Rub a dub dub 3 beauties in a tub

Friday night while the big girls experience their first concert (Hillary Duff) the rest of us go to the Bear workshop at Navy Pier.

Rebecca is there as well

Mimi and Sarah share a Carousel ride

a shot of Anna and the girls on the big ferris wheel at Navy Pier in Chicago.

I thought long and hard before I bought this expensive peg perego stroller - but it proved itself time and time again on my trip.

At a park in Hyde park - Chicago. Mimi didn't hesitate to get nude. And she loved being chased by her cousins!

Kid's Pop

I discovered something I'll probably work on forgetting. Somewhere somehow there is a cd called kid pop that features little kids singing hit songs. What can I say about a young boys voice talking about how his girlfreind is finer than chocolate - or a young girls voice singing"oops I did it again"?? Here I was - 5 girls - a half hour in a van waiting and hoping that my two little ones wouldn't implode. It called for pretty desperate measures - like putting on this cd and watching the hips bump and grind and hearing the pretty little voices sing along.

Then it was off to a yummy Thai lunch followed by a bbq at my brother in laws apt building with a pool. The Thai was amazing and somehow the kids behaved. They had this pad thai that was fried. Yum!

Girls, girls everywhere

4 neices and 2 daughters later - all under 9 years old - 24 hours somehow felt ALOT longer. Still it has been fun to see my girls with their cousins. Everyone loves Lucy and I have to make sure she doesn't get too much of that love stuff as much as anything else.

Here are all the Canter girls in all their glory.

David was a real sport. He felt lousy but came out with us anyway. Nothing could keep him away from his grandchildren. This turns out to be the last photo I have of him. We will miss him.

In terms of being a cutie pie - Lucy does not fail to deliver...

In the past, Mimi was the youngest and the center of attention in all cousin visits. I thought she handled the shift to Lucy very well.

Rough Beginings

Can one ever plan well enough when traveling with two small children?? NO!!
I am the first to admit that I am not the planning type. I may have been a decent project manager at one time - but planning a project and planning your life are two incredibly different skills - at least for me. But I was bridging this gap for this one. For a few months I had dwelled on some product choices - I had packed the kids things a few days ahead and was as ready as I could be.

In the end - we got tagged with late check in stickers and instead of the preboarding I had envisioned - we just made it. It must have been the gasping of the collective conscious at the threat of a 2 1/2 year old separated from her mother sitting next to anyone that inspired a nice young couple to give up their seats next to each other. Or maybe it was the stunned look on my face. The good news was that the portable DVD player I bought really paid off. Mimi was happily ensconced in her Dora and Elmo discs while I struggled for consciousness. And for once on my traveling life- my delerium meant that when I did ask for the time - we only had an hour to go - which meant I wasn't really awake until we landed. Not bad for a 4 hour flight.