Kid's Klub at York Center Park District

York Center Park District is located at 1609 S Luther Ave in Lombard. Every Thursday they have some lunchtime entertainment from 12-1. They also have a concession stand that opens at 11:30 although we have never checked that out. So if you plan on going, pack a lunch and maybe a picnic blanket (there are several tables) and sit back and enjoy the show while you eat your lunch. All shows are kid friendly and free! This week was the first week. We got to see a magic show preformed by John Measner.


After the show we stayed to play at the park for a bit.

Here are the rest of the upcoming shows:
Steve Beno: Musical Entertainment
Matt Wilhelm: BMX rider
York Center Fire Department
Jim Nesci's Cold Blooded Creature
Ken Schultz
Camp Talent Show
Dave Rudolph: Musical Entertainment
Little Nashville: Musical Entertainment
Wacky Game Show Challenge

Check out their website at www.yorkcenterparks.org to see descriptions of each of the shows.
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Wild Wednesday!

Wild Wednesday is a great, free, activity! It takes place every Wednesday from June 15th- August 17th from 10-2 at Lake View Nature Center in Oakbrook. The address is 17 W 063 Hodges rd Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181. It is right off Kingrey across from the Oakbrook mall. Parking in their lot is difficult because it is so small but you can park down the road and take a quick walk. You can't park on Hodges but if you pass the entrance and take either a left or a right at the stop sign onto Monterey Ave, you can park along that road. We did it this week and it's not too much of a walk and sooo much easier than trying to get out of their parking lot if it is full! I would suggest not even trying the parking lot unless you can clearly see an open spot or you drive a small vehicle!

Activities include:
Story time
Special animal visitor (different each week)
Scavenger hunt hike w/prizes
Lemonade (free) and popcorn ($1)
Fishing equipment available to borrow
Paddle boats
Nature center exhibits

They do story time at 10:15, 11:15, 12:15, and 1:15 and the animal presentation at 10:45, 11:45, 12:45, and 1:45.

Here is a list of the animal visitors that are scheduled for the rest of this summer:

6/22 Civet
6/29 Mouse
7/6 Hedgehog tenrec
7/13 Prairie dog
7/20 Blue-tongued skink
7/27 TBA (they told us this week but I forgot)
8/3 Tortoise
8/10 Bald eagle
8/17 Donkey

And now for pictures of our time there this week.




Story time



Getting the kids up and involved!



Getting to touch the legless lizard.






When we went inside the kids got to hold a walking stick bug!


Here is E taking a closer look of it climbing up his arm.



M got to hold it too. Once it started crawling up her arm I thought she was freaking out but she was actually giggling because it tickled!



Inside there was all sorts of things to see...


And touch...



And bury...



And find again.



Of course, no nature center is complete without stuffed animals!

We had a nice time but I will do a few things different next time, either go earlier or pack a lunch. We have soccer in the afternoon so we have to go to the earlier ones. This week I would like to go at 10 and also bring a lunch so we can stay longer. We may even rent a paddleboat (which is $3/half hour, $5 if you want the big swan boat). Another good thing to know is, they do this rain or shine! If it rains it is inside.
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Magic week and book list

Magic week was not as elaborate as pirate week. It was hard to find things to go along with the theme. Plus we had a lot of other fun stuff going on throughout the week! Monday was spent at the park, Tuesday was full with dance class, a lunch playdate, and mygym. Wednesday we went to wild Wednesday (will do a separate post for that) and then soccer. Thursday we was the magic show at Kid's Klub (also a separate post). We were also supposed to have two playdates that afternoon but both canceled so we ended up at the park again. And Friday we spent the whole day (Friday's are short days for me) at the zoo! So basically all we did was read the books I got from the library and see a magic show. The kids were in a bit of a magic "mood" you could say and we were pretending to do magic tricks. I wish I would have read the up-close magic book that I got before the week started so that I could have attempted a few magic tricks for the kids but I was in Michigan the weekend before. Oh well, not all of the themes will be as full of ideas as some. What really matters is that the kids (and I) are enjoying the summer and not sitting around bored!

Anyway, here is the book list for magic week:
Polo and the Magician- Regis Faller
Polo and the Magic Flute- Regis Faller
Close-Up Magic- Nicholas Einhorn
Chavela and the Magic Bubble- Monica Brown

This coming week we are doing winter! Yup, we will be talking about winter right at the beginning of summer! Some of the activities that I have planned to go along with it seem like they may be good warm weather activities such as making ice sculptures out of ice cubes. What a great way to cool down! We will also be having a snowball fight! And just like it's never too cold for ice cream, it's never too hot for hot chocolate!

We will also be starting to read the book Mr. Popper's penguins. Two chapters a day means we should finish next Friday and then we can go see the movie! I can't wait to read this book. It is one of the few that sticks out in my head from when I was in grade school.



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Treasure chests and a treasure hunt

Yesterday the kids decorated their treasure chests. It was a fairly easy project. I took two shoe boxes that had lids that flipped open and covered it in white butcher block paper.



Then I looked up pictures of treasure chests on google to let the kids get an idea of what they wanted their chests to look like. They got their ideas and this is what they came up with.



Not exactly what I thought but at least it was all their ideas.

For the treasure hunt, I went to the store and bought a few items to put in their boxes. I hit up Target's dollar spot and found some books. I also found some pirate stickers in the party section. I wanted to find some eye patches, chocolate coins, and candy necklaces. I settled on ring pops, goldfish, pirates booty, and Hershey nuggets because they were in gold and silver wrappers.

To make the kids have to hunt for their chests, I first hid the boxes. Then I cut out 8 strips of paper. I wrote clues on them and placed them around the house. The first clue I had and each clue after would lead to the next clue until finally it would lead to the treasure chests. Some examples of clues I used were "for the first clue, look by the glue" "go downstairs and look by the chair" "M's kitchen would like to pitch in" and the last one said "you sure are a clever fellow now go look in the bathroom painted yellow". They had fun but found them within about five minutes! M thought that pirates actually came to her house and brought the treasure. I didn't tell her that, she came up with it all on her own!

This afternoon we went to a friend's birthday party and they had a magician! It was perfect because next week is magic week! What a great way to get them excited for next week! That was not planned either! We are actually going (hoping to go if the weather is nice) to see a magic show at Kid's Klub next week. I wonder if it will be the same guy. I also need to remember to do a post on Kids Klub later when I'm on an actual computer!

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Pirate book list

Here is the list of books we are reading this week:
Do Pirates Take Baths?- Kathy Tucker
How I Became A Pirate- Melinda Long
Pirates Don't Change Diapers- Melinda Long
Bubble Bath Pirates- Jarrett J. Krosoczka
I Love My Pirate Papa- Laura Leuck
Pirate Pete- Kim Kennedy
The Night Pirates- Peter Harris

They were all really good books. The kids and I read them all in one sitting. That was really all we did with the pirate theme yesterday. The kids did color some more pirate pictures and E did a few connect the dots, a pirate ship and a treasure chest.

Next we are making pirate treasure chests and spotting telescopes. On Friday we are having a treasure hunt!


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Pirate week: day 1

I can't guarantee that I will actually post each day of the week all summer but for now I find it easier if I use my phone for pictures and posts.

So here is what we did for our first day of pirate week:

This morning during homework time E and I worked on a maze to help the pirate find the treasure chest. They also colored a treasure map.




This was lunch (or part of it). Pirates gold, swords and cannonballs (grapes which were not pictured). They had fun protecting their gold by using their swords and cannonballs. Luckily, it did not get out of control and no food was thrown! Always a bonus!

After lunch M put on her pirate costume and the kids played pirates. Later in the afternoon, while we were playing, the kids were really loud. I told them that they sounded like parrots and pirates always have parrots as pets. For snack they had a parrot snack of crackers and apples.

Tonight I am getting books from the library to go along with our theme so I will be sure to post our reading list for this week.

In other news, we are working on potty training M for the second time. The first time I think was a bit too early. I thought she was ready but once we started it was clear she wasn't. This time is going much better! She did have an accident at the park this morning. Maybe we shouldn't have stayed as long as we did. However, this afternoon was great, three successful trips to the potty! That is a huge improvement from last time when we had zero in three days.

This weeks theme: Pirates

We are doing pirates this week! I found some printable activities and coloring pages for free online. We will also make treasure chests out of shoe boxes and have a treasure hunt. I'm thinking I might hide their treasure chests with a few little prizes inside for them to find. For snacks we will have pirate swords made with carrot sticks and cucumber and pirates on a ship (instead of ants on a log). I also have plans to have them make spyglass telescopes out of paper towel rolls and hats out of newspaper. However, I found last summer, we didn't get to a lot of the crafts that I had planned because the kids were more interested in being outside. That is totally fine with me! Maybe this year I can plan to do the crafts outside on the back porch. I also have a list of books picked out but because it was too late last night, I haven't had a chance to get to the library. I usually have the books ready to bring with me on Monday morning. But I could also take the kids and have them help me pick out books.

Summer starts tomorrow

I just wanted to let everyone (if anyone still reads this) know that I haven't forgot about this blog! This school year was a busy time and not much happened worth posting that hasn't been posted about before. E had his last day of school on Friday so I guess that makes tomorrow the first official day of summer vacation! I have been busy planning out our theme weeks tonight. I'm not done but I at least have 12 themes picked out. Whether we use them all or not, I don't know yet. As I found last summer, you can plan everything out in advance but things will have to change! There may be weeks (like the weeks that the kids have swimming lessons or when E has camp at the arb) that we just can't fit anything extra into! Anyway, I wanted to share the themes with everyone in case you need some ideas of things to do with the kids this summer. I will go into more detail later and of course, report back at the end of the week (or a month later hehe) with pictures!

Cooking/food
Camping
Ocean (never got to that one last summer, or didn't do much with it. Can't remember)
Music
Science
Pirates
Rainforest (also never got to that one last summer)
Winter/ice (thought it might be a nice way to beat the heat)
Photography
Back to school (for the week before school. Thought this would be a good summer to do this since M starts preschool in the fall. Yikes!)
Penguins (with a trip to see Mr poppers penguins and maybe read the book in the weeks leading up to it)
Magic

Obviously these are not in order. I'm trying to plan them around certain activities going on this summer such as a magic show at Kid's Klub on June 16th. If you are in the area and want to know more about that just let me know.

I'm hoping to do a post soon that goes into more detail about what we are doing for each theme, but I can't promise anything! I really wish there was more time in a weekend or even an evening so I can do all of these extra things I take on and still have time to take care of my apartment/relax/spend time with my husband. Oh yeah, for those that don't personally know me, I got married last month! Another reason for neglecting this blog. Anyway, like always, I love reading comments so let me know what you think! Send me questions, ideas, anything! If there is something you would like to see more of (or less of) just let me know! And pass this on to others! I would love to get more readers this summer! It would give me more incentive to keep writing! Comments will also give me incentive!


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