We go together like parmigiano-reggiano!

This past week, Charlie and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary! Based on my internet search, the traditional gifts for the 8 year anniversary are bronze and pottery. The modern gifts are linen and lace. Not parmigiano-reggiano. Fortunately, we didn’t give each other any of those gifts. Although I should’ve gifted Charlie a mustache and he gifted me a red headband (which is so on trend right now) to accurately depict this art work that was the inspiration for our anniversary picture. We celebrated our anniversary with a date night, courtesy of Cirque du Soleil, watching the VOLTA show.

On our second wedding anniversary, we went out to eat steak at Bavette’s in River North. But after having kids, it’s been somewhat hard to plan…plus, Charlie’s birthday is the day after our anniversary so there’s a lot to do and plan. So I thought maybe we can do a fun photo for each anniversary, starting with our 6th anniversary picture at the Doughnut Vault. We skipped last year because I was so about 27 weeks pregnant with twins and I was so tired to even want to get out of bed.

The inspiration for this year’s anniversary photo was an old painted product sign from the now-closed Treasure Island grocery store in Old Town. (Treasure Island was a gem of a grocery store because they sold a lot of European products, hence this cheese sign). I’ve driven by it a few times and thought it would be fun to recreate it. I don’t know how many times I mentioned it to Charlie but I think he finally got the hint so we woke up early last Sunday morning, put on our Sunday best and got Luke and the twins in the car. We found a parking spot right in front of the sign, I set up the tripod while Charlie stayed in the car. When I was ready, I had Charlie stand in for some test shots. Then ran into frame and used the camera remote with my phone and started snapping while the kids watched us from the car and other pedestrians asked us what we were doing. Afterwards, it started to rain so I’m glad we got a few fun shots!

Our Anniversary Date Night at the Cirque du Soleil – VOLTA Show

It just so happened that Cirque du Soleil invited us to the premier of their new show – VOLTA at on the day of our anniversary. We thought it would be a great way to celebrate our anniversary and hello…it’s a Cirque du Soleil show! I’ve loved every Cirque show I’ve seen so far.

We enjoyed lots of champagne courtesy of Nicolaus Feuilatte before the show, which was the perfect pairing for the show and for the champagne lover in me.

VOLTA, as described by Cirque du Soleil, is “about being true to oneself, fulfilling one’s true potential and and recognizing one’s own power to make it possible. Ultimate freedom comes with self-acceptance, and with the liberation of the judgement of others.”

The message resonates with me and Charlie both in our journeys through life and our marriage. We are still accepting and respecting our differences and always try to remain true to ourselves and our marriage.

Below are some of the acts that were my favorite! Pictures are courtesy of Cirque du Soleil.

Thank you Cirque du Soleil for the wonderful evening to celebrate our anniversary!

Cirque du Soleil VOLTA is in Chicago from May 18 – July 2, 2019. Use code “15VOLTA” for 15% off tickets from now until July 2 using the link here.