Day With Kids in Chicago

We went to Chicago for a week and our family got to go downtown for a long morning. We went to Millenium Park for part of it.

The Bean

Cal took this picture. Here is the weird fountain thingies that spray water everywhere. The boys loved it although Cal kept saying, "This isn't very deep..."

We went to the Hershey store, where Calvin and Ike pretended to work there and make chocolate.

Lunch at Millenium Park. We spent $15 on a lemonade, a Pepsi, 2 hot dogs and a bag of chips. We took full advantage of the condiment bar that had pickle slices. I think we took five pickle slices.



More pictures of the week to come....

Recent fun

No keys

We are in Chicago for a week, so I haven't been able to upload any pictures yet, but wanted to include this story for your reading pleasure.

Last night, I locked us out of my mom's condo. We got into the building, but were messing with credit cards and business cards to get in. My sister's girlfriend, Cheryl, finally forced the door opened and we all cheered. Cal was living the experience and said, "Aunt Cheryl has magic hands."

VBS

We have been so busy this week. Our church hosted a Vacation Bible School- a fun Bible-learning thing for kids ages 3-10. It was every night and since I was in charge of crafts, we had to be there early. Cal and Ike didn't really eat dinner at all this week, until tonight because we had a big meal at church before VBS. It's not that I didn't try to feed them, it was just too early. Here's some pictures from tonight. Laura sent me these through email, so they are pretty small.

These hats were one of the crafts. They loved making them. The older kids got to use puffy paint.


Isaac joined the older kids on stage during their performance for the parents.
He even tried to do the motions. It was hilarious.
Calvin playing games outside.

Fun with Grandma Sally... again

Eric has been in the boundary waters all week with some guys from church. My mom came to be with me and even though she has been sick- coughing and blowing her nose- she has been such a great help to me, as always.

The Park

Calvin is on the right, feeling very cool about this accomplishment.
The Pool. We went to a pool with slides and crazy sprinklers. It wasn't very hot outside because of the clouds, so the boys were shivering and had blue lips. But that didn't stop them from wanting more and more of the slides. Isaac kept throwing tantrums (stomping his feet and screaming) whenever we needed a break.

We were the only people in the kiddie pool 2 hours before it closed. See the lifeguard all wrapped up? She was super sweet to Calvin and Ike and let them play with her megaphone.

Isaac didn't want this picture taken, as you can tell. He is getting so fiesty.

Florida

Emily, Laura, Sara and I went to Ft. Lauderdale this past weekend for three days. We had so much fun. It was a great break and although I don't all of a sudden have never ending patience for the boys, I'm glad I went.

The beach. We were so glad that our little Inn provided umbrellas for us. We would have fried. The water was perfect- calm like a lake the first day (so that we could see all the fish and sting rays), a little bit wavy the second day, and pretty windy the third day (see second picture). It was all I wanted and more. We hung out every day- reading and eating cookies.

Dining Out. We went grocery shopping for breakfast and lunch, but ate out for dinner every night.
















Miami. We drove to Miami one evening and went to a very different outdoor mall. It seemed very... foreign. Little markets, weird smells, everything in Spanish. It was fun.











Ice Cream. Sara used to live down there and knew of this amazing ice cream place. We got a little too rambunctious and ordered way too much. We tried to shove it down, but didn't come close. We were sad to see it all get thrown away.