Hello!!! You are repeating yourself, Patty

So I can't believe that I wrote basically the same post twice within a week! I deleted my last post because it was just the same information that I wrote last week about my summer work. Geez! I am losing it! Sorry about that.

Kristin's Shower

We had a wonderful time celebrating Kristin today. Christy and I hosted the shower at Cathy's house and we had about 20 people there. It was fun to meet the bridesmaids and some of Kristin's family and also to see old, I mean, dear friends from The Lane School days. It was a bit of a rainy and humid day, but it didn't make any difference to us since we were indoors. Kristin looked radiant and we loved hearing about how she and Adam met freshman year at the University of Wisconsin and how he proposed and about their honeymoon plans (Cayman). While we were having the shower, the guys were having Adam's bachelor party. They were going to the crosstown classic, White Sox vs Cubs, and were watching from one of the Wrigleyville rooftops. We were all hoping the weather was cooperating for them, but knowing that group it wouldn't make too much of a difference. Fun guys, for sure. Wayne ordered t-shirts for the event and they were awesome. I will try to get a picture of them to put up here.
Here are some pictures from the shower:
Kristin with some of her bridesmaids- Marin (that is who Wayne is standing up with in the wedding- forgive the grammar of that!), Kristin, her sister Jill, sister-in-law Krissy and Nicole

Kristin's mom, Lori, Kristin and Cathy


The Lane School crew (we have not aged a bit)


Kristin and I always take a traditional "speechie" picture. Love this girl and I love that she is the future of speech pathology! You can't really see it, but Kristin is sporting the CCC-SLP pin that I gave her. She just received her Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech Language Pathology. Yaaay, Kristin!
We are so looking forward to the big day!

Welcome to Mason!

I have exciting news! Our dear friends, Mark and Cathy, became grandparents yesterday!!! Mason Paul was born to their son, Jeff and his wife, Andi and we are so thrilled for all of them. Mason missed being born on his dad and Uncle Adam's birthday by about 8 hours. Adam and Jeff(twins) have been friends of Wayne's since kindergarten and so we have lots of history with the whole family. We are happy to be able to celebrate this new life with wonderful friends. And speaking of celebrating, Christy and I are throwing a shower for Adam's bride, Kristin, tomorrow. Wayne is helping organize Adam's bachelor party tomorrow night. It should be a fun weekend with so many reasons to celebrate.

Hawks win!

Whewwww! The Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in overtime. Such an exciting game and I am so excited for Chicago and for Jonathan Toews for winning MVP. Wow! I am exhausted.
Big day tomorrow, four evals and then getting ready for Kristin's shower on Saturday. Fun times made even better by a Chicago championship :)

Have you given up on me?

I don't know where the days have gone lately. I wish that I could figure out how to blog via my phone. Well, I can write the text but I can't post pictures from my phone. That would make it more convenient to post. Oh, well. I will figure it out.
Things have been busy with the end of the school year. This year went by exceptionally fast. I have heard that comment from many coworkers. I finished up my regular school year last Friday and I started my summer work this week. For about the 8th year in a row (it may be more) I will be doing speech and language evaluations as part of an evaluation team (school psychologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist and a social worker does the social emotional history beforehand also). I love it. It is so interesting and so different from what I do during the school year. The only part I don't enjoy is the writing of the reports which can be time consuming. Most of the people I work with in the summer are part of the evaluation team all year around and they are really good at what they do. I learn so much from them.
Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what has been going on in my life lately.
Sally and Grace, the graduates, at dinner at The Reel Club before we (Teri, Grace, Sally and I) went to see Glee. That was Sally's graduation present from Grace and her family, thanks to Britt and her connections :)
Grace and me, at her graduation party...now on to Mizzou for her. She will do so well.
We celebrated Arne's 30th birthday party with a surprise party at Jenny and Jay's. So proud of Arne. Such a great guy and an especially great dad. Wasn't it just a few years ago that he was the ring bearer ("ring berry" as he called it) at my wedding? Yikes.
Lastly, Jenny and I took the girls out to Marmar and Susie's last week. Abbie had been anxious to see Brooke again and it was so fun to introduce Nina to Brooke. Nina is not afraid of anything! Loved watching her master the two stairs into the family room. Poor Brooke, though, shortly after we left, tore her ACL while chasing a bunny. Surgery was Thursday (Brooke's birthday as well as Sally's birthday!) and she is on the mend.
Happy summer, everyone! and go Hawks!

Happy Birthday, Senorita!

Happy birthday to Sally! What a fabulous day it was, the day that she was born. I have such fond memories of that time. And it just keeps getting better. We have not really celebrated her birthday yet as a family. She went out to dinner last night with Mere and Libby, two of her good friends. Today she went out, spur of the moment, to spend a few hours with Beth and the girls and thoroughly enjoyed herself. This evening, Matt took her out to dinner and then they came back here. I am excited because Wayne decided to come spend the night here tonight. After I pick Jack up at the airport (he has been in Boston) around 9, we are going to have a toast to Sally and the obligatory Kirschbaum's cake with whipped cream frosting. I imagine that Jack will continue the crown tradition as well. You will have to see this for yourself. (PS this picture was posted several days later...the tradition continued!)

I am anxious to catch up with my blogging. We have done some super fun things lately and I am looking forward to posting some pictures to share with you. It has been so busy, but it's all good. We are so blessed.

Sitting at Grace's graduation. She just received her diploma at which point a member of our group sounded an air horn. Teri's response: thank goodness it was our fifth and final kid :)