Aidan and Elise spend their last day, well technically the last day was just an hour, of class at a luau. After saying goodbyes and receiving their report cards, they partied down Hawaiian style with limbo, leis, ho-ho’s, chips and soda…You know all the traditional Hawaiian stuff.

On a different school related note, both kids and their classes recently joined the rest of the school and the Chicago Artists community to creat artistic birdhouses that would be auctioned off. The auction ended up raising $10,000 for a new school playground. You can see the finished products at the Friends of Pritzker website. Aidan’s class project was displayed @ Red Hen Bread and Elise’s was @ Psychobaby.

We’re proud – very proud – that Aidan finished First Grade with straight A’s which means that Grandpa Joe owes him $13 ($1 for each). He’s really enjoyed school and we look forward to watching him continue to flourish in 2nd grade.

Elise, while not receiving grades, also got a stellar progress report. She too has enjoyed school and is sad when she is sick and cannot go. Her teachers comments said that she was helpful, considerate and a good friend and helps the younger kids when they need it…independent and curious about her environment… In her mind she too got straight A’s and we couldn’t agree more.

We’re looking forward to summer and seeing many of you soon.  We’re also looking forward to doing a better job using this site to communicate with you.  Lazy Chris.   Bad, lazy Chris!

Ok so the real story is hit hit a grounder along the 3rd base line.  The third baseman, fielded the ball and heaved it to first.  The kid was at 3rd for a reason, that being he could throw the ball the distance from 3rd to first … and beyond which is what happened in this case.  The coaches waved Aidan on to second.  At this point the first baseman was just fielding the ball so the coaches waved him on to third.  Not liking what happened to him earlier, the firstbaseman recipricated and flung the ball wildly over the 3rd baseman’s head.  Strolling into home plate was easy as pie at this point.  It wasn’t pretty, but a run is a run, right?

Elise, meanwhile, occassionally looks on from her perch on the playground.

As countless of previous Americans with limited entertainment options, Aidan began his journey in to the snoozefest that is baseball/tball…Park District T-Ball no less.  He is on the Cubs and seems to enjoy hitting the ball and catching the occassional pop fly during warm ups.  But I guarantee I will be writing again before the end of the summer about how Aidan caught one in the chest or lower playing shortstop while looking up at the sky or down at the ground whle kicking dirt completely ignoring the speeding ball hit off of the tee by a burly 11 year old.

The highlight of June surely was our trip to the Finger Lakes of New York to “surprise” my Uncle Bill and Aunt Kathy on their 40th wedding anniversary.  While everyone was able to keep the secret, it was their own children who slipped up with such amature behavior as forwarding email threads and leaving photo albums out on the couch.  Better luck next time Carrie and Kevin!  Despite that, the party was a great time with relatives and friends coming to Lake Canadaigua from Rochester; Tulsa; Denver; Chicago; Indianapolis; Saginaw, and Baltimore.  After the weekend, we squeezed a quick jaunt over the border to the great white north to Niagara, Ontario.  Some photos of the falls and the drenching we received on the Maid of the Mist have been posted along other June events.