STAYCATION '09

It's the Buzz Word nowadays. Everyone is going on a Staycation. Or should I say, everyone is staying on a staycation? We have jumped on the bandwagon during these tough economic times. But more than that, it is just down-right difficult to travel with a 7 month old. So, this year, when Jack took his vacation, we decided to stay close to home and travel within this great city of ours.

The following pics may not be in the order that we took the trips, but here are some of the places we visited during our week long staycation. (Before I explain the pics, let me mention that if we added up how much money we spent doing all of these things at home, we probably could have taken a cruise with all 5 of us. However, it was much more convienient than packing our bags and traveling with three crazy kids!)

One of our first stops was the Field Museum of Natural History in Downtown Chicago. The kids loved the interactive play museum. We spent the most time in there. Then we traveled through the good ol' standbys: The Ancient Americas. Here Jack and Matt stopped to pose in the model of a home of some northern natives... We got to see Sue. One of the oldest complete T-Rex dinos to be discovered. Did you know that she was 28 when she died? Poor thing!

Isn't Sue scary?

Next, we took a trip to Legoland Discovery Center in Schaumburg. Matt and Lily were rewarded for good behavior. They were each allowed to choose a gift at the end of the day to take home. Matt chose this Indiana Jones Lego kit from the Lego Store. Lily stopped at Justice for Girls and chose a Buy-one-Get-one-free Webkin! (She got a pink spotted dinosaur, which she named Princess Lea and a soft Gray Langur Monkey whose name I have forgotten. Pictures will be forthcoming. The animals would not cooperate for the camera!) We also stopped at RainForest Cafe on this day for lunch. Lily and Zoey were slightly frightened, so the camera did not come out!

The kids really enjoyed the 4-D Lego movie that Jack took them to see. I stayed outside with Zoey. She had fun playing in the soft Duplo blocks.

Matt and Lily got to make a model of the Sears (ahem...I mean Willis) Tower out of Legos in the Factory.

We saw some celebs along the way. Can you guess who they are?

Grandpa? Is that you?

Insert Indiana Jones theme song here...

This was a full scale model of downtown Chicago made exclusively out of legos.

Can you see the Hancock building?

The Dark Knight made out of Legos...

Who is this handsome politician? Hee-hee

Another one of our adventures took us to Navy Pier. The kids and I had tickets to see Disney's Aladdin on stage at the Shakespeare Theater. It was fabulous! The special effects were great! The music was awesome and the acting was out of this world! They always put on a great show at that theater. We met up our friends Neena and Jayesh there. Since we arrived a little early, the kids got to go on some rides at the pier. Matt chose the swings. Lily went on the Ferris Wheel with our friends.

Can you see the kid with his arms in the air and legs spread apart? He's enjoying every second of this thrill ride!

It was a really cloudy day, but not a drop of rain!

We could still see the skyline through the clouds.

Finally, we had a fun family day celebrating Jack's 37th birthday! What a geezer! I remember when he was an 18 year old boy! My, how you've grown! LOL

What a cute bunch of monkeys!!

Yes, Matt is holding a slimy, white rubber rat that he got as a prize in the video game at the pizza place where we went for dinner! Goofball!

How many candles are on that cake? Oh My!

I had a little mishap with the gel icing while trying to write Jack's name on the cake. The "J" turned out a little thick! Whoopsie! Oh well, we ate it anyway!

Tomorrow is 4th of July, so we will have another day to celebrate and relax before Daddy goes back to work!

It was a fabulous staycation!

Growing Too Fast

Yes, this is my tiny baby, born just 7 months ago. Can you believe how big she has gotten? These pics were taken on Father's Day. As you can see, she's thrilled to be kissed by boys! That's m' girl!! My cuties in matching Old Navy patriotic dresses...

And here she is....Ol' Blue Eyes.... 7 months old and counting...

Learning to Ride

Last week I took Lily and Matt for a bike ride and Lily hit a curb and broke off her training wheels. So, Jack decided to seize the opportunity to try to teach her to ride a two-wheeler. I am not so sure that she is ready, but she wanted to give it a try. She had fun, but really doesn't have the concept of balance down yet.

I love this look of concentration on her face in the pic below...

This pic was, of course, before the dog attack that happened on Sunday. Don't know that she'll ever look the same again, but she'll always be beautiful in my eyes...

Gotta love the devilish grin and twinkle in her eyes below...

Webkinz Collage with Text

Baby's First Words????

Here is my baby Zuzu saying her very first words. Sorry it's sideways. I don't know how to flip the video.

**Peanut Butter Flies**

When the kids are out of school for the summer, I try to pull out my best teacher/mom/crafter tricks to keep them occupied.

Today, they were getting on each other's nerves because it was a bit cloudy/rainy and not a great day for playing outside.

So, I decided that we would make Peanut-Butter-Flies! We started with a couple of slices of wheat bread, cut into triangles.

Next, we cut off the crusts and added those as the butterfly antennae.

After that, the kids spread peanut butter onto the bread.

Finally, they decorated the butterflies with almonds, cashews, raisins, chocolate and butterscotch chips. These lovely insects served as lunch, treats and a distraction from the fighting that had been going on all day!

Hooray for peanutty-butterflies!

Fun with Huggies

So, today Lily was being her usual difficult self, so I had to come up with some sort of distraction to keep her occupied. I grabbed one of my favorite books, "365 games and activities to keep your kids occupied," and found an idea about using a box to create a baby bed.

While Zoey was napping, Lily and I took an empty box of Huggies and lined it with a blanket and created a little crib for her American Girl doll, Webkinz and assorted other animals and dolls. She had a really good time make-believing it was her doll's bed.

A few minutes later Zoey woke up and we thought it would be a fun idea to put her in the box. The funny thing about these pictures is that Zoey looks like a big ol' crab, but she was actually laughing and smiling in the box. I just couldn't catch those looks on camera. She actually doesn't like the flash and makes a weird face (like the one below).

Matt had the best time pushing Zoey around the floor in the box. He said it was Zoey's race car.