wip 5.12.12

friday:
kept beaner home from school. had him come with me to pass out items people bought from his fundraiser.
but we did have to make a quick stop at school so he could have his picture taken...

and a car wash. he was complaining about bird poop on his window. and he's not a fan of loud noises.

after we delivered everything to my work, we stopped by and visited and lunched with nick.

and home for nap time. i love that ben reads me a story too. 

he ended up napping on the floor next to our bed?! not sure why. but whatever! i got a nap and so did he... win, win!

then it was another trip to costco. kevin loves tagging along with us. however, nick and kevin and electronics can be a bad combination!
this time, it wasn't. ;)

then it was toys r us time for our no accidents mr. ben. he found these pool toys. we bought three and they have been a non stop source of entertainment for all of us.

and we ran into jer bear and gibi and bri at toys r us. such a small world!

then it was time to head home and check out his loot.

once kevin left and when nick was putting ben to bed, i headed out to do my regular friday errands. i love grocery shopping that late. except that they only have one check out lane open. wtf!? there's always at least 4 people waiting. oh well. 

saturday:
nick got up with ben even though it's my morning. happy mother's day weekend to me!

ben still loving those pool noodles!

and chatting with his army men...

 a quick mid-day bath. with army men. ;) and this is where the 'you're wearing boots' conversation mentioned in yesterday's post was born.

and we ran a few errands and when done, nick went out and did some much needed yard work.

found this in one of the bushes...

 
a nest with two little eggs.

 then nick attacked our three main trees. they were shaggy!

much better!

then we headed to nick's sister's to celebrate gabby's birthday.

the birthday girl.

nick playing with the kids. 

came home with miss bri. and they all played with the pool noodles. {best $30 spent!}

and then nick and i headed out to meet some friends to see the avengers.  i didn't see thor or captain america but robert downey junior is hot, so i was all for it! our friends ended up catching a train on the way from dinner to the theater and the show ended up being sold out by the time they got there. boo! but we did get to see the movie and they caught the next one, so it all worked out.

sunday:
mom's day. ;)
ben sent me some pretty succulents earlier in the week. sorry, no good photos of em yet.

 we weren't sure what we were going to do but when i woke up and realized how beautiful it was outside we decided to head to lincoln park zoo. we had mentioned going but hadn't made a plan of it.

the drive there was a breeze. we commented on how we would totally live in the city if traffic was always like that about a million times!

a quick shot of lake shore drive with no one on it!

we made it!
trying to figure out where to start.

ben got a kick out of the gorilla being right behind the glass!

enjoying the fishes. we almost need an aquarium or little beta fish again. almost.

i love meerkats. used to watch their show on animal planet regularly!

and my favorite. giraffes. doesn't it look like he's saying, 'whhaaaz up?!' 

um, mister ostrich. we can see you hiding behind the post.

somebody was loving it. a bit bossy though. was always hurrying us along trying to see the next group of animals.

what's better than eating crackers while sitting on dad's shoulders? nothing. ;)

nick would purposely run into the trees. ben loved it. 

family photo op.
ben is completely distracted by the train across the way!

ah, that's a bit better. 

he was so observant while riding the train.

headed to the children's area. had this super cool play/climbing exhibit. 

here he comes!

he made it.  was rought about 3/4 of the way through but there was no way to get him out so he had to power through. some of the kids inside were a bit crazy and my ben is a bit timid...

a gorgeous shot of the city.

we were doing a selphy and a stranger offered to take our photo. i totally thought he would have gotten the city in the background. oh well!

we will do it ourselves! even if ben is distracted by who knows what!

nick wanted some ice cream. ben wanted a cone?

he then decided he should steal mine. 

 sharing is caring! love his little tongue hanging out!

yum.

another group photo.

chicago... maybe someday i'll photoshop all those people out of my pretty picture.

 found a butterfly on the way to the petting zoo.

a tractor! ben would have stayed there all day. no joke. 

happy mother's day! :-)

petting the goats. i still am not a fan. nope. i'll pass. nick's job. 

then it was time to head home. but we changed our minds. had heard a girlfriend talk about lucky's.  had mentioned it to nick. we thought we should give it a try since we were like 3 miles away. so we did! i love no plans and just going with it.

enjoying a summer shandy. so good.

their menu. apparently, they have been on man vs. food. not sure we caught that episode. i think i remember seeing a gino's episode but can't remember what else was on it!

one of our sandwiches. 

crazy shots of us with the food... 

a quick snapshot on the way out.

seriously, so empty downtown. so strange! 

and someone was out no more than 5 minutes after we got into the car. was a long day with no nap. he was amazing. 

made it home from the city in record time. had a lovely evening just being silly and cuddling on the couch. i love my boys. so thankful they are both in my life. makes me one happy momma just thinking about em.

once ben was asleep nick and i watched crazy, stupid, love. such a good movie. and a nice way to end a pretty great weekend. ;)