Another Cubs game

The next weekend, Mom and Levynn went to American Girl Day at Wrigley Field. We got the tickets from a co-worker.

As you may have seen, the Cubs circulated a photo of Levynn on social media.

Under the trees

Earlier this month, we went to Morton Arboretum, another suburban oasis.

There were giant bugs scattered around the arboretum, like this ladybug.

Levynn's got a real daddy longlegs on this branch!

There was a maze.

There are Dad and the kids, looking down on the maze.

And that's the view of part of the maze from up there.

This resembles a photo we took at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

There was an area with structures like this for kid to play in. And we haven't even gotten to the children's garden yet!

The children's garden is filled with climbing things like this.

And little bodies of water, like this, to wade in.

Last days of summer vacation

Gram and Papa visited us the last few days before school started last month, during their long 40th anniversary road trip.

While they were here, we went to the school's field day at a local park - a nice idea it would be good to continue in future years. It's another example of how lucky we are as a CPS family. At a time when more than 40 elementary schools have been closed and almost all others were forced to make budget cuts, our school was left intact - and got corporate sponsors for its field day to boot.

One of the activities was a tug of war. Can you spot our kids? Here's a hint: Levynn's not making much of an effort. :)

Kids got medals for participating in a certain number of events. You can't tell from the picture, but they were beat here. It was very hot, and they just had run around the track - a full 400 meters under the watch of their gym teacher.

That night they fulfilled a long-held desire, to ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Thanks, Gram and Papa!

Pop princess

Here's Levynn before she left for the Taylor Swift concert at Soldier Field last month.

Checking back in about the checkup

One of the things from the summer that we missed here is the annual update of the kids' growth numbers. Would you believe they grew?

Levynn stood at 51 inches, up 2.5, and weighed about 5 pounds more at 54.

Lincoln should hit 4 feet by next time, now that he's up almost 2 inches to 46.25. It's hard to say what he gained in weight, given his condition at last year's checkup, but he was up one way or another to 47 pounds.