August-September 2012

The end of summer means a few last adventures before it's back to school.  Logan loves to eat, so we took a trip to Dat Old-Fashioned Donut in the Chatham neighborhood.  The nondescript shop didn't give a clue about the amazing donuts we found inside.  I think that the glazed donut was the best I've ever had...and enough donut to tide me over till lunch. 

 Another adventure...we had a train day with Eric and Lindsey.  We walked to the Blue Line "L" which we took downtown.  When the "L" turned into a subway, Eric's face was one of pure joy.  We transferred to the Red Line by walking through the pedestrian tunnel then we took the train to the Roosevelt Road stop.  Our conductor friend had suggested the bridge over the Union Station tracks as a good place to watch the trains coming in and out of Chicago. 

We got back on the train and took it to Chinatown.   We ate lunch at the Three Happiness restaurant....nine of us ate for $35!  

We took a water taxi from Chinatown to downtown Chicago.

Don't know what's going on here. 

Logan and Linnea

Jay playing volleyball at Joe Payne's 50th birthday party.  

We've been going to a lot of 50th parties lately.

 Emma, Bridget and I went to visit Sofie in DC.  We stayed in a hotel near Chinatown.  Sofie took us to her office at George Washington University where we had lunch with her boss and interns.  She took us on a walking tour of downtown DC.  Here we are outside of an art museum that we really enjoyed. 

These are the formal front doors of the National Archives...they wouldn't let us in this way :(

 

 

 

 We took a trip to the Arboretum with Chad, Sofie's boyfriend.  We had a terrific day wandering the grounds and getting to know Chad. 

Emma has begun babysitting for Faith Ipema

Sarah loves to create interesting cakes and cookies like this "nacho" cake for Dave's birthday

School is back in session.  Here we are at the Oak Park Historical Society researching our house. The first sale of our house was in 1913 by the building contractor.  We also found an OPRF yearbook with Aunt Elfrieda's senior photo in it.  She was classmates with Ernest Hemingway's sister.

 

We are studying the Jewish festivals this year.  Here are Sonja and Linnea throwing their "sins" into the Des Plaines River for Rosh Hashanah.

Sonja and I had a tea party after we read a Beatrix Potter story

Math using jelly beans

We studied Edvard Munch and his "Scream"

...these are our versions

The Sleeper

 We've been studying birds so we spent a gorgeous autumn day at the Greene Valley Forest Preserve looking for hawks.  I also challenged the girls to catch falling leaves...I'd give them 25 cents for every leaf they caught.  It's harder than you think!  They each earned enough for a dollar cone at McDonald's.

Sonja and Anna help usher

The Weeper