80. Go up in the Leland Tower to overlook Aurora

 I have learned in the past 48 hours that this was a goal that was exciting to me only.  That is ok though.  From when I was little I remember looking at the Leland Tower in amazement because it is about 10 stories higher than any other building in town.

It even has a Wikipedia page!  Does that make it legit? Plenty of city history in that building.

I took pictures around the downtown area of the building.  Don't get too excited.

Shot up Galena Blvd.

From across the Fox River.

The entrance:

View looking north.  Our trees are off in the distance.

View straight down on the river. It is lit up at night.  I bet it looks pretty cool.

The view looking east.  I was amazed at how many church steeples I could see rising up over the trees.

It was fun overlooking the city from a different perspective.  That is really the reason I wanted to go up anyway.  In any other city this wouldn't be that cool, but since I know Aurora so well it was fun to see the tops of buildings and just to look off in the distance and see things and places that I am familiar with that are a few miles away.  That was the enjoyable part of it. 

36 goals down!

58. Make a meal with all main ingredients from a Farmer’s Market

I finally made it down to the farmer's market to pick up some food for lunch today.  It wasn't the first time I had gone to the market, it was just the first time that I had gone with a plan for a meal.  When I wrote this list I hadn't really thought it out.  It is hard coming up with a meal with just vegetables.

Here's my view from about a block away.  I stopped my bike and snapped a picture.

I went around 11:00.  Not many people there at all.

Purchased corn, lettuce and onions from this stand.

Here is what I used.  I did have to go to the grocery store to pick up the cilantro and the lemon.  Those weren't available at the market.

All mixed up.

I added some shredded chicken to the mixture to make it a little more substantial and then topped it onto a bed of lettuce.

It was actually pretty good.  There is plenty for another meal. It will probably be lunch soon.

35 goals down!

Charlie's headboard

 Melissa mentioned awhile ago that Charlie needed a headboard.  Really, she just wanted a light wired into the wall, but that would involve a lot of hot and itchy digging in the attic that I didn't want to do.  We came up with the idea that creating a headboard with a light in it.  I had been dragging my feet on any wood projects due to the heat, but, I finally decided to act on a day that was about 100 degrees outside.  Not well planned.

Here's the small haul needed to complete the project.

Here are the extra supplies needed to make it possible.

Framing done with junction box in place.

Here is the work station that I use for most of my projects.  Gotta love taking out the gardening knee pad to do woodwork.

Slats in place with switch box installed.

Wiring.  You may have noticed in my supply picture I have an extension cord.  I just took the one end off the cord and wired it to the switch.  That made it so I have a plug going out of the bottom that can go straight into the wall plug.

One satisfied customer.  I took about 30 pictures and this is the best one.  He just wouldn't hold still because he was smiling, laughing and playing with the light switch.  I don't have a before picture in his room.  Just picture a really big patch of white wall.

5. Take Hannah to Luigi's

Hannah got to go on a trip to Luigi's with me last week.  We have gone there a number of times, but this is the first time I have gone with just one child.  Hannah had a blast!  Here's out video:

6. Take Charlie out

Yesterday, Charlie and I had a chance to go to Bounce Town.  It was over 100 outside so I thought it would be a good idea to do something inside.  When I checked the thermostat inside it said that it was 88 degrees.  So much for a cool place to go hang out.

 Charlie really enjoyed the air hockey.  Unfortunately half of the table's air holes didn't really work.  That meant I had to try to keep it on one side so he didn't have to climb up onto the table.

 Look how gross he looks!  We stopped at Portillos on our way home.  Charlie ordered a hot dog for himself and loved it.

While we were gone Melissa gave the girls some clay to play with.  Hannah spelled out her name and Maddie made some flowers.

Here is a video of our trip.



I had a lot of fun on this trip.  Hopefully we will get to do another one soon.

4. Take Hannah out on 5 dates

I took Hannah to the pool again.  I will let the video tell the story.



She definitely had fun!

106. Learn how to braid hair

Now that we have three little girls, I need to learn how to do their hair in the morning.  Getting out of the house to church on Sunday mornings is difficult enough without having to do their hair, but since Melissa is the only one that is the resident "expert" I haven't been able to really do it on those mornings.  Because of that I have been trying to get better at doing their hair to help relieve some of the pressure on Melissa in the morning.
The challenge that I had a year ago was to figure out how to just put the girls' hair up in a pony tail.  Now that I have that down I have ventured into trying to braid hair.  Here are my results:

My next thing to get down is parting their hair more efficiently.  Baby steps...

While this wasn't a goal, I consider it an accomplishment considering where I came from.