Happy Easter!

We did a stay-cation in downtown Chicago for a few days and had a lot of fun! (1 of ??) Museum of Illusions

In love with my spring bouquet from my garden 😍

First bouquet of the year!!

No Kings Northbrook!

Penny’s favorite thing… the Doggy Easter Egg Hunt!!!

A few from Garfield Park Conservatory

Saturday was absolutely beautiful weather! I ended up going for two different walks, and had these purple crocuses popping up!

A few highlights from the last week… Emmett choir concert, Emmett and Stella band concerts, escape room! We did it in 50 minutes!

Chicago River was looking beautiful today! A bunch of geese, which I got a picture of as they took off.

I had a lovely birthday on monday! I had a great snuggly nap with Penny, lunch with Seth, a walk outside that included beautiful snowy trees, a great blue heron, lots of other birds including a huge flock of red-breasted merganser, which I love because of their cool hairdos lol …. 1 of 2

Emmett had several events this weekend - choir and band IGSMA festivals, and a tae kwon do tournament

Oscar party! Post 1/2

For my birthday date with Seth I hemmed and hawed about what I wanted to do, but in the end, I really just wanted the cheese again 😆 This is the 5 course cheese tasting paired with wine and charcuterie at Beautiful Rind. I did it last year and I’d be happy doing it for every birthday going forward 😆

More from Hamilton! Yes, this was my 14th time seeing this show. But every single time I notice different things AND there are intentional differences. Tonight the actor playing Phillip did such a good job with him as a kid, just little things that made him seem like, well, a 9 year old. 1/3

Botanic Gardens Orchid Show highlights! Wonderful as always! Post 4 of 4

Botanic Gardens Orchid Show highlights! Wonderful as always! Post 3 of 4

Botanic Gardens Orchid Show highlights! Wonderful as always! Post 2 of 4

Botanic Gardens Orchid Show highlights! Wonderful as always! Post 1 of 4

Stella was reading for homework (she also listens to the audio book as she’s reading. We figured out for both Stella and Emmett, it’s infinitely easier for them to comprehend and focus if they can both hear and read the words) and Penny has been INCREDIBLY CUTE

Walk today featuring some beautiful fungus and a pair of mallards having bath time:)

Walk today. Lots of geese, including these two taking a snooze on a log, a flock of red-breasted mergansers taking a break on their migration north (I love their fun hairdo:), a red-winged blackbird (which surely means spring is near if they’re migrating back up!)

The past few weeks… Emmett had IGSMA, I saw The Outsiders, Emmett’s gymnastics showcase, Seth and I did an into to curling class! It was fun! Harder than I expected but we had a good time!

Chicago River was really showing off on this beautiful day

I redid an area in my family room by framing some prints of pictures I took and moving a few other things around. I love it ❤️

Another amazing weather day! Went for a walk and got to watch this beauty for awhile.

My daffodils are coming up!!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

The weather has helped, but I’ve been able to fit in exercise 7 of the past 8 days. It’s helped so much reframing exercise as movement that I enjoy. Most of those days were walks, but I also did a yoga class (which I’ve been doing weekly), swimming, and weights (which I’ve really been enjoying). 1/2

Beautiful weather the past few days and some lovely walks

Happy Valentine’s Day! Heart pizza from Lou Malnati’s, Valentine crafts, family JackBox games (I didn’t think to take pictures but it was very funny) and family Mad-Libs (I found some while cleaning and I’m happy to report that filling in with things like toilet and buttcheeks is still very funny 😆)

Loved the half time show! I know Bad Bunny from things like SNL and just general cultural knowledge, but I don’t know his music much at all. It’s so fun! How can anyone not dance? And the set design was absolutely incredible. I’m loving learning about all the symbolism throughout. Amazing artists.

Had my regular 6 mo. oncologist check-up. Everything continues to be great! Next year around this time, I’ll be hitting the 5 year mark for finishing all treatments. 5 year is officially the “no evidence of disease” marker so I can’t wait.

Lots of winter activities this week.. sledding and skiing! Kids did great with skiing

Winter walk with a gorgeous sunset

Paul Tazewell exhibit at the Museum of Science & Industry today! It was great! Costumes from West Side Story, Hamilton, The Wiz that was on TV, a production of the Sleeping Beauty ballet, and Wicked (the movie). It was incredible being able to see the detail up close. Absolutely gorgeous. 1/5

when Seth and the kids were ice skating this yellow-rumped warbler was hanging out in a bush by me and was very chill and photogenic:) I thought they all went further south for winter, but I guess occasionally some stay this far north. He (she?) was so cute, just hanging out and eating these berries

While ice skating in Maggie Daley Park today, the snow was beautiful!

Cardinal in the snow

This past week… Last Saturday Blackhawks game w/ a ceremony honoring the Stanley Cup teams, Emmett got 6th place in a chess tournament, Emmett also got a chess club started at his school!, ice skating in Maggie Daley Park

Cold winter walk today but it felt good!

Penny snuggles ❤️❤️

Cool ducks! Through a FB Chicago birding group I found out there are a lot of cool ducks hanging out at the pond at Northwestern for the winter. Earlier this week I went and saw lots of ducks that I’ve never seen before! Redhead duck, Hooded Merganer, Goldeneye… So fun!

So many birds today! I was hoping for a cardinal, because they look so nice in the snow. Well, THREE showed up (plus a female). I didn’t get a picture of all 3 but it was beautiful. I did get pictures of one, plus a downy woodpecker and the most adorable junco. I just love those little round guys:)

Nice weather for a walk today! And nice wintery scenery

When I saw Ragtime was going to be playing while we were in Massachusetts, I knew I had to take a day trip to NYC to see it. It was absolutely incredible, phenomenal, I don’t even know. Joshua Henry’s voice is not of this world, I swear. Go see this show if you can!

Happy New Year! We had an evening filled with games and fun. And I got convinced to do a tequila shot?? lol

great time at the Connecticut Science Center today! E got to be in his happy place - the roller coaster making area. best part was after he made his coaster, kids continued to play w/ it while we did other things in the same area. He was SO happy & proud to have a coaster people liked to “ride” ❤️4/4

As always, we had a great time at the Connecticut Science Center today! 3/4

As always, we had a great time at the Connecticut Science Center today!

As always, we had a great time at the Connecticut Science Center today! 1/4