The Boys and some TaeKwonDo

The boys were enjoying playing in the capes together.  Someone may or may not have been jumping off the arm of the chair.  

Brotherly love.

Partners in crime.  For unknown reasons we had a box of the non-washable markers floating around.  They were a little discolored for a few days.

Rub a dub dub.

Three brothers in a tub.

We aren't joking sometimes when we say that he's climbing the walls (or at least the door frames).

Elias was sleepy.  His foot was a good six inches from touching the floor and he was ZONKED.

The first weekend in June we traveled to Kansas City (and then on to Topeka) for Tyler's 4th degree black belt testing.  It was a long drive.  Cuddling with grandma was a requirement for recovery.

Tyler running through his form at black belt class/pretesting on Friday night. Kick!

Breaking those boards at testing on Saturday. This was one of four different breaks he did.

Some impressive goofing off with his fellow 4th-degree elect right after testing.  Good times, good times.

Mothers' Day, an Anniversary and Fathers' Day

My littles and me at lunch on Mothers' Day.

This picture is for my Mom.

Tyler and I had an anniversary (number 9 if anyone is curious). To celebrate, we once again went to Kiki's Bistro.  It was so awesome last year that we couldn't resist.  We've learned that we both really enjoy lamb.  Tyler got the chops and I got the stew. Both were awesome.

Then they brought us this really delicious dessert.  Chocolate mousse cake...mmmm!

Enjoying our anniversary corner booth.

The boys' Fathers' Day haircuts.  (For those of you unfamiliar with our tradition, Tyler's Fathers' Day gift each year is cutting the boys' hair.  He gets to cut it as short as he likes without complaint from me.)

I actually really like this length for Elias.

And it seems to work well for Albert too.  Good job, Daddy.

On Fathers' Day we went for another bike ride.  This time we had a picnic out by Adler Planetarium.  It's on a peninsula into Lake Michigan so it has some pretty awesome views.

Tyler and his littles pose in front of our view, the Chicago skyline.

At the end of our bike ride, these two were sound asleep in the trailer.  They look so cuddly!

We finished off our Fathers' Day with some special milkshakes using the rest of our last-day-of-school cake. It was pretty good.

The Last Days of School

Last week was VBS at our church so today is the first normal day of summer for the kids.

Asher actually finished preschool a couple of weeks ago now (June 4th).  This was from his last day.  I love his ensemble that day.

That's Asher's friend, Marcus.

And this is Mr. John. Asher has always felt more comfortable with men, so Mr. John helped him break out of his shell a bit when he came mid-year.

This is Miss Ally.  Asher liked her quite a bit too.

Good bye Peterson Park.  We'll miss you!

 Addilyn's last day was the 13th.  Look at those missing teeth.  So cute!

The standard pose.

Addilyn and a couple of her friends, Sanne and Maizy, on her last day at Peterson Elementary.  We have loved Peterson and are so sad to say goodbye to all her friends and the awesome community there!

The happy-last-day-of-school cake.  It's vegan, so as to be Asher-friendly, but was actually surprisingly good.  So if anyone needs a really good vegan chocolate cake recipe, let me know.

To celebrate the last day of school, we biked along the lake and stayed to watch the moon rise.  It was a full moon, on Friday the 13th.  It seemed appropriate.

I don't know what this face means so please submit any caption ideas.

Cheese!

We also had picnic dessert.

Mmm...chocolate cake.

And a chocolate shake to share.

As was to be expected, we spilled it.  Oops!

Please submit caption ideas for this one too.

Picnic with the skyline.

Peek!

Smile!

It was a little chilly so we had to snuggle.

Our Chicago Bucket List

We have one more summer in Chicago so we made a bucket list of all the things we'd like to do here while we have the chance. Obviously, biking as much as we are able is at the top.  It's our most favorite thing to do here! As you can tell from this picture, Asher was pretty excited about it.

Albert was too!

On Memorial Day, we decided to cross a thing or two off our list.  We biked down the lake shore trail to Navy Pier and had a picnic at the end.

Hey look, a half naked baby eating a peanut butter sandwich. 

Our three Supermans.  Two of those shirts were Tyler's when he was little.

Supermans, looking fierce.

The non-supers, looking smiley.

Tyler and me.

Addilyn, climbing.  The boys aren't the only ones who like to climb things.

Then we did something completely new.  We rode the ferris wheel at Navy Pier.  

Everyone thought it was pretty fun and special.  

Albert was sleepy (and Addilyn is the sweetest big sister ever).
So that was the first of a series of things we have crossed and will cross off our Chicago list.  Here's to a summer full of Chicago fun!!