What a busy weekend! My husband’s MBA program celebrated its 5 year reunion, and ALL of our good friends returned to Chicago for the weekend. When he started the program right after we got married, I had no idea I was about to meet some of the best friends of my life in the wives [...]

We hosted a birthday party for Mack and Vivian the other night.  It was a large crowd, so I wasn’t able to serve an entirely homemade meal. But, I supplemented pizza delivery with a homemade chopped salad and some simple appetizers.  Perhaps the most popular dish was homemade beer cheese. The men in the family [...]

Evie didn’t have school yesterday, so I scheduled a playdate at our house. Her friend has a brother Mack’s age who came over, too, and all four kids had a blast all afternoon.  The mom and I actually had a real conversation (a rarity!) because the kids were so busy playing.  Seemed like the perfect [...]

I feel so lucky to be a part of a very large extended family.  My mom has seven siblings and my dad has six, and so I have lots of cousins near and far.  The other night we got together with my grandparents for dinner, and on their way to the restaurant they bumped into [...]

This morning Mack was the first person in our house to wake up. At 6:09 am. Sigh. However, I quickly realized that I should seize his early rise as an opportunity to spend some special time with him.  The other night Evie stayed up late and I really treasured that time with her; Mack getting [...]

To celebrate Evie’s birthday, we took her and some of her adorable little friends to see the movie “Brave.”  She loves anything princess (something I had to get used to), so going to the movie was a real thrill for her. For the past six weeks, whenever a bus passed us with a “Brave” poster [...]

Yesterday while Mack napped and Chris worked on his computer, Evie and I ran some errands around our neighborhood.  One of the best things about living in the middle of a big city is that everything we could possibly need is within a 10 minute walk of our home.  Evie and I picked up some [...]

Baking is always a bit challenging for me.  It is such an exact science, and if one measurement is even a little bit off the whole recipe can flop.  This seems to be especially true with homemade bread.  So, when I read about Average Joe Bread Kit in my college alumni magazine I was immediately [...]

I’m feeling a little under the weather today.  Despite getting plenty of sleep last night, I am exhausted. And, I have no appetite so I haven’t eaten much today.  I suspect a day-long bout of nausea is due to this pregnancy, too.  So, after trying quite ridiculously and unsuccessfully to get my husband to leave [...]

We go through so many bananas in our house that its rare we have any ripe enough for homemade banana bread.  Sometimes when I’m craving this baked treat I’ll purposefully seek out older bananas at the grocery store in hopes they’ll turn brown before we get a chance to eat them! The other day I [...]