The McMahon Family

No new posts.  Where have I been lately? Packing.

And painting.

Guest Room

Boys’ Room

Upstairs Bath

Upstairs Bath

Master Bedroom

If you’re bored, let me know. That’s just the upstairs.  Still have downstairs to go!

Between packing boxes for the move, Nicki and I took the boys for the kids’ day at the fair.  I thought they might be getting too big for the kiddie rides, but they loved them and we all had a great time.  We even got out of there without having to play the games and pay for the crap blow up toys.

And a few more adorable pics in July album.

Mom, Nicki and I went on our annual girls’ trip to Chicago this past weekend.  As always we had a blast. I mean what could possibly be bad about a day with no kids? 🙂  With the weather absolutely gorgeous, we started with lunch at Harry Caray’s.

Started with a nice Coke.

Since giving up most sugar drinks since March, this was a sugary day for me!  It felt good.

Um, best part. 🙂

Last year we relaxed on our lunch cruise.  This year we decided to work on Mom’s bucket list.  Item check off for this year:  ride a Segway.  I was a nervous wreck.  I told our guide that I was scared, so he had me go first. Which made me more nervous to learn in front of everyone!  I freaked out a little in the beginning.  I almost freaked out too much and didn’t go…but Scott encouraged me to relax and stick with it.  Nicki snuck in a little video of my first lesson.  Of course, she didn’t get me riding around like a pro by the end. 🙂

What is wrong with this picture? Yes, you start off pushing your Segway…

Step one!

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I did finally get the hang of it and had a great tour.  I’ll never do it again, but it was a great ‘once in a lifetime’ thing for me to do.

Scott made us take a ‘hands up’ pic. 🙂

Our wonderful guide, Scott. He was awesome!

Once that was done, I was ready for a drink!  So off to Margaritaville.

Nicki’s first attempt of a picture of us…we were a little busy.

Then it was off for some shopping at Water Tower Place.

It’s me and Nicki!! The only reason a small part of me wanted to have a girl.

The best sign! Goes against “turn the other cheek” I try to teach my boys, but it’s so true!!

This sign was in the restaurant where we ate dinner.  It was plastered on the back wall.  It made me smile.

I have been planning my biggest event to date for the last couple of months.  Nate’s baby girl is coming and I was in charge of the shower.  The theme: vintage baseball.  Right up my alley!  I was ecstatic, but stressed.  I planned and planned.  Nicki and I prepared and created.  I went to Emily for help and advice.  And I prayed for no rain during our rainiest summer in quite awhile.  And the party was to take place at our new house that we haven’t moved to yet.

Finally, the day arrived.  No rain!  Extremely hot, but no rain!  So we set things up and it turned out perfectly.  Dale and Cheri were the absolute best hosts and worked so hard to help me pull it off.

We were given the baby’s initials and told that Nate and Kimberly would announce the name at the shower.  So I got this great idea to recreate Wrigley’s scoreboard and have the shower attendees write their guesses of the name on the board.  Shannon worked so hard and did all the work himself creating the chalkboard scoreboard with no template.  It was straight from my head.  (You rock, Shannon Paul!)  It turned out beautifully! Thank you, Emily for your wonderful work on the lettering!!

The table centerpieces

If you like this wonderful creation, ask me about Lisa and her work! She rocked it with a vegan cake!

It was a great turn out and we had a blast celebrating the arrival of little Eleanor Prairie!

to the new pool we waited so long to go to!  (When I’m there, I want to say it was worth the wait, but I still think it was ridiculous to sell and purchase passes to a pool not opened.)  But it’s pretty darn near to perfect.  There is so much to do at the new Crystal Lake Aquatic Center.  The boys love it and are never bored there.

Mac is so close to reaching the top of the climbing wall.  Here is one of his first attempts. Since this video, he’s tried more and gotten even better and sometimes is only one more step/climb away from the top.  I’m so proud of him for trying and keeping with it.  He’s the yellow dot on the climbing wall – sorry it’s so far away.

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