Unlimited Rides

Every August my new school, St. Helen, has a carnival complete with rides and games. I've attended it each of the last three years, but now that I am a St. Helen student, I am able to purchase a magic green wristband that leads to unlimited rides.
On very the first night, it took me about 30 minutes to get my monies worth; thanks to about five trips through the Fun House, another few through the Indy Adventure and about four trips down the Fun Slide. Dad joined me a couple times on the Matterhorn and Pharaoh's Fury, plus had one go around on Zero Gravity, which I can be seen above waiting to exit from, but can't be seen on while flying through the air. Dad could only stomach the one ride, but not me. By the end of the weekend I rode it almost 10 times! I may have ridden it more, but Gigi's heart might not have survived my going up one more time.

Weekend At Owen's

Even with school starting, there remained one last gasp of summer fun, when my cousins- Alexa, Madison & Quinn aka The Girls- came to Chicago for a visit downtown, a sleepover, a Sox game, and pizza, pancakes and gelato.
The weekend started with a trek out to Naperville through some serious rain to pick-up the girls. We headed back to Chicago, where the weather cleared up and allowed for a quick bus trip to Michigan Ave. for some window shopping and head scratching when we got to the city's newest public art piece, a giant sculpture of Marilyn Monroe. We hoped the bus back to West Town and stopped or some pizza at Roots, then dessert at Black Dog Gelato. Stomachs filled we headed home for bed.
The next morning we slowly made our way out the door for brunch at a brand new restaurant nearby called Prasino, which also has a location near Gigi & Papa's. That sat us in a cool alcove, where we all enjoyed our food, which was mainly pancakes. The weekend visit with my cousins ended with a trip to U.S. Cellular Field for the White Sox vs. Texas Rangers. It was a hot day, so we ventured from our seats to find a mini-carnival midway set-up in the outfield concourse. I played some games, won prizes and hung out with stilt walkers and the Sox mascot Southpaw. Madison tried the batting cages and we both tried to throw strikes at a moving target, which Madison had better luck with. We left the rare Sox victory early to beat the heat and the traffic back out to the burbs, where the summeresque weekend came to an end.

KINDERGARTEN

On Thursday, August 18, 2011, all 3'11" and 49 lbs. of me walked through the doors of St. Helen School in Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood and began my educational career with my first day of kindergarden... at my third school.
Only 16 years and 9 months to go until I enter the robust job market.

The End Of (Summer) Days

It had to come to an end eventually and that day was Wednesday, August 17, when my summer vacation officially ran it's course. However, thanks to the downtime between Summer Camp and kindergarten, I had a great last three days of summer. I spent one whole day with Gigi & Papa, Casey and my Dad on the very last day.
We started the day by visiting Dr. Z and receiving good news that I only had to wear my patch two hours per day. Post eye Dr., we went back home, hopped in the car and headed to Novelty Golf & Games (ne' The Bunny Hutch) for a round of mini-golf. I love me some mini-golf and when I am reminded that I am not a lefty and I concentrate for at least a second, then I am a pretty good shot. Dad had a tough time because he was distracted by the fact the place was stuck in time. Although, he was not distracted enough to not win the round.
After mini-golf, we headed to "Aunt" Silvija & "Uncle" John's for a famous quesadilla and a trip to the super awesome Lincolnwood pool. I splashed around in the kiddie pool before Dad persuaded me to try out the water slide. I had previously been skeptical about the slide because you have to be able to get to the edge of the pool after you hit the water, but Dad assured me I was tall enough to walk myself over and he waited in the wings the first couple times. After that though, I was hooked and didn't need any help at all. Twenty plus times down both slides later, it was time to head back home. Not surprisingly, I fell asleep, and Dad probably wished he could have slept through the next two days, to let his now water slide sore body heal.

Pure Haven

Papa gathered the family for another trip to South Haven, Michigan, where we once again stayed in the big house with the big pool to match. Everyone enjoyed the usual sunsets and ice cream, corn and hamburgers, and beach and dunes. However, this year also brought some new things, at least for me. For example, I played the card game War with Gigi and my cousins, we took a day trip to Saugatuck, Dad took me and the girls to minigolf and we all enjoyed a huge thunderstorm that very briefly cut the power to the house. The storm ushered in the best part of the trip, when we went to Lake Michigan on our last day and I battled almost five foot waves. Luckily I had my life vest on and Dad played a human backstop, which prevented me from falling under the water. Can't wait for next year's trip.