Disclaimer: I was lucky enough to trade PR for a stellar party experience from The Play Café, but all thoughts, opinions, and nutty party masks are entirely my own. *** My buttercup with dandelion-fluff hair turned 4 years old yesterday. FOUR. While it seems like she’s actually going on 11 most days, I still can’t help but feel like she’s still the rosy newborn smiling in her sleep against my neck. (And if I were truly honest, I still can’t {Read More}
Six months later. (A Dad recap.)
October 1, 2015 By 5 Comments
My Dad, my first hero, died six months ago yesterday. Six months. At times, it’s felt like a blur. At others, it’s been an exercise in holding my breath, bracing for the pain, working out the cramps when I can. Sometimes I click on his Spotify icon, just to see if “daveflynn425” has listened to anything of note lately. To see if maybe there’s any record of those daily playlists we listened to during his chemo and hospice time. Like {Read More}
Way too much stuff: A Chicago playtime roundup.
September 30, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Avid, long-time, family-member readers might have noticed that the Wednesday Roundup had gone on a brief hiatus due to the draining, summertime heat. Okay, not really. But I did lose a lot of Man Hours applying sunscreen to various moving targets. So with the cooler weather comes the return of Awesome Things People Are Doing Around Town… …And That You Should Know About, Too: The 2015 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival– besides being an incredibly cool experience for kids ages {Read More}
Going makeup-free with Rodan + Fields’ Unblemish.
September 29, 2015 By 2 Comments
Disclaimer: I was provided Rodan + Fields product for my review but wasn’t otherwise compensated. All thoughts, opinions, and unfortunate skin issues are entirely my own. *** I was feeling bold. And feeling inspired to shake up my skincare regimen, i.e. solve my teenaged-acne-meets-that-best-not-be-a-wrinkle skin. That’s a dangerous combination- one that, say, encourages crazy behavior. Like posting zero-makeup selfies on the internet. I was recently approached by Rodan + Fields consultant and longtime Lollygag Blog-reader Joanne Pfeiffer (hi, Joanne!) to {Read More}
Parental failure: Apple orchard edition.
September 28, 2015 By 4 Comments
I’m starting to see a pattern. There are ideas- really, really good ideas- that get into my head. And even if they don’t jive with my current reality, once I’ve decided that THIS is the plan, then buster: We’re sticking with the plan. So when it falls apart spectacularly, I shouldn’t be surprised. But I always am. Loudly. With tears. Which brings us to Sunday! P.J. and I- we– had decided to go apple picking. In Indiana. Because we always {Read More}
Dragging or hand-holding?
September 24, 2015 By 2 Comments
If I could sum up this week in a photograph, it’d be this one: Getting pulled in many different directions (by improbably tiny people) through a messy home, wondering just when- exactly- each of them became big enough to actually go places, clad in a shark backpack. But to look at it from a slightly different angle: There’s lots of sunshine as well as a crazy amount of hand-holding. Plus a shark backpack. Happy Thursday, friends. (Don your best shark {Read More}
The weekend of weddings (and cheese and bouncy castles).
September 21, 2015 By Leave a Comment
This morning, I was seriously proud of myself. By 7:10 a.m., all three kids were (mostly) fed, (mostly) dressed, and buckled into the car. We swung by a friend’s house to pick up their son for carpooling. By 7:40 a.m., I had deposited two kindergarteners to the correct classroom door. Within 20 minutes, the remaining twosome and I drove back across town to pick up my preschooler’s pal for carpooling, stopping ever so briefly for a potential episode of carsickness. {Read More}
Tired, a.k.a. dirty pavement love.
September 17, 2015 By 5 Comments
Sometimes you have a great blog post planned… Like, really great… But along the way stuff gets in the way, so you find yourself overwhelmed, overtired, over-caffeinated, and under-appreciated at the pity party called Low Ebbing, Table for 1. (Check, please.) So when your youngest takes an unexpectedly awesome midday nap while your middling decides she wants to work on a project in her room- alone- during the hour before your eldest needs to be fetched from school, you take {Read More}
