Jul 24, 2010 | Uncategorized
I thought I would be floundering a bit more this week since all my babies are in school.
No such luck.
We bought a fixer-upper to flip or rent and having crying fits so much fun cleaning, fixing, and dealing with contractor mistakes that I’m still sick about. On top of that, fundraising joys for school. I got six hours of volunteer time in already this week, probably more.
Yesterday, after feeling completely stressed out, I took Cole to the lake that is by the little house- the only redeeming quality I can find in it today. The lake was beautiful but very dirty. Kids hang out there and I found *whippits and other great things floating around. I think I’ll have my scout troop do a clean up soon.
 |
| Swans |
 |
| Happy Dog (before his swim) |
I have to keep telling myself all my stresses are self-inflicted and I have total control of that. Next week will be better. I say so.
*FYI- Whippits are where people suck the gas from the whipped cream cans to get high.
Jul 14, 2010 | Illinois, Travel, Uncategorized, United States
Navy Pier
Last week was spent in the windy city, Chicago! It ended up being a fantastic summer vacation.
The natives were complaining about the 87 degree weather and we were in heaven
coming from over 100’s in Arkansas.
We watched fireworks from Navy Pier (quite on accident.) We’d walked down to check out the pier about 3 or 4, and found out when we thought about going back for a nap that the pier was closed to anyone else due to crowd control. Anyway, we stayed and had a great time people-watching and the fireworks show was nice. This year the city cut the show to 15 minutes due to budget cuts, I guess in the past it’s been an hour long.
Tips if you go:
- Buy rail passes for the week at the airport (adults price was around $28, kids over 6 were $20 or so and the youngest was free.) The O’Hare airport has a train that runs right into it, so you can ride into the city without having to get a cab. It worked well, we were staying close to Navy Pier, so we had one transfer, but it was fine even with kids and luggage.
- Wear good shoes! (You’ll be doing A LOT of walking!)
- Rent bikes (almost anywhere) and you’ll have a blast. (There are many bike trails and Chicago has so many beautiful things to see that are easy to get to by bike. They even have segway and bike tours!)
Can you believe this is in the middle of the city?
- Get a membership to your local museum before you go. (We do this every year and just on this trip we saved over $200 in entrance fees, I think it was only $75 to join our museum as a family. We also belong to our local Art Museum and Zoo as a family, and many of those are reciprocal.)
Museum of Science & Technology
- Take lots of pictures! (I have too many, why I haven’t posted sooner.)
- Make sure you have bathing suits or change of clothes for kids in your bag. (I didn’t on a few occasions and from the number of fountains in Chicago you can imagine…)
- Scavenger Hunts! (Chicago has a great website for the city with scavenger hunts for various areas. Lots of fun! Also has calendars with events.
- Be prepared to wait for pizza. (Chicago deep dish takes an hour to bake so you’ll wait two hours for pizza. You can call ahead to some famous places and they will put your name and what you want down on the list. )
Aug 27, 2009 | Uncategorized
At the zoo (A is for ape)
Jac is learning how to read. A major life accomplishment that, as his mom and teacher, I am privileged to witness. My smart cookie now knows all his alphabet sounds (although maybe not the names of all of the letters.) To celebrate we’ve been making an alphabet book with pictures we’ve taken. After going through our pictures yesterday we realized most were animal pictures so we’re going with an ABC zoo theme!
I was going to make the book using Shutterfly (I had a free 8×8 book coupon and I’m cheap) but…
I didn’t get it done in time. I found this site that has the CUTEST templates for an ABC animal book (just like the one I want to make.) You can even customize it! I’ll keep you posted when I get it done (and printed!)
(Z is for zebra)
Aug 18, 2009 | Uncategorized
I REALLY didn’t feel like heating up the kitchen today since it was so hot and muggy. Everyone wanted to know what was for supper, so here’s what I threw together…
(some Pepperoni & Cheese, and
some Basil, heirloom tomatoes, & baby bufalo mozzarella)
Salad with Yellow Heirloom ‘matos, almonds & goat cheese
Fruit Salad
I kept the silly looking place settings in the picture because I’m so proud of my little guy’s job of setting the table! It’s so nice when they can “help!” Not bad for a 4 year old!
Jul 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
I feel like I’ve moved to Seattle. The rain has been over us a few days now and in the bathroom I hear a drip- drip- drip. At least the roof is leaking over the bathtub.
The weather is honestly lovely though.
So cool, everything is green in deep summer in the south.
A true oddity.
My gutters (which I meant to clean out this spring) are overflowing. The rain barrel is so full. (I do need at least three more.)
The kids have been sick pretty much all week. This dumb fever, cough, headache junk. The fevers aren’t high enough to call the doctor, but they won’t break for 24 hrs so they can go back to school!
So, they are playing “Dinos” and watching Dinotopia (the longest movie ever.)
What kind of dino am I?
