Last weekend, Spencer and I flew to Chicago to surprise my friend Danika for her 40th birthday. Our other friends Janeal and Katrina flew in as well. We, along with Danika's husband Brent, had been planning this surprise for several months. Steve took two days off work and stayed home with the other three kids Thursday - Sunday.
Here's what the girls (and Spencer) and I did:
Spencer's first time flying! He did great on every flight. He's such a sweet and mellow baby.
Just us, taking selfies in the fancy mother's lounge at the airport...
My smiley boy, full tummy, ready to take on Chicago!
Janeal, Danika, Katrina and me - wearing our tiaras and prepped to sing Happy Birthday to Danika!
The birthday girl!
Birthday pedicures
Visiting the Home Alone house (which Janeal can now check off her bucket list!)
Lunch at Ditka's in downtown Chicago....
...where we ran into Mike Ditka as we were leaving! (We don't know those ladies in the picture.) :)
Visiting Cloud Gate, "The Bean"
And since there was a World Series game in town that night...
Chicago downtown nightlife was hoppin'!
We had the best time chatting and spending time together! Some of the highlights included the fun things we went and did, sitting around at night talking and eating treats, and having Danika show us around her town. It was hard to leave, but Sunday morning, we all left for the airport at 4:30 AM and headed our separate ways.
I came home to this:
My family is the BEST!
Here's what my family was up to while I was away:
Ellie went to a Halloween party
The kids helped carve pumpkins
Another trip to the farm
Trip to a pumpkin patch
Hard at work making our welcome home banner.
Steve and the kids also went to the park, did "yard work" (jumped in leaf piles), ate pizza and root beer floats, and cleaned/vacuumed the van! They stayed busy and had tons of fun while Mom was out of town :)
Ellie insisted that she carry around a magical spells book; very a la Hermione Granger - I love Ellie's authenticity in being true to her character :)
