Chicago: The Landmarks

 Formerly known as the Sears Tower

 View from the 103rd floor

 Skydeck

 Looking down on the city

 Officially the Cloud Gate but known to the world as the Bean

 The kids had so much fun

Pritzker Pavilion

I understand the acoustics here are amazing, but it is also beautiful!

 We loved the John Hancock Building!  This was our view every morning when we woke up

 View from 94 floors up

 The history wall at JHO.  Andrew is standing with Mrs. O'Leary's cow who took the blame for the Chicago Fire.

 Buckingham Fountain

We discovered on a sunny morning the sun coming up over Lake Michigan will create a rainbow in the fountain.

 Navy Pier

 Navy Pier fireworks viewed from the John Hancock Observatory.  Such a different perspective to see them from above.

Navy Pier is very commercial.  The ferris wheel, shops, and vendors everywhere.  Then we got to the middle of the buildings and found gorgeous stained glass.  There was an amazing, huge stained glass museum in the middle of Navy Pier.  

Chicago Top Ten

On our last night in Chicago we asked the kids to tell us their favorite things from the week.  Here are the top 5 from each.

 Evie #1~ the Cubs game

 Andrew #1 ~ riding in a taxi

 Evie #2 ~ American Girl

Andrew #2 ~ Lego Store

Evie #3 ~ Field Museum

Andrew # 3 ~ Running the bases at Wrigley Field

Evie #4 ~ Buckingham Fountain

Andrew #4 ~ The Bean

Evie #5 ~ Double Decker bus tours.  

I somehow managed to not get a pic of the bus, 

but this is a view from the bus.

Andrew #5 ~ John Hancock Observatory

Allergy-Free Kid

For the first time in eight years we have an allergy-free kid in our house!  We feel so blessed that Andrew has outgrown his egg allergy.  It still feels strange to not ask about ingredients and just give him whatever he wants.  He wanted a doughnut for his first egg-filled food.  We let him pick from the case and one that was mentioned was custard filled.  I had to stop myself from saying that custard is made with eggs.  He really wanted rock candy at Dollywood, and it felt really strange handing it over since we have avoided that stuff like the plague since Evie ate it (and got to meet the very nice paramedics at Dollywood) a couple of years ago.  It has been fun to introduce him to some new foods, and he is really looking forward to having birthday cake at future parties.  Hopefully Evie will outgrow her egg allergy in the near future.  We really won't know how to act if that happens!  

Egg Whites & Egg Yolks with NO reaction!

Thumbs up after eating an entire egg at the allergist office

 His first request: a chocolate and sprinkle covered doughnut from Krispy Kreme

Pancakes at Long's

KYS Summer Track

Over the past few months when anyone heard that Evie loved running they told us to sign her up for the Knoxville Youth Athletics summer development track and field program.  She was very excited to go to every practice despite the heat.  Her very favorite thing was when they let her run the cross country trail at Hardin Valley Academy.  The long jump was really the only field event she cared for, and even then should would rather run that jump.  We saw huge improvements in the jumping from her first practice to her last meet though.  She also got to work on passing the baton in relays, which was new to her.  Overall, it is a great experience for kids to learn about different track and field events then compete on Saturdays at Tom Black Track.  

 Meet #1 ~ 4x100 relay

Meet #1 ~ Long Jump

 Meet #1 ~ 800 meter race

Meet #1 Results: 7th in relay, 5th in 800 meter, participant in Long Jump

 Meet #2 ~ Long Jump.  It was amazing to see her go from barely jumping at the first practice to seeing her use great form to jump 7 1/2 feet.

Meet #2 ~ 100 meter dash.  Comfortably crossing the finish line first!

Meet #2 ~ 400 meter race

Meet #2 results ~ 1st in 100 meter, 3rd in Long Jump, 4th in 400 meter race

Reading between events.  We all learned you need patience for track meets!

Father's Day weekend

To celebrate Father's Day weekend, we headed to a Smokies game on Saturday and went fishing on Sunday.  The kids have really enjoyed baseball games this summer, but this one was even more exciting because they got to do the base change buddies event!  Hopefully their dad enjoyed his weekend as much as the kids :)

Orange Beach

We headed back to our favorite beach for vacation last week.  We had a great time, and there was definitely not a dull moment.  We hadn't been there 5 minutes when Evie dropped a 3 foot shovel off the 9th floor balcony.  Thankfully it was plastic and landed in the bushes below.  We had big waves the whole time and red flag conditions at the end of the week.  Andrew kept us entertained with his observations.  My favorite was when he pointed out the person on a string, which turned out to be a person parasailing.  We watched two weddings and a beach rescue.  There weren't any lifeguards during our last trip, and it turns out there is a great story about parents turning a tragedy into something positive behind the new beach patrol.  Lots of people were helped by Molly's Patrol on Thursday and Friday. The rain kept us off the beach on Saturday and caused the roads (and our breezeway) to flood.  During the rain the fire alarm sounded in our building, so we had to to evacuate.  I'm sure we looked a mess but we went to lunch instead of standing in the rain.  Andrew lost a tooth on Saturday and failed to look for tooth fairy money on Sunday before we left, so his dollar was left behind.  Yep, never a dull moment.    

 OBA 2012

He loved riding the waves

 She was more timid, but loved it once she got brave enough

Summer Learning: Baseball

I have great respect for all the homeschooling mamas out there.  While I'm not even entertaining the thought of homeschooling for real, I thought it would be fun to pick some topics to learn about this summer to prevent any regression before 1st and 3rd grade.  If you follow me on Pinterest then you probably are already clued in to my plan.  Great resources for education available on there by the way.  Our first topic was baseball.  The kids have been reading books, defining baseball terms, and drawing fields and stadiums.  Of course we also got to take a field trip!  We took our reading logs from the Smokies Summer Reading Program and exchanged them for tickets to the game on Wednesday night.  It was so rewarding to hear the kids pointing out the different player positions, talking about what kind of a hit it was, and understanding what all the numbers on the scoreboard meant.  They were seeing all of their knowledge put into action.      

The books we read are listed below.  They all came from our local library!

Baseball Science

Ultimate Guide to Baseball

The Everything Kids Baseball Book

A Whole New Ball Game: All American Girls 

Baseball from A to Z  

Evie's First 5k

Evie caught the running bug at Disney World in January and announced a few months ago that she wanted to run a 5k.  I told her I didn't think she could run 3 miles, but she insisted she could.  I took her to the track and told her it would be 13 laps to finish a 5k.  Of course she proved her mother wrong and ran all 13 laps!  She was so excited when our friends Frank and Knox invited her to run the KTC EXPO 5k with them this morning.  She had such a good time!

 Ready to run

 Evie, Mr. Frank, and Knox

 Headed down the last hill

 Sprinting for the finish line

 Go Evie!

Chatting with Channel 6 about the race

So long 2nd grade

 Day 1

 She didn't miss a single day of 2nd grade!

Day 174