When Daddy's Gone

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!!!!