hot, hot, HOT

for the love of July...

as soon as this month opened the door the HEAT hit Chicago.  We have been living in triple digit degrees since Sunday - a week ago.  It hasn't hindered us too much; YET. 

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I got the chance to go out with "the girls" to see Magic Mike, while Chato watched the kids.  It poured buckets while we were gone, and with no rules, they played basketball in the rain...

On Tuesday, this little mister came to stay with us.  We VERY FAIRLY traded Brandan for Giselle and Noah, so that Leo and Griselda could go to the Sox game (if you didn't hear they beat the Texas Rangers silly: 19-2).

Noah is a trip!  Such a calm little dude, who is content to lie on his back and take in the world around him.  He is not quite 4 months old, but will jibber jabber a mile a minute if you want to hold a conversation.  It is so cool.

No.  We are content with giving him back at the end of the night.  No.  There aren't any loopholes in the "don't you wish" contract. :)

At feeding time, uncle was put in charge...

 ...with tremendously cute (and successful) results.

We kicked off the 4th we these two red, white, and blue chicas making very patriotic cupcakes.  We mixed up three batches of separate batter to color code the final product!

With a touch of cream cheese icing and some homemade flags...YUM.

By the time we made it to Lansing, Leo had the chicken begging to be eaten...

 SO tender and good!!

But it was definitely a holiday too hot to forget anytime soon.

A couple of other side notes:

Chato and I have still had our hands full of work, but there were a couple of perks these past two weeks.  After a very arduous audit, Chato got to go out to dinner with his coworkers and enjoy some down time...

 I got to gain access to a huge CPS warehouse, where (sadly) all shuttered and consolidated school supplies go to get shoved in a corner and eventually picked through.  They wonder why our system has a lack of funds.  They have no clue how to care for such bountiful treasures and distribute them to classrooms that truly need them.  It was an overwhelming experience to wade through a sea of boxes just piled on top of one another, never knowing what is inside until you lift and dig into it.  I won't get on a soapbox to delve into how I feel about shuttered and consolidated schools...

 We also got to throw in some party time with my girl, Margie, for her birthday...

 ...and a birthday bash for Jose's dad where all of the littles gathered...

 ...oh how they are growing so quickly.

 In the next few days we will wrap up packing for Costa Rica, hit Six Flags for a day trip, and fly off towards the equator to live amongst the howler monkeys and sloths (wait, don't we have some of those here in our house?)
 If we get lost in the jungle...God knows what he is doing, but at least it will be an adventure to be talked about - and lord knows, I love to TALK...err...write.  yeah, write...