This weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the SS Eastland disaster. On July 24, 1915 the passenger ship with 2,572 day tourists rolled over into the Chicago River, taking 844 souls with her as she sank 20 feet to the muddy bottom. All on-board were families of Western Electric employees, gathered for a leisurely cruise […]

Sweet Vivian. My little #3 is 3 years old, and like many third children she has to go with the flow. A lot. Her two older siblings are very busy with activities and friends. And her little brother is still little enough to require most of my attention. Fortunately for me, Vivian is a happy […]

Oh Mack. That kid just never gives me a break. Nothing gets past him – nothing! – and he never – never! – stops moving. He has been this way since he was born – speed and action course through his veins. There is literally no stopping him. But with all his hard living comes […]

The kids didn’t have school yesterday, a little fact I had forgotten until late Wednesday night. By the time Friday morning rolled around, I still hadn’t come up with a plan. But, the sun was shining and the skies were bright blue and temperatures were in the high 60s. A perfect day for an urban […]

There are so many reasons I love raising kids in the middle of a big city. Aside from all the cultural experiences and fine restaurants and walking everywhere, city living affords us the chance to do fun things every night of the week. Take tonight, for example: Chris and I took the kids to a […]

Mack was overdue for a date night with mom. As he has been reminding me lately, Evie has had THREE special nights out with me (Katy Perry concert, going to see the movie Annie, and the Lyric Opera). In the interest of fairness, I owed him! When I saw that the Chicago Children’s Theatre had […]

Living in the city with four kids requires a bit of sacrifice. We don’t have a big back yard or a spacious basement. Everyone doesn’t have his or her own bedroom. Minimal storage space means that we can have minimal stuff. But…living in the city with four kids also means we have world-class cultural events […]

Last Sunday night Mack couldn’t fall asleep. An hour after we tucked him into bed, he tiptoed downstairs and crawled onto the sofa with Chris and me.  He is normally so busy and active and rambunctious, so to have him snuggle quietly with us for an hour felt like such a treat. It was 10 […]

Winter is coming. For the past week, the weathermen have been warning us of frigid temperatures headed our way. It is hard to believe, though, as today’s high reached a sunny 65 degrees. After school, the kids and I visited a new park along the lake shore. It felt like spring! Oh, how I want […]

Chicago enjoyed some blissfully mild weather this past weekend. On Saturday we took a nice family walk to Lincoln Park along Lake Michigan. No coats, no hats, no problems! Sunday was equally as nice, so I wanted to take the kids on another trek around our city. Unfortunately, Chris had to teach a class, so […]