Morton Arboretum! Cool Place!

Warning: This got super long! And there are tons of pics...hopefully you won't be bored!

So yesterday we met Patty and the boys to hang out for the afternoon at the Morton Arboretum. I cannot tell you how happy I am that Patty introduced me to that place. My kids loved it and Shawn would like to see it too, so we are heading back as a family soon and we are going to get an annual pass.

It is about an hour drive for us to get there, so I will happily admit to being really glad we purchased the kids Nintendo DS's before our trip. They saved us then, and they save me all the time in Chicago traffic. I can drive, try and not get lost, sit in a parking lot/Freeway forever and they never even notice.

We only had 3 hours to play and it was barely time to see the Children's garden. The kids didn't want to leave and we actually got chased out...(not literally)by a volunteer at the end of the day.

Here are the kids at the entrance. Kira just seemed to match the gardens in her bright summer attire. She is quite the little fashionista these days. ;)





We did a little shopping in the store there and I got some really great things to do some science experiments with. I'll post about those with pictures later this week when we get them done. I was really excited by my finds, and even picked up one extra thing for Collin to try too! (You know, because he needs to get presents in his mom's birthday package too!)



The first thing the kids found was this giant ball that spins in water. We stood there for quite a while letting them play. Then we headed off into the "Backyard" to explore!








These flowers were really cool, they were musical instruments and the kids loved them! You'll note that my kids were using their water bottles to make music...we never saw them again. Then not surprisingly, they were 'thiiiiiiiiiiiiiirsty!' and wanted my water. Of course.







This was a "race" the kids had to blow the propeller across the cable. Michael won and was really proud. Evan and Andrew were disappointed to learn it wasn't a jungle gym. And they sort of "cheated" a little bit. ;) Try not to notice that part. It's not the Olympics after all.





Then there was the giant Acorn thing to climb on! It was a little boring for the grown ups, but it did make a cool backdrop for pictures! I was a little concerned about Evan, but he did great, and only needed a hand to get down. The panic over heights occurred a bit later...






Next up was the water pump. Patty had warned me about the kids possibly getting wet. I thought this was what she was talking about...I was in store for a big surprise. I'll get to that in a minute.





So this is what Patty meant by "The kids might get wet". This is the frog pond. For wading and "looking for frogs". I'm certain that unless a frog is entirely suicidal he isn't within 10 miles of this "Frog Pond". My children didn't just get wet. No, they fell in, Kira cried, but I'm not sure why. She was mad that all I did was take pictures of her the moment I realized what happened. Patty joined in. We laughed and snapped photo's like any good parent would do. Then Evan fell in but didn't manage to stop himself before he face planted into the water. Oops!








Then just beyond the frog pond is a stream where the kids can move rocks around to their hearts content building dams. And hey, why not, they are already drenched from a visit to the frog pond anyway. On the way though was this gorgeous site:




And this funny sign...it just tickled this Arizona girl pink to see that warning! LOL!




Here are a couple of Kira and Michael in the stream.








Then the next spot was one that about gave me a heart attack. I'm sitting on a bench, letting the kids play on a giant playground structure when I hear that scream and cry that you just KNOW is your kid. Then you can't get your bearings and figure out where your kid is and how to get to them. I fought my way through a herd of kids to find my poor sweet Evan shaking and crying in a wooden tower. He couldn't move. Frozen in fear I had to climb up and get him, pry him away from the wall he had a grip on and carry him down. He kept crying and sobbing and shaking and finally said "I tried really hard, but that is too high and too scary and I was going to fall!".
Here is the culprit:



But, we all know Evan. What did that boy do? With a little help from Kira, he stopped crying and shaking (ok, I'm pretty sure he was still shaking) and crossed that damn thing. It took him a painfully long time, and Kira would stand with her hand on his back while other kids ran by, and just stayed with him, encouraging, loving and helping him along. I was beaming with mommy pride!

He did it. It was agonizing for me to watch but he was so proud. Then he just kept going until he could run across it without being afraid. He must have done it 6 or 7 times after that. If only I could face my fears that way. Can you imagine? He amazes me every time.








Doin' the happy dance at the end:




Getting a high five from his big sis:



Do I have cool kids or what?

I'm sure lucky! And I'm so glad we have this great opportunity to live here for the year to explore and see things we never would have seen otherwise!

Chris you rock!

Thanks so much to Chris Durnan for my blog header! She made it for me for no good reason other than she is nice!

Check out her blog and see some of her great digital designs!

Now how cool does my blog look!? (Please feel free to leave comments. ;) ) Okay, and can someone tell me why my links won't show up in my blog posts? Thanks!

Thirty Meals:

My sisters tease me and say that I never go anywhere without a plan and a self help book. They may be right. *Shrug*.

I am an organizing wanna be. But one thing I am terrible at is dinner. I don't like to cook, it is necessary however and when I get tired of it we eat out. This is becoming a particularly large problem (for my waist line as well as our bank account) since we moved to Chicago. I pretty much had to start my pantry over from scratch, so even my normal "go to" meals haven't been an option. Panera (a FABULOUS restaurant) calls my name on a regular basis, and in Chi-town? Hello? Pizza anyone? Geesh. So I decided I need to get serious, get organized and do it soon before we were broke and fat(ter).

Over at NannyGoat (a cool blog I follow) is a very cool idea that I decided to try.

I've switched it up a bit to work for me, but overall I like what is coming out of it.

So I did find 30 recipes that my family loves (or at least Shawn and I do, the kids will just have to deal on about half of them), and then I found free templates over at HP .

I'm not much for using a binder, so I decided to use a small photo album. After I copied and printed all my recipes onto 4X6 photo paper I wrote on the back what to serve as a side dish and veggie. Now all I have to do is pull the 7 for the week that sound good, check the pantry (that is slowly getting full) and make my list and shop. Menu is done for the week without any effort, list is easy to put together, and I don't have to think about what I'm going to make when it is already 5pm and everyone is already getting hungry.
FRONT: (ok, I know, this is obvious)



BACK:


I'm thinking I will hole punch them and put a ring through the corners for the recipe's of the week. Then just keep them on my bulletin board. I love the fridge holder option, but my refrigerator doesn't hold up magnets, so I have to think of something else.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks for looking!

Working on my blog, what do you think?

My computer skills are fuzzy, it's been awhile since I played around with html settings, and for some reason I cannot get my header to change. So for now...

Here is what the kids do when they are bored and I'm in the shower, or ignoring them while I make my blog pretty...



As you can imagine they were quite proud. Reminded me of guys I knew in college who did this with beer cans. They loved to knock it down and then I had them put them back into stacks to use to rinse after teeth brushing. ;)

We've since moved on to toilet paper tubes. They've been collecting them all week for a "game" they are playing. I'm not privy to the rules or the object of the game. I just know that it apparently requires 25 used toilet paper tubes rescued from the trash. Yum.

This is how I parent. ;)

I'm such a slacker.

So here are last weeks pics from the Chicago Childrens Museum! We enjoyed it, but I'm not exactly sure where the kids stand on the whole thing...they were a bit hit or miss.

The water table room was a huge hit for both. Rainjackets were required attire and it is because you get WET!

Evan spent almost all of his time building locks for the boats and letting them go then doing it over. Kira spent time learning about pumps and pulley's.

This is the kid entrance to the room.









Another popular spot wasn't popular at the first stop. The kids weren't interested in this room at all...but when daddy showed them what they were missing it was tough to pull them away. This was my favorite room there and I didn't want to stop playing either.

I even took a self portrait!




I have no idea how this works but the light objects fall down the screens until they hit your shadow. Your shadow diverts them and you can catch them too!

It was really, really fun!





Then there was the climbing thing. It was the mast of a ship and the kids could climb up this big tube then across a bridge made out of rope. It took forever to get through the line, so it wasn't mommy's favorite attraction. At.all. But the kids loved it and went twice. Evan was pretty brave, for those of you that don't know him, he has an intense fear of heights. He was a slow mover, but got across and went much quicker the second time through.








Next up is the flight lab you build/invent things that will fly out of foam shapes then crank them up really far until they fall then you time how long it takes them to fall back down. It is a good workout, and Kira and Shawn seemed to like it. Evan and I were a little bored.






So overall it was a good time, with plenty to do. I'm afraid our kids brains have turned to mush over the summer, they weren't very receptive to actually learning anything while we were there. So hopefully some knowledge was gained inadvertently through play!

The Brambletts do Navy Pier...

I hate titles. I cannot ever think of anything remotely clever.

Oh well. No one comes here for my titles anyway. I'm fairly certain they just want to see pictures! That's why I love blogs!

So Saturday we hit Navy Pier. We decided that since we aren't tourists we would break things down into smaller blocks of time. Our day started by parking at the Libertyville Metra station to catch a train. Evan was sooooo excited. The boy couldn't find a pair of shoes to save his soul before we left the house, it took all of us to hunt down two shoes that matched and fit him...but he had that train hat out and ready to go!

We were a few minutes early and you could just feel the child vibrating with excitement. Other people kept commenting on him and his engineers hat and how darn cute he was. He was about to come out of his skin.







He loved riding and the train has an upper level for seating, so of course, that is where we had to sit. Kira was bored in 10 min. Evan lasted longer, but it was an hour long ride. Next time I will remember to bring something for them to do.








Sorry the pics in the train our lousy, I didn't use my flash for whatever reason.

When we arrived we took a bus to get to Navy Pier. The kids liked that we let them stand up and hold onto the bar on the bus ride. Then we went in, and started checking things out. Here are some pics from different parts of the day.





I don't know what this sculpture is all about, but it sure was cool! Evan wanted to climb to the top of it though...









Shawn went to a "drinks and desert" cruise thing for work a few days ago and this was the boat they were on so I took a picture for him. He refused to be in the picture with his boat. He also mentioned that I looked like a tourist with my camera out everywhere. I wonder what people think of me when I'm snapping pictures of my kids french fries at random McDonalds on a Friday afternoon. At least at a touristy spot like Navy Pier you don't really stand out. *Shrug*

And how cool are all these flags? I loved this part.


We also had lunch while we were there. Yeah. At the "World Famous" Billy Goat Tavern. Apparently George Bush (the first one) ate there once. And so did other famous people. I have to say I don't "get" it. I thought it was blech. The kids voted too. Kira gave them a thumbs up on the chips and a sideways thumb on the burger. Evan had grilled cheese and chips and wouldn't stop moving his thumbs around so I only got a vague idea that he sort of kind of liked his meal sort of. ish.

Shawn thought it was fine.

They have a decorated goat head on the wall. Taxidermy is not my thing, particularly in an eating establishment. But the place was packed. Calling it world famous at least makes the tourists stop by to give it a try.




Yes. This is a dead goat head wearing a Cubs hat. I would be willing to bet Terry would eat there for that reason alone.



And for good measure a couple more shots and one of me again. Kira is loving being allowed to use the camera. This time she practiced using the zoom. Not too shabby.








And with that I'll call it a blog. Tomorrow I will post about the Chicago Children's Museum. I took over 200 pictures on this little adventure of ours. Can you imagine the damage if I were a true tourist and knew I wasn't going back *and* spent more than four hours there?