Day Downtown

This day was our big outing into the city.  We did so many awesome things and took so many pictures, it will be my longest post.  You may want to grab a snack before you start scrolling! :)

We wanted to plan a day in downtown Chicago that would make everyone in our big group happy.  It had to show us a lot of the city, keep us cool, be easy enough to manage with lots of kids and not be too expensive.  We came up with a perfect plan and had a wonderful time!  We started with the 20 minute train ride into the city.
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Watching train-loving Cole was the best part of this portion of the day.  He was SO EXCITED and his eyes were just lit up with the wonder of train horns, tunnels and conductors taking our tickets.

Right outside Union Station, we caught a water taxi.  This boat ride took us through the city on the Chicago River.

Just riding a boat with the kids was fun, but I loved this view of the city from the river.  We passed all the familiar buildings and went under each famous street.  This was a treat for all of us!

The train and the boat were fun in and of themselves (which was why we planned to get into this city this way), but our big destination was Navy Pier, specifically, the Children's Museum.

We've been to a lot of different children's museums and this one was fantastic!  It was not so big that we felt we have to leave it unexplored, yet the exhibits were so creative and well-done.  One of the best rooms was the Fort Room, which was full of furniture with hooks on it and blankets and sheets with loops.  Our kids used a backless wardrobe to make their own Narnia out of chairs, cushions and sheets.  Something like that is kid heaven!  In the Firefighter Room, the kids could dress up, slide down the pole, practice escaping a smokey bedroom, drive a firetruck and put out fires with laser hoses.

Each of the kids was brave enough to climb the two story rope tunnel to the top of a ship mast.

It was super neat how the museum tried to be intentionally Chicago-themed in some areas.  In a room filled with every kind of building material you can think of, we took The Skyscraper Challenge.  We broke into teams and tried to get a sturdy skyscraper built before our timer ran out.  When we were done, we told our story and what we learned about building and teamwork to a computer, which then gave us a building permit to look up what we recoded online.  So cool!

The Water Room had the kids adorably dress in raincoats and then taught them about Lake Michigan's Locks, water pressure, flow and pumps.

The Dinosaur Room had a dinosaur skeleton to excavate!  I love this picture of the boys and I love that my girls are absent from it because they spent most of the time in this room, not sweeping dirt from buried bones, but getting the paleontologist dress-up clothes on!
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We adults couldn't resist jumping in and playing in some of these inviting rooms, but we also took some time to just sit and chat and enjoy the views of the city while the kids kept busy.

After the museum and before the boat and train ride home, we stopped to let the kids run around in Navy Pier's big fountain.  This day was another hot and humid one, so the water play was perfect.

It was a great day to treat our kids to some of their favorite things, indulge in some playtime together and be a little nostalgic about our favorite city.

Cool Things We Saw at the Brookfield Zoo:

Peacock chicks!

The zookeepers interacting with the grizzly bear!

Penguins being fed!

The smiles of my 5 favorite boys!

Baby orangutan!

Friendly dolphins putting their noses right up to the glass to play!

Corn snake, up close! (Was also a Cool Thing we TOUCHED at the Brookfield Zoo!)

My daughters laughing, playing, holding hands, wagon cuddling and loving every minute with their cousins!

Blessed!

Dave was honored that when Kris and Eric joined a new church, they asked him to baptize their sons.  All baptisms are special and happy, but this one seemed especially so since the boys are such gifts we love them so much.  Uncle Dave played his role as Pastor Dave to the boys really well.  He explained the sacrament in such a way that people afterwards said, "I never thought of it like that!" Dave also made some neat personal connections between the promises Kris and Eric make as adoptive parents to the boys and the promises God and the church make to them. 



An unforgettable moment was when a cute and baffled Miles tried to wipe the dripping water off his head.  Dave said, "Don't worry, it won't wash away."

  

Kris and Eric's big families filled several pews.  Look at us all!  What an amazing amount of love Cole and Miles have from just family alone!  This was a day to smile over God's goodness and shed some happy tears.

Cole and Delia: Party Animals

We traveled on the day after Delia's birthday and arrived just in time for Cole's birthday, so one day in Chicago was spent having a combination birthday party for the two cousins.

Kris and I worked out all the details for the party over email. We went with a Party Animal theme since Cole and Delia share a love for animals.  I designed an invitation and ordered a bunch of animal print stuff.  Kris opened her home to a huge crowd of people, planned a delicious menu of fun finger-foods and baked an adorable cake.

Delia showed so much enthusiasm opening her gifts.  Everyone was very generous and I just loved that finally each family member could see her reactions in person.

 It sounds silly perhaps, but to hear family sing "Happy Birthday to You!" not via the phone was another special highlight. 



Though some look a little pooped out from the party, here are all the VM cousins, the only picture we got of all 7 of them from the week.  We are so blessed to have our nieces and nephews share a closeness in age and a close bond.  What fun they had playing together and getting to know each other better!

Hey Chicago, Whadaya Say?

Here we are, just returning from 14 wonderful days in the company of beloved family.  My grocery list sits before me, my half-unpacked suitcases are exploding and every toy in the joint was pulled out early this morning (we're still on Eastern time) in the girls' efforts to become reacquainted.  Amidst this chaos, we're happy to be home again and feeling renewed from the quality time we shared with those we love most.  We had some great adventures in the Midwest and I'll begin my long series of posts telling you about them now...

 

Christopher, our brother-in-law, scored us some free tickets to a Cubs game through his work.  His company's seats were great!  Under shelter from the sun and right on the 3rd base line.  This was the first thing we did in Chicago and it was the perfect way to get us excited about being back in our hometown!

The girls were able to borrow some Cubs gear from their cousins, so we were appropriately dressed in Cubbie Blue.

Dave and I loved the game and the experience of being back in Wrigley Field, but the girls had bouts with boredom.  Luckily some fun snacks helped.  Ella picked a ballpark must, Cracker Jack, and Delia picked cotton candy.  Another new part of enjoying a ballgame with kids was dealing with all the times they needed to climb out of our middle-of-the-row seats.  I watched the 5 guys at the end of our row drink beer after beer and I'm just glad they were happy drunks.  As we apologized and bumped past them for the 3rd time, they raised their cups and yelled, "No problem! Go Cubs!" at us.  Gotta love Chicago!

Of course, the best part of day was that last inning when things got really exciting as the Cubs tried to hang onto their 1 run lead.  We stood and screamed for strikes and cheered when the "W" flag was raised.  I'm so glad we could see a game that ended with a Win!

To answer the question posed in the title: "Cubs are gonna win today! Go Cubs go!" (Delia's been singing it for the past 2 weeks!)

Delia's Three Birthday Wishes

Today my baby girl added another year to her life and another number to her age.  Things are kind of crazy around here and we know we'll be celebrating with far-away family soon.  So that the day was not a completely boring one for her, I gave Delia a few choices about what she wanted to make her birthday special and, bless her, she picked nice easy treats! (Remember, this is the girl who requested a trip to Target and a green circle cake for her birthday last year!)

We've been spending lots of time keeping cool in Jetta's swimming pool this summer.  So, Delia asked for another trip over there to swim with her friends.  She's been so brave in the water this year and has even switched from a life jacket to floaties!

Jetta was perfectly happy to lend her home, pool and family to help make Delia's birthday special.   And I'm so grateful.  In a week of to-do lists and deadlines, it was great for us all to take a break and have some fun.

Jetta even told me to invite one other family, so we asked Delia's good buddy, Brittany, and her family to join us. For her special birthday snack, she picked brownies, which we stuck candles in and served with ice cream.

 

Delia's final birthday wish was to eat a hotdog for dinner.  Easy enough!  I joined Fudruckers Birthday Club and she even got it for free!  I love this about Delia.  She's so passionate about everything, it takes almost nothing to make her really happy.  She had a great day and looks forward to the celebration continuing...

Pinkies Up!

A while ago, Gramma Jean tipped me off about this darling little tea shop that she knew the girls would enjoy.  Needing a special outing, Ella, Delia and I dressed in our best and checked it out this morning.  We'll definitely be going back...with friends!

The tea shop holds about a dozen tables, all elegantly dressed with chair covers, a variety of china cups and saucers and every piece you could possibly need for a fancy tea party (little spoons! leaf presses! mini-strainers! linen napkins!)  The girls immediately ransacked the dress up section, piling as many capes, boas, strings of pearls, tiaras, veils, hats, bracelets and fans on themselves as was possible.

Then we ordered.  Off the a-la-cart menu, we picked a platter of mini-desserts, hot chocolate for the girls and a pot of pomegranate oolong for me.  They make their tea with actual leaves and it was delicious!  The hot chocolate must have been pretty good too, Delia drank 3 whole cups of it!

Though we stayed for over an hour, sipping our drinks, having some girl-talk and admiring the shelves of collectible tea pots, Ella was still not ready to go.  "I looove this place!  Can't we stay all day?" she begged.

The service was lovely, the price reasonable and the ambiance super-fun.  If you are local, have daughters and are looking for something very girlie and special to do, we give this place 6 pinkies up! :)

Delia at Four (Updated)

I'm reposting this because Amy was so kind to take and send me screen shots of Delia's 4 year old portraits, greatly improving the quality.  Now you can see them a lot better!  Enjoy, thanks to Amy!!

With her birthday less than 2 weeks away, it was time to get Delia's yearly portraits taken.  She was just lovely to the photographer this year and did every pose, smile and head tilt she was asked to do.  Our little girl is growing up!

July 4 Memories

As Dave and I shared some favorite 4th of July memories with the girls, we realized the only consistency in our memories was that there wasn't much consistency.  Sure, some things repeat, but where we celebrate and who we celebrate with changes from year to year.  Last year, Dave watched his fireworks show over Chicago...from an airplane!  We've seen fireworks everywhere from the downtown bridges of Grand Rapids, MI to Shaver Lake, CA to the polo fields of Oakbook, IL.  For this 4th, we again embraced some new mixed with some of those standard 4th of July memories from childhood.

   

I remember decorating my bike with red, white and blue streamers and spending hot July 4ths riding around on it in all its patriotic glory.  This 4th, we took the girls to the church parking lot where Ella began her lessons in riding without training wheels.  No video to show you yet of things clicking and Ella taking off...but hopefully soon!  

 Another big part of 4th of July for us has always been the food.  The menu I planned was what I grew up eating each summer-- BBQ chicken, cold cucumber salad, corn on the cob.  I couldn't bear to turn our oven on in the afternoon's 108 degree heat, so we skipped the cake and just dipped our berries in cream for dessert! 

A parade, friends and fireworks make repeated appearances in our childhood 4th of July memories.  We hit all 3 in the evening.  We watched a small neighborhood "non-motorized" parade.  We went to a BBQ dinner at our school and loved being surrounded by a community of people we knew, hopping to three different tables to fellowship.  Then we spread our blankets and waited for dark.  This time may have been my favorite part of our 4th this year-- playing paddle ball and cards, practicing cartwheels in the grass and dancing around with sparklers.

It could be something totally different again next summer-- that's something I'm realizing is pretty cool about the 4th of July.  But, July 4, 2011 was one full of memories.

It's Exhausting Being Disciplined!

I've been tweaking her nap schedule, so this probably explains the behavior that earned Delia a seat in the time-out rocking chair. :)