This is a post sent from brian's iPhone. It's a beautiful night in
O'ahu!!

Last weekend, we took the older boys to their very first Cubs game on Saturday and their first Air and Water show on Sunday. It was also the first time they stayed in a hotel (LOVED it!) We all had a blast! It was one of those weekends that, as soon as it ended, I wished could start all over again. It's always great being back in the city...sometimes I really miss living down there. But, as Brian said, we wouldn't last a day living downtown with boys! Can't beat the big backyard, free parking lots and, of course, our friends in the burbs! Sadly, this was another summer event Brady had to miss. Next year baby - you're coming with us for everything!!!

I took this picture to help us find our car (didn't need to...Brian always knows where we are...thankfully!)
Before the game, the boys got some Cubbie hats. Logan picked a visor like daddy.
Ok, so I took this picture as both a momentum and as a reminder. We had great seats, but they were a little bit too far in the middle of the row. Next year, same section, but a bit closer to the aisle.

Brian explains the game to the boys. When they were actually paying attention, it was really cute. Every time something good happened and the crowd cheered, they got SO excited to clap and yell...especially Aiden. The look in his eyes was like "I can be loud here? This is awesome!" We even got to see a home run.

Some pictures at the game:

The cotton candy was a huge hit!

Plus when you're done, it makes a great hat...apparently :)

Although the boys said they wanted to stay for the whole game, we took off after the 7th inning stretch. We wanted to beat the crowd and Aiden was looking mighty tired. He snoozed on the way back to the car...and then in the car

After the game we went to visit some friends and their new baby boy. Then we headed to the hotel where the boys did...well...what you do in a hotel when you're a kid - jump from bed to bed a few times. They thought our room was the coolest! Logan was concerned about where he was going to potty...until we showed him the bathroom...which was yet another cool area to be explored.

After checking in, we went next door to a hibachi-style Japanese steak house. Brian and I went there on a date WAY back in the beginning of our relationship so it was fun to take the boys. After dinner, we went walking around the city.

We checked out the Chicago River and waved at all the boats going by.

Walking under one of the draw bridges

I had never been to this fountain before. It's really cool....right off the river

The boys wanted to do a little more than dip in a toe. I dragged them out a few times

In the end, it was a futile effort to keep them out of the fountain. They just had to walk home with damp shorts. A minor price to pay for fun.

The Air and Water Show was a big hit...especially the playing-in-the-water-and-sand part!

This is fun!

The ever popular self-portrait (what's with the face on Aiden?) :)

We built some awesome sand castles. I took care of the building, Aiden did decorations (rocks collected from the water) and Logan was in charge of running back and forth to the lake for bowls of water to make our sand nice and sticky.

This was the best one...until Logan "accidentally" knocked it down with a shovel.

The weekend ended with spider-man ice-cream treats! The boys had seen a side-walk ice-cream cart with a picture of these on Saturday night. We promised to track them down on Sunday. Lucky for us, there were 2 side-walk vendors at the top of the tunnel leading off the beach...and they both had the spidey-pops! We had a long walk back to the hotel so I actually put Aiden on my shoulders for a while. He is a SLOW ice cream eater and it was raining spidey pop down my arm for 1/2 the trip back. A mom with a double stroller came up behind me with a wipe and cleaned off my arm while Aiden was still on my shoulders. She said she just had to help another mom in need. Sweet :)

We grabbed our bag from the hotel front desk, our van from the vallet guy, did a quick cloths-change in the hotel bathroom and headed back home to pick up Bray. In an attempt to round out the day until bed time, we went for a family dinner at TGIF (how suburban...quite delicious!) and then went home!!!!

Tomorrow we leave for Cali and then Hawaii. Can't wait!

Several subjects in one post..yet again! First off, super balls! Last week, we went to the park with our friends The Kellys and the Iwinskis. Karen brought along some super awesome toys to share, Sky Balls! Logan and AJ played with them for such a long time (sorry Kelly kids!) that Anne and I were pretty enthusiastic about aquiring some for ouselves! On the way to the waterpark last Sunday, I had to stop at Walgreen's for some sunscreen and saw "Comet Balls", a sweet knock-off of the sky ball. I bought 3!

These things remind me of the the zubbles that Brian recently discovered (zubbles = amazing, super cool colored bubbles)
Before neighborhood playgroup on Monday, I offered to take the kids to the local elementary school where they could bounce their balls on the basketball court for a while. Here's Bray chasing his ball.

Logan and his ball. Sadly, no action shots....

Had to post this picture because the boys decided to go to the playground area and Aiden was a doll to coral Brady by taking his hand and leading him over. Brotherly love can be so sweet.

2nd post topic: Aiden II - Here is Brady who has climbed on top of a chair & then on top of the dining room desk area to peruse the arts & crafts cabinet. Logan never did this! Aiden, however, is renowned for climbing, pushing chairs around and getting to places he shouldn't. I fear for my life....here is Aiden II! (have I mentioned how Brady will copy, action-for-action, whatever his older brother does? Not the more-sane, 4-year-old Logan, but the completely crazy monkey-boy Aiden?)

Post 3: Painting! I had planned to take this paint-a-plane activity on our upcoming trip to California. The older boys found it and wanted to do it immediately. I love art projects so who was I to bicker?! (the mess in the background is my pre-Cali packing...yes...I already started!)

Despite their artist efforts, both planes ended up some sort of black because red + green + blue + black = black (those were the colors included with the kit)

Brady, always desperate to do what the older boys are doing, was given a page out of his Handy Manny plane-ride activity book....color with water! I love these things! The page is covered with little spots of color that run and blend when you add water. I figured I could easily procure some water on the plane for him to play.

After over a week of accident-free potty use, Aiden relapsed a bit. Overall though...SO much better than having 2 in diapers! Last Sunday, at the water park, he asked at least 3 times to use the bathroom (awesome! way to go!). When we got home and put everyone in dry cloths, however, he peed on the floor! Baffling! I had purchased some oxyclean pet urine spray for cleaning up such messes, but the trigger broke so I had to find a new bottle. After Sunday's incident, Brian asked where he could find the spray. I giggled and told him to look under the sink in the kitchen. He looked at me like I had lost my mind then walked over, opened the cabinet, looked in....and started cracking up.

Can you read that? It says "Aiden peed on something spray". This is how I amuse myself in these situations I guess :) Oh the joys of motherhood! This does, however, make me think of a comment my friend recently put on facebook. It almost made me cry:

Please, let them be little, 'Cause they're only that way for a while. Give them hope, give them praise, Give them love every day. Let 'em cry, let 'em giggle, Let 'em sleep in the middle, Oh, but let them be little.

Oops...almost cried again re-reading it! For sure I'll take the potty accidents!!!!!

• "flying like superman" down the lazy river which meant that they had their vests on and just floated the whole way.
• Playing in the kid's pool. The could both touch the bottom which was awesome! Logan practiced his swimming, learned to do handstands and even forward flips under water. Aiden was saying over and over "I can walk! I can walk!"
• The wave pool (twice)
• A couple big slides with mom and dad. Technically, neither Aiden nor AJ were tall enough even to go on the rides with parents, but we took them a couple times anyway. During our third slide attempt, Aiden and Daddy were situated in their tube, ready to push away down the slide when the lifeguard pulled Aiden off to be measured! Brian had to walk him down and everyone was saying "ahhh....too little" I told him that he really needs to eat lots of veggies if he wants to grow from his current 37 inches to the requisite 42 by next summer. Poor little man! (and please...not to worry...we were quite careful with him when we did take him down the slides!! I had his legs stabilized under my own during the one where all four of us went down in one big tube and I had him wrapped up tight on the single tube we shared down another!)

I thought the bright yellow bathing suit would help me keep track of Aiden....but he just blended in a lot of the time

Aiden and AJ heading out on the lazy river.

The river waterfall: avoid? don't avoid? I usually paddle away, but it was HOT so I steered right on in...looks like Brian the camera man did as well!

little man, giant tube.

mommy (bad hair day!) and the boys in the wave pool.

Underwater photography is fun. This is Aiden.

Daddy and the boys.

The camera somehow got set on black and white...pretty cool! Here is Logan running around the small pool area to go down one of the slides.

...with little brother right behind
Who is that peeking around Logan's shoulder?

It's AJ

I love this picture of Ryan coming out on one of the kid's slides
The girls in the lazy river

These are the two tall kiddos who were allowed ride everything! Way to eat those veggies guys ;)