Weekend Update

Last weekend was such a great weekend, the perfect way to cure the mid January blues. I (Ali) kicked it off with an early morning trip to Naperville to have breakfast with Heather, Sarah, and Shannon and meet Jackson and Ellie Nickoloff for the first time. The twins are so sweet and just beautiful. They were perfect angels and slept through the entire meal so I didn't get to hold them, but it was great to finally meet them. I can't wait for Ethan and Matt to see them, they are just precious. Breakfast at Egg Harbor was delicious and it was great to catch up with the girls, I have missed them!

After breakfast I made a quick drive back to the city to pick up Matt and Ethan and head over to Kaitlyn Dill's first birthday party. Sarah and Nathan hosted a great party at the Garfield Park Conservatory. It was our first time to the conservatory; what a beautiful place and such a great place to have a party. Kaitlyn was not really interested in her birthday cupcake, but enjoyed the party nonetheless. Thank you to the Dill's for including us and Happy Birthday Kaitlyn. We can't wait to return to the conservatory in the spring and check out all the gorgeous plants and flowers.

The Dill Family

Ethan and Jack partying it up!After the party, we headed to Union Park with the Rice's and some of their friends to have a late lunch/early dinner and a few beers (for some of us, it was more than a few). It was a blast to spend time with Katie, Dana, and Jack and get to know Lindsay, Bob, and Ben better. Such a fun group! The big boys had fun playing Golden Tee Putt Putt, while the girls chatted and the little boys snoozed. I think this is about the only time in your life when it is alright to fall asleep at a bar!

All tuckered out from too many games of Putt Putt and way too many Sam Adams

After a very busy Saturday, we decided to have a lazy Sunday morning. We all slept in a little bit and then Ethan helped his dad make raspberry chocolate chip pancakes. After all Ethan's hard work in the kitchen, I decided he could have a few bites of pancake. You would have thought they were candy, he loved them!

Helping Dad make pancakes The rest of Sunday was spent cleaning up around the house and getting ready for my first business trip to Cleveland. My mom and dad were kind enough to drive down Sunday late afternoon so my mom could watch Ethan while I was away and Matt was at work on Monday. My sister and Ben hosted dinner on Sunday night; chili and Dea cake....yum!

We were thrilled to have such a fun weekend in the city and so glad we were able to spend it with family and friends. We are so grateful to have such wonderful people in our lives.

See more pictures from the weekend here.