The Parrillo Family

Over the weekend, we did a first:  took the boat out and tried to fish in the deeper water.  Both girls seemed to enjoy it despite the fact that we didn't catch a thing.  We ended up heading back to the dock and fished off the pier where SD caught 8 pan fish of various types in a row!

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 my little daring grows, she's starting to get not only a lot smarter, but she's also starting to fill out some of the things we've been using for the past year or so.  In this case, that means both her bike helmet and trailer.  What was - just last year - barely able to sit on top of her head with the straps as tight as they can go now fits properly.   So happy to see her develop, but this is just one more reminder to her dear-ole-Dad that my little baby is growing up.  And fast. I love taking her out on the bike and hearing her cheer us on from behind in the trailer.  With her being 2 and a 1/2 now, the possibilities for bike trips around town (and beyond) are endless.  Can't wait to take her out again all summer long.

Turns out?  Eloise does! This year, we decided to buy a membership to a local organization for the family.  In addition to "giving back" something, a membership locally provides  us with a family activity and a chance to build fun, memorable shared experiences with Eloise.  Among the choices we were picking through were the Morton Arboretum, the Brookfield Zoo, the Art Institute, Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum and the DuPage Children's Museum. Through a fortunate situation at work, I was given family memberships for the year to the Art Institute of Chicago as well as the Museum of Science and Industry (more about those later!).  Nat and Eloise have been to the DuPage Children's museum and it was awesome, but with the warmer weather here, who wants to be inside all summer.   We've taken Eloise to the Arboretum for a few hikes (and have a backpack to use there!), but because of the diverse choices, the amount of guest passes included an...

Spring has definitely sprung here in Elmhurst.  In addition to hitting the trails in her bike trailer and playing in the sand with her cousin , Eloise is showing that she's a green thumb!  From her interest in our seedlings that we're growing indoor ahead of our summer garden to getting down and dirty and playing in the dirt in this video here.  Looks like she's the outdoors-type as in this video, she's at home with the mulch, dirt and twigs! (if you are reading this via email, you might have to click through the headline of this post to see the video). I've always heard a joke that one of the best thing about teenagers was that they're able to cut the grass. But...Who knows? Maybe with her green thumb, Eloise might be helping me pick up the yard sooner than I thought.

With the warm weather that descended on the Chicago-area earlier this week, we found time to pump up all of our bike tires as well as Eloise's bike trailer tires and get out on the road.  Instead of hopping in the car, we ran our errands via bike.  The Wheezer LOOOVED the trailer (she was in it last year, but in her carseat facing backwards), but didn't love the helmet so much.  Special thanks to my sister Vic for letting us borrow the helmet.  Once she saw that Daddy was "wearing a helmet too", she stopped fiddling as much with it.  The trailer - which we pull behind our bikes - should provide a lot of fun experiences this summer.  After all, what's not to like about being pulled around behind a bike with a snack cup full of Cheerios while you lounge in a Lazy-Boy like chair?  Nothing.