Yesterday was Joan and Max’s wedding. They joined about 1300 Chicago area couples by getting married on 7/7/7. We spent the day at The Seville, on Barrington road. The Seville hosted two weddings in the afternoon and three in the evening. I bet the staff at the Seville was exhausted by day’s end.
Purple and Lilacs were the theme of the day
These chocolate covered strawberries were in the bride’s room at the Seville.
The sweet table at The Seville
Monday I played hooky from everything and spent a day with the kids. For those of you who don’t know, around July 4th every year, Milwaukee plays host to Summerfest, the nation’s largest music festival. 11 years ago, it was one of my first dates with Sheryl.
The weather today was beautiful. Around 75 degrees, sunny with a slight breeze here in Chicago. So around 10:30 I (Sheryl was stuck working), loaded all three kids in the van and drove to Summerfest. Before we left I stopped at the bank for some cash. As we were pulling out of the bank’s parking lot, Meghan realized she never had breakfast and a Dunkin Doughnuts was in the area. $5.00 later we had 7 doughnuts (BTW, DD has free Doughnut Mondays in July!).
Off we were to Milwaukee. About 75 minutes later, we arrived at the park and ride lot where we met Charles and Harriet, my in-laws. The parking was free but he bus to Summerfest was $9.00. Eventually we arrived at the main gate. Much to our surprise as part of kid’s day at Summerfest, admission was free until 3:00!
My relief was short lived. Once we were in the door, there was plenty of ways to spend money.
$3 for 3 balloons for the kids
$20 3 subs and 3 sodas (1 in the souvenir cup) for lunch
$2 for the bounce house
$2 for the street act juggler
$9 to ride the skyway (1 way)
Total spent (without gas money) $50. At the end of the day, I had three tired kids, the photos and my $50 souvenir cup. But you know something? The kids had a great day and I’d do it all over again next year!
Did I mention, the Summerfest grounds were on the shores of Lake Michigan. Here are the kids at lunch time.
We let the baby loose for a couple of moments.
Here’s the juggler! Notice that very sharp knife.
A view at the Harley Motorcycle parking lot.
Megan and Lance had a great wedding today at Starved Rock. Here are some of my favs from the day.
Here’s Megan checking out the dinning room.
Megan in her infamous pose!
Our couple is a tender moment!
The guys!
It was a great sunset. Take a look at the fire in the sky!
This is what happens at the end of the night when a group of dancers gets together.
Four years ago today, my son was born. Suddenly, he’s four years old! Where did the time go. Yesterday he was a little baby. Today, he’s a big boy and fun to be around. Here are some photos from Tuesday’s celebration.
Cupcakes ready for his class at Kindercare. In the fall, he’s going to be moving into the 4 year old room.
After eating a blue cupcake. Blue is his favorite color because Thomas the Tank Engine is blue.
Here’s his cake. Same cake as last year. He knew it but was thrilled to have a Thomas cake anyway!
Baloo just doesn’t care!
As some of you folks are aware, I fell way behind. No matter how hard I worked, I just could not seem to catch up. I finally decided to farm all of the kids out and devote a full work week to catching up. As my previous post mentioned I’ve finally had some time to breathe.
I realize that since I did not have a chance to blog while I was catching up (and honestly I didn’t think I should be blogging when there was tons of work to do), there are several recent events and photo sessions which I did not have a chance to feature. So here are some photos from recent events.
From Brad and Catherine’s Reception. Brad and Catherine had a destination wedding with a small local reception at Pheasant Run. It was a nice intimate affair with just close friends and family celebrating with them.
Next was Brad and Kristin’s wedding. We had a great day. It was absolutely beautiful. Kristin wanted some unique photos so we went to the Schaumburg sculpture garden. Here is a composite image I created just for them!
A great big welcome to Brady. The proud parents are Kevin and Kelly!
Another great wedding day. This time it was Amy and Randy. I don’t think I will ever forget the snack stop we made at all places, Home Depot!
But later on after Randy had his snack he did have time for a romantic moment.
Finally, we have Christie and Brian’s wedding from a week or so ago. I guess I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had great weather and great clients this year.
Yes, I know it has been slightly over a month since my last update. It seemed like I could never get the time to update the blog. It was one thing after another. Either the kids, the house, Magical Moments, the dog or some other crisis. During all of the chaos, by the time I was at the end of the day, I was too tired to think about blogging or what to say. All I wanted was sleep! So please forgive me.
The house is coming along. Here is the transition of the basement family room/kitchen into my office and family room. I know that when this is completed it will be a huge improvement over what we had. Sheryl tell me it is like having a child. A pain while you are going through it but worth the joy in the end.
Wow another week. The floor is completed in the main room. They started tiling the powder room but used the wrong tile! So literally back to square one. Earlier tonight we looked at the small bathroom and noticed the paint is wrong. That means they have switched the paint from the master bedroom and the powder room. When I originally questioned the guys about the bedroom, I was told, the color on the wall never looks exactly like the swatch. I knew better but I accepted their word for it. Now they are just going to have to repaint the two rooms to make Sheryl happy.
I’ve been trying to process work and get a some more jobs processed. It is slow going. Everytime the power tools are turned on, the line voltage drops. I bought a UPS for the computer but the lights and other devices still flicker and it distracts me as I’m trying to work. I just try to remind myself this will all be worth it when it is all done. The work that has been completed so far, is great. I just can’t wait for the rest of it to be finished.
It’s on the floor. It’s on the shelves. The TV screen is full of it. It’s just construction dust and it is everywhere. We’ve turned the furnace to the bare minimum to keep the dust confined as much as possible but somehow it manages to get into every nook. There are days when Paul is working, I look over at him and swear he has just come in from a major snow storm because he has so much dust on him!
Meanwhile, poor Baloo just does not understand what is happening downstairs. There is all of this noise and chaos. It is a good thing he is a mellow Lab. They seem to take all of the noise in stride. The basement is coming along. I’m told it will be another couple of weeks before they are done. They have completed the electrical and the plumbing. They are starting on the floor, painting and trim. Finally, they still have the new master bathroom to construct.
Well the office was not ready for me to move into on Saturday afternoon. There was still some work that needed to be done. I had to wait. As I type this, my office is packed. The only things in the old office are the computer, desk and chair. Everything else is either in the new office or waiting be moved in there.
Once I’m setup in the new office, our renovation project will have reached the first milestone, that is the first functional room. The only thing is that the office was supposed to be one of the rooms that was not moving/changing. I guess that is just the way renovation projects go.
My new office was supposed to be ready this evening for me to move over. Needless to say, it isn’t. This week the workmen have been busy and it is exciting to see parts coming together. We can see how the basement will flow. We’ve selected the flooring and colors for the walls. Mostly I just agree with what Sheryl picks.
For my office I needed a white. Bill, our designer, was not happy with my selection. He wanted some sort of off-white, color or tinted white on my office walls. It took a couple of tries but I finally got through to Bill that photographer’s need white on the walls. I’m sure he would have blown a gasket if I picked the other option for a photographer’s office walls — black!
I’ll be at a bridal show this weekend. It is at the Charlestowne Mall. If you have a moment or two, please stop by and visit. I will be featuring my new CD-ROM and CoolTure album. I’m excited to see how well it goes over with prospective clients.
Anyway, this promises to be a long weekend so I better get off to bed. I’m told the contractors will be arriving at 7:30 or 8:00 to finish my new office. Finally a milestone will be reached.