Father's Day 2026

We spent this year's Father's Day in Michigan per usual. Austen, Peyton and I went up early on Friday before the USA's World Cup game which we promptly watched once we arrived and got settled. My brothers and their families met us up there while Tom and Hailey joined us much later that evening after Hailey's hockey practice. 

Friday, we hung out after the game. While the guys played games in the yard, Peyton and I taught my sister in law and niece how to play Mahjong. My brother and sister in law made flank steak on the grill for dinner with homemade chimichurri sauce. After cleaning up dinner, we hung out and caught up before building a fire outside and waiting from Tom and Hailey to arrive.

The Pickleballers @ Root Beer Barrel

On Saturday, it was an early morning of golf for Tom, Austen, Papa and Mike. Others did a run and a walk while the rest of us lounged around and made breakfast (Peyton made her avocado toast and I made the pancakes). After that a few of us headed to Bundes for coffee and then walked into town for shopping at my favorite store, Vintage Charm, and to peruse the Farmer's Market. 

We arrived back home about the same time as the golfers and my other brother and sister in law made some lunch. We then decided it was time to play some pickleball so we drove about 15 minutes to Douglas where they had 8 dedicated courts. We did a few round robins of play for almost 90 minutes before declaring it was time to head to the Root Beer Barrel for some root beer floats. 

After that it was home to hang out before dinner and play some more Mahjong before most of us retired prior to midnight from the long and very full day. 

On Sunday, we woke up to cloudy skies but no rain. Breakfast was made for the Dads and gifts were open. (Tom got a wooden grill cleaner with an old school Sox logo that Austen and I found at his U of I Mom's Weekend. Papa got golf and tickets to a Sox game with us.)  Everyone headed out around noon/1pm and then we decided to play some yard games ourselves before the rain that was coming. We got about two hours in (and Tom did a quick mow of the lawn) before it started coming down. We ate leftovers for dinner and left about 6pm to drive home in the rain. 

I think it was a good Father's Day for all but especially Tom because he got to spend it in his favorite place - Michigan!

Mahjong!

Captain Lou's!

Golf!

Papa and Mike

California Girl

Peyton could've picked any trip or any present for her 16th birthday. It took her awhile to decide as she went round and round with decisions on concerts or an expensive purse or a weekend away. But, after almost six months, she decided that she wanted her gift to be a trip to California to visit her big cousin, Lauren. 

The Work Fit

Lauren is also the middle child of three kids - an older brother and a younger sister. She left for California her freshman year in college and never came back (to live permanently). She's worked her way up in the glamorous world of Hollywood at an entertainment company and Peyton has been interested in her life and job for several years now. Lauren (and her husband Matthew) were gracious enough to invite Peyton out to visit them in California and show her what it means to work at their company and live in LA.

So on a stormy Thursday, Peyton flew out (after an almost three hour delay) and arrived in the land of celebrities and EVs. She knew how to navigate the airport (of course she's a pretty seasoned traveler) as well as was armed with some work attire for the office and "California fits" too. 

They ate at many cool restaurants, went to a beach club, got smoothies at Erewhon and matchas too. Lauren even set up a day of work for Peyton with her meeting the interns and assistants at her company and going to lunch with them as well as putting Peyton to work so she could see what it would really be like to be an intern or an assistant. She loved all of it and all the different people too!

She was so busy and happy that we barely heard from her all weekend! And, when I texted her to make sure she was through security and on time for her flight on Sunday, she responded that she was purposely going to miss it so she could stay in LA longer. Then in true Peyton fashion, once she saw me in baggage claim when she got her flight, she promptly burst into tears. Not because she was happy to see me, but because she already missed California so much. 

I don't know where Peyton will end up in life - in California or in the midwest - but I do think these moments of growing up and learning about yourself away from your parents are essential for every kid. They may not have an opportunity to fly away or a cool cousin to show them their world but navigating and figuring out life without us was a beautiful thing to see for our 16 year old. 

Malibu with Lauren

She's home!

U-S-A!

We made it!

Last weekend, we ventured to Chicago to catch the last friendly between the US and Germany before the start of the World Cup. We had been planning on going to a World Cup game this year but when those ticket prices came out, we decided to do just the friendly game. Those World Cup prices are insane! Even our nosebleed seats for just the friendly cost us almost $1k!

The traffic was also insane. It took us 2.5 hours to get from our home to our seats causing us to miss part of the first half too. We arrived just before the US's goal so that was fun. Stadium was sold out too. We really enjoyed seeing Christian Pulisic play and of course knew more than a few Germany players from watching the Premier League (well, at least Austen and I did). 

What I didn't realize until I was watching the game was how much I really missed watching soccer. With Austen not playing anymore and always watching it, I didn't really see too many soccer games this year. And, until this point, I didn't really miss it. Maybe I did that subconsciously. If I watched more of them maybe I knew I would miss it too much. 

Excited to watch the World Cup starting today! I think I can get my fill of soccer with 104 games to watch over the course of a 6-week period! Hopefully that will last me all year!

Cute 'fit'

Our nosebleed seats that cost us $1k

 

Last Day of School!

6th Grade - Done!

That's a wrap on grades 6th and 10th for Hailey and Peyton, and freshman year of college for Austen. 

They all had a great year overall and handled the many changes in our lives pretty well with Austen heading to college and all of us moving to a new home.  

I was particularly proud of Hailey this year since she was the most resistant to change. She did not want to move and she did not want to go to middle school. But she embraced the change well, made lots of new friends and absolutely loves middle school (what girl says that?). She has friends in our new neighborhood too from her school so she loves how she can go back and forth between her friends in Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills easily walking or riding her bike to meet up with them. She also did a great job in school of managing her assignments, advocating for herself and studying for tests. She transitioned super well and I'm happy that as the last of my three kids, I can say that I never had to be on top of any of them to get their assignments in on time, do their homework or study. They all have exceptional executive functioning skills for which I am grateful!

10th Grade - Complete!

Peyton grew a lot this year as a person especially second semester - once she started driving! Freedom! She's been a little nicer to Hailey as well as definitely more focused on her grades in getting into the college that she wants to attend. She maintained excellent grades all semester and while we don't know all of her final grades just yet, it looks like she is going to have one exceptional semester GPA which is a huge confidence booster for her especially the "A" we know she earned in Honors Trig. She's on track to be part of National Honor Society next year (like Austen) as well as was selected to be a "Link Crew" leader to help orient new kids and freshman at the high school next year. 

Goodbye Bromley Hall/Best Room

And, what can I say about Austen's freshman year at Illinois? It's everything you'd want it to be for your kid who goes off to college. He had the best year. Made so many new friends. Joined a fraternity. Played a little soccer (but lots of other sports too). Studied hard but probably drank harder (sigh). He absolutely loved it. What he didn't love though was the food at his dining hall. He officially lost almost five pounds during his freshman year. Now, he probably has less muscle from not playing as much soccer as he did last year but really who goes away to college and loses weight?!! I'm hoping that next year he joins the club soccer team so he can gain some of that muscle back and stay busy so he doesn't have as much time to go out! Tom said his classes are going to get harder so he definitely won't have as much time next year. Fingers crossed! I like busy Austen! But he did do well in school and is looking forward to living in the fraternity next year with a new roommate (his old roommate and him are still the best of friends after a year at Illinois together but decided to not join a fraternity so he could live in an apartment). 

Onto 7th and 11th grades for Hailey and Peyton, and sophomore year for Austen but first SUMMER!

All cleaned out and ready to go home!

Memorial Day 2026

Memorial Day weekend kicked off with some cool weather that developed into rain for part of the holiday. 

We drove up to Michigan on Friday night with all the kids since Austen and Peyton took off from work and Hailey did not have hockey. 

On Saturday morning, we visited our favorite bakery for coffees and pastries then hit the Meijer for some food staples before returning home for a leisurely day. Tom cut the grass. Austen set up the badminton net.  Peyton studied for finals. We played many games of badminton rotating partners throughout the day. Then as late afternoon approached, I taught Austen how to play Mahjong while Tom and Peyton had their second lesson. Austen became a bit addicted so we didn't get to eat dinner until 9pm CDT. After dinner, we played more games (Quiplash) as a family before calling it a night at 1am. 

We woke up to heavy rain on Sunday. So not much to do but enjoy a leisurely breakfast (I had made an overnight casserole the day before). Austen suggested we play a few more games of Mahjong since he had not won a game yet so we did. Hailey drew and then told us she was meeting up with her friends so we needed to head back home. Plus, the weather was looking better at home than it was up in Michigan so mid afternoon, we loaded up the car and headed back. Austen and Peyton had to work on Monday anyway.

After unpacking the car and since it was really nice weather at home, we grabbed our pickleball paddles and played a few games of pickleball at our club (rotating partners). Hailey's plans feel through so she came too. We ate leftovers at home that night and treated ourselves to Andy's Custard for dessert! 

Monday was pretty low key but the weather was beautiful. Hailey worked on a project with a friend. The older two were at work. So Tom and I decided to play 9 holes of golf. We did a few errands in the afternoon - grocery store and Home Depot then we took the girls to dinner since Austen was still working. It was a good end to the holiday weekend and the last week of school. One more week to go before we officially have a 7th grader, 11th grader and sophomore in college (technically he's been done for a few weeks!). 

Hailey Starts Ice Hockey

For the last several months, Hailey has been learning how to skate. This is because she really wants to be able to play hockey. So after about three 8-week classes of just skating, she finally deemed herself ready to start the Intro to Hockey classes. 

Of course she needed all the gear too which cost us (and her) about $1200! Yikes! I really hope she likes it because this is a very expensive sport! 

She attended her first class (which is on Friday nights which sucks for us) and was in a group of kids from ages about 6-12 so she's one of the older kids. There were three girls about her age in there too as it's coed. She's had about three classes now and she absolutely loves it. I can see how much faster she is progressing using her skates and getting comfortable stopping and starting as well as getting up after falling. She's working on her stick skills and knocking down all the big boys. Maybe she'll do this class for two or three sessions and then move to a recreational program and try that out. 

For now though, Hailey's favorite day of the week is definitely Fridays because she has hockey!

Going for the puck!

Mother's Day 2026

I kicked off Mother's Day the Wednesday before with my own mom. We do an annual spa day and lunch or brunch. We tried to remember how long we've been doing this tradition and I think it dates back to more than 15 years - maybe more than 20 even!

Austen had his last final on Friday and then due to his plans and ours, we agreed to move him out of his dorm on Mother's Day (very appropriate since I spent most of my years as a mom at his games and this is my first in a very long time without one).

However, on Saturday afternoon we found out that his Friday final (which was postponed due to a college platform hacking issue) was now on Monday at 8am so we couldn't move him out til Monday. So no plans with him for Mother's Day except a quick brunch before he returned to school on Sunday morning (he was home for a concert because he was supposed to be done with finals). 

So we went to brunch at my favorite restaurant - Buttermilk. I got flowers (from Austen) and cards. Austen left, and then Tom and I played a quick 9-hole round of golf before picking up the girls and heading to the pickleball courts for some family competition.

After pickleball, Tom grilled some chicken and we ate at home before I taught the girls and Tom how to play Mahjong. 

It was a great day with most of my favorite things (and favorite people).