The Parrillo Family

She's just six, but she's all over our mobile phones. (Heck...SD is just four and she is worse with the phones!)  She's even figured out (kinda) Snapchat??!  Pretty amazing to see all of our kids take to technology while at the same time, it is a hard line to figure out in terms of giving them access too much mobile phone/screen time.  At least she's being creative, right??!!? Here's Ellie the Giraffe: And as the old lady:

Earlier this week, we posted photos of Sadie's fourth birthday and all the various activities related to the event, but below is a short 30 second video that hits some of the highlights of the four parts of her 4th birthday. If you are reading this in your email and can't see the video above, click here to watch the video.

Back on June 10th, our middle child Sadie, turned four years old.  And in typical Sadie-fashion, she did it up and had a smile on her face the.entire.time.  She's growing up and becoming a wonderful young lady who is so, so, sweet and loving and funny and silly all rolled up into one. Being a fourth birthday, it seems appropriate to tell her birthday story in four parts. Part 1:  Birthday Celebration in Michigan Part 2:  A trip to American Girl to get a 'big girl' doll Part 3:  SD's family party where she shared her day with Uncle Frank Part 4:  Kid's party at the splash pad in Elmhurst Before we get to the photos, here's a link to the post showing SD's 2nd birthday here on the blog .  I don't seem to have posted the photos from last year!  And here's the post announcing her birth on her actual *birth day*! So, on with the four parts.   Part 1:  Celebration in Michigan.  We took the kids up to Coloma for ...

We were able to sneak away with Noonie and Papa to attend the wedding of one of our dear family friends out on Cape Cod.  The trip included plenty of down time (no kids!) and beach walks!   The rehearsal dinner was loads of fun with childhood friends and craft beers courtesy of the groom's brewery. And then we got all doll'd up for a black tie affair. Here's Jake with his childhood buddy Matt who served as the host and officiant. What's better than a wedding?  A wedding with a photobooth, of course! Papa and Nat rocked the Solemn Oath Brewery hats pretty well!

Back on July 12th, we celebrated both Natalie and Noonie on their birthday together.  Yep...my wife and mother share a birthday!?! We feted Natalie over a taco and margarita dinner in Hinsdale and Noonie joined us for a glass of wine. That's where we took that photo above.  We were lucky to be joined by the Morans and Aunt Sisi and the kids' cousin!  After, my sisters celebrated Noonie at a different restaurant across town and stayed out way too late, I'm sure! One of the best - if a little stressful - days of the year!

We'll be sharing all the details and photos from our recent trip to visit the Marini Family in Switzerland soon here on the blog, but in the meantime, I *had* to share this quick video of what Sadie was up to with her sister and cousins when it came to some downtime. We were sitting around the Marini house in Schaffhausen, Switzerland while the kids were doing what kids do and playing with water balloons.  Well...somehow, they got the idea to stuff their swimsuits with them and this is the - hilarious - result.  I've watched this dozens of times and it doesn't get less funny! If you are reading this in your email and can't see the video embedded below, click here to watch it .

As I mentioned in the post from the weekend about our trip to Ribfest in Naperville , we came home with a new family pet:  a carnival goldfish. There's some debate about her name (there's no debate that it *is*, indeed a girl fish, btw), as Ellie is calling her Lucky and SD is calling her Lovie. But, she is still alive after a week with us, so that's good, right? Here she is in a (somewhat blurry!) video where she gets put in her bowl for the first time: If you are reading this in your email and can't see the video above, click here to watch her be released into her bowl .  

We weren't in Coloma for the 4th of July for the first time in many years because we were in Europe with the Marini family and arrived back on the 3rd, so this year, as the holiday weekend wound down, we were able to join the Moran's and the girls' Uncle Bill, Aunt Sisi and Frank's bestie out at the Naperville Ribfest.   We've been to Ribfest in the past, but I don' think I've posted any photos here on the blog before.  The Ribfest is what you would expect:  bbq and carnival.  They also have music acts, but we didn't go for that.  We were there for the ribs and pork and to win a few carnival games for the girls.   That's Eloise up there posing so proud with her giant, stuffed Emoji that we won at a game.   And here she is taking in some soft serve with her Godmother Aunt Sisi: Frank the tank was there, too!  Here he is goofing around with Granddad.  The jetlag really hit SD hard and she fell asleep in Grammy's lap...

Yep!  For those of you who know what we've been through the past year and a half, you can - like we have - finally breath.  At the end of June, right before we went on our European Adventure, we closed on a house in Downers Grove, Illinois. And...I think we have to use the word 'house' lightly, because what we've really bought is a lot with a house on it currently.  We're working with a builder to design a plan to build a new old farmhouse on the property and demo the existing structure.  More on that soon, but we're chronicling our new old house journey on our new farmhouse blog . But, back to the lot.  Here's a photo that Natalie captured of Eloise right after the closing where she has the keys in hand.   She was, umm, a bit excited.  This whole process where we find a house, sign a deal, have said deal fall apart (3 times!!!!!) has been tough on Nat and me, but I know it has been super tough on the girls.  They haven't had a real hom...

I don't think there's a sight in the world that makes Natalie happier than being able to share this experience we had in Florence with her kids.  The city means a lot to her and now it will have some meaning for our three, too!

They got good use out of the bidet in our room in Italy.  Feet washing!

Oh, you know...that's just the girls and their two cousins who are currently living in Switzerland sharing gelato cones in Bellaggio on Lake Como in Northern Italy.  No big deal, right? What a treat (to eat) but also to experience together.  Lucky girls all around.