Scouting the future of lacrosse?

We have lacrosse sticks, in case you didn't know. They're pink, of cheap plastic and from Target. But they do the job. We have them because Levynn saw a little lacrosse when Dad was covering the sport in Louisville. They haven't seen much use.

But Northwestern University's women's lacrosse team - the best there is! - held a clinic for Girl and Boy Scouts after its game on campus yesterday, and Levynn participated!

Dad actually learned about the clinic on his own, not from Levynn's troop, and as it turned out no one else from her school was there. But she enjoyed it.

First, we watched the game. And no joke, now, Northwestern really is the best. It has won six of the last seven national titles and is 9-0 this season after we saw the 20-8 pummeling of Navy yesterday.

This is one of those 20 goals. Nice snapshot, Mom!

So it was pretty cool to see Levynn on the field with the players, learning a few things from them.

Just look at that form!

Two of the players in her group were, on the left, freshman Caley Chelios, the daughter of former Chicago Blackhawks star Chris Chelios, and, in the middle, Gabriella Flibotte, a junior from Cohasset, Mass. She's one of eight Massachusetts players, three of whom are from high school superpower Westwood (which neighbors Norwood). Sorry, Dad gets a kick out of that.

Back to the action:

Sad times

The past few weeks have been rough and stressful for the family, from the kids through Granddaddy and Pap. Mammy's death was hard for all of us. But now we're trying to continue on as she would have us do and keep Pap in our thoughts.

The write stuff

Levynn's first significant writing project - distinct from dioramas and posters and such - is in the books!

Assigned to write a short biography in honor of Black History Month, she reached back to her hometown to pick York as her subject.

She's very proud of it, and you will be, too!

What a weekend!

On Saturday, we trekked to what feels like the furthest reaches of the city - Northerly Island, an extension of Museum Campus - for Polar Adventure Day.

We saw this wolf, a team of Siberian sled dogs and other animals; the kids did crafts; and we watched animal guy David Stokes again.

On Sunday, Dad and Lincoln made the family's first visit to the Chicago Architecture Foundation for its monthly Family Studio Sunday. Mom stayed home with Levynn, who was suddenly stricken with a brief stomach bug or something.

CAF is celebrating National Engineers Week and geared the programming in that direction. It included a fun presentation by Larry Novak, who was the project engineer for the Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest building - and Chicago's Trump Tower.

Lincoln got to build, although he was deemed too young for the LEGO competition. Engineers should know better!




And, today, Levynn spent five hours at her BFF's home, while Dad and Lincoln spent even more time out - first at the nature museum, where we saw a terrific animal show, and then at the children's museum.

A midwinter festival

Colorful patterns are dancing to music on the ground around the Bean in Millennium Park at night this week, part of an art installation called Luminous Field.

We went to see it tonight, after Mom got out of work. As expected, the kids thought it was cool.




During the day, there also is a heated tent in the same location as the summertime Family Fun Festival, and Dad and the kids discovered on Monday that what's inside the tent is much like the festival, too. So, after ice skating, the three of us spent part of an afternoon listening to a musical performance by Brasil-Brazil, making shadow puppets and superhero capes, playing with water and fake snow, and getting Levynn's face painted (like an ice queen).

It's official

Levynn is a Girl Scout!

Wasn't she one already? Well, there had been no pomp and circumstance yet. So her troop got that done today with its Investiture ceremony, where Levynn received her Brownie pin and was more illustriously welcomed into the Girl Scout family.

In the photo, you may notice that the pin is upside down. It has to stay that way until the bearer performs a good deed, which did not take long in Levynn's case. It is right side up already.

More snow!

We got another six inches or so between Thursday and Friday, after the last storm a week earlier had all melted away.


So we went sledding on Saturday.

And today we played on the top of our building's parking garage, where the snow was completely untouched until Dad and the kids started running around it. Mom took this photo of us from a window.

Finally some snow!

Christmas with Kentucky folks

The day after the Massachusetts clan left, we drove to Kentucky to celebrate a belated Christmas and the actual New Year's with some of the Garrott clan.

The kids played cute together, of course.

But the adults played, too - like for this game of hot potato, or whatever that thing is.



There was quite a New Year's Eve party at Cousin Clark's house, and the rock-n-roll was just the beginning.

There was Super Mario on the original Nintendo.

There was Muppets Monopoly.

There was roughhousing.

And there was sleeping - although not by everyone. Lincoln was the only child to fall asleep before the clock struck midnight, and he made it until 11:30 or so. That was a new experience for our kids, and they certainly enjoyed it. But we're not sure it will be repeated anytime soon.

There's always the next day to think about, and in this case Mammy and Pap didn't exactly see the best of the kids on New Year's Day. But it did allow Mom and Dad to have an unusually long adult conversation with the great grandparents. Thanks for sharing, Mammy and Pap!

The rest of that day, there was, well, a lot more Uncle Byron, it seems.





Grandy hosted a sleepover on our last night, a fitting end to a fun family weekend and perhaps even the holiday season. Thanks, Grandy (for photos, too!)

Christmas with Massachusetts folks

Gram, Papa and Uncle Dan visited us after Christmas, and we had fun with them as usual with a trek to the Art Institute, lots of building, and Dad (with sous chef Dan) cooking fancy schmancy lunches. Unfortunately, Mom was working each day and couldn't join us in most of the merriment.

At the art museum, we paired up to make animals out of paper, tape and pipe cleaners. Gram and Lincoln made an elephant. Dad and Levynn made a horse.

And Papa and Dan worked for a long time on the piece de resistance, a blue whale.

After they finally emerged from that project, Dan built with Lincoln in the family play area.

Back at home, those two also built a Lego tower, stacking brick upon brick until it was ready to topple.

And the boys built a wacky railroad with some of the cool new pieces Lincoln received to add to his collection.

Speaking of gifts, we just have to show you what we got for Dan, who is a wannabe chef like Dad.

In case you can't see it clearly, it has a photo of our kids and cousin Chloe, huddled together in excitement, and reads, "Uncle Dan is cooking!" Is that cute or what?

And Dan proudly donned the apron as he assisted in making Dad's signature dish, Salmon Mole, which we (the adults, at least) are eating here.

Oh, speaking of cute...


Thanks for coming!

But their visit was all too brief, for we had to pay some folks a visit of our own.