so surprised when she came downstairs! I even got her a birthday cupcake that she got eat for breakfast - lucky girl ;-)

 Please excuse the bed head - I she was so excited we just dove right in!

After we got ready for the day, we ran some errands and got ready for the rest of our vacation.

 She made out pretty well, but the best part was yet to come...