An Eclectic Odyssey

4th of July

2011-08-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, once again in real time it's near the end of August and I'm pretty behind on this blog. Summer has been soooooo busy! Every year I think it won't be as busy and then it goes by so fast. But we still have almost three weeks left of summer, and I don't want it to be over too soon. I'm gonna do my best to post once a day til I'm caught up.

So, 4th of July. We started the day by going to a parade with the Steve's parents. It was so nice just to walk to a parade instead of driving.

You'd have thought it was Halloween with all the candy they threw out of the cars and floats.

Steve made his BBQ ribs again, which were awesome! It's been four years now that we've hosted 4th of July at our house. I really love doing it, but by the end of the night I feel like I didn't have that much time to talk with anyone.

The kids had a great time. Our next door neighbors came over with their daughter, and the kids made bubbles with a bubble gun my brother brought over for them.

We thought we'd drive to the fireworks this year, but we wound up circling and circling until we gave up and went back home. I don't even know why we attempted to drive anyways; we can see the fireworks great from our front lawn. It was another beautiful, memorable holiday.

Hikes & Bikes

2011-08-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

July has been a month of hiking a biking. We started off in the beginning of the month with a trip to Mattheissen State Park. We were headed for Starved Rock, a nearby State Park, but Steve wanted to stop at Mattheissen first. He'd remembered going there with his family as a teen and wanted to see if they still had the same stepping stones across the creek.

We wound of staying there the rest of the afternoon. I'm glad because I think it was more beautiful than Starved Rock. Maybe it was just the section we were in, but I loved the cliffs, the narrow gorges and creeks.

Both kids still ride with training wheels ( I think that's partly our fault for not taking them off and letting them practice more), but they can sure make their bikes fly! It's the first year that it's actually been fun to go bike riding. We can go for longer trips, and both kids do great keeping up.

We took a three mile bike loop ride around the Brookfield Zoo, stopping every once in a while to swing on branches and throw sticks in the water. We also took another longer bike ride in the woods near the Grau Mill in the Fullersburg Woods. Halfway through we stopped at the nature center for some play before riding to the creek and throwing branches in the water.

After the long, hot, sticky afternoon, we came back home to roast some hot, sticky Smores over the fire pit!

Another weekend in July we drove to my sister's house. My mom and I took Alexa and my sister's son for a bike ride around the block and then down to her pond. I'm so glad that even though it's almost the middle of August as I write this, the kids arn't about to go school in a few weeks. We don't have to think of this as the end of summer, but can look forward to at least two more months of great weather to go out and explore more wonderful nature areas near our home. I love our unschooled life!

Wet & Wild Summer Fun

2011-08-09T20:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a fun, fun summer this year. We've been out a lot more than last summer; I think that's because it's been a lot hotter this summer than last. There's been hose play, pool play, and fill up bowls and dump them out play.

Our area has been hit pretty hard with storms this summer. We've been very blessed not to lose power for more than five minutes at a time. We've had a lot of big branches come down but none that have caused any damage. We've flooded once, which is a big pain as we've had to totally disinfect the entire basement floor. During one rain, Steve went out with the kids to float boats near the curb.

There's also been lots of crazy, silly fun, too.

This is their "little old lady" look.

They like to pile every blanket and pillow in the house to make a "roller coaster."

Jared LOVES to tie things up, even himself!

Summer Friends

2011-07-08T20:56:00.000-07:00

There are a few girls that stay next door with their grandmother during the summer months. They're just a few years older than the twins, and they love to come over and play with the them.

The neighbors have a small pool, so the kids have been over there a lot, too. It's been nice because they haven't been into swimming that much. It would be nice to know they can swim since we love being around water as often as we can. It's also been strange having the kids have "friends." They've always had kids they've played with, but now they run out of the house the minute other kids are outside. Please don't grow up too fast!!!

Weekend with the Family

2011-07-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

The last weekend in June we had a wonderful visit with Steve's aunt and grandmother who came in from Missouri for a visit. We usually only see them once or twice a year, so it was a great treat.

It was also great to go for a second weekend in a row to Steve's brother's house. Even though they only live about 40 minutes away, for some reason we hardly see them during the year, too. The kids also played with a few of their cousins for a while, too, something that also doesn't happen that much.

The next day we had Steve's aunt, grandmother, parents, and sister-in-law over to hang out and then order some pizza. We put out the pool for the kids.

I kinda felt bad that I didn't cook for everyone, but they don't get to have pizza like we do near Chicago, so it was a treat for them.

My favorite, favorite part of the evening was when the kids ran around the yard collecting fireflies and bringing them back to their granddad. I just can't get over the look of wonder in their faces. May it never disappear.

June 20-24

2011-07-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

We've been weaving together days full of slow, random fun at home with busy days full of activities away from home. I think the days at home are the most creative. Lately games have been put to different uses than what the developers had in mind :)

My daughter would be on the computer, or with her nose in a book all day if I didn't suggest other things to do with me. She LOVES anything to do with different cultures or animals. We found two great computer games at the library she's been playing the past two weeks.

Explorapedia (we actually bought this later at a thrift store) is really more like an encyclopedia than a game, but it's all about animals. Alexa loves reading facts about animals and telling us what she's learned.

Travel the World with Timmy follows Timmy the Turtle to different countries of the world.

The kids ransacked our underwear drawer and decided to play "underwear warriors."

We were over one weekend to my husband's brother's house. They have a new huge trampoline that the kids adored. Fun, fun, fun!

Father's Day

2011-06-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

My dad loves fishing. Besides baseball, fishing was the only other thing he really liked to do when we were little, even though he didn't get to do it that often. My sister's husband loves to fish, too; he has his own gear and everything. Steve, on the other hand, is kinda iffy about fishing; he'll try it if everyone else is doing it. I think his dad is the same way, too.

So, to give it a try, we went to the Lake View Nature Center in Oakbrook for Father's Day. We met everyone after church and a quick lunch as Tom's. My dad and Joe caught some small fish, but no luck for the kids. I guess you can tell who the real fishermen were!

The center usually has paddle boats you can rent for $3 per half hour, but they weren't renting that day. So, we hung out in the nature center for awhile....

....and then took a walk around the pond, a run down the hill and ended up at the playground.

Before saying goodbye to Steve's parents, we gave his dad our gift to him - some lights for his backyard and a new grill top.

After leaving the nature center we went to my mom's house for a chili dinner and dessert.

I am so thankful for my wonderful husband. I've never met another man who spends as much time with his children as Steve does. We're very blessed to have him.

Pirate's Cove

2011-06-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Last week the kids and I met my friend and her son at Pirate's Cove in Elk Grove Village. It's a really cute, small children's theme park. My kids are five and it was perfect for them. It has a carousel, playground area, sack slide, climbing wall, train, art area, a pirate show, a bounce house, and small boats.

It's $9 per child for non-residents and adults are free. I'm glad we went when we did because while it was a little crowded, it just gets worse later in the summer. Plus, it wasn't that hot the day we went. When we first came two years ago, we walked around with sweat dripping off us.

Do you go to some of the same places year after year? Isn't it fun to think back about the first time you came? I remember the kids looked so small in these boats when they were three. It was a little tricky for them then to get the hang of turning the paddles, but they knew right what to do this time.

We're not a big amusement park family; we usually prefer to hike or get out in nature somewhere, but we enjoyed how small the park is and how, if you come early in the season, you don't have to wait in lines at all.

First Day of Summer!

2011-06-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of summer! As a kid summer was always my favorite season, and understandably so. Now, most of the time my life feels like a summer vacation, so spring is now my favorite season, followed closely by fall.

The weather has fluctuated so much this spring that it's often seemed like winter, spring and summer all in the same week! We tried to take advantage of the hot days by getting outside as much as we could. A few weeks ago we met my sister and her son at Phillip's Park in Aurora. There's a free splash park there, but it's small and gets pretty crowded, especially on really hot days. Jared and Alexa liked the spray gun, but they didn't spend too much time running through the water.

On the not so great days, we've been opening up some art kits the kids received for Christmas and still hadn't opened up yet. I bought this clay kit at Michael's.

After not picking up a camera that much, Alexa has gone back to taking pictures again. She only wants to use my new camera, though, which makes me a bit nervous. I love how she likes to be a photographer, but the camera was so expensive! She likes to open pages of her favorite books and take pictures of the pictures.

Jared still loves to line up his figures, something he does for hours every day.One day he brought in a branch from outside, laid it on its side and pretended his soldiers were marching through the jungle.

Some days I wish the kids would go outside more. Sometimes days go by when they aren't interested at all in going outside. They still love to mix up concoctions, which they call their science experiments.

They HAVE liked going outside at night, though, especially since the fireflies have come out.

We've been taking a lot of family bike rides after dinner and then coming home to catch fireflies. The kids see how many they can catch and put in their bug holder, and then release them before we go inside. The past few months have been a bit stressful for me, but lately I've just been amazed at how much better I feel when I just make myself relax,sit and just be with the kids. I've built up so many great memories in the past few weeks from just the simplest times together. I love travelling with the kids, but these memories are just as special.

Museum of Science and Industry

2011-06-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

On June 1st, the kids and I went downtown by ourselves to visit the Museum of Science and Industry. It's always been one of my favorite downtown Chicago museums, even since I was a little girl. It was the first time I took the kids by myself, and I was a little nervous how it was going to go. They've been much better about not dashing off away from me, so I thought it would be a good test whether or not we'd have a good time together, or if I'd feel too stressed.

I'm happy to say we had a wonderful time together. It's fine going with other families or other people in your own family to museums, but we felt so free to take our time seeing the things we really wanted to see and spending as much time as we wanted to at each exhibit.

One of my favorite exhibits was Science Storms. The had so many awesome hands-on simulations, including a storm chaser that kept us there for at least a half hour. It was like sitting in the passenger seat of a truck that chases tornadoes. Then it shows you getting out the truck, going around the back, and helping set up the equipment that would measure things like wind speed and air pressure.

The kids' favorite room was the Idea Factory, which is really a children's museum inside the museum.

Alexa was fascinated with this set of angled mirrors you can open and close. She'd run back and forth and put different things in front of the mirrors, and then open and close the mirror to see how often the objects doubled or tripled.

Jared stuck with what he loves to do best: throwing things. He spent almost the whole half hour (before they booted us out to make room for the next group) just picking up balls from the water and throwing them over the ledge at the top.

We worked also together at trying to balance the scale.

Then we headed to the miniature train exhibit. It's a huge exhibit; trains run through models of downtown Chicago, through tunnels and the countryside.

Next to the trains, you can sit in an old trolley car. The kids started holding hands, and Alexa told Jared they were on their first date. (Alexa's fascinated with the concept of "dates" now). I was lucky to take this picture of them hugging each other. So much better than fighting!

After the trains we went to see the baby chicks. We've been visiting this exhibit ever since the kids were a year and a half. It made me tear up remembering how when we first brought the kids, we had to lift them up to see inside the glass since they were too short to look inside on their own.

I don't have a picture of it, but I can't end without recommending that you visit the Coal Mine exhibit if you ever go to the Museum of Science and Industry. We had to wait 45 minutes in line, but it was worth it. You go down with a group of about 15 other people in an elevator, and they turn off the lights to simulate what the miners must have felt like. You also ride in coal carts and stand in rooms similar to what the miners experience. It's an extremely sobering experience.

Cantigny Park on Memorial Day

2011-06-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

What a better way to celebrate Memorial Day than to go to Cantigny - a 500 acre park that houses two museums: the Robert R. McCormick Museum and Cantigny First Division Museum.

Before going to the museum, we climbed a few of the 11 tanks dating from World War 1 through Desert Storm.

Then we took a quick tour of the First Division Museum - a museum that presents the history of the 1st Infantry Division from its pre-Revolutionary day to details about its role in wars since then through Desert Storm.

For a free museum (you only have to pay $5 per car to enter the park), it's absolutely phenomenal. You walk through scenes that make you feel like you are on Omaha beach or walking through the jungles of Vietnam.

After our tour, we drove back home and Steve cooked some BBQ ribs. We've had non-stop rain around here, and the back yards are starting to flood. Our neighbor's yard was so bad that day that it was like a mini lake. The kids didn't mind, though. They put on their swimsuits and splashed through the water while we looked on, took pictures, and reveled in their laughter.

When Daddy's Gone

2011-06-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

We hate it when Steve has to travel out of town on business. I'm really, really thankful he hasn't been gone that much so far this year; the kids and I really feel his absence. I usually try to plan a lot of extra fun things to do on those days so the time goes by quickly.

That also usually involves inviting other people to spend the days with us. So, when Steve left for three days the end of May, we decided to go to the Little Red School House and nature center with my mom. The first time I was supposed to go to the School House was in third grade. My teacher at the time decided I was writing my cursive G's incorrectly (in fact I was writing them correctly) and said I would have to stay back while the rest of the class went on the field trip. And this was at a Christian school, too. A great way to show God's love, huh?

Well, at least the first visit to the school house was with my children who will never know what it's like to be punished for something as insane as that. They'll also never know what a "field trip" is. Travelling to fun places is just a part of our lives.

The nature center is pretty new; I think it just opened last year. We saw lots of small animals like birds, snakes, frogs, and insects. They also have a little play area for young kids.

Jared really enjoyed building a beaver dam with sticks. Next to the nature center the school house sits in the same place where the original building too, which was a one room school house in the mid 1800's. Inside there's a model of what the school house looked like at that time. A group of school kids were there that day; I was so sad to see them walking around with worksheets to fill out. Instead of taking there time exploring the room and gravitating towards the sections they found interesting, they tore frantically around the room trying to fill in the "correct" answers to the questions on the sheet. Sad, sad, sad.

With so many kids tearing around the room, the Jared and Alexa understandably didn't want to go inside the school house; instead we walked down by the lake and the kids had much more fun digging in the puddles and building their own dams.

We ate lunch at my mom's house; then she watched the kids while I went grocery shopping, and then we all met at our house for dinner and a movie.

The next day we met my mom and my sister's son at one of our favorite children's museums, the DuPage Children's Museum, for some more fun. We hung out at the gift store for a few minutes, trying out hats....

....and then went upstairs for some fun with shapes...

... and more shapes....

...and looking at slides under the microscope.

After we dropped off Owen at his house, we drove back to my mom's for pizza and watched Daddy Day Care. Then it was off for home to see Steve. Yea!!!!

2011-06-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

The first real memory I have of attending a funeral was when I was 10. It was held in the little Indiana town where my grandparents lived. My grandpa was laid out in the casket, and I remember thinking he just looked like he was sleeping. But then I leaned over to kiss him and felt the coldness and hardness.

I don't know if the kids will remember it when they're older, but they attended their first funeral at the end of May this year. Steve's dad's aunt died at the age of 96. I didn't know her very well since we only saw her about once a year, and the kids met her once last year which they hardly remember, so it was a gentle way to introduce them to the idea of death.

Alexa had many questions before we went to the funeral. Will Aunt Anna look like a mummy? was my favorite. When she saw Aunt Anna in the casket, she wanted to know what they did with her legs. Jared really didn't seem to care that much about the whole affair, but when we paid our final respects, Jared asked to touch her hand.

After the burial and a lunch held at the church, we drove out to the farm Anna had owned. Her husband died about 15 years ago, and Anna had been responsible for the upkeep of the farm. She hired out someone to plow the fields and she lived at the farmhouse. We explored all the old farm buildings, most of which were in a state of disrepair, and petted the horse in the next field.

Jared started this funny thing where he'd whack at the dandelions (only those with the white seeds still intact) with a stick. He told us he was killing the Nazis. I think it's his ongoing fascination with Indiana Jones that started when we were in San Diego. One thing for sure. There's definitely not another kid out there like him.

The highlight of every trip to Missouri for the kids is seeing their cousins. We had a relaxing time hanging out with them for the three days we were there. On Sunday afternoon, we attended Emme's preschool graduation. We really wish they lived closer. It's hard to see them only once a year, but this year we'll also get to see them in November, too.

Zoo Days

2011-06-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

We're really blessed to have a great zoo only five minutes from our house. When the kids were little, I always needed to go with someone else because they'd both run off in two different directions and it would exhaust me. Now, it's still tiring when we get home, but it's much more doable.

Now, I actually prefer going just by my myself or with Steve to the zoo. We can go wherever we want to and take our time.

Jared had so much fun playing with these African dogs. The dog would rub his face against the glass while Jared did the same. If I wasn't suffering so much from these silly allergies, I wouldn't have minded opening up that glass and taking a dog home with us.

We did a spur of the moment zoo trip one Sunday afternoon after church. With our yearly pass we get one free dolphin show and one free tram ride. We already used the dolphin show last year, so we used the tram ride this visit. The tram stops four times, and you can get on and off as many times as you want for the day.

First stop was the children's zoo and brushing the goats.

We stayed on the tram the next stop and took pictures.

We went to the reptile and bird houses on the third stop. I don't know how much we'll go during the summer because it gets extremely crowded then, but I'm really excited to go a lot in the early fall when almost everyone else is in school. Yeah!

Art, Art, Art

2011-06-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

While the kids haven't been as into regular painting and drawing these past few months, they've been doing different types of art. Our next door neighbor gave them a 3-D chalk drawing kit from Crayola (really, cool!), so they drew all over the driveway.

They also decided to take up an art form they haven't done since they were two - painting with shaving cream on the bathtub walls.

Alexa loves to watch old home DVDs, so she was inspired one Saturday morning after watching a DVD where they painted with shaving cream tinted with food coloring. The last time they did this they were in diapers!

Welcome Spring!

2011-06-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

Ok. So when this post goes up we'll be about a week away from summer, but with the weather we've been having, it did feel like spring again today. I've heard allergy season is even worse this year than most. I personally can tell you it's much, much worse.

I've started getting allergy shots because things have been so bad. Just two weeks ago I had to take a break from the shots because I started to get out of breath and needed a steroid treatment.

Between the shots and the chiropractor, it's been a pain sometime taking the kids to weekly doctor appointments. To make it a little more interesting we try to incorporate a playground visit after the shots.

We've been having weeks starting off in the 90's and ending in the 60's. On one very hot day, we took out the pool for the first time this year.

At age 5, they still love to cover themselves with anything wet and sticky.

It's hard for me to believe summer is just about here. I just hope it doesn't go by that fast. We have so much we want to do and too little time.

Volcanoes, the Human Body & Dinosaurs

2011-06-12T18:33:00.000-07:00

We've been reading the Magic Treehouse books together during lunch for the past six months or so. We had just finished reading Vacation Under the Volcano Book #13 and wanted to make our own volcano, so I ordered the Magic School Bus Volcano kit.

As usual, Alexa wanted to read us the instructions and Jared wanted to do all the hands-on stuff. He looked so adorable in his scientist googles!

The kit has you experiment with different amounts baking soda, and vinegar and dish soap and you recorded your findings on a chart. We kept experimenting until we found our perfect combination. We had so much fun setting the solution off in the tube that we still haven't set it off the actual volcano yet!

We've had so much science taking place around the house lately. Alexa received a human body model from us for her birthday. She had been asking a TON of questions about body parts, what does what, and so I thought she'd love a model to play with. I was definitly right!

We bought the Smart Lab You Explore It Human Body model for her. It's very reasonably priced, and she has used it so much. In fact, just the past three days in a row she's sat down with it for at least an hour.

For her birthday, she also received two dinosaur excavation kits. She's been saying she wants to be an archeologist when she's older and loves the dino excavation exhibits at the science and children's musuems. This present did lose it's luster, though, after a few days. It was hard work chipping away at that plaster, and I evenually did a lot of the work for her at her request, but she did get excited when we'd see a fossil poking out. I think it made her appreciate how hard archeologists work and that it takes days or even months of boring manual labor before you find anything exciting.

Happy 5th Birthday!

2011-06-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

I remember bringing the twins home from the hospital the first day and thinking it would be a long time before they'd turn 5. Well, it hasn't seemed as long as I thought it would! I hope the next five years go much more slowly.

We wanted to do something a little different for the kids instead of just going out to eat and opening presents, so we took them to Enchanted Castle, a little indoor amusement park. Jared and I came here a few months ago on our date, and we still had tokens left and a coupon for a go-cart ride.

After playing the games and riding some rides, we bought out go-cart tickets and headed for the indoor track. Jared and I had such a fun time together the last time we were here, and he was excited to ride with Steve this time and race me and Alexa.

I'm glad I took this picture of Steve and the kids, because a few minutes into our ride, I slammed into the wall and Alexa hurt her head pretty bad. She really wasn't tall enough to ride and the strap didn't hold her tight enough, so she slammed her head against the side of the car. She had a pretty big bump that swelled and turned black and blue. The management was understandably concerned, gave us lots of water and rolls of tokens. We hung out for a little while longer, but she wasn't feeling great so the kids cashed in their tokens and we left.

We were really hungry by then, so we went to Culvers right across the street. We didn't plan it but I remembered how we took them to Culvers on their third birthday, too.

I had bought a teeny, tiny cake from Jewel earlier that day, so after singing and blowing out the candles, the kids got down to business. Presents!

They were both pretty excited about their presents. Alexa's favorite was her DK History Explorers computer game.

Jared and Steve spent a few hours putting together his Bobba Fett Lego set. This was his only present from us because it cost $80. We told him that if he really wanted a big Lego set, it might be his only present from us. I was worried when he opened just the one and Alexa had five that he would this it was unfair, but he was absolutely fine with it. We give the kids allowance and they're really getting the concept of how much things cost and how long you have to save up for something big.

That weekend we had the kid's party with extended family at Steve's parents house. It's always a gamble as to where we'll host the party since our house is tiny and everyone wouldn't fit if we had it by us unless it was in the backyard. It was pretty rainy this year, so it didn't work out for our house. Alexa received lots of books, a butterfly net, and a much-requested DK World Explorer kit.

Jared, of course, received lots of Lego sets, including a $100 Scorpion Pyramid kit, which several people went in together for.

When most everyone left, Uncle Andy hung out with us for some badminton....

...and I don't think he counted on getting tackled by the kids.... and even me!

We came home and the kids stayed up late that night playing with their new presents. Here's to a wonderful, S-L-O-W 5th year.

Easter

2011-06-10T17:42:00.000-07:00

This past Easter was very unusual for us. Usually we get together with extended family for a big dinner after church, the grandparents hide Easter eggs and give the kids baskets. This year we all got sick except for Steve. So, we were holed up at home by ourselves.

To kind of make up for it, we colored Easter eggs for the first time. I couldn't believe we hadn't done it before. All the other years Easter seemed to just creep up on me.

I guess I stretched the truth a bit when I said we didn't celebrate with anyone else. My mom came to our house and hid eggs for the kids in our backyard. Then the kids came out to find them while my Mom stayed as far back as she could! I hardly have any pictures of the kids looking for their eggs, since I was taking pictures from inside the house, but I was so glad my mom did something special for the kids. She even brought over treats for Steve and I too! Thanks, Mom!

Mojave Desert, Nevada

2011-06-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

After two great weeks in San Diego, we drove back the five hours to Las Vegas. We decided to drive back and stay one more night rather than jump on a plane right away. I don't think the kids would have done too well with that.

Traffic was horrendous driving into Las Vegas on a late Friday afternoon. We weren't sure how much time we'd have, but we decided to take a detour through the Mojave Desert and try to hike some sand dunes. We'd heard that the place we were stopping at had the third largest dunes in the United States.

Well, we didn't start hiking until almost five and didn't want to get stuck out in the desert at night, but we were able to hike pretty close to the highest dunes you can see in the picture above. We had a great treat as soon as we got out of the car when we watched a desert tortoise make his way across the road. He even let the kids pet him - sort of.

We live in the suburbs of Chicago, so needless to say we never have it absolutely quiet at home. I think it was the first time in my life that I understood what absolute quiet really meant!

For a desert, it was breathtakingly beautiful. We saw two other people on our hike, so it felt like the desert was ours. Steve and the kids had a blast sliding up and down the dunes. Jared did wind up twisting his knee when he decided to run full force down one of the dunes. I'm just thankful it happened right as we were headed back anyways, and it stopped hurting after a few days.

We wished we could have spent much, much more time in the desert. We love to be in nature and away from crowds of people, so this last little adventure of our trip was food for our souls.

San Juan Capistrano Mission, San Diego

2011-06-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

As the oldest standing building in California, San Juan Capistrano Mission is a must see for any history buff. The kids weren't quite old enough to appreciate all the historical significance of the buildings, and I wished we could have spent a lot more time here, but I was so grateful to have visited this gorgeous mission.

The grounds were so gorgeous. They had beautiful fountains with Lilly pads and huge coy fish the kids loved feeding.

We came during a living history day, so the grounds had a few hands-on stations set up, including a little panning for gold demonstration.

Alexa really appreciated going into the chapel with me and seeing the 16th century altarpiece brought here from Spain.

I highly recommend a visit to this mission, particularly for older children.

Point Loma, San Diego

2011-06-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

My favorite, favorite, favorite place we visited in San Diego had to be Point Loma. It was so beautiful that we came here twice during our two week stay. I wish I could go back now and sit on those cliffs listening to the ocean, searching out the tide pools and watching the kids skip across the sand .

The second time we came we toured an old lighthouse. Although we couldn't go all the way to the top, I had never seen a lighthouse where the rooms were set up just like when the family had lived there. If you have a chance to visit San Diego (or if you live there!), don't pass up this beautiful gem.

Maritime Museum in San Diego

2011-06-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

What could be more fun for a kid than having their run of ships and submarine? Besides the low cost of touring these vessels, the Maritime Museum also had a great floating museum right on the harbor.

We checked out the submarine first. It was pretty impressive. Through the ship's periscope we could even see our car!

Then we boarded the Star of India, a old shipping vessel that still goes out to sea. I really enjoyed reading diary entries from the families who sailed in this ship from Great Britain to New Zealand in the mid 1800's. Jared enjoyed imagining what it would be like to go to the bathroom on the ship.

There was a fun little miniature ship in the lower deck, too, for the kids to play on.

If you've seen the movie Master and Commander with Russell Crowe, then you might recognize the picture below. After the movie, the studio gave the ship to the museum and we had the pleasure of touring it on our visit.

Balboa Park and Mission Bay Beach San Diego

2011-06-04T19:14:00.000-07:00

Balboa Park has been described as the Smithsonian of the west. With its 15 museums plus a zoo, restaurants, gardens and hiking we knew we had to narrow our choices. With the kids it was pretty easy. We headed straight for the playground for a picnic lunch.

The rest of our day was practically free, too, thanks to our explorer's level Chicago Museum Children's Pass. We were able to get into the San Diego Natural History Museum for free. It's a nice, little museum. We saw everything in a few hours (well, you know the way most kids "see" everything!).

Then we walked next door to the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center. It was getting close to dinner, so we didn't see many exhibits, but we did see the Omnimax Galapagos Island film. It was soooo good! We never did come back to the park, but if you can, plan to spend several days seeing all the goodies here.

Legoland California & Sea Life Aquarium

2011-06-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

Legoland was the ultimate highlight of our trip. It's something the kids are still talking about almost two months later. Jared LOVES his Lego's. He spends hours and hours building with them. At first we weren't going to go because it was going to cost $240, but Steve saw a commercial where you'd get a child's admission free to Legoland with the purchase of an adult's entree at Denny's. So, it cost us $120 for the family and we were able to come back a few days later to Sea Life Aquarium, too.

Jared was in love with the Pharaoh's Quest Scorpion Pyramid Lego set from his Lego catalog (which he looks at every night in bed with his clip on night light attached to his bed, too cute!). So the tomb raiders ride was the first must do ride once we entered the park.

Some other rides were loved were:

the slides....

and Lego horses, but the ultimate fun was....

....looking at all the Lego Star Wars sets exhibited throughout Legoland Mini land. It was awe inspiring to think about the work and creativity that went into designing these sets. I wish we could have stayed longer.

A few days later we went back to Sea Life Aquarium which is right next door to Legoland. There were some interesting exhibits here, but it's pretty small; you could go through the aquarium in half a day.

There were even legos here in the aquarium.

If you live near a big city with an aquarium, you won't be that impressed. We live near Chicago with the Shedd Aquarium which is about five to ten times bigger, but it's not a bad place to check out, especially if you get the combined Legoland ticket.

Wild Animal Safari Park

2011-06-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

Last post I wrote about our whale watching trip and how unbelievably inexpensive it was for all we were able to do. Well, I can't say the same about Wild Animal Safari Park in San Diego. It cost $110 for all four of us and that was WITH a coupon! The zoo is very spread out so you have to walk quite a ways between exhibits. So it's walk, walk, walk, walk, see an animal, walk, walk, walk, walk.

Maybe because we practically live next door to a world famous zoo where we live (the Brookfield Zoo), we weren't that impressed. Yes, the design was pretty and it was fun to see the animals we saw, but we could have see the same animals and more at home. But for people who don't live next to a great zoo, I think (if you can afford it!) you'd like spending the day here.

Actually, what the kids enjoyed most was finding little caves and places to crawl into. Even Steve crawled in with them, which didn't make him popular with the rest of the parents who now felt like they had to crawl in too with their kids.

The kid's also enjoyed just feeding the ducks with some food we bought for a quarter (I'm telling ya, it's the least expensive things that kid's like most!).

We ended the day with the safari ride, what I thought would make this zoo different than ours at home. You basically take a tram ride around some animal habitats. I guess it's pretty cool to see animals more out in the open than in their usual cages, but you have to pay around $250 for a family of four to get close up to the animals, which we weren't going to do.

But, it was a day we were together, and we'll always have those memories, so how can I complain about that?

Whale Watching in San Diego

2011-06-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be way too expensive to go on a whale watching day cruise in San Diego, but we were able to do it for just $60 for the entire family! How? First, we went through Flagship San Diego Harbor Excursion. And then we used two buy one get one free coupons in the Entertainment Book for San Diego. Always, always order an Entertainment Book when you go to a different state. It'll cost $20, but it's so worth it. We saved several hundred dollars using ours.

The ride was almost four hours long and for half the ride we didn't see any whales. Steve and I were a little frustrated, but the kids had fun eating chocolate and popcorn and just riding on the boat.

Then we saw him! Well, sort of. He never came out of the water in those dramatic flips you see on nature shows. We mostly just saw his back and dorsal fin. But, it was pretty exciting at the time. It happened so fast that my pictures are pretty crappy, though. Fun, fun, fun times!

Why Vacation Rental Homes Rock

2011-05-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

This was the view from the dock in front of our vacation rental home in San Diego. We LOVE renting homes when we go away, especially with kids. We stayed here for almost two weeks, and when you stay that long, it gives you a little sense of home while you're away.

This home was particularly nice because the owner let us take out a kayak and let us use his fishing poles. We were greeted with a bottle of wine when we walked in the the door, and we felt very much at home there.

He also had a pontoon boat that he let us take out for a spin around the lake.

I tried catching a fish but no luck!

The kids really loved playing with the owners' dogs when we went across the street to their home. On our last day there, the owner stopped by and took pictures of our family. Now, most of the time the owners will not be there, but we've had wonderful experiences using www.vrbo.com Another good site to check for rentals is www.homeaway.com.

What's been your experience with vacation rentals?

San Diego Beach Round-Up

2011-05-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

After our four days in Las Vegas, we rented a car and drove down to San Diego for two weeks. Finally, we could relax and enjoy two whole weeks together. It was the longest amount of time we have been together since the kids were born.

We went to five different beaches during our two weeks there. Most of the days were very chilly, usually in the low to mid 60's, although it got into the lower 70's a few days. One of our favorite beaches was La Jolla Cove. It was surrounded by higher cliffs so it blocked off most of the wind, making it more pleasant.

The kids and Steve went exploring a bit in a cave near the beach while I watched and took pictures. The funnest part of this beach is watching the nearby sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. Parking can be difficult to find, though, so get there early.

We drove across the huge bridge off San Diego's mainland, to a jutting peninsula where we hung out at Coronado Beach. Parking was great, just off the street across from the beach. The beach has a beautiful stretch of sand and is next to Hotel Coronado, a hotel built in the 1800's.

Since it was so windy, the kids spent most of their time running across the sand. Steve sculpted this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for them.

Closer to our rental house, we found the two Carlsbad beaches and spent an afternoon there. It was very, very windy at these beaches, but the kids still wanted to go in the water with Steve. They also loved being buried in sand.

We also checked out the beach in Oceanside. I wish I had pictures of it, but the thing I remember most about this day was climbing the rocks that lead out into the ocean as a natural pier.

I've saved my favorite beach for last. Although it was a 45 minute ride from where we stayed, it was so worth the trek out to Laguna Beach. It was still pretty windy and cold, but it was really gorgeous and the kids loved, loved, loved climbing on the rocks. We're not a sit on the beach type of family. There always has to be some element of adventure there.

Have you ever been to San Diego?

Great Las Vegas Museums for Kids

2011-05-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

We went to two museums while in Las Vegas. Both were really wonderful, especially for kids around the ages of 3-10. During one of Steve's meetings we rented a car and I drove the kids to the Leid Discovery Children's Museum. We went for free since we have the Explorer's membership with the Chicago Children's Museum. If you haven't looked into a membership at your local children's museum, please do. Also, check out the Explorer's level or the level that gains you admission into children's and other museums across the USA and other countries, too. We saved over $150 using the pass during our trip.

We're used to going to a lot of different children's museums since we live in the Chicago area, but we were sufficiently pleased with this one. Although it's not very big, the museum had a lot of unique exhibits like the one above about how the piping system in your bathroom works.

There was shooting basketballs...

....and an awesome exhibit where you had to balance a round, metal object on a metallic spinning wheel. This enthralled the kids for at least 20 minutes.

The kids also enjoyed playing car mechanics...

...and airplane pilots. We only had a little over an hour to spend here and wish we could have stayed longer.

On our way back from San Diego, we drove back to Las Vegas to catch our flight back home. We stayed at a hotel the night before flying back and had time in the morning before our 3:00 flight. So, we stopped in for an hour at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. The kids were SO disappointed when we had to leave. The museum was fabulous. It was small, but it had excellent hands-on exhibits.

Anyone who loves dinosaurs would be captivated by the great dinosaur exhibits they have at this museum. The funnest part about the exhibit? Pressing buttons and making each dinosaur move and make sounds. Very, very cool!

There is a special section for younger kids that drew our kids like a magnet. They enjoyed the pretend submarine....

.....but they enjoyed digging for fossils even more. This museum is worth at least three or four hours of your time. If you're in the area, check it out!

What We Did Love in Las Vegas

2011-05-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

Last post I wrote about what we didn't like about Las Vegas, but to be fair, there were quite a few things we did like. For one, we had a great afternoon at the pool at the hotel. I'm pretty much a baby about cold water, so I didn't go in too far, but the kids loved, loved, loved swimming with Steve. We all went into the hot tub afterwards, which I had no problem with!

I personally loved eating out all the time. Steve's work gave us a very generous stipend for food, so we went to the Rainforest Cafe at MGM grand (where we also were able to see the lions), Outback Steakhouse, ordered pizza with room service, and a few other places.

While Steve was in one of his meetings, the kids and I walked over to the Bellagio to check out the indoor botanic gardens. It was pretty small, and the kids were whiny that day and wanted to be carried most of the time, but we did have fun taking silly pictures together.

I think Jared's highlight of Las Vegas was seeing Batman walking down the street and taking a picture with him. We also thought it was pretty cool to see Spiderman walking down the street, by himself, at 9:00 on a Sunday morning.

But the greatest part of Las Vegas was going to Red Rock Canyon. We LOVE the outdoors and this was a gorgeous place to hike. It's kinda crazy how Jared will whine to be held when we walk down the sidewalk, yet he hiked for three hours straight and didn't complain once.

We found a man made pond and had a relaxing time dipping our feet in the water and just chilling out. We had wanted to spot some animals, so it was a little disappointing to only see a beetle and lizard, but the scenery was breathtaking. I highly, highly recommend visiting this great get-away from it all just twenty minutes away from the Strip.

Leaving for Las Vegas

2011-05-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's May 6th in real time and our big trip has passed, Easter has passed and the kid's birthday has passed, too, and I still need to write about it! I also will share the big project I've been working on the past few months, which has made it hard to stay current with what we've been up to.

So, on March 30th at 7:15 at night, we boarded a plane heading for Las Vegas. To make a long story short, we were planning a trip to Europe this year, but Steve's work had a convention in Las Vegas and was going to fly out every one's families, too, so we decided to take advantage of the free airfare and extend the trip to include two weeks in San Diego, too.

Even though it was late when we landed (11:00 p.m. our time) the kids were raring to go. They climbed on some sculptures in the airport. Jared was in such a good mood that he actually let Steve take this picture with me. Believe me, we don't get to see this sweet smile in pictures too often; he usually has to be very silly.

We stayed at the hotel Aria which was a nice hotel, I guess. We just were not impressed at all with Las Vegas. It's just not who we are. The hotels are more like mini-cities in themselves. It took us 40 minutes to leave our room, walk through the casino, out through all the complexes outside and across the street to a McDonald's for breakfast. Of course, some of that had to do with the kids wanting to stop every five minutes, but still, it takes a LONG time to get anywhere. Plus, all the hotels smelled like smoke, filtered air, and incense.

Still, it was interesting, at least for the first day, to walk up and down the strip in the morning, looking at all the other hotels and buildings.

If it hadn't been for Steve's work we wouldn't have gone there. And for sure it's not a place to take the kids. I thought things would be fine going out in the morning, but as we were walking down the street, there were people at every corner handing out pictures of topless women. We know because they'd also scatter them all across the sidewalk. And then we walked past an open bar restaurant, butted all the way up to the sidewalk, where some woman with a skirt barely covering her butt and wearing a bra was dancing away on a table with lots of dollar bills sticking out the top of the skirt.

Needless to say, we had to have a few conversations with the kids (Why do people like to take naked pictures of other people, Mommy?), but I guess the conversation would have come anyways. But I am very thankful we were able to travel with Steve rather than be separated from him for a week.

March Birthday Parties

2011-04-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

We celebrated two birthdays in the weeks before our three week Las Vegas/San Diego trip, so it was a hectic, crazy time. Add to that me attending a two day In-Home (homeschooling )Conference,where I met Sandra Dodd, Pat Farenga, David Albert and Cindy Gaddis (I'd highly recommend attending this conference if you live in the Chicago land area), well, it was an exhausting but inspiring time.

My best friend had a party at Chuck E. Cheese for her son, celebrating his 3rd birthday. Looking through my pictures, I realized I never took a picture with all three kids together! They were all moving so fast from one ride to another that it was hard to keep up with them.

Then, three days before our trip we celebrated Steve's birthday at his parent's house. We had a good time hanging out with family. I think the present Steve liked the most was the digital recorder for his guitar. He works so hard for us and is the greatest father I know, loving to spend all of his free time with me and the kids, that I feel bad he doesn't play guitar as much anymore, something he loves to do. I hope this present reminds him of his creative side, since finding sales tax refunds all day doesn't allow for this too much!

I really am the worst wife, though. The night before Steve's real birthday, we had a little family party and the kids gave him some presents. Then, the next morning, the day we left for our trip, I let him leave the house for work without saying Happy Birthday! I remembered mid-morning when his father reminded me. I felt a little better when Steve said his dad had called him to wish him a happy birthday and HE forgot it was his own birthday, too!

Even though it's not about birthdays, I included the picture below because besides Legos, tying figures up and dangling them from things is so what Jared is about these days. He can tie knots WAY better than me now.

Hawthorne Museum @ Morton College

2011-04-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

My grandmother, now deceased grandfather and uncle all have their pictures hanging in the new Hawthorne Museum at Morton College. How cool is that! I love museums, but to come into this one, even though it's small (just two rooms) and see my grandparents and uncle's pictures up on the wall was really cool . And it was something really special for my kids to see, too.

The museum is dedicated to the now defunct Western Electric Hawthorne Works facility located in Cicero, Illinois. It became the manufacturing arm of the Bell Telephone Company. The facility was really a little city of itself and boasted a hospital, fire brigade, laundry, greenhouse, a brass band, running track, tennis courts, gymnasium, an annual beauty pageant and a staff of trained nurses who made house calls. In 1975 there were 45,000 workers at the plant.

My grandmother has told many stories about working in the plant, making telephone parts. She'd tell how hot the workers would get, how many would faint because there was no air conditiong. My grandma would always say how great her boss was because if the workers complained of being faint he would send them to lay down at a cot for a while and take salt pills.

Jared just loved playing switchboard operator. He stayed at this switchboard for at least twenty minutes without getting up.

Alexa called me over to show me one of the first electric dishwashers. I think it was built in 1918. We were pretty impressed. Of course, that might be because we don't even own a dishwasher now!

The museum even has a sculpture my grandfather made using rails off a railroad track. He won first prize in entering it in an art contest at the plant.

Jared liked checking out the old-fashioned telephone booth. Both kids hid in the booth for awhile and had fun popping their heads up through the glass.

Date Night

2011-04-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we had our first date night with the kids. I don't know if you've ever done anything like this in your family, but I highly recommend it. With the kids being twins, they almost never have any individual time with us. Parents of singletons have their first child to themselves for at least a year or so and then often have times during the day when the baby takes a nap. So, for a few years the oldest gets to see what it's like to have mom or dad alone. I do things individually with the kids during the day, and Steve and I do on weekends, too, but we're often interrupted or it doesn't last long.

One day after Steve and I came home from a date, Alexa asked Steve if he'd go on a date with her, too. So that's how the whole idea originated. Jared lives for Steve, quite literally he has to give Steve "ten hugs and kisses" every day before he goes to work and waves to him out the window as he drives away, so he was a bit disappointed to have me to spend the evening alone with instead of Steve. I told him we'd switch in the future, and I was determined to plan a night he would always remember, positively of course!

We went to Enchanted Castle and wound up staying there the whole time. Jared seemed a little overwhelmed at first (it was very crowded) and wanted me to hold him a lot, but he gradually warmed up to the games. He got especially excited about a Batman game he found.

After we spent a lot of tokens, we went down to the go-carts to ride. We had to stand in a half hour line, but it was so worth it. I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but Jared looked so cute inside the cart! He was very disappointed he couldn't drive it himself, but I tried to make up for it by going as fast as I could and whipping around the turns (which is saying a lot for me).

Afterwards we ordered our meal. This is when the evening started to go a bit downhill. We had to wait 45 minutes for a hot dog and hamburger. It was really hard to keep Jared patient. He wound up laying all over the floor, climbing on anything he could find and my back hurt from carrying him for a long time. Finally, when we got our food we couldn't find anywhere to sit and wound up sitting under a coat rack. Thankfully, after five minutes some people offered us their seats.

The rest of the evening did get better. Jared cashed in his tickets for a candy bar and some tootsie rolls that he gave to Alexa. On the way to the car, I asked him if he had a good time that evening and was glad he went out with me. He looked up at me, smiled and said, "I'm glad I went with you, Mommy." What more could I ask for?

Desert Activities

2011-04-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

We're going to be gone for three weeks on a trip to Nevada and California. In fact, I've scheduled this post to be published while we're on that vacation. We're going to Las Vegas with my husband's work, and while we're there, we'll rent a car, drive 5 hours to San Diego where we've rented a house for two weeks. I'm so excited.

To get us excited about our trip, I check out the book Crafts For Kids Who Are Wild About Deserts. We many some really fun memories from picking our favorite craft ideas from the book. The picture at the top of the post was a really simple camel craft using an envelope and brown construction paper for the legs, neck and face.

We also made a diamondback rattlesnake from old egg cartons and brown, white and black paint. It took a while to make, but the kids liked the movable rattle on the back made from another egg carton.

Steve doesn't usually get to be involved as much with our projects since he's gone most of the day, but one evening Jared said he really wanted Steve to do a "desert craft" with him. They chose to make a paper holder coyote. This is a really, really simple craft to make, too. You just need an empty cereal box, brown construction paper and a black marker.

This little skunk's main attraction is the movable "stink" near his tail. Too cute!

We also read a lot about the desert in Australia and the dreamstimes paintings the aboriginal people did on cave walls. Alexa loved surfing the web for sites displaying dreamstimes artwork and read a bit about the stories that went along with the paintings. We started our own dreamstime painting, but the kids quickly petered out. I really enjoyed making mine, so I've included it here for you all to check out, too.

There were a lot of other desert crafts and activities we did and will do like cooking cactus leaves, making a coral snake bracelet and making petroglyphs. You can read about them in Deserts: An Activity Guide for Ages 6-9.

Ocean Activities

2011-04-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

We're going to the California and staying near the ocean in a few weeks (when this is published we'll already be there!), so I checked out Awesome Ocean Science (Kids Can! series) for some ocean related activities the kids might find fun to do.

Although the book is written for kids a bit older than mine, we still found many activities simple enough to do and understand. One of our favorites was the condensation/evaporation experiment. We put warm water in the bottom of a plastic jar and set a baggie of ice inside the rim of the jar, holding it in place with a rubber band. Then after a few minutes it was exciting to see our ice baggie start to "rain."

The kids work well together because Alexa loves to be the reader and basically tell us what to do! Jared is definitely a hands-on person and prefers to be the one in charge of doing the experiment or activity.

They had some really cool experiments showing what happens when the fresh water of rivers flow into the salt water of the ocean. Afterwards, Jared had the most fun just playing with the food coloring, water and medicine dropper.

Alexa's favorite experiment was testing which materials absorbed and which didn't absorb water. We gathered stuff from all over the house: gym shoes, wood, leather shoes, paper, sponges and lots of other things, too. Then we squeezed droplets of water of the material and watched what happened....

...and then finished off the rest of the water.

Another fun experiment was testing water pressure. You stick your hand in a bread bag and then plunge it into a container of water. The kids thought it was so cool that their hands would get squeezed by the water. It really made them understand what would happen to you twenty feet under the water if you weren't wearing special equipment.

Scooby Doo & Legos

2011-04-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

I've said this in a previous post, but my kids LOVE Scooby Doo and the gang, especially Jared. He will spend hours with his Scooby Doo figures, tying them up, hanging them from his pirate ships, and shooting them down with his nerf gun.

We found the five pack figure set for only $10 at Toys R Us. They are his co-ultimate toy. The other has to be Legos. Jared is such a right-brained person. He is so creative, a deep thinker and has a built in sense of order and sequence. He loves to be read to, but I think he will not be ready to read for quite a few years. I thought things would be strange since Alexa started reading words at 2 and now reads longer children's books like Stuart Little on her own, but she reads books to him on the couch and he doesn't seem to think it's strange that he's not reading them on his own yet she can. I'm so, so, so thankful for this. They both would be so out of place in a school classroom. I guess it might party be the way they've been given a lot of freedom growing up, but it might also be their in-born personalities, too.

How great is it that they get to grow up knowing that playing Scooby Doo and Legos is just as valuable as reading a book or watching an American Frontiers DVD (which they just did this morning!)

Hanging out with Family & Friends

2011-04-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

We've had some great fun hanging out with the family and our friends these past few months. The week after Christmas we went over to my friend's house to exchange presents with the kids. Both Jared and J love pirates so that was fun.

We also went a few times with J to the Max for their Bounce Days.

We checked out a new place, Jumps N' Jiggles. This place is so cool. They have an indoor carousel that you can go on unlimited times with the price of admission ($5). Wherever the kids go, they always find instant friends. They found a little boy they became attached to and loved playing with him on this helicopter play equipment.

We went to see Steve's dad play volleyball at the church.

We also made a few visits to their granddad at the church. Jared always wants to hold the dagger set someone gave Larry from Pakistan. Then we usually head down to the gym for paper airplanes and floor hockey.

We were also able to meet Steve at his job once this winter. He left early and we headed to the mall for a train ride.

A big part of our winter has been the kid's weekly gymnastics class. It's great because it's just a few minutes away and only lasts a half hour. For the most part, the kids seem to like it, although they don't do so well when the coaches have the kids standing in line too long (who would?)

And we've celebrated a few birthdays, too. We had a party Steve's dad at their house in February and for my sister's husband the beginning of March.

Children's Museums

2011-04-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

While we loved the snow, we spent the most of our time inside. Even with all our new games and pretend play, we had our fair share of adventures outside of the house, too. We went to a few children's museums, hitting our favorites. We usually don't go in the summer to take advantage of the weather, but we didn't go to as many this year as we did last year. It had to do with my project I was working on and getting ready for our big trip.

We did get to the Chicago Children's Museum downtown. We usually go the week after Christmas when Steve's off work.

We also went with my mom to the Oak Lawn Children's Museum near her house. The most fun I had was watching my mom play r cashier with the kids. At first it was just my kids lined up to check out and then she had a long line of kids ready to check out!

Snow, Snow, & More Snow

2011-04-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

This was the year of SNOW. Boy, did we get a lot of it. We only went downhill sledding one time, but the kids played a lot in the backyard. They usually don't like to get bundled up and play outside during the winter, but the novelty of so much snow was enough of a draw for them to ask a lot this year.

We had the biggest blizzard so far in the past decade. The snow drifts went right up to the neighbors gate. It was funny to see the swings totally buried and the snow going right up to the top of the slide. Steve also made them two great forts which they played in a lot. And of course snow fights with Daddy is the ultimate in fun.

Pretend Play & Crazy Faces

2011-03-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

Lots and lots of figure playing in this house....

...and pirate dress-up...

...and Spiderman...

...and just Jared.

Steve was off the week after Christmas so we watched a new Star War movie for six days in a row. Jared had never seen them before, and, let's just say he's now in love with all things Star Wars.

Jared methodically made playdough spaghetti out of all the red and blue playdough and arranged them into rows.

We can't go a day in the house without playing hide-and-seek. I don't know if it's an age 4 thing or what. Here's a picture of one of their more clever hiding spots, with the doors closed of course.

Winter Games & Activities

2011-03-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

This past winter has definitely been the winter of games. The kids are big into games now. Oh, we've played Candy Land, Memory and similar games before, but now it's the kids really asking on their own. Scooby Doo is very, very big in our house. Not a day goes by that we don't watch, read about or play with Scooby and the gang. This haunted mansion Scooby Doo game was a HUGE hit around here. The gang has to make it to the top of the mansion, but there are traps along the way.

On Christmas Eve the kids received a Smashed Potato Head Playdough game. I have to admit that I find it pretty fun, too. You have to make it around the board without getting either cut in half, turned into fries, rolled into a hamburger or chopped in two.

Besides Legos (which deserve a post of their own), Jared loves his Trio set next, especially one that also turns into a Batcave. He and Steve have spent hours playing with this set. He's hoping to get a Joker set for his birthday in a few weeks.

We've also really enjoyed Don't Wake the Daddy.

Of course, it's always fun to play good ole blocks with Daddy.

Alexa seems to go back and forth with wanting to play with her GeoSafari laptop. She really likes it when others play with her.

What she ALWAYS wants to do is look at globes. She loves to search for different countries on the computer, read about them, and then find them on the globe. I guess my love of all things travel is rubbing off on her!

I love the show Art Wolf's Travels to the Edge. It combines two passions of mine- travel and photography. Alexa really enjoys cameras, too. So, she and I really got into watching this show together this winter. One day she asked to take pictures of the screen to kind of emulate Art as he was taking pictures on screen. Here's one of her shots.

The kids have also spent quite some time with Alexa's GeoSafari Talking Microscope. It's a pretty cool toy for kids who like looking a small insects and spiders and taking quizzes on them.

What indoor winter activities have been big around your house this year?

Christmas Day

2011-03-27T12:57:00.000-07:00

I had thought for sure this year the kids would be bouncing on our bed by 6:30 in the morning, but nope, we didn't start unwrapping presents til closer to 8:00. I know they didn't get to bed til close to 11:30 the night before, but still, it's Christmas morning! I guess I shouldn't complain though. Most parents would be ecstatic to sleep in more.

I can't believe I'm including a picture of me first thing in the morning with no makeup, but there it is. Alexa took this of us, so I really wanted to remember that.

I had to buy them on Ebay, but I was finally able to find a complete set of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Jared. He asked for them forever. He was SOOOO thrilled.

Alexa's favorite present of the season was by far her kids pottery wheel. She had been wanting one, but almost all the ones I saw were at least $80 and that just couldn't happen. Then I saw this one for $25 at Michael's. At first I passed it up because I figured it'd be too cheap to work, but she and Steve had a blast with it. It worked perfectly for what she wanted out of it. You won't be making a real bowl or cup with this kit , but she just loved it.

These next set of pictures will be different because Steve bought me the camera I had been dreaming about! It's a Canon T1i Rebel. I had been drooling over DSLRs for months but thought we'd never get one because they are really expensive (almost $700). But Steve surprised me for Christmas. I was bawling my eyes
out. We never, ever get presents like that for each other. I hope to learn more about photography and start posting pictures on the microstock sites to earn a little extra money.

We drove over to my sister's house early afternoon to celebrate with my parents, grandma, brother and sister's family. Jared loved his Batman mask and accessories.

Grandma? I'm not too sure.

I think she had a better time opening presents with Alexa.

Uncle Andy brought lots of laughs with his new teeth.

Pre-Christmas Celebrations

2011-03-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome Christmas Eve this past year with everyone on Steve's side of the family meeting at his parent's house. The kids were so, so, so excited before we arrived to see all their cousins.

We have a tradition every year of lighting a candle a day the twelve days before Christmas. We usually read some part of the Luke version of the Christmas story and sing a few carols while we light one candle. I should have taken a better picture, but the candles are all places around a five-pointed star. We all did our "candle time" together on Christmas Eve.

Then it was presents! Jared was thrilled with his spinosaurus

...and also loved his puzzles, legos and games.

Alexa's favorite presents were painting kits, games....

....watching Jared open his Batmans Trio cave...

....and her absolute favorite....her GeoSafari Talking Microscope.

Jared ended the night on a high shooting nerf bullets with his cousin.

Sledding Through the Woods

2011-03-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

Ok. This time I really am going to get caught up on my posts! I know I said that over a month ago, but I've been working on a big, big project, which I will share with you very soon. We're going on a three week vacation to Nevada and California, so I know there will be tons to share when I get back. So I'll post every other day until I get caught up.

Now to get you caught up on the past three months.....

We've had so much snow this winter! I'm usually a cold freak, as in I can't stand it, but with kids somehow it's different. They've really made me appreciate the art of bundling up and trudging through the snow.

A few weeks before Christmas we went to our favorite woods, and Steve pulled the kids through the snow. There was a tiny hill, but mostly he just had to use muscle power and pull on flat ground.

There was no one there that day. Actually, there usually arn't that many people when we visit the woods. It's wierd me even thinking this since I don't like the cold, but I've actually been thinking about visiting Antartica one day. Does anyone else think this is a cool idea, or is it just me?

We saw some deer tracks in the woods and, right before we left, saw a family of three deer running through the woods. The kids were very excited.

We also ran across this bird's nest on a fallen tree limb.

Does your family take regular winter walks?

WonderWorks

2011-01-29T15:49:00.000-08:00

We hadn't been to WonderWorks in Oak Park since the spring, so I was glad when my friend suggested meeting up there for a playdate.

WonderWorks in the smallest children's museum we frequent, but it's nice because when the kids run off to different sections I don't have to worry as much - I'm only a few steps away. They played with my friend's son (2 years old) for a while in the dress-up area until Alexa said she wanted to do some art.

Jared headed straight for the scissors and cutting (one of his favorite things) while Alexa grabbed a paint brush and went to work. She gets into these painting moods where she'll want to paint like crazy every day, and then it seems like she forgets about it for awhile. And every time she comes back to it, she tries something new.

It's just so interesting to me to watch how people process information subconsciously and how very important it is to step away from things for awhile. And not just in areas like reading or math, but even painting or playing a musical instrument. It's amazing how when kids are given the freedom to respect the rhythms of their own learning the amazing progress that occurs. It's such a shame the school system does not respect this type of learning that is so essential. Oh, they say they understand that important cognitive function of the brain, but yet they insist all kids MUST do some math, writing, and reading every day for there to be progress. AAAAUUUUGGGGHHH.

After eating a quick lunch together, my friend and her kids left for home, and Jared, Alexa and I hung out in the music/puppet section for the next hour and a half. The kids love, love, love to make of songs, dress-up and make up stories. I'm really, really going to miss this age someday.

December Birthdays

2011-01-18T11:23:00.000-08:00

Well, as I write this it's really the middle of January, so I have a lot of catching up on. We've had so many wonderful adventures, have been learning so many new things, and I've been pleasently distracted by new projects I'm working on that posting our lives to this blog hasn't taken much of a priority. It's still important to me, though, to chronical our lives and learning adventures, so I'm dedicating this week to catching up and posting every day for the next month.

December is always a busy month with four birthdays to celebrate on Steve's side of the family. We met for brunch in the middle of the month at Steve's parents home to celebrate Steve's sister's birthdays.

I really don't remember any of the specifics so far besides eating an amazing late breakfast with the family, watching the girls open presents and teaching Alexa how to crop pictures. I tell ya, just give that girl a camera and she's happy for hours. She saw me cropping some pictures, asked me how I did it, I showed her just one time, and she was good to go.

Here's a picture of Steve she took.

I think taking pictures will play a big part of her life growing up.

Exploring, Creating, Being

2011-01-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

What's more fun than opening up boxes of Christmas presents from Amazon? Drawing all over the boxes, of course.

Alexa's ballet teacher gave her and Jared coloring pages of Frosty and Rudolph. We taped these to the picture window in the living room. Actually, in real time it's Jan 7th and they're still taped up there.

Mmmmm. Nothing like a good icicle to eat.

Jared said, "Look, Mommy. I sculpted a dragon head."

I just had to include these last three pictures. How long with they want to dress up in silly costumes and tie tupperware on their heads?

Mrs. Claus Play

2010-12-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

We love the Chicago Kids Company. If you live in the Chicagoland area, I can't recommend this children's theater company highly enough. We've seen two other shows at the Beverly Arts Center besides this one (The Tortoise and the Hare, and the Three Little Pigs), and they've been very professionally done. And you can't beat the $10 ticket price.

My mom went with us on the 8th of this month to see the holiday performance of Mrs. Clause. It was really delightful. And we even had front row seats, something I hadn't expected at all! I love, love, love the theater, and so far the kids seem to love it too, so I think it will be a big part of our lives in the years to come. When they get a little bit older, I can't wait to take them to see a Shakespeare play at the Shakespeare Theater downtown at Navy Pier. Now, those tickets cost quite a bit more, so I want to make sure the kids are really ready for and want to see those plays.

After the play, the kids posed for pictures - Jared with one of the "villains" of the play, and Alexa with Mrs. Clause. What are some of your favorite memories of theater with your kids?

Play Photos

2010-12-21T16:23:00.000-08:00

New Dreams for a Home Education Mom

2010-12-18T11:20:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be sprinkling pictures of my kids throughout this post, but really this post is about me. I don't really talk about myself on this blog because I've envisioned it mainly as a place to share what the kids' learning lives look like and to share resources and ideas with other families who choose to opt out of the institution of school.

With all my heart I believe in the necessity of interest-led learning for both children and adults. I believe that giving my children the freedom to discover the destiny that God has for them by themselves, with gentle help along the way from me and Steve, will allow them to be self-directed, love learning and develop an amazing focus and attention on what really matters.

The hard part comes when I think about all the time, energy, and commitment that I will need to invest in the next decades plus to come. I think I've become a little discouraged because lately I've been thinking about my own unfulfilled dreams. Then, through listening to some great podcasts, I've come to realize that I need to be working on my dreams, too, and not just helping my children reach theirs. If they can't see a role model of someone working hard to reach goals and dreams, how will they know how to do it themselves?

Thankfully, I'm blessed with a great mother and mother-in-law who take the kids once in a while so I can get errands done or go to appointments. A few weeks ago I decided to finally let them take the kids for a whole day so I could just work on ME! This is something I've NEVER done.

So, the kids went off with my parents in the morning and, as you can see, had a fun-filled time visiting the mall, working on computer games and drawing. Then they switched of to the other grandparents for the afternoon. And I spent hours writing, and writing, and writing. I spilled all of the dreams, goals, and ideas I have out of my brain into a journal and did some major planning for the year ahead. I even finally started up a new blog, which I've thought about for awhile, called Cash Contests for Creative Moms. Check it out if you'd like! I love this blog, but I did not intend for it to be a money maker.

So, this year, along with wonderful hopes and dreams for fun adventures with the kids, I also have some things I want to work on for me - writing projects, photography projects, service ideas, blog work, and planning for an ultimate year around the world trip.

How do you balance your dreams for your kids with your dreams for yourself?

Alexa's Ballet Recital

2010-12-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

I think I've written recently how Alexa decided to go back to ballet lessons after stopping last December. Just briefly I'll mention that when she turned three she begged to go to dance after watching quite a few ballet DVDs with me. She went for six months and then had a rather traumatic first recital and decided to stop after that. Then this September she begged to go again and has been for the past four months.

A few weeks ago she was in her second recital. This one went so much better because it was held in the same room where she takes her lessons, and it was a free, casual event. She even stood in line by herself so I could slip out and sit with Steve and Jared during her performance. She was so, so, so ADORABLE! It was just her, the teacher, and another little boy, and she did so well.

Afterwards the kids met Frosty and Rudolph and posed with them for pictures. Then we drove over to Steve's parents house for pizza, and the kids stayed for a few hours more while Steve and I did some Christmas shopping.

So, now Alexa has decided once again to stop ballet lessons. I guess it's turning into an annual thing. Not that I mind, though. Ballet can really be expensive! Even through a park district, it's $126 for a 12-week session. And then there's the shoes, leotard and tights. AUGGHHH! We'd be fine paying for it if she really loves it, so it's good she stops when she's not excited about it. She says she wants to take a break and go back in the summer. We'll see.

So far they'll take a half hour gymnastics class at the Y once a week for a six week session and that's it. I'm so relieved! I'm really looking forward to long, lazy winter days at home. I know some people who have their kids in preschool, ballet and swimming lessons all at the same time at the age of 2. At two years old! Can you believe it?

The Expanding Life - Unschooling Blog Carnival

2010-12-15T18:47:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to check out the December edition of The Expanding Life - an wonderful unschooling blog carnival. One of my blog posts has been featured this month! Check out the wonderful posts.

First Snowfall

2010-12-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

The first day of December also brought our first snowfall of the season. It's always a bit of a shock to me to come shuffling out of my bedroom in the morning to see the yard, trees, and everything in sight covered with snow. It always seems too early.

But, as you can see from the kids' faces, they weren't shocked at all. They were all too excited to get decked out in snow gear, ready mostly, to eat as much snow as they could.

I was surprised how long they stayed out in the snow. It was at least an hour. I braved the cold in my bathrobe to snap a few shots of them from off the deck.

We hadn't brought in the old sandbox or water table, so Jared had loads of fun hacking away at the ice with a golf club. Unfortunately, the snow melted quickly, so they kids were disappointed they couldn't make a snowman yet; that didn't try to stop them from shovelling or even raking the snow.

How much do your kids love the snow?

Jared's Costumes

2010-12-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

Jared's always loved, loved, loved dressing up in costumes. Usually they are not pre-made costumes or costumes you'd recognize as "being" a specific something. No, he definitely moves to his own rhythm.

I had thought that my daughter would have been the one with the creative flair of dressing in the unusual, but nope, it's my son. I love that out of the blue, he'll just show up in the kitchen while I'm making dinner his own creative getup; lately the costumes seem to revolve around white tights.

Do any of you have rather eccentric, imaginative kids?

Christmas Season is Here!

2010-12-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

It was a cold, cold, day the day after Thanksgiving when we bundled up to pick out our Christmas tree. I'm still not prepared for the 20 degree weather we've had this past week. BURRRR!!!

This year, we went to Menards, which we did last year, too, but I think the cold made us choose our tree a little bit faster. Even though we choose the second tree we saw, I still think it was one of our most beautiful ones yet.

The kids were so, so, so excited this year about decorating the tree. They helped last year a little bit, but this year they stuck it out until the end. In fact, before we even brought the tree home they had all the ornaments and decorations scatted all over the living room.

Jared liked hanging up the ornaments the most. I knew because of what a detailed, precise boy he is that he would. Both kids were also excited about the electric train we have running around the base of the tree.

I felt so sorry for Steve, though, because he bought several new strands of lights for the tree and, in less than an hour, one of the strands went out. He later discovered we needed to get stronger extension cords and spread out the cords and plugs, but he still had to make an extra trip to the store.

We listened to our favorite Christmas music while decorating, including the wonderful
Charlie Brown Christmas CD.

Then we watched most of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (with some creative editing from mom and dad at strategic points!). I'm so excited about this time of year. Not about the cold. Definitely. But I am excited about the stories, caroling, baking, and great, great memories to be made.

What are you most excited about this season?

Thanksgiving Day

2010-12-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

When I was thinking about how I would describe our Thanksgiving on this blog, I thought about sharing how wonderful the dinner was with the rolls, mashed potatoes, dressing, green bean casserole, turkey and the rest of the food.

I thought about how much fun we had playing Telephone Pictionary and all the laughter.

I thought about how wonderful it was when Steve's sister's husband showed Jared how to shoot rubber bands to knock off figures from blocks and how much he loved doing that all evening long.

But the memories I'll most remember came from our Thanksgiving circle sharing time. We all sit in a circle after dinner and go around sharing something we are thankful to God about. We do this three times. When my turns came around, I shared how I was thankful that Steve and I can still be crazy silly together after 8 years of knowing each other. I also shared how I was amazed how we need to be thankful about the hard things in our lives because they're there for a purpose we might not even be able to understand for a long time.

But the thing I was most thankful for, the thing I felt most passionate about, was that God has blessed me with the ability to give my children the gift of time and freedom. They are four and a half. I'd only have another 8 months with them before they'd be gone from home a good chunk of the day. They'd not have time to pursue those things that excited them for large blocks of time, and they would constantly be compared to others, tested continually and not living to the fullest.

I thought about the day, how Alexa took the camera from me and followed everyone around, taking silly pictures. I wanted to remember this Thanksgiving as a time of freedom and joy, of unbridled learning and unending adventure.

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving day as seen through Alexa's eyes.

Building, Playing, Creating, Learning

2010-12-02T17:48:00.000-08:00

I've heard so much about people making their own homemade pizza that I finally gave it a try. Mostly because I'm looking for quick, cheaper meals for the weekends so I can take a break from real cooking, but also I thought the kids would really like it. I threw some dough mix in the bread machine, and when it was done, we worked together on the pizza. It turned out ok, but it needed WAY more cheese. The crust was great, but the rest of the pizza? Ehh.

Jared's been working hard on his creations this past week. Here's one where he put the play table upside down and tied his snake and ropes around the legs.

Jared has the most amazing ability to come up with new things to do all the time. My daughter is a great reader and she blows some people away on the computer even at four, but Jared is incredible in his self-direction and imagination.

We had been watching old family DVD's and saw how we had a birthday party for Curious George around this time last year. So Jared found some Christmas wrapping paper and started wrapping some of his toys. He worked so hard at cutting and taping those presents. It made me think of how I hated sitting in kindergarten class around the table where they made us do these artificial cutting and pasting exercises. I've never show my kids how to cut, paste, color, or tape, yet they do it just fine on their own because they've practiced for hours by coming up with their own projects.

Alexa's been enthralled lately with Jumpstart Grade 1. She would play for hours and hours on that computer if we allowed it. When she starts getting too cranky and impatient, we try to gently guide her into something else. Plus, I worry about her eyes.

Here's one more game Jared made up this week. He dragged all my Tupperware out to the living room. Then he took out all his animals and started placing each animal under a Tupperware and calling them the animals' cages. I just love my kids!

Pre-Thanksgiving Feast

2010-12-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

I've a bit of catching up to do on the blog, but on the 20th of November we had a pre-thanksgiving feast at my mom's house. We try to switch Thanksgiving between our families every other year. This year was supposed to be at my parent's house, but my sister, her husband and son went out of town to her husband's side since this year all the sisters and brothers could be together. So, we all gathered the week before Thanksgiving at my parent's house for a pre-holiday celebration.

While my mom, sister and I were getting the food ready, the kids had a blast with Uncle Andy in his room doing pull-ups in his closet and jumping on the bed. Right before dinner, the kids placed the Thanksgiving scrolls they had made beside each person's plate. A few days before I had written on half-sheets of paper (which they had cut out themselves), one thing the kids were thankful to God about each person who would be at the dinner. Then we rolled the papers into scrolls and tied them with ribbon. During dinner, each person opened his or her scroll and read what the kids had written. It really was a special and memorable time, even though I didn't come up with the idea!

We bundled up a bit and took a walk after the dinner to look at the slue near my parent's house. My sister let me play with her camera and I was in HEAVEN! I was so, so, so wanting to take that camera home with me. It's a Canon DSL Rebel T1. I have always wanted to learn more about photography and own a really nice camera, but I haven't followed up on that dream yet. Maybe one day we can save up for one.

All the kids posed for a picture on the walk. Needless to say, the picture I took from my sister's camera was much nicer.

After the walk, we came back to wonderful Czech bakery, pumpkin pie, cheesecake and cookies. Then we settled in to watch the original Karate Kid movie. It was a relaxing, wonderful day.

Thanksgiving Activities

2010-11-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

Whenever there's a holiday, we like to do things connected to the holiday whether it's reading books, watching movies or doing some type of art or science activity. It really gets us in the mood and excited about it. Last year we watched the Disney Squanto: A Warrior's Tale for the first time. This year we watched it again, and it will probably turn into a yearly tradition.

I was looking online at some sites, tying to get some ideas of fun activities we could do together, and I ran across this site. I'm so sorry, but I forgot what the site was called, but I took a picture of one of the main pages. Alexa was sitting on my lap browsing with me, and she was absolutely glued to this site for about an hour. They had actual documents from some of the Pilgrims, had a cool section on facts and myths surrounding the Pilgrims, and a lot of info about the Wampanoag tribe.

Last year I had bought a huge bag of walnuts, wanting to do this craft/science experiment with the kids, and we never got around to it. The kids were so, so, so psyched to do this project this year. It was all about making our own mini Mayflowers. We cracked walnut shells in half, stuck some playdough to the bottom of the shell, and stuck in a toothpick with a bit of wax paper attached into the playdough. Then we dyed a container of water blue and tried to see which shells floated and which sunk.

I don't have pictures of this, but we also made Thanksgiving scrolls, which I'll write about more in a few days.

We also make turkey cookies by tracing our hands in paper and outlining the paper against cookie dough. It was a fun project, but it took WAY, WAY longer than I'd thought. The kids ran out of steam with it long before the cookies were done, so I did much of it by myself. But the next morning, Steve and the kids decorated the cookies with dyed icing and raisins, so they got into the spirit of it again.

We listened to some Thanksgiving songs from a kids CD and read a few picture books about the Pilgrims from the library.

What fun Thanksgiving activities have you done this year?

Digging up Sue at the Field Museum

2010-11-25T08:07:00.000-08:00

We had such an awesome day at the Field Museum on the 17th of this month. I had originally brought the idea up to the kids a few weeks ago when we read Sunset of the Sabretooth and learned more about the Ice Age. The Field Museum has a great exhibit called the Evolving Planet that holds lots of prehistoric fossils.

Before heading to that exhibit, though, we went through the Ancient Egypt exhibit - a permanent fixture at the Field. I've written before about how what we get out of things, whether they be books, movies or experiences, changes every time we go back to them because we are a new person each day (or should be!). Since I truly believe this, you'd think I shouldn't have been surprised at how different the kids were in the Egypt exhibit than they were last year. I really didn't think they'd like it since they just ran through it last year, but I was very much surprised at how much they enjoyed it. I knew I would. I've been reading through the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters. It's about an amature Egyptologist in the late 1800-early 1900s and is also a mystery series. I love it!

The kids love, love, love Scooby Doo movies. Unfortunately, this caused a little problem when Alexa learned we were going to see a real mummy. I had to hold her clinging to me since she thought there would be mummies that would chase her like in the last Scooby Doo movie she saw. After a while, she calmed down and actually wanted to look inside the case. Did you know the word "mummy" actually came from an Arabic word mumiyah which means "body preserved by wax or bitumen." When the Europeans saw the Arabs point at the preserved body and say "mumiyah," they thought that was the name for it. After a while the word was shorted to "mummy".

Here's Jared seeing if he could pull a 500 pound limestone block on a wooden sleigh...

...and the kids trying to balance Egyptian weights on a scale.

We went for a short time to the Crown Family Playlab where the kids gravitated towards the adobe hut and dinosaur sections. The man who ran the front information desk told me about the lending program the museum has, and I soon found out he was homeschooled growing up. We even talked about the In-Home Conference held in March in St. Charles, Illinois where he often speaks. Very cool.

After a quick lunch, we walked upstairs to the IMAX theater to watch the 3-D movie "Walking the T-Rex," which tells the story of the discovery of Sue, the most in-tact Tyrannosaurus Rex in the world, up until her unveiling in 2000 at the Field Museum. It was a really great movie that I highly recommend.

Afterwards, we walked through the Evolving Planet exhibit and checked out some prehistoric fossils. The first picture below is of a saber tooth tiger, but I can't remember what the other picture was.

And then before we left, we took a close-up view of "Sue" which was so much more meaningful since we finished learning all about her.

What is your favorite museum to visit?

Fun Days

2010-11-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

Spontaneous fun.
Daddy fun.
Puzzle fun.
Mr. Potato Head Fun.

Pretending to be Sandman, capturing Spiderman (Jared) and throwing him into the garbage (hamper) per his request, so Joker, Riddler and the rest of the villains could terrorize the city.

(yep, he's really buried under all that!)

Savoring those unexpected moments of laughter, learning and life. That's what we've been about lately.

Day Out with Grammy and Pappa

2010-11-23T17:48:00.000-08:00

Last Friday my mom took the kids for about five hours so I could have some alone time. I've had a bad sinus cold lately, the house has been descending into chaos and I was feeling very stressed. So, when my mom offered to pick the kids up at 9:30, play with them, feed them lunch, and then drop them off again at 3:30 before Alexa's make-up ballet class, I about cried with relief.

I don't spend that much time away from the kids, usually just a few hours during the week mainly for doctor's appointments and running errands, so it felt good to get hours of absolute quiet and an hour's nap on the couch. Still, I sent my camera with my mom so I could get some glimpses of what they did during the day so I wouldn't miss out that much. So, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves to show what fun they had with my parents.

Homeschool Gym Days

2010-11-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

I wrote before how Jared said he wanted to go to a gymnastics class so he could play on the balance beam, horse and other gymnastics equipment. Well, I had seen a listing in the YMCA for Homeschool Gymnastics for kids ages 3-5. It would be perfect, I thought. The class might be less structured and focus more on spending time on the equipment, and I might not have to be surrounded by other mothers discussing different preschool options. I could either read a book or talk with another non-school mom about stuff I'm more interested in.

Turns out the class is a bit different than it was listed in the catalogue. It is only made up of kids who don't plan on attending school, but it's more of a fitness time, with a little bit o duck-duck-goose sprinkled in for fun. That's all good and fine, but Jared really wanted to do gymnastics things. My friend from a relaxed homeschool mom's book club I attend is there, so it's fun talking with her, but still, I feel bad for Jared who was so disappointed. They both like playing with the other kids, but I'll see how they feel attending after the holidays are over. Thank goodness the session is only six weeks long.

Have you ever had an experience with a class, homeschooling or otherwise, that was much different then you had anticipated?

November Hikes

2010-11-21T13:02:00.000-08:00

I wrote recently about our October hikes and really didn't think we'd be taking many in November, but it's been a surprisingly warm first part of November, and we've been trying to take advantage of it for as long as we can.

On Sunday afternoon we decided to go by the woods near our house to feed the geese. Well, we got a pretty late start and didn't see any geese near the pond. We saw a few deer playing across a field, but when we started walking towards them, we heard the police car making its rounds and were kicked out of the woods. It was only 5:00, but already the sun had almost set. It's always a shock to me every year to get used to this.

But today we more than made up for our failed woods hike. Steve came home early from a meeting downtown, so we drove down to the Fullersburg Woods next to the Old Graue Mill.

We brought bread with us and found one duck to feed.

The kids we running, and climbing, and surprisingly Jared didn't want to be carried that much by Steve.

I don't have any pictures of it (they turned out way too dark), but we ran into a family of deer. I have never seen deer run so close to me before. It really was a thrilling feeling. We saw the most beautiful buck with these huge antlers. We crept as silently as we could to the edge of the pond where the deer dipped their heads into the water on the other side of us, and then bent their heads up to stare at us, too.

We went into the nature center, but they were closing up just as we walked in. We talked about how we must come back in the snow, all bundled up, to walk in the woods once again, and not tell ourselves to wait until next spring.

Visiting Daddy and the DuPage Children's Museum

2010-11-19T13:24:00.000-08:00

It had been a while since we visited Steve at his office, and since we were going to the DuPage Children's Museum later that day, we thought we'd stop by and see Daddy first. The kids LOVE visiting their dad at his job. He's a sales tax manager and has a nice big office that is fun to play in. Plus, they get to go around saying hi to the members of his team.

We went out to eat at Pompeii, dropped Steve back at work, and then headed to the museum. We have a membership so we can go whenever we want to, and let me tell you, afternoon is the best time to go. It was 1:30 when we arrived, and I think there was probably only three or four other families in the entire building. Awesome! Of course that's because most older kids are at school and the younger kids are taking naps, so that's probably not true about the summers.

I had the idea to go there when I saw on the museum's website that the art studio's project was painting with gears. Turns out the kids spent about five minutes in that room and then wanted to play in the shadow exhibit for about a half hour. It's funny how our interests may draw us towards something, but yet we often walk away in a whole other direction.

What I love about museums is how even though you've been to the same one many times, you still seem to always see or do something new every time you go back. Of course some of that has to do with changing temporary exhibits, but I think it's also about how you've learned new things, think in new ways and are really a different person when you go back. So, even though the kids have been in this woodworking part of the exhibit a few times before and have seem so-so about it, they spent a long time there today, especially Jared, focusing intently on their projects.

Maybe it was because the water/wind room had literally no other people in it when we were there, or simply because the kids were in such great spirits that day, but we had so, so, much fun pushing rubber ducks down waterfalls, running through wind machines, and playing pirates on a ship. It was a good, good day. Something we all really needed.

Some More Random Fall Fun

2010-11-17T18:13:00.000-08:00

Alexa is back in ballet again. She took lessons for six months last year and then said, "I don't want to do this anymore," after her first recital. Then in September, she asked me why I took down a picture (that had been hanging on the fridge forever) of the different ballet positions and threw it away. She was very upset with me. I didn't even realize it meant that much to her. She said she wanted to go to dance again. I said to ask me again the next day. She did. I said to ask me again the next day. She did. Then I knew she was serious.

So, she's been very, very happily attending dance lessons once a week. She told me yesterday she wished she could go every day. It was such a cool lesson to me that even if your kids drop something and say they never want to have anything to do with it again, that's not always the case. Not that I care if she hadn't ever wanted to dance again, but if say your kid doesn't pick up a book to read in six months, it doesn't mean he won't ever want to read again.

Anyways, at the end of every class, Alexa's dance teacher gives the girls coloring pages. Jared always asks for these too. Now, I've never bought my kids coloring books. I personally feel they hinder a lot of creativity and have always preferred the kids free draw. They've also never wanted to color when grandparents or other people have given them coloring books. So, I was really, really shocked when Alexa walked in the kitchen this week holding up a picture she had colored. To my knowledge this is the first picture she has ever colored.

I remember going with the kids to some story times at the library when they were two, and afterwards they had pages for the kids to color. I remember most of the moms guiding their child's hand to color inside the lines. My kids just wrote on the backs of these sheets, and the mothers gave me a strange, pitying look. It was crazy to me that these women actually thought they needed to teach their children how to color correctly! I'd never, ever care if my kids colored outside the lines, but I thought it very ironic that their first attempts at coloring a picture turned out like this.

Besides our foray at bread making a few weeks ago, the kids haven't been interested in helping me bake or cook. Then yesterday Jared says, "Let's make brownies!" So that's what we did.

While the brownies were cooking, I gave the kids a bag of eight pieces of corn on the cob and asked if they wanted to shuck them. I knew Jared would love doing it, and he did. He is so like me in that he loves to do little, detailed manual things. He's good at doing hands-on, detailed things, whereas Alexa is good at mental, detailed things.

We had an awesome morning today. The kids were sitting on top of the couch in front of the living room picture window, waving goodbye to their dad, when they noticed a few squirrels and called me over. We noticed the squirrels were coming right up to the front stairs. I suddenly remembered a huge bag of walnuts I had bought almost a year ago for a project we never did, and ran downstairs to get it.

We threw one out at the squirrel and giggled with delight when he sat nibbling on it, holding it in his little paws with his tail swishing. Then he ran across the street with it. Soon another squirrel came up to him, and it really looked like they were talking to each other. So, I pretended to be the first squirrel talking to the new squirrel telling him how cool that house was across the street and how he should run across and get a nut, too. To our surprise, as soon as I said this, the second squirrel ran across the street and up to our door. The kids LOVED throwing out walnuts to him, and eventually to the other dozen or so squirrels that came out to beg over the next hour. I told the kids that maybe it was the squirrel's Halloween and they were trick-or-treating to our door. They loved that idea. I love, love, love being able to take the spontaneous things of life and run with them without having to always stress over a tightly scheduled life. Moments like this would have been lost, and that would be a huge shame.

Curious George at Khol's Children's Museum

2010-11-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

It's been over a year since we've visited the Khol's Children's Museum in Glenview. When I read about a Curious George exhibit there and told the kids about it, we knew we had to go back.

While we only stayed in the Curious George exhibit for about five minutes (for us it really wasn't that great), we stayed at the museum for almost two hours.

We usually don't visit children's museums, or really any indoor museums, all that much in the summer, since we try to be out when the weather is good most of the time. So, now that fall in here in full force, it's awakened our excitement over all things museum. In fact, I just called my mom and asked if she wants to go to the Field Museum next week, so I'll be writing about that soon.

Sometimes the kids go to museums and get really wrapped up in one area, and we don't see a lot of the rest of the museum. And then other days, like this one, they go crazy running around from section to section, just excited to be touching and seeing everything new. Here are some picture highlights:

This last picture shows the one area where we spent the most time that day. It was a sound machine that altered your voice to slow down or speed up a recorded message. The kids and Steve must have recorded dozens of messages to play back over and over again. Its was a really great day with the family.

Hallowen

2010-11-15T11:15:00.000-08:00

Since Halloween has been over for almost a month by the time I get this posted (AUGGHH!), I'll just give you the highlights. As you can see, we had a little Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and also a Tinker Bell.

Is it just me but does Alexa look like Princess Leah dressed up as Tinker Bell? It was pretty cold that evening, so even with two layers on under their costumes, the kids wore scarves, hats and gloves by the end of the evening.

It's hard to believe but the day before Halloween Alexa had thrown up about 15 times in 24 hours. Yet she still went about two and a half hours strong on Halloween. I had the exact same thing two days before. It was nasty, but at least it was just a 24 hour thing. She would have been crushed if she wouldn't have been able to wear her costume and get candy.

We went for 45 minutes near our house, and then for another two hours with Steve's parents. My mom and dad came afterwards, and we all had pizza together.

Of course, the most fun was sorting out the loot (especially for Daddy). The kids have so much candy that I know we'll be eating it until Christmas.

Random Fall Fun

2010-11-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

While the above photo isn't quite the picture of jumping up and down fun, I just had to include it here in my blog because I love seeing my two boys cuddled up together. As much as a pain it can be at night sometimes for us to have the kids crawl into bed with us and get kicked and elbowed in the stomach in the middle of the night, I know I will deeply miss smelling the tops of their little heads before drifting off to sleep and watching their chests slowly move up and down.

While digging through their Halloween candy, the kids found this mini War card game. I had never played the game before, so it was a fun new experience for us all. Many times people who are deeply entrenched in school mentality cannot fathom how anything math related can spontaneously occur- they think everything must be pre-planned and thought out. Not that researching cool number and pattern games is bad, in fact I find it a lot of fun browsing through catalogs like Mindware, but even without any extra thought things like this random finding of a card game and exploring how numbers can be more or less than each other happen all the time.

I don't know if you have anything like this at your library, but our neighboring town's library had these awesome cloth activity bags. The kits usually include a book, a laminated card showing you how to "teach" the material, and some cool toys. How's this for serendipity? It was a week before Halloween and we had been reading online about different Halloween traditions and also how other countries have similar traditions. Around this time the kids had also watched Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico, which plot takes place during the Day of the Dad festivities in Mexico.

Then Alexa picks this bag out at the library without even looking inside it, and when we get home we realize that it's all about the Day of the Dead. We read the book and played with the toys. The family in the book talked about making Pan de Muertes. I asked the kids if they wanted to make the bread with me, and they did. It was the first time I had made bread before by scratch, and to my surprise it turned out great! It was like this perfectly planned out unit study, but of course much better because I couldn't have planned it out so perfectly.

I've mentioned before how Jared is our late-night boy, sometimes not falling asleep until 11:00, yet still up by 7:00 the next day. He gets into the most wonderfully creative moods late at night. Here's one of his late night Lego creations.

Jared's the type of kid who wants everything. Right now one of his favorite activities it to take all the ads out of the Sunday paper and point out the hundreds of things he wants for Christmas. Alexa, on the other hand, is much different. We gave her $20 this vacation to buy whatever she wanted, and she would always leave stores, aquariums and other attractions empty-handed because she didn't find anything worth spending her money on. So, when she saw a commercial for the Glo-Doodle and was jumping up and down saying she wanted one, we took her right out the next day to get one. (She had so much allowance built up by then it was crazy).

Fall Leaf Fight

2010-11-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

Its hard to believe it's time to rake leaves when it seems like yesterday my husband took out the lawn mower for the first time since winter. Now the first snowfall is not too far off. And yet, you can see from the pictures, Alexa is sleeveless so we're savoring the few warm days left.

I just had to grab the camera and head outside when Steve told me the kids were about to jump into their first pile of leaves of the season.

Soon Steve and I got in leaf-jumping mood, too. I did ok, and even let the kids bury me, but after getting little bits of leaves stuck in my eyes, I was ready for a break. Still, I find I like the fall season more and more, especially since I've had kids. There are just so many fun, wonderful experiences to be had.

Pumpkin Patch and Jack O'Lanterns

2010-11-12T12:39:00.000-08:00

We debated about doing a full-blown pumpkin patch complete with camel rides or just going a more simpler route. After considering the near $40 cost of the option with rides, we decided to just make it simple and pick out our own pumpkins. We actually went to the same farm where the kids had their farm program in the spring.

My parents came with us this year, so that added a bit of extra fun. In our family, we always buy our pumpkins the week before Halloween and carve them the same evening, cook pumpkin seeds, light the jack-o-lanterns, ect. I thought from their website that The Center had an actual pumpkin patch where you picked the pumpkins straight from the vine, but apparently not. Still, it didn't make much difference to the kids. They liked the tractor-pulled cart ride up the hill to the pumpkin field.

We didn't take long to find the perfect three pumpkins for our family.

After riding back down in the cart, we paid for our pumpkins and hitched a ride in a golf cart down to the car. After depositing our pumpkins there and saying goodbye to my parents, we climbed up the wooden bridge and across the street before heading home.

After stopping at a store on the way home, we started carving. Actually, I should say Steve started carving. I was in charge of doing all the seeds. I had forgotten how long the whole process takes with three pumpkins. The kids stayed around, though, for most of the process. They really got into the design aspect this year, telling Steve exactly what they wanted their pumpkins to look like.

We were talking about what we named our pumpkins last year, and we mentioned Jared had named his pumpkin Bag Mamma. So, this year Jared's pumpkin is named Bag Mamma Skeleton. He found a Spooky Stories book which Steve used in the design process. Alexa named her pumpkin Elizabeth, and my and Steve's pumpkin is Happy, since we've always used an H name since we've been married.

There was great joy and celebration when we were done, on Steve's part because he was just plain tired, and the kids were excited to see the jack-o-lanterns lit. And what a spooky, fun sight they made.