Happy Belated Easter!

The secular, Easter eggs, candy baskets part of Easter often feels like Halloween around here. With so much family nearby, the kids really do get spoiled by all the treats they get on Easter. Starting with the basket we gave them to share (which only cost $6 by the way, yeah!), they received something from church, both sets of grandparents, my grandmother and brother.

After church, the kids and I came home to hang out while Steve finished up playing (electric guitar) for the second service. Then we gave them our basket. The peeps and chocolate marshmallow eggs were the standout favorite.

Then we headed to my mom's for dinner. Before dinner the kids played with two ladies my mom invited over, on the piano (a favorite), and with the box of toys. Then just before eating, they ran outside for a while blowing bubbles. They looked so beautiful in their Easter clothes, so free and unrestrained in their joy.

Dinner was a lovely mixture of ham, corn casserole, green bean casserole, salad, rolls, mashed potatoes and fruit.

Then, while we were waiting for Steve's parents to arrive, they opened up Uncle Andy's baskets.

Then, the highlight of the day - the Easter egg hunt. I had so wanted it to be outside, but by the time Steve's parents came it was getting darker and starting to rain. So, while my parents distracted the kids, the rest of us took turns hiding the eggs all over the house. Alexa actually asked if we could hide the eggs all over again instead of opening them up.

They loved sharing their treats with us, too. It was a blessed, wonderful day.

Cantigny Park and Gardens

The day before Easter we went to Cantigny Park for the first time. It was a really great experience. For just five dollars a car, you get access to the park's 500 acres, which includes two World War I and onward war museums, 22 individual gardens, a playground and golf course. They also sponsor music, nature, arts and crafts and other related programs for the public.

The big draw for us was the tanks. The park has about thirteen different tanks dating back to World War I. People are allowed to climb all over the tanks. Jared was scrambling to get up on the tanks right away, but Alexa was much more hesitant. I was able to snap one picture, though, before she wanted off.

I wish I would have taken many more pictures, but I got too caught up in playing.  We had a great time playing hide-and-seek behind the huge oak and maple trees. Then we headed over to the 38,000 square foot First Division Museum. The museum tells the story of the First Division from the Revolutionary War through Desert Storm through interactive galleries.

Steve and I would have loved to stay here much longer than we did. We do try to take the kids to a lot of museums, and I would guess they have gone to more museums in their short lifetime than many adults, but they still have a very short attention span for anything that does not captivate their interest. They appreciated a few things: the simulated bunkers where the soldiers slept, a captain giving orders to his men, and watching a few minutes of war footage. Other than that they really moved too fast to really appreciate anything, but I know each year we do things like this, they will get new and different things out of the experience.

After the museum, we went to the playground. I had a killer headache, so I sat under a tree and watched Jared play with another boy in the playground. Near the park was a ring of tree stumps. Alexa love jumping from stump to stump with Steve.

It was so interesting watching Jared interact with this boy, who was probably about five. Once Jared saw this boy's pretend gun, Jared was his immediate friend. Jared has his toy stick gun, and they instantly came up with a game of hide-out and shooting. At one point I heard the boy ask Jared if he was in preschool. Jared says, "Oh, no, no,no."  They boy looks at him for awhile and says, "You must be in preschool, though." Even little kids have this school mentality ingrained in their thinking. Why can't the question just be, How old are you?  Well, the kids aren't even four yet (just 17 days to go!), so I have years and years left of experiencing this frustration.

Anyways, it was a great, great time with the entire family. I highly recommend visiting Cantigny Park.

April 1st Nature Hike

April began with gorgeous sunny skies. After the shifting weather in March, I'm so looking forward to steady days of clear skies and milder temperatures. We are really blessed to be near some beautiful natural sites, considering we are only a fifteen minute drive from downtown Chicago.

Few things (with the exception of anything Batman for Jared) excite the kids as much as feeding animals. They can go through throwing practically an entire loaf to the ducks and geese in less than ten minutes.

We took a little walk through the woods. The kids are getting much better about not running off from me, and it is much easier to go out places with them by myself, but sometimes when they start arguing with each other, AGGHHH. Well, almost everyone who's reading this knows what I mean.

Alexa loves to read the signs along the side of the path. The problem started when both kids tried to be the first at the sign and started pushing each other out of the way.

 

Then Jared found a "gun" on the side of the road (he has a talent for turning most things into guns), and started to pretend shoot Alexa with it. Sigh. 

But then we found a hole in the grass, and I started a game of guessing which animal might live down there, and that changed the tone of our walk.

We stopped on the bridge for awhile, looking for fish and tossing sticks and rocks into the stream.

We ended our afternoon at the nature center. They love the giant treehouse filled with stuffed animals, and soon a few boys showed up, and they had a blast throwing the animals from the top of the treehouse.

The center has a wonderful skeleton of a wooly mammoth.

We also built a house with the blocks for the stuffed animals, and the kids played with the puddy, which is used to make animal tracks.

Somehow the kids decided they were frogs, and so they hopped from the nature center all the way to the car in the parking lot. We decided it would be nice to roast marshmellows, something we haven't done since last year, so we stopped by the store to pick some up on the way home.

Both kids were so proud to roast their own marshmellows this year. With it staying lighter outside now, it's so much nicer to play out in the yard next to the fire pit than to stay cooped up inside the house after dinner.

Last Week of March

Pretty much anything can be made into a guitar as you can see from the picture above. The kids think of the garage as their stage and put on concerts. I'm not sure how much the neighbors appreciate their loud singing, but I guess I don't much appreciate their loud stereos in the summer, so I guess we're even.

We've been trying to get out every single day and pretty much accomplish that goal, even if it's just playing in the backyard. This week we went to a small playground next to the library. They did some of this...

...and this

and this...

We usually try to get to the library once a week, especially in the colder weather. Sometimes it will be a quick stop, but more often than not, we head towards the children's section, and sit around reading on the couch, or play with the legos, kitchen set or puzzles. Even if we can do all that at home, just the act of getting out of the house helps when we seem to be getting on each other's nerves.

Sunny days has also brought about a drawing with sidewalk chalk craze. Large pictures now decorate the asphault in the back. The buds are on the trees, we can see the birds begin to build their nests, and the breeze flows through the windows in the house. How I love spring!

Daddy's Birthday

We celebrated Steve's birthday with extended family on Saturday, March 27th. The day before both Jared and Alexa helped make the fruit salad. They pretty much did the entire thing, cutting up the strawberries and melon, and pulling the grapes from the stems.

Steve's sisters, brother-in-law, and parents were there, along with my side of the family, including cousin O. His brother's family came two and a half hours later. I had cooked up two crock-pots full of BBQ beef, so that plus store-bought potato salad, the fruit salad, and rolls, made dinner very easy.  After dinner, everyone was so helpful with cleaning up (we met at Steve's parents house since our house is tiny and wouldn't hold everyone), that I didn't even realize everything was cleared until I had finished eating.

Steve's family has a little tradition of carrying the cake out, blowing out the candles, opening up presents, and then eating cake, in that order. So, that's just what we did. Of course, the kids, including the cousins, loved blowing out the candles too and licking them afterwards.

Some people went in together and bought Steve a tiller for the garden (which I selfishly love, too!). He also received a smoker, so that will be fun to do this summer. Steve never will buy whole coffee beans for himself, he thinks it's a luxury not a neccessity, so several people bought him whole beans.

On his real birthday, the 30th, the kids and I spent the whole day getting ready for a little family party when he came home from work. Usually for our birthdays, he takes off work, but with Good Friday at the end of the week, and all the travelling he's been doing lately, he has so much to get caught up on at work.

The kids and I went to the store and bought balloons, birthday cards, small presents (Jared bought Steve a new Sudoku book, Alexa bought him more coffee beans from Starbucks, and I put some money in a card towards clothes), and wrapping paper. We headed home and spent quite a while drawing and coloring a Happy Birthday banner, wrapping presents, and cooking a birthday dinner - shepherd's pie and zucchini. Alexa was very proud to help peel the potatos. Then we played with the balloons a bit before Steve came home.

After dinner we had yet another cake, and then Steve opened his cards and presents. We wrapped up the evening with a game of balloon volleyball. Happy Birthday, Steve!

Jared picked out a Batman card that played the theme song. Definitly more for himself than for Steve!