Ads

You may notice that there are now ads on my blog. I have decided to use AdSense to make a little money from this blog. I get paid a small amount each time someone clicks on one of the ads in my blog. I only get paid once the amount reaches $100 and I think it will take a LONG time to reach that so I may never get paid but it's worth a try. So if you see an ad on my blog that looks interesting, help me out and click on it!

Also, I will get around to posting about the last few weeks. Tomorrow the family leaves for Australia and I will have three weeks off. I will be going to visit a friend in NC with my mom and sister but other than that, I should have plenty of time to update this blog. Then when the family comes back, it will be time for school. Seriously, where did this summer go? It feels like last week that I was planning out the summer with the kids and getting ready to have both kids all day every day. It went much faster than I thought!

ReUsies

Carrie over at www.takingcareoftwinsreviews.blogspot.com is doing a review and giveaway of these great reusable sandwich and snack bags. I would love to win one to try them out. When I pack a lunch for the kids and I to go out, I try to use bowls for as much as possible but somethings just don't fit in bowls and the bowls just take up too much room! So sometimes I just have to use plastic bags. It's like throwing money away while polluting the earth. So I am hoping to win one so we can try them out and hopefully share the idea of them with the parents. I'm sure they would love the idea!

If you like the idea, head over to her blog and enter for your chance to win one!

CH Creations

When I am not with the kids I enjoy crafts. Recently I have decided to start selling some of the things I make. So I am using this blog to promote my new business! I have started a blog and a facebook page for it and will soon be starting an etsy store. To visit the blog, go to http://www.christine-chcreations.blogspot.com/. To find it on facebook, just search for CH Creations. Once I have an etsy store set up, I will post that as well.

**Edit**
I set up my etsy store. You can visit it at

http://www.etsy.com/shop/chauch7385

Cosley Zoo no longer free

M and I went to Cosley zoo today and I was sad to see this sign when we walked in...




As of this Thursday, Cosley Zoo will no longer be free. Get your free trips in now. I'm glad we went today. I am even more glad that I found out before they started charging because I would have two unhappy kids if we had got there and didn't have money to get in or had to use duck food money to get in.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Our summer book list

Here is our summer book list so far.

Bug week:
An Ant's Day Off by Bonny Becker
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
I Love Bugs! by Philemon Sturges

Circus week:
Song of the Circus by Lois Duncan
I Spy a Circus! by Dan Marzollo
You See a Circus, I see... by Mike Downs
Curious George Goes to the Circus by Margret Rey
The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen (this was E's favorite for the week)

Train week:
The Little Train by Lois Lenski
Red Train by Will Grace
And the Train Goes... by William Bee
Train Leaves the Station by Eve Merriam
Train by Eyewitness Books (E's favorite!)
Literally every book that I had planned for this week was checked out. I think I got the last five train books in the whole library. Other than the last on the list, they were not that great.

Farm week:
Farm by Elisha Cooper
Farm Alphabet Book by Jane Miller
On the Farm by David Elliott
Funny Farm by Mark Teague
Tiny on the Farm by Ceri Meister
Spot Goes to the Farm by Eric Hill

Fire week:
Fire Truck Nuts and Bolts by Jerry Boucher
Firefighters! Speeding Spraying Saving by Patricia Hubbell
Fireman Small- Fire Down Below! by Wong Herbert Yee
This is Daniel Cook at the Fire Station by Celeste Gagnon

Dupage Children's Museum

Here is another post about the Children's Museum. It includes pictures of some exhibits we didn't see the last time so that means new pictures.

A friend of mine read that Jim Gill was going to be preforming at the Children's Museum. When we got there we found out it was a misprint and he was in Rockford. We still had some fun. E was still with his grandparents so that is why he is missing from all of these pictures.

Here is M hanging up one of the colorful fish on the big fish sculpture.
Playing with the colorful blocks.

Of course we had to stop by the water.

In the big wind tunnel.

Modeling the nice safety glasses that are worn in the wind tunnel.

Putting a pom-pon in the big wind tubes.

Turning the wheel on this cool contraption. When you turn the wheel a ball gets sent down all these different paths and you can listen for all of the sounds it makes and watch it make things move. There are other wheels that you can turn to get the ball to go in different' directions. It really is fun to watch and it is one of the many things that can hold E's attention for a LONG time! It's probably good that he wasn't there or we would have never left!

Taking a rest in the baby play area.

Pushing the moving mirror.

Little Monkey Bizness

Little Monkey Bizness is located in the shopping center with Dominick's in Western Springs
4700 Gilbert Ave, Ste 51
Western Springs, IL 60558
Rob works at that Dominick's so I have seen this place from the outside and have been wanting to go there for some time now. Since E was gone last week and I just had M, I thought it would be the perfect time to go. It was $7.50 for her to get in and I was free. Children who are crawling are only $5. They do have a little area that is just for children under 2. I like that it is very open with low walls so if you had a little one in the crawler area you could still watch your older child in the bigger area. They have a lot of different things for the kids to play on or in.

Here is M inside the little play house.
They also have a bigger play structure with swings. M couldn't really get on this one but she enjoyed running back and forth while holding on to it.
Here is another cool swing. She is showing how to sit on it but she also enjoyed swinging on it on her belly.

Here she is inside the little tree house.

They also had several climbers with slides. This is one of the smaller slides.

There was one big bouncy house with a slide in it but I didn't get a picture of her in that one since she was only in for a few minutes. The other thing that we didn't check out was their art room.

They also had a cafe where they sold coffee, drinks and snacks. We brought our own food in. I'm not sure if it was allowed but no one said anything to us.

I like that this had stuff for really little ones but also things that 5 or 6 year olds might like as well. I'm not sure if kids any older would have fun there.

I also noticed that they are opening one in Wheaton! If and when we go back, it will be to the one in Wheaton as this one is 15 miles away. As for my thoughts on the price, I don't think it is a great price but I also don't think it is outrageous either. I think it is about the same price as going to Monkey Joe's except Monkey Joes has a LOT more to do. Hmmm, maybe a trip to Monkey Joe's on the next rainy day.

Wild Wednesday

Here is another idea that I got from Nicki over at http://www.dupagekids.blogspot.com/. Every Wednesday Lake View Nature Center in Oakbrook has Wild Wednesdays. Here is what their website has to say
Join us on Wednesdays this summer for a wild time! We will share stories, send you on a special hike, introduce you to a featured critter, and refresh you with old-fashioned lemonade. Borrow a fishing pole and try your luck, rent a paddleboat, start your Passport to Adventure, and enjoy the many Nature Center exhibits. You can even bring your lunch and enjoy a picnic by the lake.
Check out their website at www.obtpd.org.

When we went, a guy brought his ball python. He told the kids a little about it and then brought it around for each of them to touch. I didn't get pictures, but both kids touched it. I thought M wasn't going to let go!


Then we went for a walk around the lake.
They stopped to play in the mud.

And to find rocks.

And then to throw the sand into the lake.

They also had a nice park to play on. I think we will go back this week and pack a lunch so we can stay longer.

Lake Ellyn

We went to Lake Ellyn park again so here are some more pictures.

The kids have been really liking see-saws lately. I like them because they both play nicely together on them. Look at that joy on M's face!
And E's!

The favorite "bumpy slide."

E found a girl from school there fishing with her dad. She let E take turns with her throwing the fish back into the lake.

Kid's Klub at York Center Park District

I got this idea from Nicki over at http://www.dupagekids.blogspot.com/. Every week on Thursday York Center Park District has some lunch time entertainment from 12 to 1. They do sell concessions starting at 11:30 but you can bring your own lunch too. We brought lunch so I couldn't tell you what they have or how much. We brought a blanket and sat in the grass and ate. We went during fire week since the fire department was there. E was more interested in the lake so we missed what the firemen were talking about. But they did get to climb inside another fire truck and an ambulance. I did take pictures but they were with my phone and you can't really see much other than the kids. I was going to post them but I already started typing this out. For some reason, I am unable to move pictures around on here once I upload them. Someone please tell me there is an easier way!

Anyway, back to the outing. There are six more weeks of this so go check it out if there is something that sounds interesting. It is located at the York Center Park District at
1609 S. Luther Ave.
Lombard, IL 60148

Here is a list of what they have planned for the rest of the summer

July 8 - Dave Rudolph
July 15 - Variety Show
July 22 - Balloon Show
July 29- Jim Nesci’s Cold Blooded Creature
Aug. 5 - Jason Kollum: Juggle Show
Aug. 12 - Yo-Yo Show

There is also a lake and a playground if you want to go early or stay after and let the kids play. We may go again but we also have mygym on Thursdays until 11:30 so it is a bit of a rush for us to get there.

Glen Ellyn Fire Department

For fire week, I wanted the kids to have a chance to see the fire trucks up close and personal. So I called the Glen Ellyn Fire Department and asked if it would be okay to bring the kids over to see the fire trucks. They were really nice about it helped pick a time that would work for both of us. The guy that showed us around was nice and good with the kids. He told them about each of the different types of fire trucks and then let them climb in one. He even let them drive this one.
He shut the door so they could really feel like they were driving and I could get the Glen Ellyn in the picture.

Here is M showing off her new fire hat and coloring book.

Look at the excitement on her face!

I think this was a great idea. If you want to do something like this, I would suggest calling ahead to make sure they allow people to visit and also to make sure they don't have something scheduled. On that day, we went in the afternoon instead of the morning because they were at Safety City that day. I also know that they sometimes have day cares come to them or they go to day cares so you want to make sure that they will be there. Two days later, the kids had another encounter with a fire truck and ambulance but I will post that as a separate post because there is more to it. As for the rest of fire week, we read books (which will be in another post) and I tried to get them to paint fire trucks. M painted hers but never finished it and E got distracted and wanted to go outside instead. For the fire truck, you paint the top of an egg carton and then decorate it with wheels, a ladder, windows, whatever they want.

Morton Arboretum

Here is another post on the Children's Garden at Morton Arboretum. I love this place and the kids have a blast. I got a lot more pictures this time. We spent longer there so we were able to see more. We even brought our lunch to have a picnic. The family has a membership to the arboretum so it is free for us. Otherwise it is $11 for adults and $8 for children. I also love that they open early. A lot of places that we go to don't open until 10 so we don't have as much time to spend before we have to stop for lunch and naps.

Here are just some of the many pictures I took while we were there. I was also practicing my photography that day so there are a lot that got left out.

Here the kids are touching the big ball that sits in the water and rolls around.
In the Wonder Pond, there are stepping stones that you can walk on. Or you can do like the kids and just walk in the water. A few older kids found a tadpole and held him out for M and E to see.

Here is E touching it.

In the Secret Stream kids can play in the water and build dams with rocks. Here is E working hard on a dam.

M getting her toes wet.

E found a worm and let it crawl all over his hand and arm.

Then he let M have a turn holding the worm.

Don't worry, we went to wash hands with soap and water before coming back to have a picnic.

After lunch we went to find more fun stuff. We found the Evergreen walk. M really wanted to go through it but I was afraid that she would get part of the way in and change her mind so I asked E to stay with her. He did for about 2 1/2 minutes before leaving her. But as you can see, it turned out okay. Here she is coming out of the other side just as happy and proud as can be. Such a big girl!

In the Every Which Way section, M found something wet on these rocks.

Here they can get up close and personal with a little waterfall.

Of course E had to get the walkway all wet as well.

Then they took turns pumping water.

Big muscles!

In the Curiosity Garden, the kids can look through different color leaves to change the colors of their surroundings.

Or of each other!

Cosley Zoo

I decided to do another post on Cosley Zoo because 1) I love this place and 2) I got better pictures this time since I had my camera.

The first thing we did was play in the sand box. You would think that with all the parks we visit, these kids would have enough of sand boxes. But they love their sand! Really, can you blame them? This was was extra special because it has a turtle in it. In the picture, you can see the kids trying to bury the turtle.
Since we got there early and the duck feeding hadn't started yet, we went to see the animals. They really enjoyed petting this sheep and trying to feed it a piece of straw.

M talked about this for the rest of the day.

Here is a cow. The kids didn't really stop to see her so I just snapped a quick photo.

E stops for a few seconds to see the llama.

Yay, this section finally has animals! Here is M checking out the bullfrog.

And the turtle.

There was also snakes but I didn't get pictures.

They also have a second barn owl now. They are so cute sleeping next to each other.

Then we check out the activities in the train.

Now it's time to feed the ducks. If you have never been there, and you missed my first post, for $1 you can buy a small scoop of duck food. One scoop apiece is usually not enough for my two. They only do duck feeding on week days from 10 to 10:30 (or maybe it's 11 I can't remember).

Look at the ducks looking up at him waiting for food! He must have been out at this point.

This was also our farm week. E had liked train week so much that he didn't really want to do farm week so we didn't do a who lot. I wanted to make pig snouts with them but with the weather so nice, they didn't want to be inside. I will post how to make them for anyone who wants to make them. You cut a toilet paper roll in half so that the tube is a little shorter. The kids can paint or color them pink. You can also cover them in pink construction paper. Then you cut (or have them cut) out a pink circle. Put two dots for nostrils and then tape or glue it to one end of the tube. Punch holes at the other end and attach a string so the kids can wear them. I bet they would have been cute, I wish I had a picture to post. I will do a separate post listing all of the books so far.