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Elliott worked so hard to prepare for the third grade picnic. He made a parents book. It was awesome to have lunch just with him. He requested a McDonald’s quarter pounder with cheese (plain), fries and a Diet Coke. It killed a little bit of me to load up my beloved child with all that junk but it’s rare so okay.

• Charleston

A huge thanks to G and G and N and P for splitting childcare duty so that J and I could go away for 4 nights to Charleston, SC!  We haven’t been away this long since we went to Aruba in 2015!

We had an awesome trip. It’s sad how hard it is to unplug from parental duty and work, but we found our way.

Day 1

Strolling the shopping/ historic district. J actually purchased a pair of jeans over $50. We had an excellent dinner at The Establishment.

Day 2

Easy morning. Got bikes at Bildabike (highly recommended) and then met a friend from college for lunch at Leon’s (a bit off the beaten path: highly recommended). We leisurely lunched for 2 hours and then took a 20 mile round trip bike ride to Sullivan beach. Great way to see the area. We refueled at a restaurant at Shem Creek park on the way back. View was great. Saw dolphins in the creek. We didn’t do it but a kayak tour there would be cool on a subsequent trip. Then we play darts at a bar on King street. Jordan was victorious but it was close.

Sunday.

We got our church on. We went to St Patrick’s a historically black church that has merged a couple times. There were about 8 first communicants there! The music was really good and it was the most diverse church setting. It’s obvious the area is gentrifying a lot. In general there is so much building going on in Charleston.

Then we rode bikes through the historical district along the beach (south of our hotel in liberty square). We wanted to peak in at the cathedral (gorgeous) and happened on the exit of the new bishops first mass. SC diocese has had 14 bishops. The last one was here for 22 years. Bishop Fabre is the first black hatian descendant bishop in SC history. We joined them for a celebratory lunch!

Then we tried to bike up to a park in North Charleston but it was industrial and run down residential so we didn’t make it all the way. We stopped at revelry brewery on the way back (also recommend). Then we cleaned up and went to dinner at the ordinary on king st which is an oxymoron. J loved loved a fried oyster mini sandwich so much that he ordered a second. The food is pricy and fancy though so only go if you are a foodie. Then we broke our local-stuff only rule and ate dessert at insomnia cookies. And went to the dewberry for a Drink and great views of Downtown 

Monday

We rented a car and drove to Middleton plantation. It was interesting but not a must see. We did learn more about the lives of enslaved people. Other ideas if you rent a car would be to go to folly beach or isla palms beach. Then we had massages which was awesome after almost 40 miles of biking that weekend and dinner out at an Italian place where we got flat bread pizza and discovered brevazzi – an alcoholic Italian soda which was delicious.

Tuesday

Leisurely morning. I worked out and did some personal work. Nothing else to report.

We also squeezed in a few episodes of Ozarks at night. If we would ever go here with younger kids, the Childrens museum or aquarium would be good. We saw the naval destroyer and fort Sumter at a distance but didn’t make an effort to see them. History buffs would love though.

Awesome trip. Rejuvenating and fun to explore somewhere new.

while jumping on the couch with his eyes closed

mom: wow. You are brave to jump with your eyes closed. Are you scared

conor: (looking a bit perplexed) no there’s no snakes

haha

the basket pic is where he chose to watch a show one day.
that last pic shows the rosary he picked up from church in Florida!

we haven’t seen Lala in 4 or 5 months so we were so lucky to get 28 hours with her. Conor adores her and she got more snuggles this weekend than JENE have gotten in a week! Her awesome cheer squad ability extends to bowling too.

she also let J and I meet us with a good friend from Kellogg and his wife for a double date

Unrelated but as you can see C is all about wrestling

Elliott’s 9th birthday was celebrated across 3 states:

• Medieval Times in Chicagoland on March 5. Natalie, Grandma, Dad, Miles, Joe, Luca and I joined you for an afternoon of eating oversized chicken wings and other food with our hands while cheering for the Black Knight to win.
• St. Patrick’s Day Party – turned Elliott bday party in Florida on your actual birthday. You started with parasailing that morning (on the scary scale, where 1 is you’re sleeping and 10, you’re so terrified you’re peeing in your pants, you said it was 1.5… but you gave it a 10 on the fun scale). You built epic sandcastles on the beach with Clayton and Natalie.  And Florida family came over for a dinner of brats – and best of all, french silk pie.
• Sonny’s Place in CT/MA on March 26. Ethan, Teddy and William joined you for laser tag and minigolf – with a rain delay half way through which turned into an ice cream break.

He’s a pretty lucky guy, in my opinion!

I also wrote him a birthday limerick:

There was a sweet boy named E-man
The mighty rhino he was a big fan
He parasailed up high
Ate lots of french silk pie
I thank God he’s part of my clan.

I was contacted by Notre Dame to say a thank you to the Hagale Family who have provided scholarships to ND students for 30 years!  I wanted to share my reflection that I submitted – and some pics.

1. How did the gift of financial aid impact your decision to attend Notre Dame?

2. What are memorable moments in your learning at Notre Dame that you have carried forward beyond campus?

Conor has really taken to alphabet show and share at school. His Yam hasn’t left his side. This is shortly after he slept with his Yam and shortly before we played hide and find your Yam.

Conor discovering what he looks like with a bunch of muffin batter on his face! I think he convinced me to make strawberry muffins this day, which were better than I expected. (I had made them 20 years ago and found the strawberries were too watery, but something went better this time around.)  I love that all my kids like to bake with me!  It’s just an argument over who gets to lick the bowl.

PS I love his little cameo shirt – Elliott used to wear it for hockey. It’s an athletic shirt that would show off their little tummies… now both are way slender.  Jordan discovered the other day that Elliott has a 4-pack.

My life is way too busy to post much, but my daughter has been urging me to do so.  I’ll do better!  Here’s a random assortment of photos. (Thanks for TV which is what E and C are doing while I write this – gotta get them off their devices now!)

A trampoline date with my favorite 8-year-old! (We used to go to toddler time when he was a PK – so fun) I was more tired this time around!

WI cheeseheads know how to make the best cheese curds. (At Lake Geneva’s ski “resort”)

Clearly, someone is happy. 2nd largest lego set – thanks to all the families members who pitched in so he could save his money for this!!!

Cousin Play Date! (building legos of course)

Wouldn’t I love to be in the middle of those two cuddle bunnies!?

Fam pic from WI Dells trip to water park with the Marx fam – so fun. They were nice to let us come even though we had recently had COVID

That’s Elliott’s match face for wrestling… or, I was forcing him to smile while he played mindcraft and waiting for his next match. (Which was a huge defeat – I won’t mention which side was defeated)

Jello Jigglers! More fun to cut than to eat, IMO. Such fun childhood memories doing this

Aw!

C-man was so proud of the gingerbread house that he and Daddy made while Nat, El and I were in MA. He also clearly loved having a treat in the next room that he could go to whenever Mom and Dad weren’t looking

We spent Thanksgiving with the Linville’s and then my parents came in this next weekend, which they surely regret because Conor picked up a stomach bug at school which mildly passed to Nat and me for like 12 hours but took my parents down for much longer. The pics wouldn’t suggest that part of the trip!  Also the random dark photos are Conor and me in mama’s pantry finding small things I hid with a flashlight. Gotta get creative with curious toddlers esp in winter!

we were in charge of pies  and did I mention that someone had a big boy bunk bed just like the berenstain bears?!