Sunday Fun

Dear Family-

Today after church we went back to the church grounds for the 4th Annual Octoberfest. My favorite attraction is the extremely oversized slide. The slide has a very steep ladder like the one at WTTW Kids Fun Run (see earlier blog). Mom is impressed that I was brave and climbed the ladder by myself. Other attractions included a petting zoo, face painting, mounted police from the City of Chicago and a live band. We went to the grocery store after the festival and my parents put groceries on top of me while I rode in the cart. I thought it was fun to be part of the large pile of groceries. Tomorrow is soccer class.

Love,
Patrick

Mom's Garden

Dear Family-

Here are some of the photos Dad took of Mom's flower garden. Yesterday I rode my tricycle with Mom and last nite we played with cars and read books. Mom and Dad ask what I want to be for Halloween. I let them know that I would like to be a fireman,Buzz Lightyear and a cowboy. Dad says that we need to find three different Halloween parties so that I do not have to decide on just one costume. I am excited about the upcoming celebrations of Halloween and Christmas. Mom and Dad used my Cars calendar to explain the timeline of the upcoming holidays. Dad tells me about Thanksgiving but I don't see the fun of Thanksgiving for children...no decorated eggs, no dressing up in costumes and no Santa.

Love,

Patrick

Construction Site

Today I spent time at my job site loading sand into Euclid the Dump Truck. Dad took photographs of Mom's garden. He said he wants to remember the garden in the middle of winter. Dad's favorites are the roses, sunflower and pumpkin blooms. I think Mom's flower garden is beautiful. Today Miko spent three hours at the groomer...I told Mom that Miko is gorgeous. We plan on buying more Honey Crisp apples tomorrow. Today we bought mums, pumpkins and fall decorations for the front garden. Santa will be proud of me when he visits my house because I have a beautiful Christmas tree in my bedroom. Mom and Dad celebrated their 8th Wedding Anniversary on the 14th. While I took my evening nap, Mom and Dad ate takeout from the local Chinese restaurant.

Love,

Patrick

August 2010

We stayed home the first couple of weeks of August to recoup from our camping trips, me transferring out to the plant (no more downtown lunches with Charlie) and just the heat of the summer was wearing on us. The middle of August I flew out to San Francisco with my Mom and sisters to celebrate my Mom's 60th birthday. We spent a couple of days in San Fran and a couple in Napa. It was fun to see how different San Fran is from Chicago and Napa was very pretty. I look forward to heading back with Charlie and Patrick sometime.

While I was in San Francisco/Napa with my Mom and sisters, Patrick and Charlie Attended the Public Television run/walk. Patrick said he had a great time and got to meet Duck from Word World and Buddy from Dinosaur Train. Both are some of his favorites!

Our neighborhood park was "remodeled" this summer. It turned out great, Patrick loves the swings (no more baby swing for him) and the climbing wall and the fire engine and the slide.....really he just loves it all.

Patrick started preschool at the end of August. Charlie and I both joined him on his first day/orientation. I think he is really enjoying it. The other day after school was out, he asked to go back. I think think that is a good sign. They have gym class on Tuesday and get to walk underground through a tunnel from their classroom to the gymnasium.

Patrick is already getting homework assignments, not sure how I feel about that....and Patrick is not a fan, but we try. This week's assignment is to name the children in his class and to walk backwards. He has the walking backwards down and a couple of names (there is a Nora, so that is easy and I think all of the other boys are named Michael).

Our garden ended up being pretty successful. We grew a ton of tomatoes from just two plants, we had a few hot peppers and a couple of bell peppers. Our sunflowers finally bloomed but we are still waiting on the pumpkins. It was fun and we have already thought about how we will tweek it for next year.

July 2010

Charlie and I both celebrated our birthdays in July. Patrick loves birthdays so it made celebrating lots of fun. We were in Michigan for the 4th of July weekend (my birthday) hanging out in Grandma and Grandpa's boat on Torch Lake and playing at the beach in Elk Rapids and we stayed in Chicago for Charlie's. Patrick and I picked out an ice cream cake for Charlie, unfortunately it was a flop and ended up tasting like the packaging it came in....oh well, we had a fun day and we'll continue our quest for a delicious ice cream cake next year.

We took two camping trips in July, both up to Michigan. The first we stayed at Petoskey State Park. We had a great time celebrating Nora's birthday and splashing in the waves. A couple of weeks later we headed up to the Traverse City State Park for a mini family reunion. It rained most of Saturday so we had a good time at the mall riding the carousel and Mackenzie helped Patrick make his first build-a-bear. Once the weather cleared up we played at the park and went for a bike ride. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of either trip. I'll have to track some down.