LUCY TURNS TWO!

Friends dropped these off at breakfast this morning for LE and JA.

LE had a chunk before anyone could censor her!

Pinkalicious stopped by.

The next morning...

SUCH A LOVELY SPRING DAY

Such a fun and busy day, but still time for naps...

We linger a bit this morning over absolutely delicious coffee from Delice. JA is much better today, but LE ended the evening last night throwing up three times. They both slept all night until 6:45am. A good night.

We've decided to go to Village Pointe mall so that the little ones can run around a bit on this lovely Spring day. JL is interested in visiting the sale racks at Coldwater Creek--she's copycatting my latest purchase, a red tapestry jacket, because she loves red. I take JA to Scheels to see the Ferris Wheel and we buy some pink candy sticks for Lucy's Pinkalicious birthday party tomorrow.

JA's not feeling especially perky today--the after effects of yesterday's illness and a bit of his normal personality. He has good days and once in awhile he just has a day where he needs to whine a bit. We sometimes ask him if he got up on the wrong side of the closet today--a reference to the fact that at grandma and grandpa's house he usually bunks on a pallet in the walk-in closet of the front guest room.

Still a very sweet little guy and especially patient while he's with JL and I at Coldwater Creek. He plays guitar a bit and entertains the older gentleman waiting for his wife to make decisions.

We visit the Apple store to check out iPads for Marielle--the release of the new iPad 2 is scheduled for 5:00pm so we're in and out before the crowd. We're all hungry and walk over to Paradise Cafe. JE has the southwestern salad, I opt for the BBQ chicken chopped salad to share with JL, and she shares her roast turkey with cranberry sandwich on molasses bread. JA orders PB andJ and LE opts for grilled cheese. Both kids get a chocolate chip cookie and yogurt tube with their kiddie lunches. Did I say the cookies are divine here? There are bowls of cookie chunks to sample as we wait on-line. Such a temptation...



Everyone goes down for a nap by a bit after 1:00pm and we all sleep until almost 3:00pm--LE sleeps until almost 4:00pm while JE goes in to work a bit. Just as she gets up MA arrives home and LE attaches herself to her daddy.


We've been talking about going to Walmart for almost two days--both LE and JA have been promised we'd go. In the end LE gives up on the idea and soon so does JA., so JL and I head out with our to-do lists.


We wander Walmart freely like we've never been to the big city before. At check-out I call JE to see if she minds if we stop for dinner. She's content at home and MA has a meeting this evening. I decide we should have dinner in Dundee and begin asking the people around us in line for directions, and a very nice couple go out of their way to make sure we go in the right direction.

We decide on Dario's Brasserie for Belgian-French food. Such a lovely place with a tempting and delicious menu. We start our meal with Belgian pommes frites with two dipping sauces--ketchup and herb-mayo. JL orders the Croque Monsieur with a mixed green salad and I choose the Socca Caprese--a salad of tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil on a chickpea flour crepe. We ate soccas at the markets in Provence this winter and this is a bit of nostalgia. Delicious! Did I mention the lovely Chilean rosé--La Playa from the Colchagua Valley?

Tomorrow's the big #2 birthday party, and the children are nestled all snug in their beds so Marielle should soon head there, too.

GRANDPA NEEDS TO SEE THESE!

Bought the boots on clearance at TJMaxx for $5 and our friend TS drew the face for me.

So, so cute!

LE took her first shopping trip alone with grandma and Aunt JL.

She always carries her purse when she leaves the house.

THE MANICURE

JL and JE took a break this afternoon and went to the mall for manicures. Everything was going well until the manicurist sent JL back to the sinks to wash... JL didn't see the sinks; she bypassed them mindlessly. Thinking it weird, she entered the break room where staff was eating and talking, walked to the kitchen sink, and proceeded to wash her hands.

When she got back to the manicurist's station she commented to JE that all the Vietnamese girls in the kitchen were laughing at her and covering their mouths. JE said she doubted they were laughing at JL. JL commented that she couldn't believe they had her wash her hands in the break room where the girls were all sitting around, and it smelled like food!

JE just shrugged it off, and then noticed that through the door, just beyond the row of sinks, there were visible signs of food and storage containers. She said to JL, "You were in their break room! They were laughing at you!"

Both JL and JE dissolved into wracking laughter.

It gets better...

JL engaged the young manicurist in conversation. JL is quite the conversationalist. She asked the young woman where she went to high school. The girl replied, "Millard." JL was puzzled as she didn't recognize the school, so she asked where Millard was. The manicurist said, "In Millard." JL said, "Is that a small town." "No." JL said, "I went to Richwoods, but my younger brother went to Peoria Central because they redrew the school boundaries." Then finally comprehending her error, "Oh, I'm in Omaha not Peoria. I've been in four places in two weeks... "

Wracking laughter again.

THELMA AND LOUISE

A hundred years ago when Brad Pitt was still cute and Thelma and Louise had recently made their infamous road trip, JL and I made our own first road trip together to Lake Wales and Bonita Bay, FL. DM's Wheaton College baseball team was doing Spring training in Lake Wales and my boss, RWW, had just built a lovely vacation home in BB and offered up the opportunity for us to use his home for a few days.

We talked our way to Lake Wales in central Florida--the trip from Illinois down took about two talking hours (the trip home took two days!). The BB team practiced and played inter-collegiate games at a LW camp and in the evenings the very gracious and hospitable Rockness family hosted the boys and a few parents at dinner. MR's home was a reflection of her artistic soul and her conversations with these young college men were deep and insightful. We helped out a bit with the meals and basked in the warmth of the family home.

DM had transferred to Wheaton from UVA at the semester and was thoroughly enjoying the camaraderie of his team. He's a natural story teller, and by the time we arrived on the scene he'd gained the nickname of Goose, as in Mother Goose.

After a couple of days we journeyed on to BB and Naples--loving the beaches, ocean waves, and clever shops and great restaurants while staying in the brand new house. RWW's wife had compiled a list of their favorite food haunts and tiki bars, which we thoroughly explored.

We did experience a quandary--how could we leave the sheets clean while departing in the early morning hours for our return to Lake Wales?... There didn't seem to be any extra sheets stashed anywhere in the house. We ended up washing and drying our sheets, remaking the beds, and then sleeping very lightly and cleanly together in one bed!

All this reflection to say, JL and I are on the road again for about the 15th time. We are driving to Omaha for LE's second birthday. The BMW is LOADED with gifts and food and hand-me-downs. There're Barese sausages, steak fajita and chicken taco meat mixtures, Havarti and Romano cheeses, D'Amato's tomato bread, Tortilla Factory Hand Made Style white and yellow corn tortillas, sandwich wraps, jalapeno giardinera, vidalias, and bell peppers--all from Caputo's. And, a stuffed pork tenderloin wrapped with a skirt steak. There's an authentic French baguette from Ambrosia and white and dark chocolate anise-flavored biscotti from Caputo's A feast!

There's a bottle of Krystal hot sauce for MS sent by PW from New Orleans and some special beer that CA sneaked into the trunk. JE gets a few new kitchen utensils, while JA is surprised by a new red light saber and the return of his favorite blue guitar. Most of LE's gifts are wrapped for Saturday, but she unwraps her bright coral tutu and matching shirt. There's a brown-pladish 5'5" x 7' rolled rug and an end table for the guest room. Marielle has been grandma shopping for two weeks at the bargain racks in Kohl's and Meijer's, TJMaxx and Marshall's.

We laugh and hug and then eat a fantastic meal of roasted chicken gyros. It's guaranteed that we'll enjoy wonderful food and lots of fun during our four-day visit. The big party is on Saturday afternoon, while tomorrow night we're going to a pre-school fund raiser at The Pizza Stop where karaoke is promised! And, we'll be beginning a search for a studio or one-bedroom short-term lease for July-August-September when the new little baby boy(!) is due.