Sylvia, Reese & Co.

Apologies for taking so long with this post. Last weekend Edward, Will, Heather, Dede, and Papa all flew in for a visit. We haven’t seen Edward in months, and he has grown like a weed. He is a perfectly happy, hungry, curious little baby. We had a busy weekend touring around the city from Millennium Park to the Aquarium, from train rides to bike rides. Some of us even got a date night.

Here are a few photos from the weekend, though quite honestly it was so non-stop that we often forgot the camera. For more photos, check out Edward’s blog.

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After a few long days at work, tonight I was reminded of why summer is such a great season. After work Darcie, Sylvia, and I headed to the beach for a swim and a little digging in the sand. The water was chilly of course, but there were almost no waves, so Sylvia wanted to go wading. She walked out until the water was almost to her chin!

Later while digging in the sand, we heard music in the distance. Sylvia told us that she heard a marching band and that we should hurry to see it before it stopped playing. Evanston puts on weekly outdoor concerts throughout the summer, and what we were hearing was the evening’s band preparing for the concert.

I knew that Sylvia would be somewhat disappointed when she discovered that her ‘marching band’ was actually just a small performing group or a jazz band or something. Honestly, what are the odds that from the beach we would be hearing a marching band in the park?

Turns out that while the odds are probably not very great, they were good enough tonight. The band warming up was Mucca Pazza, an energetic, eclectic… marching band. The band performed at one end (and occasionally in) the lagoon in Dawes Park – which you might remember from our 4th of July post.

Band members played a number of instruments (including sousaphone, guitar, trombones, trumpets, saxophones, and drums) and wore old mix-matched band outfits. Cheerleaders danced through the crowd.

Photo from the band's website. Photo by Robert Loerzel.

I zipped over to Whole Foods on my new bike (photos to come) and grabbed a pizza for an impromptu picnic while we listened to the music and danced. Sylvia is really getting a sense of rhythm.

It’s the unexpected experiences that make summer so enjoyable. One almost gets the sense that there is a surprise just around every corner (or a marching band around every lagoon).

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It has been over a week since we showed our garden any love. It hasn’t been watered. It hasn’t been weeded. It hasn’t even been photographed since the weekend before last. So tonight I ran over just to make sure there wasn’t a family of rabbits calling it home now. In the week-and-a-half since my last visit, the garden had turned into a jungle.

The arugula stood flowering on three-foot stalks (completely inedible now), and the beets and carrot greens were as thick as carpet.

Out of control

But the most surprising thing was the lettuce, which had grown tall. I never thought lettuce would grow upwards, but it does. We planted the lettuce as a kind of filler, a living mulch to keep the weeds away from the pepper and tomato plants, but before I arrived this evening, the lettuce was acting as the bully. The poor little pepper plants which need time to grow sat quivering in the shade of the romaine and red leaf.

We're giving away lettuce if anyone would like any.

After clearing out the brush, I also picked a few beets and carrots – our first yield. It’s an amazing feeling to pull real food out of the ground, not just leaves (apologies to lettuce and herbs). I only took a few as a sampling, so over the next few weeks we should get our fill of beets and carrots.

Beautiful (small) veggies

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A new photo by Sylvia.

Chair of Arm #8

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A new photo creation by Sylvia

Photo by Sylvia

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This post is a little late, but this is to complete our report on the weekend. On Sunday we once again hit the beach in the morning.

Photo by Sylvia

On our way to the beach

Playing on the beach

After a nap, we went down to our old neighborhood of Lincoln Square for the Folk and Roots Music fest. We met up with Sabrina, Nathan, Quin, Sarah, Jamie, and little Nathaniel. Sylvia loved listening to the music and watching various styles of dancing. Afterward we grabbed some ice cream with Nathaniel and played in the square.

Lincoln Square

It was a full weekend but relaxing.

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This weekend has been laid back but full. The weather has been perfect – upper 70’s, light breeze, blue skies. Luckily the early weather reports of rain were wrong. So we have spent most of our time outside. Friday evening we played on the beach for a few hours. We didn’t expect to get wet so we didn’t wear bathing suits, but we ended up going for a dip anyway. After a stroll around the lagoon we were dry enough to go out for dinner.

Saturday morning Sylvia and I hit the beach again (this time properly equipped with suits). On Saturday afternoon/evening, we drove down to Millennium Park for ‘Family Fun Weekend’ which included clowns, music, and lots of people splashing in Crown Fountain. We toured the park, listened to music, and ended the evening with a picnic at Pritzker Pavillion while listening to an orchestra and singers perform a selection of Gilbert and Sullivan numbers.

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Sylvia’s cousin, Elaina, turned two during our visit in Mississippi.  We participated in 2 of her 2-year old celebrations.  One, at her house on June 25, her actual birthday.  And, then again at her big party on the farm with all the horses.  Here’s some of pictures of the fun.

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Even though the afternoon was a little rainy, we had a great 4th in Evanston. Dede and Papa were in town, and we watched the Evanston parade with our friends Sabrina, Nathan, Quin (a.k.a Baby Quin), and Danny Joe (of Danny Joe’s Tree House fame). The parade was fun with numerous marching bands, a long line of old cars and numerous politicians including the mayor or Evanston and the governor of Illinois – Pat Quinn, not that other guy. Sylvia’s favorites included a very tall Uncle Sam and a clown.

After the parade, we hosted a little get-together at our place and Sylvia’s friend Jonah and his family joined up with everyone who had been at the parade. The weather cleared and after a lot of eating, we piled the kids in a wagon and walked over to Dawes Park on the lake to listed to an orchestra and wait for the fireworks. The fireworks display was one of the most impressive I have seen in a long time. It even had smiley face fireworks and star-shaped fireworks. We weren’t too sure how Sylvia would handle them, but she just giggled the entire time.

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We haven’t been lazy here at Sylvia and Co.  It’s just that we are all adjusting to being home together again as a family.  Chris left at 5:00 am June 2 for China.  Since then our lives have been on the go and full of family.  Sylvia had her big adventure to MS with G, our trip to Gulf Shores where Chris met us on June 18, then a trip to Pointe Clear,  and back to Jackson for Elaina’s birthday party.  Then Sylvia returned to us with Dede and Papa on July 2.  Then, we had big weekend with Dede and Papa on the bikes, at playgrounds, in the garden, at the 4th of July Parade, BBQ, and fireworks. This week we are all in recovery mode and getting back on our feet.  One little hitch has been that the funding is up in the air for my job so I’ve been scrambling and waiting to hear if we get funding for next year.  Sylvia has been reunited with her babysitter and all her Chicago buddies.  Today, she didn’t want to leave Jennifer (her sitter).  We have pictures to post from Elaina’s party, the 4th of July, and some fun ones from around the house.  Hopefully, we’ll get to posting some pictures this weekend in between the beach and the Folk and Roots Festival.

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