Maryknoll Park

It was a very nice day today, warm and sunny but not too hot! Anyway, I wanted to take the kids somewhere outdoors but I wanted to take them somewhere new. They love going to new parks. If I ask if they want to go to the park they always ask to go to a new park. I really need to spend some time on the park districts site to research new parks so that I have an idea of where to go ahead of time. Anyway, the newspaper happened to be sitting on the counter with a picture of a park in Glen Ellyn. So I looked it up and decided to take the kids there. I wish I had done a little more research on this park first so we would be prepared. It is right next to the splash pad (which was not open yet) so of course there is water. There was a sandbox with water structures in it. It looked like a lot of fun but I didn't bring the sand toys or dry clothes for the kids to change into. So we went home and got the stuff and headed back. There is more than just the sand and water, there is a tree house play structure and swings. There is also another part of the park that we did not visit because they were having too much fun in the water. Actually, that is the only thing they did except for the swings of course. M loves her swings!

Here is the tree house.


Here is the sandbox.
E playing in the water.

M sitting in the mud.

In the swing of course! They only had two baby swings and this really cool big swing. It was a big circle that you could swing on or jump on. It's kind of hard to explain and I wish I would have taken a picture. The kids didn't go on it because they spent most of the time in the water.

E showing off how wet he got!

It was a great little park with restrooms (luckily!) and a covered picnic area. The other part of the park included a 75-foot Berliner Cable Ride, climbing bounders, and net climbers. In case you are interested, the address is 845 Pershing Avenue in Glen Ellyn. It is right across the street from Health Track. Bring sand and water toys, or at least a bucket, and dry clothes. One thing I would have liked to see more of was some shade. There was no shade at all. However, some guys were there talking about where to put something so that the shade would fall in the right spot. So maybe they are getting shade! That will be helpful because the rubber got pretty hot. M wouldn't walk over it with her bare feet. I don't blame her.

Bugs!

This week our theme was bugs. Last weekend I went to the Downers Grove library and got a few books on bugs. The books I got were The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Busy Spider, and An Ants Day Off. We started the theme by reading the books. Then I asked the kids if they wanted to make butterflies. Yes! E asked if we could invite our friend K over to make butterflies too. So K came over and made coffee filter butterflies with us. First, you flatten a coffee filter. Then the kids color it with marker however they want. Then give it a few squirts with a spray bottle and watch the colors all blend together. Once they are dry, you scrunch it up and wrap a pipe cleaner around the center to hold it together. Then bend the ends to make antennas. E and K got creative and wanted more than one color for their antennas so I just twisted two of them together. The whole thing happened so fast that I was not able to get any pictures of the process but here is a cute one of three of them with their finished butterflies. The next day we made egg carton bugs. This project lasted a little longer so I was able to get a few pictures of them working away. I'm not sure M really got the idea but she sure did have fun with the paint.

E worked for quite some time on his bugs and got a really nice caterpillar and a purple bug with blue polka dots. I got a picture of the caterpillar but not his other bug. I actually still need to put on the antennas and eyes so once that is done I will take pictures and post them all.

Here is E working on his caterpillar.

Here are M's almost finished bugs. Again, I'll post pictures when they have antennas and eyes.

E's caterpillar. I ended up making one myself that I will have to post a picture of when it is finished. I couldn't help myself, I had to make one. It looked like too much fun. I did wait until E was working hard on his and already had it planned out in his head. While working at the preschool I learned not to do crafts with the kids because they end up copying you.

By the way, that one stripe is red so he is a patriotic caterpillar.

Moments like these

There are many moments that remind me (not that I need it) of why I love what I do. Thursday in particular was full of them. It started with music class. E joined us since he no longer has school. I was really hoping he would like it so I was very happy to see his face light up when everyone sang hello to him. I also caught him smiling and laughing when Ms. Christy would do something silly. I know I said this in my post about music class, but Ms. Christy is the best!! Anyway, I wish I would have had a camera to catch those smiles.

I was able to get pictures of some of the other things that happened through out the day. Like these next two of them looking at a book together. This was following a huge fight over the book but in the end they worked it out and here is proof of how happy they can be sharing a book.



This one is of M crossing her arms. I'm not sure what it was all about, but I saw her do it several time that day. By the end of the day, I just had to have a picture of it. This isn't a picture of her just randomly doing it though, I had to ask her to do it. Still funny. While I was trying to get this picture, they were throwing rocks into a bucket of water to make big splashes. I was standing a little close and got wet. I enjoy being able to laugh about these things.

This last one is the funniest. We were getting ready to go outside by putting sunscreen on. E, who is getting more and more independent, likes to put it on himself. While I was busy putting it on his face, I didn't notice that he was busy giving M the extra off of his hand. When I turned around, the baby doll was covered in the sunscreen as well. She actually had more on her but before I could get my phone for a picture, most of it got rubbed off. That poor baby had it in every crack and crevice on her head.

Oakbrook Center

On Tuesday E had a birthday party to attend at Build-A-Bear at the Oakbrook Mall. I would have loved to take pictures of him making his bear but I also wanted to get M out of there because she was not making one that day. So we walked around and enjoyed the weather. Her favorite was the fountain. There was just enough of a breeze to blow a few sprinkles of water our way once in a while.
We went in a few stores to get out of the heat. I took her into kids clothing stores thinking that she might enjoy looking at the clothes and because they would be a little more kid friendly. At Hanna Andersson we found this cool bead toy. The beads even wrapped around the legs of the table.

At Gymboree they had a TV and kid size chairs. It wasn't the TV that caught her attention, it was getting to sit in each of the chairs. Once she tried them all out, she was ready to move on.

Then there is her all time favorite, pushing the stroller around.

Our summer plans

Okay, I have the summer planned out (kind of). There are two themes that I still have to come up with more ideas for. I have also planned out what week we are doing each theme. Of course this could change but at least I have a plan.

So here is what our summer looks like as of right now.

May 24-28 (this week!): Bugs
May 31- June 4: Circus
June 7-11: Trains
June 14-18: Fire safety
June 21-25: Farm
June 28- July 2: Ocean
July 5-9: Ice cream
July 12-16: Zoo
July 19-23: Camping
July 26-30: Rainforest
The first three weeks of August the family will be in Australia (so jealous) and I will be doing a little bit of traveling and a little bit of nothing. Once they come back, it will be time for school to start again.

Mud puddles are for jumping in!

This morning E was excited to show me his new rain boots he got over the weekend. This afternoon I decided to take the kids outside to play in the puddles since it had rained early that morning. Most of the puddles had dried up by that time but I knew there would be a big one by the park. They had so much fun running through this puddle, and chasing the poor duck that was also there. I loved hearing them squeal and laugh as they were running around.

Now for pictures (the best part).




Yes they were soaked and I had to pour the water out of E's boots, but it was worth the 15 minutes of fun they had. It wasn't really warm enough for me to allow them to be soaking for longer than 15 minutes.

Seven Gables park in Wheaton

On Friday I took the kids to Seven Gables park in Wheaton. If you don't know where this park is, it is just off of Naperville rd. You can see the soccer fields from Naperville rd but you have to turn onto Danada dr and go through the neighborhood in order to get to the playground. Anyway, I have seen this park before but have never actually taken the kids there. Another nanny I know mentioned it the other day and said how much she liked it. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to taking the kids there again in the future. One thing I liked about it was that it really has a lot for different ages. This was the first time I had been to a park where older kids were playing and I wasn't annoyed that they were taking over all of the things for younger kids (such as standing in the baby swings). Anyway, here are the pictures I took while we were there. I used my phone because I didn't think to bring my camera. Maybe next time.

M sitting in the really cool big swing.
E walking on the stepping stones

This park even had drums and bells to play! Although, with the bells, you had to either use your nails to tap on them or a stick. There was nothing inside to ring. However, they were still pretty cool.

The cool spider web climbing thing. I wanted a picture of E climbing on it but he got down before I could get M out of the swing.

Rock walls!

E on the rock wall. He really wanted to sit on top of it.

Another nice thing about this park is that they have the soft stuff on the ground instead of the wood chips you see at most of the parks in the area. The one thing I didn't like was that the ice cream man had to show up while we were there and sit there for at least five minutes even though no one was buying ice cream from him. For one, I had no cash on me and two, it was 5 pm, almost dinner time, there was no way we were getting ice cream.

Summer is coming

Next week is E's last week of preschool. Once he will no longer be in school we will have more time to visit places and do fun activities. I am planning on having weekly themes where we will do projects/crafts, go on outings, eat food that goes with the theme, read books, etc. So far I have come up with a list of themes for the summer. I came up with eleven but I think I only need 10. They are just ideas that can be changed based on the kids interests. I wanted to share the list of ideas for everyone so that they can get ideas of things to do this summer, give suggestions or ideas, or just see what is in store for us this summer. I plan to post updates at least weekly. Please feel free to use these ideas. I just ask that if you, please leave a comment about how it went!

So, here is the list of ideas so far...
-Camping
-Fire safety
-Trains
-Zoo
-Ice cream
-Ocean/beach
-Five senses
-Bugs
-Circus
-Farm
-Rainforest

I haven't come up with all of the ideas for the themes just yet but here are the ideas that I have so far.

Camping- Build a tent in the backyard
Fire safety- A trip to the local fire station
Trains- Ride the Metra a few stops and then explore the area
Zoo- Anything to do with zoo animals and a trip to the zoo
Ice cream- Make homemade ice cream, have an ice cream party with friends
Ocean- Ocean animals and maybe a pretend beach day
Five senses- Explore each of the senses, one for each day of the week
Bugs- Not sure yet what to do other than find bugs, read books, and do crafts but I'm sure I'll find something else bug related.
Circus- Make our own circus, maybe there will be a circus that we can go to.
Farm- Visit a farm
Rainforest- Make a rainforest

Of course there will be a lot more to go along with all of these themes. There will be books and crafts for each one. Once I know exactly what to do with each, I will post about it. I did find a site that has all of these themes and things to do. I haven't looked at it too much to see if it is any good but I will share it anyway. www.atozteacherstuff.com. It lists all of the themes and then provides ideas to go along with the theme including snacks, crafts, printable coloring pages, lists of books and more.

The week won't be completely packed with our theme because I do want to leave some time for other things such as going to the pool/splash pad and meeting up with friends. I also want to make sure that I have things planned to do with the meetup.com group.

No Children's Museum today

We were supposed to go to the Children's Museum today but M got sick. We were in the car ready to go and she threw up. Poor thing. Once I cleaned her up she tried to climb back in her seat as if nothing happened. Instead we had a quiet day at home. Sometime soon we will get to the Children's Museum and I will have a post with lots of pictures.

New look

I hope you guys like the new look! I thought it was cute and went along with the kids theme. I'm planning on taking the kids to DuPage Children's Museum this week so watch for that post. We are going on Wednesday morning with our friends from down the street. I can't wait! I love that place!

My Gym

On Tuesdays M and I go to My Gym in Wheaton. This is another great class! Every week the gym is set up differently. We do a little bit of everything in this class. First the kids run around and do whatever. Then we have circle time where we sing hello, have the kids say their names, warm up their muscles, do a dance, and do a practice skill such as tumbling.

After circle time they get to explore the gym again. Every week they have a new adventure set. This week was a car wash. I liked that they had enough cars for each kid so there was no fighting and waiting. Here is M going through the car wash.

They also do gymnastics with the kids. Here is a picture of M balancing on the "flying carpet."

Here she is doing a flip on the low bar.

The next few pictures are of her exploring the gym.

They also have swing time and every week there is one new big swing. Here she is on the regular swing and then on the big swing for this week.

During swing time they also do some sort of ride. This week they had the kids bounce down a big tube and then flip and land in the bulls eye. Here is a picture of M bouncing down. She will usually try everything they have.

Then it is time for surprise time. This week the kids played with trucks. Every week there is a different surprise and the teachers lead them through a series of activities to do with the surprises. Then they have separation time where all of the kids play in the middle together with the teachers while the other adults stand back a little and watch. This is usually when we have to leave to get E from school but when we do get to stay, she does great. After separation they play a game and then have another short circle time that includes a puppet show and the good bye song.

Music Together

On Thursdays M and I take a Music Together class with Ms. Christy through the Glen Ellyn park district. We take this class while E is at school. M really likes this class and really gets into it. It is a great class and Ms. Christy is the best teacher. When you sign up for these classes you also get two copies of the CD with the songs we sing and a music book. We do all sorts of fun things in this class including playing with egg shakers, bells, a parachute, rhythm sticks, balls, etc. On the day that I took pictures, we did some dances with scarves. Here are a few pics.

Wearing it like a cape.

Here is one of me with M.

Also, just before the end of every class we get to play with the big bin of instruments. Here are some pics of M trying a few of the instruments.

Cosley Zoo

Last week I planned another meet up, this time at Cosley Zoo. This is a free zoo that has just a few animals. Between 10-10:30 you can buy duck food for $1 and feed the ducks. We invited the Loren who is a nanny three houses down from us and her charge K. We also met a new friend from meetup.com and her two charges. We had a lot of fun and I really enjoyed having a few extra sets of eyes. It is sometimes hard at places like this because E and M do not always want to be in the same place as each other. So Loren was able to go ahead with E and K while I stayed behind with M who was enjoying pushing the stroller and pulling the wagon. Here is a picture of her pulling the wagon.


Here is E, K and M feeding the ducks.



Sorry you can't see much in this pic but I forgot my camera that day so I had to use my phone.

Here are the tree of them having some apple and goldfish after feeding the ducks their snack.



The kids are enjoying the bright colors of the peacock.



E and M looking at an owl.


Looking at the deer.


Playing in the train car. There are a few different things in here to play with. The kids mostly ran around making a bunch of noise by slamming the flaps on the animal footprints.



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