Tag Archives: family

Giving Thanks

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Thanksgiving Kids 2009

Lots to be thankful for this year… my husband, my children… but this second half has been a hard one for my side of the family which makes Thanksgiving more bittersweet. There are both physical and emotional problems that some are enduring, but this week my family lost our oldest aunt, my dad’s oldest sister, Tess. I haven’t seen her for three years since she moved from Chicago to the Philippines, but she has been a big part of my growing years. I thought about her often after her move, and now, I believe she is in a better place without physical pain, without worries.

My dad’s three other sisters are in the Philippines now, making arrangements, while a few families are here in Chicago making the most of this Thanksgiving by coming together for dinner at our home. We give thanks for those here and abroad who have touched our lives in so many ways…

Thanksgiving pumpkin cupcakes

One Fall Day

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Hope you all had a nice weekend. We certainly enjoyed ours. I should have been getting ready for the Craft Social, but I had other projects in line.

Enjoying the Backyard

The boy is crying not because he was hurt. He tried to lock me up in the garden and I yelled at him. Needless to say, he went back inside the house for a while.

Black and Decker Cultivator

This garden tool was pretty nice to use once the hard clay was amended with peat moss.

Planting Garlic

After planting the garlic, it was time to enjoy the leaves.

Fall Leaves

Life is Fun

**Updated: Wow! This is my 100th post – a great way to “celebrate”. Thanks to everyone who takes time out of their day to share time with us!

Visiting Long Grove

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Visiting Long Grove

Every year, we like to visit Long Grove at least once. The biggest reason is for the brown bag apple pie from Apple Haus. It’s everything we want in an apple pie: flaky, buttery crust with a slight crunch, fresh apple chunks, not too sweet.

Raspberry Wine Chocolate Cup

But before Apple Haus, we stopped by the Glunz Family Winery tasting room and I had this shot of raspberry wine in a chocolate cup. What a great idea for a party opener…

Apple Haus!

So many things to look at in Apple Haus. Just around the corner are the display cases with…

Baby Apple Pie

…pies! This cutey says it serves 1 or 2, but the lady behind the counter said it was good for one.

Weird Mr. Egg dish scraper

This is not a great picture of me at all. I was trying to make a “Mr. Egg” face. Talk about cute dish scraper. I ended up buying it and the kids played with it for a few days afterwards.

Muddling

We do like going to the different stores around Long Grove, especially The Tuscan Table. Eastman is definitely scaring me with the muddler here.

Tired after Long Grove

They were so tired after walking around and having an apple donut and apple cider snack. It’s really amazing how much they look like each other. They’re so sweet.

Back at home with the pie

At last, at home with our brown bag apple pie. There’s actually a good chance we’ll be attending the apple festival later this week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Eating Again, but where?

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The pictures of food never stop, do they? Even Abby is getting into it. She loves taking close-up shots and she’s getting better every time. We were running errands and stopped for a snack… can you guess what this is and where it was taken?

Delicious

Not that this is any help, but here’s another view. We love visiting this neighborhood place, which isn’t in our immediate suburb.

A better look

More California journals coming. They’re in the works along with more projects, too.

Out in California

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I haven’t made much time to blog about our trip to California. Maybe because there are so many destinations I want to write about, and I will! They revolve around food, surprised? But, it was fantastic to stay with my cousin and his family (they were the best hosts) near Sacramento. It was our one taste of REAL summer, because when we stepped off the plane it was over 100 degrees. Chicago has had a crazy bout of cold and rainy weather this year. Totally opposite of the hot and humid summers we usually have.

The trip was a change to our original plans of traveling to New Orleans without the kids. Basically, got a call, ill relative, not much time, that sort of thing. But, he’s doing okay now, not completely cured, but as good as he’s going to be at this stage. The kids were excited to go on an airplane. This came a few weeks after my daughter was asking me, “Mooooom, when are we going to take an airplane again? I like the airport, like when we have to take off our shoes.” And, we did get Ollie his own seat. So worth it! This was a much better ride than last year when he sat on my lap from Chicago to Los Angeles, and the L.A. to Hawaii, and back again.

Ready for Takeoff

We took a trip to Napa and San Francisco…I’ll have some more focused journals about where we went there. Fog, slight chill (got really chilly), ocean-bay air, See’s candies, fudge at Pier 39…Oh, I do love San Francisco.

Transamerica Building

Abby didn’t realize how much driving we would be doing. Essentially it takes an hour or more to get anywhere…

So much driving around

But really, the best parts of the trip: hanging out with my aunts, uncles, my cousins and their kids, reconnecting with another cousin whom I haven’t seen in years, Jelly Belly factory tour, playing in the local park, slip and slide during the hot afternoon. We don’t see them enough… wish we lived closer.

Checking out the waterScooting on the carpet

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