Giveaway winner

Congrats Nicki, you are the winner! E-mail me your address at chrishauch@sbcglobal.net so I can mail your prize.

Don't forget!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway! It ends tomorrow (wednesday) night. All you have to do is follow this blog and post a comment on the original giveaway post. All the others are extra. So far it has no comments so if your chances of winning are pretty good. I'd love to be able to give it to someone, I know it's nothing big. I guess I will have to think of something better for next time.

Also, if anyone is interested, I have have posted some outings on the nanny meetup group and I'm hoping to get some people to attend! There is one at the splash park in Glen Ellyn this morning(!) at 10 am. I also set one for the the splash park again next week on Wednesday morning at 10 am as well as Little Monkey Buziness next Tuesday morning at 9:30 am. Let me know if you want to attend!

My first giveaway!

I am going to give away one free adult admission to DuPage Children's Museum. You just need to pay for at least one child to use it. It is good until August 29, 2010. I received this yesterday but won't use it since the family has a membership. I thought it would be a good item for my first giveaway hoping that someone who doesn't have a membership can take advantage of this good deal. It will save someone $8.50!

So in order to win you need to...

*follow this blog and leave me a comment telling me who you plan to take with you if you win. This is mandatory for all other entries to count. This counts as one entry, all the rest are extra.

*post a blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with the link.

*post it on facebook and leave a comment with the link.

*get someone to follow this blog. Leave me a comment telling me who it is and if they follow, you get another entry.

For each of those things you do, you get one entry. The giveaway ends June 30th at 7 pm. I will post the winner. You then need to e-mail me your address so I can mail it to you. If I don't hear from you within 48 hours, I will pick a new winner. If you win and you live far away, I will pick a new winner. Good luck!

Splash Park in Glen Ellyn

The splash park in Glen Ellyn is located in Maryknoll Park. It is a great place to take the kids on a hot day! Admission is only $3 per child (adults are free) or $2 is you have a Glen Ellyn pool pass. It is a good place to pack a lunch or snack and spend a few hours at. The park is right there and they have a covered picnic area with indoor bathrooms. They also sell ice cream. If you go, make sure to bring a bucket because you can't play in the water without a bucket (kids rules, not their's). What I like about this place is that it is good for the little ones. You don't have to worry about pools of water. Also, there is only one way in and out so you don't have to worry about one child escaping while you are tied up with another. They also chairs and tables with unbrellas inside the splash area. You don't have to wear a swim suit here but do expect to get somewhat wet.

Okay, now for pictures.

Face full of water!

There is also a little train that the kids can sit in and pretend to drive.

Taking a break to get warm.

Excited to announce...

I am planning on doing my first giveaway soon. It won't be a huge prize but I think it will go along well with the theme of this blog! So start telling your friends (especially ones in this area) to start following this blog because that will be a requirement!

Train week

Train week was an exciting week for us! It couldn't have come at a better time because E has been very interested in trains lately. For lunch one day I took the kids to 2Toots. I got pictures this time!

Here is E watching (with his hands) the train go by. Nope, no food yet.
After lunch they each got a cupcake with a train whistle on top. Here is M blowing the whistle.

Of course I had to get a shot of each of them with the frosting on their faces :)

The other really exciting thing we did was take a ride on the Metra. We got on the train in Glen Ellyn. Here the kids are having a snack while we wait for the train.

Look at how excited he is! M was still warming up to the idea of being on the train. She ended up really enjoying it and talking all about it for the rest of the day!

We got off of the train in Elmhurst. We didn't have a lot of time to spend before we had to head back to the train. We did walk around a bit and see the people setting up the carnival that was going to be there later that week. Then we stopped for ice cream at Coldstone and ate it while we waited for the train home.

I promise, I will post a list of books for each week soon. However, the library did not have a very good selection of train books. They were all checked out so I'm guessing some other people were very interested in trains as well. I did manage to get one train book that E loved!

DuPage Children's Museum

I'm finally getting around to this! A few weeks ago the kids and I went to DuPage Children's Museum. I'm sure most of you have been there (if you live in the area) and if not, why?! Anyway, this place is great. The family has a membership there and they are one of the few places that have a caregiver pass. The family was able to add me to their membership and I get my own card with my name on it and the number of children I can bring in with me. Anyway, one of the things I love about this place is that there is so much to do. Everytime we go, we do at least one new thing because there is so much that we never get to all of it in one trip. I will admit that it is hard and sometimes overwhelming to take both of them there. I think because they have a three year gap between them so they are not always interested in the same thing or have the same attention span. M is always ready to move on when E could spend another hour. One thing they both love is the water!

We went to the bubbles first!

Then E built a dam with bean bags. There is a handle to pull that lets a ton of water down so you can test your dam (or ruin it).

Then we went over to the other water table. One thing I like is that this has different heights to it so the little ones can reach as well.

Here E is building a system of pipes.

And making them spray everywhere!

Playing with water toys.

They also have a little thing that the kids crawled through. It is up by the ceiling. Not sure what to call it or how to explain it.

Here is E building a pipe system.

They also played in the baby area for a while. Here they are building a tower out of soft blocks.

M sitting in the corner playing with baby toys.

This was in the movement section.

Making them race.

This thing was cool! You put the ball at the right end and then turned the crank. It would make each of those pillars move and the ball would slowly work it's way left and then fall off the end.

Looking out at the dark clouds with the telescopes.

The giant pin art. E was having fun with the boy on the other side. They were trying to work as fast as they could to push their side in faster than the other.

I also of course had to get a pictrue of them sitting in the big chair.

Another thing I like about the Children's Museum is that downstairs they have a eating area where you can bring your own food (love that part). They do have a few vending machines with drinks, snacks, ice cream, and coffee. The other thing that is good to know is that they have microwaves in case you pack something that needs to be warmed up. This is perfect for when you want to pack a lunch to bring with.

On the way home, the kids held hand the whole way. It was very cute. When they ride in my car they can reach each other so that is usually the only time I get to see it.

Slacking

I have not forgot about or abandoned this blog! I have had some really busy weekends and that is usually my only time to blog. The next two weekends are going to be busy as well so I am going to have to try and post some blogs during the week. Hang in there, it will get done!

Circus week

Last week was our circus theme week. We read books about the circus, had a circus snack of popcorn and peanuts, and pretended to be elephants. The kids each made an elephant mask. They each colored the back of a paper plate and then glued on the ears and trunks that I had printed out. Then I cut the eye holes and put a string on it to hold them on. They were supposed to have eyes to glue on but I thought it would be more fun to make them into masks. So here are their pictures.

Elephant M.
Elephant E. I love his, I think it is too cute!

And a close up of the two.

I feel like I'm slacking in the blog department of this weeks theme. I planned on listing the books that we read but I left the list in my car and since I have to leave for work in five minutes, I don't really want to go down there and get it. I also feel I'm slacking because I am sitting here on Tuesday morning doing this instead of over the weekend like I planned. I also have one more big blog coming up about our trip to the Children's museum. That might have to wait.

Village Green Park

Village Green Park or "Rocket Ship Park" as the kids call it is located at 130 S. Lambert Rd in Glen Ellyn. This park has a huge rocket ship play structure and a mini splash pad. There is a covered eating area, concession stand, and indoor bathrooms. We went there last week to play for a few hours and have lunch. The pictures I was able to get are not the greatest, especially the ones of E in the water. By the time I started taking pictures, he was pretty much done in the water and M played in the water for maybe 30 seconds. Crazy! These kids love water! It must have been the cool rocket ship! Anyway, here are the pictures.

E sitting on the water jet.

The rocket ship.

M, such a big girl!

E and our friend K.

M wearing E's sun glasses on the way home.