June Travel

Our summer started with a whole lot of exciting travel. At one point, the 4 of us were in 3 different time zones. 

Burke took his orchestra on tour to the United Kingdom. They toured Liverpool, Cardiff, and London. He was impressed by the Beatles nostalgia, castles, impressive performance venues, and more.

He got to visit Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. 

Stonehenge

Boat tour on the Thames

Tower Bridge selfie

 Doing his thing in a cathedral in London

While Burke was gone, Evan and I drove Ryan to O'Hare to meet Nana for their 6-day Yellowstone adventure. This is how the boys said goodbye to each other. I've never seen them do this before. It just sort of organically happened in the moment. This goodbye gesture makes a lot of sense for these two brothers. Haha!

Travel buddies - This was a perfect situation for Ryan to have a first exciting travel experience away from his nuclear family. I was equally anxious and thrilled for him. Nana is super travel savvy, so that definitely helped ease my anxieties. 

Everyone reports that a good time was had by all. Ryan "had fun, and learned lots" - which has been my mantra for the boys since they started school. This is a picture Nana sent us - Ryan with Old Faithful. 

After we dropped Ryan off with Nana at the airport, Evan and I headed downtown Chicago. We headed with my brother Steve, my brother Joey, and his son Caleb to a White Sox v. Tigers game. It was a heat advisory day, but we all survived - pretty happily. Tigers won!

Evan and Caleb got to run the bases.

Cousins riding the L

We ate dinner at a favorite deep dish spot, and took a long walk home. Evan was such a trooper. 

 Time Zones: At this point, Burke was on BST, Ryan was on MST, and Evan & I were in CST. 

The next day, Evan, Steve, and I played mini-golf. Evan beat both of us, which is surprising, but not really. Steve reminded me that we let him have a couple Mulligans, which would have put us ahead. The greater point is that the game score was super close, and he is only 8. We were humbled.

That evening we spent 2+ hours at waiting for a weather delay at Wrigley Field. The game was eventually called and postponed for the following day. The teams would play a double header.

You can see how Evan felt about it. Again, though, he was a trooper.

He was much happier the next day when we finally got to see the Cubs v. Dodgers. Cubs lost it in the last inning. Since the game was rescheduled at the last minute due to weather delay, the crowd was lighter than usual, and we got to steal seats much closer to the field. That was fun! 

My little sporty kiddo!

After the game, we headed home. Burke had gotten home from the UK the previous day. So, we were excited to see him after 10 long days. A couple days later, we went back to Chicago to pick Ryan up from his Yellowstone adventure. Finally, we're all safely back in the same time zone, with some fun experiences to show for it.

[I'll invite Burke and Ryan to do a post with pictures of their choosing from their separate adventures, since I chose the ones in this post, and they have good shots on their own cameras. We'll see if that happens.]

Planetarium + End of School

The boys and I took a day trip to Chicago in early June to hang out with my brother Steve in honor of his birthday. We met him at Adler Planetarium, which we'd never been to before. The museum campus was beautiful - lots of water, green spaces, and city views. The planetarium wasn't too crowded, which made it easier to enjoy. The boys were a great age for an introduction to the space-related exhibits. Looking forward to a return visit, for sure. 

Ryan and Evan fly the rocket, and land it on the space station.

Planetarium show about where we are located in space - our space address. The show started at Earth, then expanded outward incrementally, ending with the furtherest distance that astronomers have been able to observe.

Moon landing exhibit

Adler Planetarium

After the planetarium, we headed to dinner where we met my parents and Joey and his family. We all gathered to celebrate Steve's birthday. Here's Emily [2 years, 9 months] eating her ice cream. Haha.

Proud of her cuteness, silliness.

As we wrapped up the school year, it was student council election time for next year's officers. This was Evan's first year of eligibility. He ran for treasurer, while Ryan ran for president. Here they are, hard at work on their posters.

Final products - Their posters were definitely some of the best ones hung by candidates. I'm so proud of their focus and effort.

Well, Evan did not get elected. He was a little sad, because he "worked so hard." Lots of lessons to be learned from the experience, namely sportsmanship and tenacity. That being said, Ryan did win! He will be the Brown School Student Council President for the 2018-19 school year. Wow!

And just like that, another school year comes to a close.

Last day of school - 6/8/18

First / Last Day

2017-18 School Year

Goodbye, 4th & 2nd grades. 

Hello, 5th & 3rd grades!

p.s. As for me, I'm tentatively scheduled to make a grade change this summer too. I'll be moving from teaching 3rd grade to teaching 1st grade. I've got some planning/adjusting to do this summer.

Marvelous May

I was thankful to be able to take a day off to tag along on Ryan's 4th Grade field trip to Lansing to visit the Capitol. 

Ryan and his friend dabbing outside the State Museum.

The boys finished their soccer season strong.

Ryan lost tooth #12 and tooth #13 within a couple days of each other. The tooth fairy brought him the white owl nemne. I was pretty sure they had all the nemnes already. I guess the resourceful tooth fairy was able to track down one they didn't have yet. Evan has some loose teeth, and wonders if he'll get a nemne for tooth #12 too. We'll see...

Knights and dragon statues decorate downtown this summer in the annual public art display. This is Burke's favorite. Sir Latte.

Planting the garden, setting up the deck, planting flowers - tis the season for yard work.

Memorial Day weekend, we finally got a taste of summer weather. I took the boys to the beach and the fountain. It was so nice to be warm! 

We have 5 more days of school! 

Looking forward to more warm days, sunshine, and time to relax.