MANDY! :)

I have a dog named Mandy and she is the star at her obedience school. She sits stays and she knows down and eye contact.She is the star of the show when we walk her everyone is like "can we pet her? what breed is she? what her name?" it gets annoying.

Adele got Mandy, her Puggle, at the end of third grade. She and her dad found her through a breeder in Oklahoma. Adele was so excited to get her puppy and we were literally counting down the days until she arrived. Mandy is absolutely precious and she adores Adele. She is definitely a puppy but she's very smart and playful. We are working on sit, stay, down and eye contact. Mandy gets assignments at her obedience class every week that she and Adele practice for homework.

Here are some cute pictures of my puppy! Isn't she adorable?

Monday, June 21st Sick Day

Adele has had a bad cough for the past week and a half. After a visit to the doctor on Saturday, she found out that she had walking pneumonia! Poor little thing. Today was supposed to be her first day at Summer Camp but instead she's stuck at home. The two of us are spending the day relaxing, drinking lots of fluids and catching up on our favorite shows.

"HAVING PNEUMONIA STINKS" "I HATE HAVING JRA, MOLESCUM AND PNEUMONIA STINKS MMMMMMM....."

My little buddy isn't feeling her best today but she's making the best of it.

Friday June, 18th "Toy Story 3"

Friday, Kate andI went to the Icon Theater to see "Toy Story 3". It was a great movie and I like the adventure and action from the movie. The movie was funny and had all the charters that make it funny. I think everyone got a kick out of Mr. Pork Chop and Mr. and Mrs. Potato head and their little orphans from Pizza Planet ; but Bo peep was gone and so was wheezy. I also recommend the Icon theater in the Roosevelt Collection; the theater was the cleanest theater ever, they have coffee, tea, pretzel bites, frozen yogurt (it's like berry chill in there) etc.

I was so excited when Adele agreed to see "Toy Story 3" with me. I am a huge fan of Disney Pixar movies but as I've gotten older, most of my friends (and my boyfriend) are much less interested in cartoons than I am, so I was glad that I had a buddy to hit the theatre with me. Even though Friday was opening day for the movie, Adele and I used Fandango to buy our tickets online. Another perk of the Icon Theatre at the Roosevelt Collection is that specific seat numbers are assigned when tickets are purchased, so if you buy your tickets online early, you're ensured a great seat. The theatre is located in Chicago's south loop and is only about a 15 minute drive from Lincoln Park, plus they offer discounts for children (anyone under 14) and students (with a valid ID), which made the cost of the show reasonable. The movie was really cute and not only had great animation and effects but also contained elements of both adult and youth humor. The plot was exciting, humorous and touching. According to the critics, "Toy Story 3" was dubbed one of the best movies of summer 2010. If you have kids, work with children or are just looking for a fun, feel good movie, I encourage you to purchase your tickets online at www.Fandango.com and check it out.

June 17th, Blading, Biking & Starbucks

Thursday was another beautiful day so Adele and I thought it would be fun to be outside. She told me that she loves bike riding and I decided that this would be a fun activity for us to do together. Instead of biking, I followed behind her on my rollerblades (my favorite outdoor activity). We biked and bladed around the Lincoln Park area and stopped at our favorite Starbucks for some cold drinks. We each have our signature summer drinks. I opt for the Venti iced coffee unsweetened with two Splendas and Adele gets a grande iced chai with whipped cream and cinnamon dulce sprinkles. I have to admit that finding a little buddy who loves Starbucks just as much as I do was awesome.
Thanks, Kate that was nice you're super fun too. I should mention that I have JRA (Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis) and right now my knee swelled up and so did the both of my ankles so it was a big step riding my bike but I took the chance. I fell and it hurt but I didn't get a scrape but the fluid in my knee and ankles moved around so that hurt a little. But, it's okay because my doctor is good on swell ups and I have had this my whole nine years of life. Yeah, it hurts sometimes but I get through it. Anyway I only fell once and it was my first time on my bike all season. I know I'm only going to get better. We also got my bike adjusted. It felt much better afterwards and was easier to ride.
Adele is such a tough cookie and even though her arthritis is painful, she makes the best of every situation and always wants to be active. Being on my rollerblades behind her made it easy for me to communicate with her as we cruised around and we both got to do something that we really enjoy.

Approximately, 50,000 children in the United States live with JRA. To learn more about it, visit KidsHealth.org at http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/arthritis/jra.html

June 16th, Pool Party!

Today, Kate and I went to my dad's place and played at the pool. We practiced flip turns and did all this cool stuff. After that we went and looked at my silly bands (I have 111 of them).Then we made some balloons and drew faces on them (we named them Squash, Bob and Liza). Then we went on a search for my goggles and saw my dog Mandy!
Monday and Tuesday were both really icky so we definitely needed some outdoor time. The forecast was for hot weather and so we decided to have some fun in the sun. After lathering on our sunscreen we packed some snacks and hit the pool. Adele is such a waterbug and we spent almost 3 1/2 hours swimming. After we finished up at the pool and played with Mandy, we ran down to Whole Foods for lunch. They have a great make your own salad bar that we both really like and they also have phenomenal cornbread (Adele's favorite). After a late lunch we headed back to Lincoln Park and played outside. There is a great park right across the street that we love. They have awesome trees for climbing and great monkey bars. We even grabbed pink lemonade from a little lemonade stand that one of Adele's schoolmates set up outside. We both really like to swim and play outside so this was a really fun day.

June 14th, The First Day of Summer

On Monday, Kate and I went to the Field Museum in Chicago for Target Free Day (the second Monday of every month, just in case you're interested and want to check it out). We saw Sue the Dinosaur's 10th anniversary, including the 3D film, Waking the T-Rex; Sue the Dino was the only finished T-Rex fossil found in history. The Dino was named after its founder Sue and her four legged companion.

Then, after 8 years they found out Sue was a male Dino! After Sue we saw the new exhibit Mammoths and Mastadons. We learned all about these huge creatures and their living relative, the elephant; we even got to see what they ate and the size of their poops. Yikes! We also had the opportunity to check out the Native American Exhibit, which was really cool because Adele and I just finished a project on the Illinois Tribe and their dwellings, long houses.

At the end of the exhibits that we got some food. I felt bad so I gave some to the seagulls. I named one Tom The seagull. The Alpha Male of the flock (who I was a little bit afraid of because he got really close to us and kept squawking) of little seagulls was so mean. It was so funny, a little girl started to chase the Alpa Male all around. Whenever I fed the other seagulls he would come up and scream loudly. (still to this day i wonder what happened to the little seagull Tom). Anyway, here's Kate!

We finished our lunch (and feeding our new friend, Tom) and decided to head back to the car. While walking, we came across a really cool jungle gym. Adele and I love to crawl, hang and climb so we had to stop and check it out. We made our way back to the car and headed home. What a day! We both had a lot of fun and learned some new facts. To learn more about the Field Museum, check out their website, www.fieldmuseum.org.