Grayson ~ Star of the Week

Grayson ~ Star of the Week 

He has been asking every week since the beginning of school when he's going to be the star of the week.  He was so excited to finally have his week of stardom.  The teacher forgot to send the pages home with Grayson, so we were a little behind.  I almost forgot to do to pages because I didn't physically have them, but luckily remembered Sunday night.  Of course I had very little time so it was not the best, but we made it work.  

Favorite Books: 

dinosaur books, super hero books and space books.  

I Am Special Because: 

I can build cool structures (I knew he was going to say this so I went ahead and printed the phrase and pictures and was happy he said the same thing on Monday morning)  Luckily he had just put this amazing structure together so I had recent pictures to showcase his abilities.

Favorite Foods:  

hot dogs, strawberries, raspberries, chocolate caramels, popcorn, cupcakes and chocolate chip pancakes

When I Grow Up I Want To Be:

A paleontologist - work with dinosaurs 

Family:

Daddy, Mommy, Julia, Ethan, Liam, Oma, Mimi and Papa

I unfortunately did not have any printed pictures of Mimi and Papa so we need to update this poster.  

Show & Tell:

Grayson brought his lion in for show and tell.   This lion is very special as it has his heartbeat from when he was inside of me as a baby.  Whenever you squeeze the lion's belly you can hear the recorded heartbeat.  It's very special and it was fun to see Grayson get excited about sharing this with his friends.

Class Reading: 

On Friday Daddy, Mommy and Liam went to Grayson's classroom to read a book to the class.  It was so cute to see Grayson's friends all give hugs to Liam.  It started with everyone saying Hi to Liam, followed by several friends giving him hugs and then everyone wrapped around him and gave him one big hug.  They were all saying his name and it was the cutest thing to watch.  Grayson was so proud and Liam soaked it all up.   Things got a little crazy when I read the book to the class because they were all so into Liam that it made it hard to read.  Both of the boys sat in front with Daddy and Mommy and had fun joking around.  We had so much fun reading to Grayson's class.

Chicago Club ~ West Side Story

Craig and I had dinner at the Chicago Club and saw West Side Story at the Civic Opera House.  It was an amazing performance by some very talented artists.   

Dinner with the Bradleys at Gibson's Italia

 We went to Gibson's Italia with the Bob and Natalia Bradley, our good friends and old neighbors.  We had a great view of the city and enjoyed the food as well.  It's always fun catching up with old friends.  

12th Annual Girls Family Trip ~ Seattle

We had our 12th annual girls weekend in Seattle, Washington.  This year it was the usual crew with one special addition: Mom, me, Mia, Denise and Kim, and our newest addition Julia.  She will be a usual going forward (she went to our 10th annual trip in New York) now that she is graduating.  We had the best time - so much laughing, eating, drinking, reminiscing and visiting with family.  Friday night we went to Il Terrazzo Carmine for dinner and had the best food.  We shared caesar salad (my #1), burrata (my #1) with tomatoes, balsamic and olive oil, antipasto, Spaghettini Ortolano, Ravioloni Di Pesce (ravioli filled with crab, shrimp and spinach), Risotto of the Day, a bottle of sparkling white, two bottles of Hedges 2015 Red Wine blend and creme brûlée for dessert.  Saturday we went to the Space Needle, walked around, had lunch, met up with Dennis and went up to the top of the Space Needle.  We had so much fun exploring the top with the new glass addition, standing on the rotating glass on the lower level and taking pictures on the glass that overlooks the bottom of Space needle.  That night we went to Pat and Jenni's house for dinner with Nick and Tony.  They grilled Italian sausage, veggies, lots of dips and chocolate cake.  We all loved spending time with Tony, Nick, Pat, Jenni and their daughter Cedar - she's such a cutie!  That night my mom, Julia and I stopped at a gas station to stock up on goodies.  Meanwhile Mia, Denise, Dennis and Kim stopped at the grocery store for even more goodies.  We ended up with a lot of wine, beer and food.  Once we got home we played our favorite game, Chicken Foot.  Sunday we met Pat, Jenni and family (Jenni's sister Betsy, mom Mary and dad Doug) along with the rest of the Beurskens crew and had lunch at .  Afterwards we went to Pike Place Market and had fun checking out all the vendors.  That night we went to Cutter's Crabhouse for dinner.  We ordered snow crab legs, salmon, stuffed prawns, oysters, crab cake, salad and key lime pie.  We went home and played our final game of Chicken Foot.  Kim was the winner with Julia a close second.  This year Denise found some amazing score cards to keep track of our winnings.  Monday we went to Jenni and Pat's for brunch and had quiche, sweet potatoes and coffee. The weekend always flies by, but at least we have next year.  We are thinking about Santa Barbara for girls weekend 2020.  I'm so lucky to have the most amazing family.