Colleen and I spent the weekend in Chicago. We had a blast! We went to see Niki in the Garden at the Garfield Park Conservatory. It was amazing. We went with our friends Ben And Christine and their kids Elijah and Colin. The kids loved it and so did we. I highly recommend it. Only a $5 suggested donation for adults and kids are free.

I could live at the Garfield Park Conservatory. It’s my dream garden. If I ever win the lottery, I will be hiring those folks to landscape my lawn.

We got to witness and amazing struggle of nature. I felt like I was watching a nature documentary. A momma duck had her babies out for what appeared to be their first swim. The only problem was, although they could jump into the pretty lily pad pond, they couldn’t get out over the ledge. A crowd gathered as the eight little ducklings frantically swam looking for a way out and the mom would alternately quack at them from the side or jump in and swim around trying to gather them up. It was extremely tense. The crowd, including me, starting encouraging them. “You can do it little duckies!” I would say a good 15 minutes passed as one by one, they finally struggled onto the shore. Naturally, a cheer erupted from those of us who had been sucked into the drama.

After we left, Chrstine was cleaning the boys’ room and found this note that Colleen had apparently posted to their bunk beds one morning:

“DEAR ELIShah and Colin,

Wake UP! Wake UP! Ther’s not time all Day! I’m getting berest of finisd rihte this minit if you woke up with me then you miht be Having breckfast Now. (heart) colleen. “

On the bottom of the note there were three “No” illustrations. The first was a big circle with a line through it, seeming to represent a baby bottle inside. Like “no bottles.” The second is an exterior view of a high rise with a bold NO! on top. The third is bunk beds with two smiling sleeping stick figures and outside the window a frowning face with a huge NO! written across the top.

That kid cracks me up!