It's Starting Already

It's exactly one day after she turned 16, and Kelsey received this in the mail today:

her very first piece of mail from a college!  Drexel University has the distinction of being the first place of higher learning to send her mail.  Kelsey has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up.  She has no clue where she wants to go to school.  She's not worried, and neither am I.  But I think I was more excited about her mail than she was.

16 Candles

I usually post baby pics alongside current shots of the kids on their birthdays; however, I've been informed that when one is 16, one does not want a public display of one's baby photographs.  So, part of my gift to Kelsey is honoring her wish.

My Sweet 16 daughter has grown so much in the past year.  She's in a positive, happy place.  Her grades are good.  She's kind to those around her.  She practices her saxophone without being told.  She has a heart for social justice causes.

Kelsey really doesn't like the spotlight, and she begged us not to throw her a big, giant party.  Again, we listened and allowed her to have a low-key day.  Actually, her birthday celebration is being strung out over several days.  I made her two favorite desserts:  chocolate cream cheese pie, and poppyseed cake.  She's not a big fan of birthday cake, so we put her 16 candles in the poppyseed cake when we sang Happy Birthday.

Kelsey added another ear cartilage piercing (she's up to four now) as part of her birthday activities.  Tomorrow is her birthday dinner - we'll be enjoying chicken pockets.  Saturday Baird's taking her to get a mouthpiece for her newly-acquired tenor saxophone.  Next week, Baird, Kelsey and Erin will be going out for sushi.  On February 16th, Kelsey, Charlie and Baird will be heading down to Jazz Showcase to hear live jazz featuring the saxophone.  See?  I wasn't kidding when I said this celebration is being strung out over several days!

Happy birthday, Kelsey!  You're 16 and you're beautiful!

Ready to Move On

This is the view out my front porch:

This is how I feel about it:

'Nuf said.

Learning How to Huskie

Tonight Erin joined hundreds of incoming freshmen at Oak Park-River Forest High School for Open House Night.  Every extra-curricular and co-curricular activity at OPRF had a table or booth so the almost-high schoolers could get a feel for what types of activities they could join.  There was everything from Chemistry Club to Students for Peace and Justice to Cross County and Ping Pong.  With thousands of people threading their way around the cafeteria, gym, and surrounding hallways, it could have felt a bit overwhelming.  Actually, it was loads of fun.

Erin and I never walked for more than a minute without running into someone we knew.  Erin saw friends she played soccer with years ago.  Her old ice skating buddies who attend the other middle school were there.  We came across neighborhood friends and acquaintances.  There was an expectant feeling of excitement in the air, as the Class of 2015 took one more step toward becoming Huskies.

While we were at the Huskie logo wear booth, I saw these t-shirts, and I just had to get one for Erin:

The shirts are a nod to the video some students shot earlier this fall to boost school spirit:

Next on the agenda:  meeting with the guidance counsellor for final course selection tomorrow night.  Yea, Erin's learning how to Huskie, and she's loving every minute of it! 

Taking a Bow

As the weather warmed up a bit today, Kelsey's tall, thin snow(wo)man took a bow...

While neighbor MJ's resting snow giant pretty much stayed intact.

Historical Second Snow Day

The kids were thrilled to pieces last night when they learned they were in for another snow day today.  Snow days for the Chicago public school system are few and far between (before yesterday, it hadn't happened in more than a decade), and even more unheard of for Oak Park school districts 97 and 200.  This is the first time in the history of the Oak Park schools that there have been back-to-back snow days.  Today's day off seemed to be related more to the overnight temperatures plummeting to -20 or lower, and the fact that not everyone's been able to dig out.  Thanks to Baird's hard work, we were able to get around fairly easily by late afternoon yesterday.  Venturing out today certainly wasn't very dramatic for us.  Clearly, tho, there were those who weren't so fortunate, like the poor owner of this car on Highland between Fillmore and Harvard:

Today became a "do your own thing" day at our house.  Baird was up early and went to work.  He said he had no problems getting there - 290 and 294 were in great shape.  Kelsey quite literally slept the morning away, finally coming to life a little after 1 this afternoon.  Erin, ever the early bird, was up by 8:00, not wanting to miss a moment of the treasured day off.  "When I look back on this," she said, "I want to be able to talk about how much fun I had in the snow.  I don't want it to be, like, 'yeah, I spent the two snow days sleeping and watching TV.'  How lame would that be?!"  I couldn't agree more!  Since the roads were passable, Erin and her neighborhood friends connected with those north of the highway and went sledding at Ridgeland Common.

Drew and his friends met up at Barrie Park for some football...

...some hot chocolate...

...and some king of the mountain.

This weekend-in-the-middle-of-the-week has lasted just long enough to be fun.  Tomorrow, it's back to school for all of half a day, then it's Super Bowl weekend.  Oh, and we might get some more snow.  I have no idea where we're going to put it!

Digging Out from Blizzard 2011

I must admit that when I woke up this morning and saw this:

my very first thought was really?  That's it?!  Somehow I thought it would be much, much more!  But the bottom line is that we did get a lot of snow overnight.  So much, in fact, that by early morning, this storm was severe enough to place it in the top three all-time snow storms in Chicagoland.  The truth is, it actually didn't look that bad from inside, but once we went outside and started digging out, it was clear that this was, in fact, a BIG snow storm.

Baird, bless his sweet heart, spent just over 7 of the last 18 hours snow blowing our entire block three times over.  He worked on the alley, Finn & Kat's car port space, and Ted & Sue's sidewalk on Fillmore too.

While Baird ran the snow blower and Kelsey worked on the stairs and walkway to the garage, Drew and I had a little fun on the way to Barrie Park.

The hill at Barrie Park was a popular place this morning!

Erin and her neighborhood friends were part of the group that enjoyed the fantastic sledding.

When they'd had their fill of sledding, the Neighborhood Three decided on a change of venue. They climbed onto our garage roof for some more snow day fun:

It was a pretty easy endeavor since there was a giant pile of snow that was formed when the dads on the block worked at clearing the alley.   The pile was even bigger than it was in the earlier pic when Drew and Emm were sledding on it.

Once they scaled the side of the garage, the girls set to work on a snowman.  They used the snow from the roof, carrots, chocolate chips, and food coloring to make a whimsical work of art:

Not to be outdone, Kelsey worked on her own snow(wo)man in the front of our house:

Here's the finished product:

I know for a lot of people this snow storm was a huge hassle, but for our family, it was a pretty great day.  We enjoyed each other's company.  We had fun playing in this historic snow.  There was not a single fight or cross word the whole day.

As my thoughts turned toward supper, I thought comfort food all the way.  I went with London broil, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and Caesar salad.  And of course, for dessert, there was snow ice cream.

We've just received word that both District 97and District 200 are closed again tomorrow, since side streets and alleys in a lot of places are still impassable, tho ours are in pretty good shape.  It's also turning bitterly cold, with wind chills sinking to 20 to 40 below zero tonight.

This is winter, Chicago style!