Time for fall

A lot has happened over the past month, including a repeat of the "No Cars! Just Bikes!" day in our city. Even more bikers came out to celebrate a car-less city than back in June! Hooray for bikes! Hooray for Madison!

Speaking of bikes ... NC!JB! signalled the apparent end of my Cougar'n ways. I am now all about the tag-along!

Dad and I head out just about every day ... either to the grocery store, the bakery, the bike shop, Betsy's house, the park, the hardware store, or wherever else we feel like. I work really hard to help out with the pedaling but full rotations are still a work in progress.

Despite deserting Finn in the Cougar, I still love being a big sister and smother him constantly with kisses and the rest of my body.

Speaking of Finn, he now smiles just about every minute that he's not hungry.

Finn, Baby Belle and I had a special day with Mom on her last day of summer - we accompanied her to "Mommy Yoga" down the street ...
... where Baby Belle ate just like all the other babies in attendance.

Since our school district said I was too young to take the fall swimming classes that their summer instructors told me to enroll in, I instead signed up for "3's on 3's" soccer. I'm of course not 3 yet, but I've been practicing my dribbling in the attic and have thus far fooled the authorities. My team's first practice was something to see - although I like to kick ...

... I hadn't quite figured out when to stop.

Our first game was 10 days ago on a cold and rainy Sunday ... and because only 3 of my team members showed up I had to play the entire game.

The whole idea of soccer being an actual competition was/is still a bit foreign, so although I managed to kick off just fine ...

... figuring out what to do next was a bit of a struggle (although spectator Finn didn't seem to mind).

And by "struggle" I mean the other team always stole the ball and scored.

To the tune of about 20 goals in the first half.

So first Mom and then Dad headed out on to the pitch to help keep me in the thick of the action ...

It didn't stop the little Pele's on the opposing team much, but I started to figure out how the game is played.

(One thing I didn't have to figure out was what to do with the after-game snacks. That was definitely the highlight of the day!)
The last week has felt a lot like fall and was spent in the wind at "Hair (Yahara) Park" ...

... getting gussied up for dancing and popcorn at Saturday's "Outdoor market" ...

... and playing soccer game #2. This time no parental assistance was needed and I made a few nice runs with the ball ...

... and used my speed to keep ahead of the older kids in pursuit. Not that it helped the overall result much, as the other team had a few 4 year olds that outscored us by 25 or so.

But I had a great time and great braids and great smiles and big high-fives afterwards. Hooray for soccer!

Summer's end

This has been our front porch view for the last month (and will be for the next two weeks) while the "workers fix our street" ... it means lots of house-rattling vibrations and loud beeps and dust. Although our street will look nicer when it's done, I've just about had enough of the house-shaking and overall commotion!

To escape the construction zone, Mom, Finn and I have been taking the bus ...

... to the library ...
... bipedalin' down to a small park in our neighborhood that we had never visited before ...

... and taking the bus ...

... to the new downtown Children's Museum. It just re-opened last week after moving across the Capitol Square and the new building is awesome!

We also made another visit to the Splash Park before it closed for the summer.

This past weekend we traveled to an ironic intersection in the Windy City ...

... where we checked into a fancy hotel ...

... and I took control of the camera as we met up with Grammy, Grampa, Katie, Sue, and Bill.

Although the hotel was nice, the real reason we were in Chicago was to attend Finn's first Cubs game!

Taking after Mom's love of ballpark food, I made sure to pick up my trusty snack on the way to our seats ...

... where Finn had fun playing with Grammy ...

... and I had fun cheering on the victorious Cubbies! That makes it LIAW#5 and FIAW#1!

We stuck around Wrigley for a few pics after the game ...

... and then headed out on the town for some yummy pizza. On our walk back to the hotel we took a detour and I had a blast splashing and running and sliding in the "Picture Pool" in the park across the street from our hotel - so much fun that they had to kick me out when the park closed at 11 pm!

Hooray for Chicago!