sean's bday celebration

In our little family (me, Sean + Cami) we like to stretch out celebrating birthdays since we are both so busy with work and Cami is always busy being cute and lazy. Sean's bday was on May 7th and I thought it would be fun to make a Sean + Caroline's Chicago themed celebration for him.

I visited my favorite place in the world, Paper Source, and found some manly looking materials to make this banner and present. I then printed out pics of our little family and hung everything up in Sean's mini man cave area in our dinning room. He was working late that night so when he came home I was already asleep and he was so surprised! It was cute when he woke me up and was all excited. :)

As little side gifts I got him this frame because he is always saying "I love you more" to me (he's amazing right!?) and then of course got him his favorite treats from Trader Joe's. He LOVES pesto so I made him a pesto dinner for his bday, which is one of the hearts on the banner. Then our two week celebration included going to our fave restaurants, shopping, going to the dog park, watching basketball (go Bulls!) and baseball (go Sox!) games, and seeing STAR TREK (best ever)!

Cams and I love this guy so much and he works so hard, he definitely deserves it!

beach hat

I've been on the hunt for just the right beach hat...nothing too big and not a tacky fedora one! I was checking out the new City Target last week during lunch and saw this hat...cute and cheap! So excited I snatched it right up!

Even our little fashanista approved.

Bring it on summer! 

snow! finally...

The snow finally came to Chicago yesterday. It is so pretty! Here are a few pics from my venture home yesterday:

Church across the street from my work

Headed to the brown line

Walking home in our new hood

Home with the Cams looking at the falling snow

I love snow! Happy Friday!

baraboo, wi

This past weekend we drove up to Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo, WI. We hiked up and down the mountain trails for 3 hours and it was so much fun! We were so proud of Cami for making it up to the top and she never got tired! I was worried the mountain was too steep for her but she was basically pulling us along the trail! See our adventurous pics below!

View of Devil's Lake

Cami resting on a boulder

Pretty WI farmland

Pretty WI barn

supermodel dog

We took Cams to a different dog beach this past Sunday because the Montrose Beach dog park is just nutso! We finally tried the Foster Beach dog park and we could tell a total difference in Cami's interactions with the other dogs. I don't think we have ever seen her have so much fun. She was running around with the other pups and got in the water pretty deep (she hates to swim)! She was being a social butterfly and ended up being pretty popular with the other dogs! Definitely taking her to this smaller beach from now on! Here is her supermodel beach photo running along the water...haha!

Happy Tuesday!

         

cami in the wind

Soooo our air conditioner has not been working lately in the good old Highlander, and this came at the perfect time for our trip to the super HOT state of Oklahoma. This pic is of Miss Cami in our car. We had all the windows down driving North to Chicago and everyone's hair was blowin' in the wind!

our christmas day

On Christmas morning Sean and I woke up to lots and lots of snow! We took Cami to the dog park by our house and she loved galloping in the deep snow.You can see us running in it together!

Cami also had a fun time opening up all of those presents under our tiny little tree in her Christmas PJs!

We missed our families this year but there is something about Chicago during the holidays that we just love. There are Christmas lights on everything - trees, street lamps, bars, apartment windows, cars and of course houses.

We have also started our own tradition of having Christmas morning mimosas together while we open presents, then we make a big breakfast of hash and eggs with cinnamon streusel coffee cake! It was all so yummy!

It was fun to go play in the snow and then cuddle up to watch season two of Parks and Recreation that Santa brought Sean and I. Santa also brought us two new board games to add to our collection - Life and Yahtzee!

discovering the king on halloween

Having read every single book in my library I was in need of more books to read while riding the train to work. I came across an old box of Sean's in our storage closet and to my luck it was full of Stephen King books. I thought "perfect for October!" My mom always read Stephen King when I was growing up and so I always ended up watching the movies with her once she finished a book. FYI - never let your 7-year-old watch Stephen King's IT, I was deeply disturbed by that move and my 7-year-old self did not sleep for weeks and had nightmares about that creepy clown! I even tried to read the book in high school and the clown came back in my dreams so I had to quit!

Well so far I have read Salem's Lot (another crazy scary movie), The Dead Zone (suprisingly political based, and not very scary), Thinner (gross and creepy), and I just finished CUJO yesterday!

OMG...Cujo is really, really scary!!! I am a grown woman and I found myself looking at our bedroom closet at night for monsters AND at times Cami (our dog) has made me feel a little uncomfortable...

Doesn't she look kinda suspicious? What is she thinking?

I think today I am going to go buy IT at Borders and challenge myself to read it...I'll let you know what happens...