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.

Yorktown Mall

Wow, I just realized how far behind I am on this blog. Sorry!

Yorktown Mall is a good place to take the kids when it is raining. So on a rainy day (notice M's raincoat and boots) the kids and I went to the mall to play for a while.

On the way to the play area we usually stop to check out the fountains.

And try to touch the water.

Then I bought a pass for the kids to ride the train.

I didn't actually get pictures of the play area but if you have never been there, it is a big tree house with a slide. There is also a little play house that M likes with little games and mazes on the wall. There is also a log that the kids can climb on or through. M and E of course like to climb on it and then jump down. On this particular trip to the mall, I was slightly annoyed with a few events that took place. This is a first for all of them. There was a little girl at the top of the tree house just crying and crying. A lady went around asking everyone if it was their child and no one claimed her. She then went to tell someone at customer service. Security was called and as soon as they got there, a woman stood up (who had been there the whole time) and claimed her. She then realized that this little girl had wet herself and the slide.

While the slide was closed for cleaning I let the kids continue to play but most people left. We then noticed a little boy crying for his mom. At that time it was me and one other lady in there and she was just as concerned as I was so it wasn't her child. I asked where his mom was and he said he didn't know. So I grabbed the kids and walked to the customer service desk to tell the lady. She was not happy with me because that was the second time she had to call security and the first time they showed up it was for nothing. She gave me a hard time about it and I explained that there was only one other adult in there because everyone left. I understand that they probably don't want to be bothered for no good reason, but this was a child who lost his mother! Anyway, when I got back his mom showed up. I had to go back to the snippy lady and tell her that she had been found. Turns out, she hadn't even called for security yet. I hope I never loose my kids in that mall! When we returned, the other lady told me that the mom had been by the train. Why didn't she take this little boy with her? He was 3 at the most. I can understand if he was a bit older and she let him know, but still!

Other than that, the kids had a good time playing and we have never had such a bad experience before. We will probably continue to play there every so often but not on a regular basis.

Cute moments from today

This week I just have M because E is spending the week with his grandparents. On the way home from our outing this morning M was telling me all about her baby and how if someone would have taken it away from her she would have been sad. She went on for a good five minutes about it. Finally I decided to pull out my phone to try and record what she was saying. However, once I turned down the radio she stopped her story and told me to turn the radio back up. She then asked if I liked the song that was on. I said yes and she said she liked it also. She then attempted to sing along even though I'm pretty sure she had never heard the song before. Also during our drive home, she was very interested in my driving. She would ask why I was stopping, tell me to go faster and tell me to stop. This was how one of out conversations went:
M: "what are you doing?"
Me: "stopping at the red light."
M: "why?"
Me: "because it's the law."
M: "oh!"
She then went on to ask if there was a red light every time I stopped. I love watching kids figure out the world!

That afternoon M put on a winter hat, some gloves, and a purse on her arm and said "bye." I managed to get a picture of it.


After taking the picture she had to see it. She also figured out how to scroll through the pictures on my phone. It was great to see how proud and excited she was! She then asked "who is that?" for each picture. I let her answer since the pictures were all of her and E except the pictures of my car that I had taken over the weekend. Even with those pictures she would ask "who is that?" and then answer "Tistine's car!"

As much as I love having E around, I am truly enjoying this other side of M. The side that isn't always doing and saying bad things because E told her to.

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