Hanging out with Family & Friends

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.

Naper Days

It was a hot day on June 20thwhen we went to the Naper Days Fest. The only place we could find to eat was a table under the hot sun next to the children's stage. Still, while we ate our pulled pork sandwiches and brats, we enjoyed watching a karate demonstration by a local school. They had just come back from a tour in Japan. This has been the second karate demonstration we've seen this summer, and in the following weeks, Jared has picked up sticks and enjoyed doing his own demonstrations for us.




Of course they enjoyed the petting zoo. This one was a little different because they had newborn piglets there. Adorable!

They had an area where someone made balloon animals for the kids.

I think they liked the kiddie paddle boats the most. We were really surprised at how fast Jared picked up on using both hands to work the paddles. In less then a minute he had figured out how to make the boat go both forwards and backwards. Alexa wasn't too bad at it either.

We all went on the little train that took riders around the entire festival area.

Kansas City Northen Railroad

Although it's very small, in fact just a half mile track, for any kid who loves trains, the Kansas City Northern Railroad is the perfect ride. Plus, at just 50 cents a ride, you can go several times without it costing much at all. In fact, this same ride somewhere near Chicago would probably cost at least three dollars.

Fall 2008

Fall 2008

I have about a month’s worth of blog posts to get up, so I’m going to just write in short check list for the some of the highlights from the fall, winter, and spring before their birthday. I hate to make it so matter of fact and would love to comment more and share what I thought about some of the things we did, but I’ll never get up to date. I really, really, really want to record more of our unschooled life to look back over through the years and to share with other families, so I have to figure a way to be more efficient at this and hopefully improve at making my posts more interesting to read as well! I hope to very soon post pictures because I love reading other blogs that post pictures along with what they are posting about.
So, here going our fall highlights:

Playing in the leaves

Making a dough sculpture by sticking leaves, sticks and rocks in the dough and letting it harden

Reading Blueberries for Sal and then eating blueberries for the first time, making blueberry muffins from scratch, and counting our blueberries

Carving pumpkins and lighting our pumpkins every night a week before Halloween while singing Happy Birthday, pumpkin (they came up with that entirely on their own!)

Reading Make Way for Duckling, Lentil, Frog and Toad series

Halloween costumes – Jared, pirate, and Alexa, pirate princess – trick or treating will all the grandparents, great-grandma and Aunty Cheryl and Uncle Zach

Museum of Science and Industry trip – climbing inside the combine, the Idea Factory, the Plane and Train exhibit – and watching the baby chicks hatch

Blackberry Farm – Riding the carousel, riding the train, painting pumpkins, looking at the farm animals

Cooking – Alexa helping me by cutting carrots, garlic and onions on her own, Jared stirring and mixing

Annie obsession – Watching the movies about seven or eight times, singing Annie songs while at the dentist where everyone in the waiting room could hear!

Music we loved listening to – Glen Miller Orchestra, Andrea Bocelli, James Taylor, Credence Clearwater Revival, various classical CDs

Garfield Park Conservatory trip – splashing in the puddles in Monet’s Garden, watching the fish in the coy pond.

Naming different countries and states – they can locate dozens of countries and can locate most the states

Puzzles – Jared stated to really love doing puzzles. We have a forty-eight piece United States puzzles and within two weeks he could put the entire thing together without any help

Rolling trucks down the hallway

Walks in the Cermak Woods – getting within fifteen feet of a family of deer, throwing stones in the pond, running through a flock of almost a hundred geese.

Bounce City – celebrating cousin Owen’s first birthday

Music – playing on guitar, lots of singing, playing on Steve’s guitar, playing the keyboard

Wonder Works trip – Riding the floor vehicles, “digging for dinosaur fossils” by finding pretend dinosaurs buried in clay, exploring the wigwam, playing in the tree house

summer 2008 Part 3

Summer 2008 Part 3

LaGrange Fountain – It’s just a small fountain downtown, but seems to be a place where many parents take their children. The kids are at such a cute age right now. The joy they get out of just walking around the edge of the fountain and throwing money inside is contagious. There is a tiny hill by the fountain they loved running down, too. We visited this spot several times during the summer.

Vacation Bible School – This was the first year for the twins. I helped out in the tot group so was able to be with them for the whole week. We’d start the morning gathered together with all the age groups singing and watching an on-going weekly skit. Then we’d go to a room where the kids would color. Next was craft time. This always seems to aggravate me as I believe in the importance of free creative expression rather than doing a step by number craft where the adults do most of the work for the kids so it will look “just right.” Then we’d go to the gym where they kids would run around, play with balls or little scooters, then we’d head to the room off the kitchen for a snack and practice our song. Next up to the second floor for a story and then back to the auditorium to meet with all the groups for more songs before heading home. Alexa and Jared were sooooo quiet. Many people asked me if they were talking yet. This made me laugh because Alexa especially is so talkative at home. She did love the high school and college age girls carrying her around, and Jared had a little girl who always wanted to be next to him, holding his hands. At the end of the week, they had a program for the parents where the kids performed songs they learned over the week. I had to hold Jared who cried for most of the time and another girl held Alexa. Not a great first stage performance!

Pet Pride Parade – The first weekend after Memorial Day they always hold a Pet Pride Parade in LaGrange. It was the first time we attended, and it was much, much more impressive then the Oak Park 4th of July parade. There were many music and dance groups as well as dozens of different animals including even some camels.

Naperville Riverwalk – This was a beautiful time where the highlight of the day was the paddleboat ride on the pond. We were able to paddle very close to many ducks.

Trailside Museum – I remember coming here as a young child, so it was fun to take our kids here this summer. There is a small area outside where there are a few animals in cages: a hawk, fox, skunk, vulture and a few more animals. Inside there are smaller animals like frogs, small birds, spiders and fish. We also walked around the small pond area so the kids could throw rocks in the water.

El Train Ride to Downtown Chicago – This was an incredibly exciting experience for the kids. We rode the train downtown, got off and walked a few blocks down to Millennium Park. There is an area where water runs down a big wall and makes a huge puddle. We had put on the kid’s bathing suits and though they would like to have run through the puddles, but they seemed very nervous. They both have a tendency to get nervous in new situations, Alexa more so than Jared, and like to check things out for a while on the sidelines before jumping in. They never really wanted to jump in this day, though, and I think it was because it was so crowded. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant to eat. Even though were able to get a booth, it was still very hard to get them to sit still for long. They were also very loud. It’s really hard to judge if they disturb other people since Steve and I are very relaxed in our parenting style.

Water Parks – We went to two this year. One was with my sister, brother –in-law and nephew while Steve was away on a business trip. They warmed up to getting in the shallow part of the pool after a while, but they didn’t want to go under the sprinklers. Actually they liked digging in the sand the most. They are really not too fond of pool water as we spoil them with hot baths, and they don’t get many opportunities to swim. I feel a little bad about that and would like them to have swim lessons at some point but only if they really want to. The other water park is a new one opened just this summer near our Cermak Woods. It was free the whole summer since it just opened. There is a section of the park with a pool of warmer water, and the kids had a pretty good time in there, although they were are first reluctant to go in the water.

Some other highlights of the summer:
Planting a garden – carrots and tomatoes
Building playdough snowmen
Helping Steve wash the car
Squirting each other with the hose
Climbing up a large ladder into the tree branches
Drawing with sidewalk chalk
Roasting marshmallows over the fire pit
Playing with trucks
Playing in the pool – painting and washing their brushes in the water to turn the water different colors
Shooting baskets
Splashing in the puddles in the rain
Riding tricycles
Walks around the block
Sandbox and water table play
Asking me to write words