The American Girl Adventure

Emie's Lolo (Gus' dad) gave her money to buy a special dolly for her birthday. He heard about American Girl Dolls and wanted us to get one for her. I really didn't know much about the American Girls and I thought they might be too "grown up" for a new 1 year old. But then I learned about the Bitty Babies. Suddenly, I felt quite giddy about the whole thing. Fortunately, we live near one of the American Girl Place stores, so we could have the full experience!

So we loaded up in the family van . . .

and hit the busy streets of Chicago. Made busier by the Air and Water show, but it was a beautiful day!

It took us a little while to find the best match for our little Emie. We narrowed it down to two and the kids made the final call. And they actually agreed!

Obviously, it was love at first snuggle.

Since Bitty Baby (we've yet to name her) didn't cost as much as the Girl dolls, we used the leftover money to treat Kuya Nathan to something at the Disney store. He picked out a Handy Manny tool belt and has been "fixing" everything around the house.

Don't you just love that toddler cheesy grin?

We then walked over to the Rainforest Cafe. The kids loved it!
We sat near the elephant who was quite animated during the storms.

Crayons and paper are a must have when waiting at a restaurant.

So are Cheerios to tide over your ravenous 1 year old.

Nathan LOVED this waterfall. It had an alligator at the bottom that he was very excited about.

We had a visit from the frog mascot. I just thought this picture was funny. Though it looks like I forced him to pose with the frog he was actually excited about it. Really, he was!

We finished the day with a drive along Lake Michigan. And decided we need to hit the beach soon!

Emie and her Kuya Nathan

We took Emie for some 1 year pictures and wanted a few of the two kids together. Nathan loved the camera and we ended up with some great pictures of him as well. Here are a few of our favorites.

Emie's Birthday Party!

We had Emie's 1st birthday party on her actual birthday, August 8th. We had about 60ish people here at the house to help us celebrate. Emie, unfortunately, got a nice case of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease for her birthday (didn't know she had it yet at the time of the party) and was really fussy. So, I didn't set her down much and thus didn't get very many pictures. She thankfully got a pretty mild case and as far as I've heard, no one caught it, so all is well. My nephew got some nice pictures and posted them on facebook (link is on my page), but I can't figure out how to copy them from facebook. Anyone know if that is possible? Anyways . . .

The menu included: Gus' famous BBQ skewers, hot dogs on sticks, pancit (filipino stir fried noodles), spaghetti with Italian sausage, chicken adobo, menudo, filipino meatloaf and fish meatloaf, Puerto Rican fried rice, fruit salad, biko (a filipino version of rice pudding), cake and the cupcakes from my former post. Noodles are a must for an Asian's birthday. They symbolize long life.

Gus' Dad gave us the money for Emie's cake. It was supposed to say Happy Birthday Emie Love, Lolo. But, oh well, Emie does love her Lolo!

Though Emie wasn't feeling well, she still enjoyed the feast. There isn't much that will keep this kiddo from eating!

The kids at the party seemed to have fun. The little boys spent quite a bit of their time in the sandbox. There was a butterfly pinata to ensure we sugared up our friends, neighbors and family.

Emie didn't want to try her cake at her party. But she did enjoy a dragonfly cupcake! We had some left over, so I let her have at it the next day. She made quite the mess, but certainly enjoyed her cake!

Yard Makeover

We've been busy this summer working on our front and back yards. I wish I had taken "before" pictures to truly do our work justice, but I didn't. I'll try to describe what it looked like before.

Here's the front steps. We added some plant boxes and transplanted some Tiger Lilies and Gladiolas from the backyard. They were happy for the sun in the front and bloomed beautifully earlier this summer.

Our biggest project. Gus ripped out our old cement walkway which was very cracked and infested with weeds and we laid a brand new walkway with pavers. The most exciting part was probably loading and unloading the compacter from our van. It took a little creativity to accomplish, but Gus is known for creativity. There was a small overgrown flower bed on one side of the pathway, so we weeded that out and took out the grass on the other side. We put down weed barrier and mulch and planted some Hostas that my sister in-law gave us. We left a little space for them to spread and we'll probably plant in around them next year.

We weeded out the flower bed around this tree and put down weed barrier and mulch. We used the cement pieces from our walkway to outline it. Tulips and daffodils bloom here in the spring.

Here's the backyard. Lots of change here! It was pretty much just overgrown everywhere before. In this area we laid down weed barrier and gravel near the chimney and have somewhat trained Bailey to "do her business" in that area to avoid her killing the sod. We also moved some rocks from the side of the house to create the little pathway. We laid down sod as there was little to no grass there. We used cement from the front walkway to build a retaining wall around our massive tree, planted a few ferns and tried to revive a Hydrangea. Hopefully it will bloom next summer!

We planted some Azalea bushes near the fence, put down weed barrier and mulch.

We made a little play area for the kids. This was a vegetable garden, but our backyard gets very little sun (due to the above mentioned massive tree!). We cleared that out, put down weed barrier and play mulch. Gus' patient gave us the sandbox and we found the slide on the side of the road.

We trimmed this tree and transplanted some Hostas around it. The random brown pole in the middle used to be a random white PVC pipe in the middle. We didn't know if it served some sort of strange purpose, so we decided to spray paint it brown and use it for a hanging plant or two and wind chimes. Since then, we figured out it was there to serve as a pole for a clothes line. So we can remove it if we want to, but it is planted pretty deep, so we'll put that off for a little while.



Well, that's it! The goal this year was just really to clean everything out and make the yard a place that the kids and their friends can play. We hope to plant some more perennials next year to add some color. But for now, we'll just enjoy a few more weeks (hopefully months!) of outdoor dinners and afternoon play time.

A sneak peak

Emie's 1st birthday is Sunday!

We're having a big bash for her at our house.
Here is a sneak peak at some of the treats we'll be enjoying.

Which one do you think Emie will choose?