COMPUTER CRASH!!!!

It is with great sadness I announce that my hard drive has crashed :(

Only six months old, it lived such a short life. In the last week I've had more than my share of conversations with data recovery (we can't save your data, we can save your data, we can't save your data, it will cost you $1800 to save your data and finally we can save your data). Dell has sent me the wrong hard drive. I am hoping to get the new hard drive today, there is so much to update :)

Phill is on a well-timed business trip to Texas, he won't arrive home until Thursday, just in time for basketball of course, then we leave for vacation on Friday. I am hoping to get all updated here before we go because I know vacation will bring LOADS of new fun pictures and stories. There is so much to do with packing, cleaning, planning, finishing up a few baseball loose ends, holding newspaper and mail delivery and did I mention PACKING!?!?!

I can't upload any pictures to this computer (it's falling apart) but I'll post a few pictures from Hilton Head last year.

HOMEWOOD DAYS!!!

We love Homewood Days. It keeps getting more and more crowded, but the kids love hanging out with their friends and playing all the fun games. We get to try food from places that we don't eat at too often, although sometimes, we just eat the food we know is good...gotta love those cheeseburgers from the Fifth Quarter. I think the favorite food item this year was the Italian sausage sandwiches from Hungry Hill.

This year was extra special for Lara and Hunter. They both got to take a turn in the Hockey Dunk Tank Fundraiser.

We couldn't get Hunter out of the tank. He just kept geting dunked time after time and climbing back up to go again.


Lara didn't last quite as long. She was shivering and her teeth were chattering.

This weekend was super busy. Adam also had, what else, baseball. His last game on Saturday was followed by his cousin Ben playing at the same field. It was fun to see them both in uniform.

So much of my family was there, it was fun to hang out and watch the boys play. Lara and Hunter got to play with Frankie, so the day was perfect for them.Isn't she just so cute!!??!! We can't wait for her to be a big sister.

4th of July!!!!

It's amazing how much stuff happens in so few days around here.

Tuesday was Adam's last game for Homewood Baseball. They played in the championship game against the Cardinals on the HF varsity field. It was sad to know that this is the last baseball game some of these boys will play together. He's been playing for this program for nine years. We lost the game but were glad to play against such good friends.


After the game we found ourselves eating dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings at about 11:00 pm. Yikes!!

Thursday I took Lara and Hunter to the Taste of Chicago. We went with our good friends the Spratt's and it was a perfect day.

The kids loved taking the train into the city and they loved all the yummy food. We had Pad Thai, pot stickers, ribs, corn on the cob, Hunter's favorite...chicken and waffles, beignets, homemade potato chips, funnel cake sundae and warm gooey chocolate chip cookies.


The street performers were great, the weather was perfect and the highlight of the day was the Bubilicious booth.


The Bubilicious booth advertised "FREE TICKETS" for blowing a six inch bubble, we assumed they were food tickets for the Taste. Well, there's something you should know about Lara, she's been able to blow six inch bubbles since she was two years old, I kid you not. She learned how to blow huge bubbles when she was really too young to even be chewing gum. We went up to the booth and asked how to enter the contest. The girls got their gum and only had TWO mintues to work it out to blow a bubble. Lara went and on her first try blew a huge bubble, that I forgot to take a picture of. The guy told her she got to choose what tickets she wanted, she was confused, until he said so do you want White Sox tickets? John Mayer tickets? or Jonas Brothers Tickets? HER EYES WERE HUGE AS SHE SHRIEKED JONAS BROTHERS PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!! I am still trying to get over the fact that she passed on the John Mayer tickets but I'll just look at my pictures from last year :)

(taken from my camera phone last summer - seventh row center - thank you Kent for taking us with you )

On to Friday, the 4th. We started at the parade and then went down to Izaak for the Family Fun fest. Hunter loved the water slides and we just hung out with friends and played bean bags. We finished off the day with great fireworks at the Garcia's house.

July First

Adam catching for HF

Adam and the pitcher (Ryan) talking strategy.
Adam pitching for Homewood Red Sox
Adam batting for HF.
Adam batting for HF. Lara catching for the Blue Thunder.
Hunter batting for the Homewood Rookie B Cubs.

• 
  This is a bitter-sweet time of year for us. With fewer than 20 games left we are officially in the wind-down part of the baseball season. The previous three months have been nothing but baseball (with a token soccer game overy now and then). While we are thankful to have some additional down time, we will miss the fun of this season. With all three kids playing on numerous teams, and Phill coaching, we've had more than our fair share of games. As I drove home last night after Lara's team lost it's playoff game, she was so sad that it was her last game to be played at Izaak Walton Ballfields. Even with all the chaos of the season there are a few things I've learned over the seasons.
  


• My kids and husband will always be Red Sox fans.


• I love watching any sport my kids are playing.


• I am really really sick of eating hot dogs.


• DuraPlay is virtually impossible to get out of white polyester.


• Lara can finally stay awake for all of her 8:00 games.


• Hunter will get bored in the outfield, sometimes even in the infield.


• All three kids love to play catcher.


• Adam will always be the dirtiest kid on his team.


• Someone will always break or injure a body part (Thanks to Adam for taking the burden off of Lara this year)


• My kids have been blessed with really really great coaches.


• I will never be able to not yell in games.


• Phill and I get just as excited as our kids when they do well.


• I love my camera and take way too many pictures.

I finally did it!!!

Well, I've gone and done it. I've taken the plunge. There's no going back.

I've created a blog.

I love reading other people's and figured this was a good way for me to keep track of our semi-crazy-insane lives.

I am really really going to try to keep our blog updated frequently (no eye rolling or laughing from those that know me well).

Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll not bore anyone to death.