July Festivities

"Princess Emily" after she helped dress "Princess Ella"

At Will's 9th Birthday Party. A proud Princess Ella.

Mike and Ella after the tour. Ella is still going strong.....

Me in front of the Dana Thomas...and in seventh heaven!

The incredible 12,000 SF Dana Thomas House.

We had another fun week. My cousin Sabrina traveled out to see us and we hung out on the beach and biked the lakefront to Michigan. Very fun. On Wednesday night, we attended a Rail Cats game compliments of US Steel (my client). Rusty the cat, their massive mascot, even came to the skybox to visit Ella. She didn't know what to think of this. I still haven't seen the pictures yet. Ella was too intrigued to even look at the camera. I will always remember that look on her face. Priceless!

Mike, Ella and I traveled to Springfield, Illinios later in the week. We toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Dana Thomas House. This was a very exciting trip for me as I have toured almost all of his structures in the Midwest, and out East. This was Mike's 3rd Frank Lloyd Wright structure he toured. The first two were with me, so I made him a fan :) Ella was so good on the tour even the guide commended her at the end. She went through the whole tour (1 1/2 hour) without a peep. She loved looking at all the interesting things in the house. We then spent the next day visiting the Lincoln Museum. It was very interesting, but I think I have had enough Abraham Lincoln to last me quite a few years. ;) My favorite part of the museum was Lincoln's hat...complete with marks from his finger tips from tipping his hat to people over the years. We had to hold Ella throughout the entire day as stollers weren't allowed through the exibits. Again, she was very good. She had a good time just looking at all the people. Mike read her all information about the exhibits so she got the most out of her trip in terms of historical information. (That's the history teacher in Mike).

This weekend we had our friends Chuck and Amy out for dinner on Saturday. We hadn't seen them in quite awhile so it was a good time. We also attended my cousin's son's birthday party this weekend. He (Will) turned 9 but has two younger sisters (Hannah 6 and Emily 4) who adore Ella. Emily couldn't help but dress up Ella in a princess dress (as she was wearing one too). They all had a blast and it is always so cute to see Ella interacting with them.