Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Rylie's FIRST Birthday Party! 6.2.12

Well, almost a year has gone by already...can't believe our little girl is turning 1 in less than a week!

We threw an extra special first birthday party for our sweet baby yesterday.  Even though we were on vacation last week and experienced horrible airport delays getting back to Chicagoland on Thursday (ended up getting home at 2am Friday!), we managed to pull together a fun little party.  All day Friday and Saturday morning, I did the baking and decorating, while Chris did the cleaning... just the way I like it :-)  I can spend all day in the kitchen, as long as someone else will clean up after me!  

We were so thrilled that so many of our wonderful friends and family who could join us!  And Rylie was beyond spoiled with gifts galore!

The theme:  PINK LEMONADE

On "The Menu":

- Lemon Bars
- Chocolate covered pretzels
- Cupcakes
- Brownies
- Strawberries and cream
- Lemon poppyseed muffins
- Decorated sugar cookies
- Rice Krispie Treats

Here are a few of "The Details":





















Here is Rylie, enjoying her Birthday Cupcake!



AAAaaaaand, "The Fun!" :-)




Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Easter Weekend in South Bend

Okay, so I am reeeeeeally behind on my posts lately!  Sorry about that, but I kind of lost my motivation for a while with the whole photo taking, editing, posting, and blogging thing.  After working all day and putting the baby to bed at night, the last thing I felt like doing was sit in front of my computer for another few hours...

So anyways, I'm playing a little game of catch-up now.

It was sort of a last minute decision (about 2 weeks before), but we decided to go to South Bend for Easter to see Chris' parents.  We all had no big plans, just wanted to spend the weekend together.  Heather and Eric also drove in from Michigan for the night.

Even though we didn't have big plans, we ended up getting a lot done!  Chris, Rylie, and I drove in on Friday night (okay, Chris did the actual driving...).  Rylie woke up for a brief moment as we walked inside, but quickly fell back asleep when I placed her down on the guest bed while we got her portable crib ready, and she slept well all night (despite having a nasty cough/chest cold!).  Saturday was actually my birthday!  Chris and Roy went out shopping in the morning (sounds weird, right?!.....for board games!) while Connie and I stayed home with a napping baby and began planning the menu for rYLIE'S Baptism, which was this past Sunday...again, I am VERY behind!  I'll get to that post next.

Chris' parents and the 3 of us went to J.W. Chen for lunch - it is an AMAZING Chinese restaurant in South Bend - at my request (I has been promised that the next time we were in South Bend, that we would visit Chen).  Of course, Connie and I took the opportunity to do a little shopping before lunch and stopped at a darling Children's Boutique.  I wanted to look for a head band and socks or shoes for Rylie's Baptism.  We ended up finding the perfect little white bow instead, some lacey socks, and a white diaper cover with ruffles on the butt and some bright pink accent stitching (I'm going to use that for Rylie's Birthday pictures...smash cake!!)

Heather and Eric drove in later that afternoon.  Connie slaved away in the kitchen while we all enjoyed the beautiful weather outside.  Rylie thoroughly enjoyed crawling around in the grass, trying to eat it.  Heather also brought bubbles, which were pretty cool!!  Chris broke out the bat and a plastic wiffle ball...although after one strike, that wiffle ball was pretty much toast!  We still tried to play for a bit... Until the boys got out the golf clubs and decided to play some game where they hit the ball around the house and the first one to go around the course and hit the shed (oops!), wins!  The afternoon was perfect...

Later that night, as kind of an impromptu thing, some friends stopped by for a cookout!  The Shepherds were in town, so they came... Steph and Scott stopped by...and Kyle and Amanda, who are expecting baby Kyla very sooooooon, stopped by too!  We spent the evening just sitting around the kitchen table sharing stories, laughing, and just having a great time in each others' company.  Again, it was a perfect birthday weekend for me :)

On Sunday, Grandma Chalko came over and we had a nice Easter lunch before everyone had to hit the road to head back home.  I love family weekends like this!

Check out some pictures (As usual, mostly of Rylie) from the weekend...




















Thursday, March 1, 2012

Random...

I've got a few pictures and recent videos to upload from my iPod, so here they are:

Last Thursday, Rylie and I joined some friends for a lunch date at Choo Choo Johnny's in Naperville.  It is this cool diner that is "train" themed.  There is a big train display, stationary trains to ride on, a train that continuously runs overhead around the whole place, and even a train that brings out everyone's food (complete with a very real sounding "choo choo!!" whistle!  Rylie quite enjoyed herself, even though she isn't quite old enough to order off the (yep, you guessed it) train themed menu... It was fun to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while!



This is her perch when she needs a snack while I am on the computer (editing pictures or blogging).  It's funny, we hardly used this Bumbo before she could sit up properly (which is kind of what it is intended for), and now we seem to use it a lot!


I just love her little pink shoes (thanks, Nic!), and so does she!  There is also a little jean skirt on her somewhere...guess that one's going in the "too small" pile soon!!  


Just a random shot from out our kitchen window of a neighbor's house.  I had to do a double take when I first saw this - honestly looked like there was a fire!  But it was just the way the sun was shining and reflecting as it set that evening.  Crazy.



Our baby's first lunch box!  Bittersweet, really...  Very excited to start my new job and send Rylie to "school" to meet new teachers and friends.  BUT, sad at the same time to have to leave her.  Ha, it's always harder ton the parents, right?!   She'll probably have way more fun at school than she does at home with me anyways!


And this is one of her favorite spots.  The windows in our bedroom are really big and low, so she can stand (with me nearby) and look out the window.  There's lots to see from here, especially in the morning with the commuters and kids waiting for the school bus right outside our house.  We also tend to have a large collection of those huge geese out on the grass across the way.  She loves to touch the cold window and shout lots of "la, la, da's!".



And here she is... still not quite crawling!  Arm goes forward, leg goes backward...  haha!  I'm sure those kids at school are going to have her crawling in no time, though!  Either that, or she'll just up and walk one of these days.  But, she is very proud of herself when she pulls up on something on her own!