The sprinkler, Chicago, and a really big T-shirt

I know I haven't posted photos in awhile, so I wanted to reassure you that Milo is indeed still quite cute. This post is just a bunch of photos from that last month or so.

First, the really big T-shirt. Actually, on me, this is a really tiny T-shirt.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we had a little barbecue at my parents' house. Milo enjoyed riding around in the Cozy Coupe and playing in the sprinkler.

We also recently took a trip to Chicago to visit our good friends. Milo and Eli are really close in age, and it was great fun to hang out with two adorable tiny people. We even put them in matching outfits, because how else could we embarrass them when they're in middle school?

I just love Milo's expression in this one.

He climbed the stairs and went down the slide all by himself!

Surprise!

Last week I decided to go to Chicago. I didn’t plan it, exactly. I got an email invitation to my best friend Emily’s birthday party, and I thought, Hey. I should go to Chicago. And I should surprise Emily, because she totally won’t be expecting me to come. So I recruited Stephanie to go with me, made a road trip playlist, and four days later, we were off.

"I love parties! I'm in!"

And let me tell you, was it ever a surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Emily look that confused. For about five minutes, she didn’t say much besides “I can’t believe you’re here.” If you’ve never surprise-visited someone out of town before, I recommend it. Very gratifying.

BFFs since 1986. (I know. I can't believe it, either.)

Love this picture. Don't you?

Kenny made cake! Funfetti, no less.

While we were in Chicago, we did some shopping, obviously. I can’t go to Chicago and not make it to at least a couple of the stores I love that we don’t have here in KC. We went to Design Within Reach (though it’s not actually within my reach), Room & Board, Bloomingdales Home, Crate & Barrel Outlet, CB2, and Trader Joe’s. Lots of home stores. I had furniture and accessory shopping to do, after all. I found some great stuff. Cute vases, a lovely tray, some placemats. And curry sauce and lots of organic wine from Trader Joe’s. Ahhh, Chicago shopping . . . I love you so.

I luuuuurve this table. And the chairs. And the lights. *sigh*

The damage.

While I was gone, Andrew picked up our newly purchased coffee table. It looks fantastic. Couldn’t be more perfect for our room. With the new accessories I brought home and the new table, it’s beginning to look almost finished. Amazing. I thought this day would never come. We’ve still got a long list of home renovations we’d like to do, but it feels good to have one nearly completed room—especially when that room is the one in which we spend the most time.

What did you do this weekend?

It rained there.

I spent the weekend in Chicago with my girls. And it rained. A lot. The entire time, actually. Except for the moment we left to walk to breakfast. They talked me out of taking my umbrella. And then, of course, it rained on the walk back. And we got quite drippy. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Why did I go to Chicago? There are lots of reasons, but the short answer is to see my two best friends, Emily and Molly. (Together we’re the three M’s. We’re tight like that. I think it was sometime in high school when we started calling ourselves that—you know, for Megan, Molly, and Emily. We’ve been friends for twenty years, people—we were destined to get a group nickname at some point). Emily moved to Chicago this year, and Molly and I wanted to plan a trip to see the apartment, hang out, shop, and do all the standard M’s stuff, like make pizza (except it’s really like watch Emo make pizza and then eat it). If we’d just made chocolate chip cookies (but ate half the dough) or those orange sweet rolls in a can, it would have been like many of my weekends of yesteryear.

The trip was excellent. We did some standard Chicago-type things, like eat at Gino’s East and shop on Michigan Avenue. We saw lots of old friends who were also in Chicago. I bought a supercute purple bag. Ooh, and we ate cheesecake-stuffed French toast. Sooo good.

There is just nothing like hanging out with best friends. Friends who have been around so long that my dad calls them his “oldest and dearest friends.” We just know each other. Like, even though Molly and I have no idea how she does it, Emily’s showers take less than a minute. Or the way I know I can trust Molly’s advice when it comes to bag buying (guess who was carrying a Coach bag this weekend? Not me). And we can talk about boys forever and say the same things over and over, essentially, but there’s always more to say. And that’s okay. We can talk about how we’re unsure of our haircuts or how we wonder if we need different shades of eye shadow or whether these shirts look good on us, and regardless of the answers, we know we’re all beautiful in the end. And really, that’s why I went to Chicago.