Happy Halloween!

Our preparations started more than a week ago, when we bought a pumpkin at the farmer's market.

A few days later, we decorated it with the seeming theme of this Halloween: spiders.

Then we set it outside our door, with little pumpkins the kids had acquired and decorated.

Yesterday, the day before Halloween, our building had a party (which was a bust) and trick-or-treating. Here are the kids in costume; Levynn is a spider queen, and Lincoln is a construction worker.

They wore their costumes again today for school festivities, and Mom and Dad attended Lincoln's party. It was cute.

And that was it for us! Maybe we'll get out for Halloween night next year. We're just now hearing about good spots to do it around here. So far, though, within the building has been good enough for the kids.

Mom's day

Mom wanted to go to LEGOLAND Discovery Center in the suburbs on her birthday. So that's what we did yesterday!

Dad was skeptical about how much fun it could offer, but Mom was right. It was fun.

There is a Lego Chicago (invaded by skeletons, for Halloween), with Hancock and the Water Tower;

our Oak Street beach;

Navy Pier;

Park Grill at Millenium Park;

Chicago Theatre; and much more.

There is a Lego jungle:




There is a ride like Disney World's Pirates of the Caribbean, with a medieval theme instead:




There are statues.



There is a Lego Munch.

And there are many opportunities for building, of course.




There also is a 4D Lego movie, an indoor playground, and this un-Lego-like ride that the kids probably liked best of all.


Happy birthday, Mom!

About Levynn

As of today, we officially have a Girl Scout in the family. She's a Brownie!

Levynn attended her school's first Girl Scouts meeting this afternoon. One of her best friends is in her troop, which so far includes just girls she knows from her own grade. So she's right at home.

Also, we should note her progress in class, which was recently reported to us. She had all A's through the halfway point of the term! But the eye opener was her teacher, still in near disbelief, saying that Levynn was reading at a rate of 153 words per minute - compared to the second-grade average of 50. He called her "exceptional." Mom and Dad don't know if they can do that!

Catching up

It has been a really busy fall for us, with two kids in school and nice weather, visits and activities and everything that goes with it all. We're going to try to catch you up here.

But first, for your entertainment, here's a selection of the songs Lincoln has learned at school, with his backup singer, Levynn.



Now, there probably is stuff from August you haven't seen, posts added later. So have a look.

Then, in early September, Mom helped a friend with her wedding and it was fun and pretty and Mom had a good time with it. You can go here to see more.

Our good buddy Todd is going back and forth from Louisville to Chicago now, spending more time here with Julie during her work week.

It's nice seeing him more often - and the kids thought it'd be fun to do a sneak tickle attack on him.

Earlier this month there was an event that closed State Street through the Loop to traffic and opened it to pedestrians for activities. We had a good time with a scavenger hunt, and you can see more - including Levynn the jump rope champ - here.

Gram came for a visit right before Mom and Dad's anniversary (can you believe nine years?!).

Gram and the kids check out a new exhibit that just landed at the Art Institute.

Speaking of can you believe it: Check out this flashback from Halloween 2005:


Also, the latest news for Mom is that she has applied to Northwestern to try to take a class here and there to keep working toward her degree. The application is in; we'll see what happens as far as acceptance and tuition. Unfortunately, Mom's Army college money expired last year (10 years after she left service), and she only spent a small portion of it. However, during those 10 years she established herself professionally, got married and had a couple of great kids. And she didn't need a degree for any of that.

Open House Chicago

This weekend the Chicago Architecture Foundation hosted an event that opened more than 100 buildings and sites to the public, offering tours and behind the scenes glimpses rarely seen usually.

We first visited the 3rd floor "roof" garden at Lake Point Tower, near Navy Pier. They have an incredible grassy, park-like area that surrounds the whole building - three floors up. There's a pond or two and a playground. Really gorgeous.



Lev climbs with Navy Pier in the background.

Next we visited Tribune Tower, believe it or not! Mom stood in line a good 20 minutes to get into her own work building.

And we were so glad we waited, too. There was so much interesting information given about the building and the paper - Mom was inspired to read more about the history of the place. Too bad the Tribune doesn't give regular tours of the tower, but we got a few pictures from the old publisher's office.



Lev and Linc thought it was funny that there was a built-into-the-wall tiny bathroom.

This is Mom's favorite quote ever, over the doorway in the lobby.


This is a plaque of Tribune soldiers and sailors with WWI and WWII service.

And this is the view out the window toward the Wrigley Building.

The next day we visited Pritzker Pavilion - site of many of our music concerts on the grassy lawn and in the seats - at Millennium Park. A guide told us the lawn and seats can hold about 20,000 people. We got to go backstage and onstage!

The kids performed:

Open Streets

When they opened State Street, sat in the grass (in the middle of the street), jumped around (in the middle of the street) and played all day (in...).