Big Slide-Baby Slide

The whole crew, Shayna, Art, Zachary, Wyatt, Opa & Oma, went to play at big slide baby slide playground.  It got a bit chilly this evening, so Opa and Oma donned light jackets while the rest of us opted for shoes and socks.

Oma, Wyatt, Zach, DaU

Opa, Wyatt, Oma, Zachary

Family photo!

Art, Zach, Shayna, Wy

DaU's artistic shadow picture

Zachary hiding Wyatt

Oma, Zach, Wyatt, Opa

silly self portrait

Whining about something!

Wyatt dribbling a basketball &; Zachary running by. Art dislikes the sound of his voice "HEY!!!"

Hup Holland Hup

World Cup 2010: Netherlands vs. ??
GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!
The Dutch Win!

Zachary, Wyatt, Shayna proudly wear the Dutch national team color!

Oma w/ not only the national team color in her hair, but also the colors (Red, White, Blue) of the Netherlands flag!

Park Time with Oma

Oma and Opa took the boys to the park while I ran to the grocery store (shopping w/ NO KIDS - a little slice of heaven).  Here they are at "Spiderweb Park"...

Zachary, Wyatt, Oma in the sandbox

Boys Birthday Bash

We put off having a "public" birthday party for the boys this year until Opa and Oma were going to be in town.  They have never been with us to celebrate a birthday, so we thought it would be fun to include them this year.  Because the boys are still young, and mostly have the same friends, we had a combined party for them.  Zach got to invite 2 families from church, and 2 families from school, and Wyatt invited his one good friend.  Out of the 5 families invited, only 3 were able to come, which was plenty!  Both boys were happy.  Evie/Kale (& baby Gwyn) came from church, and Caroline/Natalie from school came.  Wy's invite of Morgan came too. 7 kids, 12 adults.  Instead of a Pub Crawl, we had a Park Crawl (more appropriate for kids!).  We started out at "Big Slide - Baby Slide" park on Hinman for about an hour or so, then "crawled" down the street to the tiny park behind our house to grill food.  I somehow totally forgot about the camera in my pocket and took almost no pictures.  The pics we have are thanks to 1) Alicia taking them w/ her camera, and 2) Stephanie taking over my camera for me!

At big slide-baby slide

Wyatt and Kale checking out the action

Kale, Zach, Caroline, Evie, Natalie trying to play "ring around the rosy" while going to the other playground.

Once we were at the playground behind our house, the food was nearly ready (Art and his parents left early to get going on the food).  They started handing a table, chairs, etc over the fence and loading it down with food.  I brought out the picnic basket with beer and bottles of wine, then went back inside the house to help out with a potty break.  UNBELIEVABLY, someone called the police, and the parks & rec security came by and told everyone to throw away the alcohol or face a $700 fine. YIKES!  That was a bit of a disaster since I had almost no other drinks besides water for the adults.

Zach, Natalie, Evie, Wyatt not eating dinner

The spread

Eagerly awaiting cake & presents

Still working on dinner, presided over by Ben

Bringing out the cookie cake and brownies w/ the candles on them

Zachary and Wyatt blowing out the candles

Happy kids eating dessert: Evie, Morgan, Wyatt, Kale, Zach, Natalie

3 happy/tired/hot  Moms: Shayna, Alicia, Stephanie

Happy birthday boys!

After the cookie cake and brownies were being dug into, our neighbors arrived back from their weekend trip.  Their two older kids, Glynnis and Elora, came over for some cake and fun.

Kale, Glynnis, Evie, Wyatt

Glynnis and Evie atop the playground canopy

Happy Birthday my two sweet boys!

Boy's Backyard Basketball Blunders

Really more like in the alley, not the backyard.

The boys went out with Oma and Opa to play basketball on the "BIG" goal in the alley.  The boy that lives there came out his friend and her little sister, and the 5 kids all played for a bit.  We had more balls than kids at one point.  The older boy was great with our two little boys, helping them, and watching out for them.  VERY CUTE!
No pictures, but we did get 2 videos.


Wyatt playing with the neighborhood kids.


Zachary and Wyatt with the neighborhood kids

Swingin' with Morgan!

There's an "oldie" song Staci and I used to sing with Dad called "Swingin'", about a boy that goes over to a love interest's house, in his neighborhood, sees what's happening at her house, and proceeds to swing with her on the back porch swing...swingin'.  That song reminds me of today....

We were at Morgan's house for playgroup and caught Zachary, Wyatt, and Morgan on film using her little swing.

Zachary, Morgan M., Wyatt

The threesome swinging away

Art's Old Stomping Grounds

After ending our camping trip with the small group, we headed into Wheaton to see the sights of Art's childhood.  We drove by his old house, school, where he went swimming, where he played, etc etc.  It was pretty cool to see all of that.

Then we headed over to Cantigny Park, paid $5 to park, to see the tanks.

I AM SO DEPRESSED THAT I DID NOT HAVE MY CAMERA!!!!
In our zeal to pack up the tent in the rain, I accidentally left the camera in the storage pocket INSIDE the TENT!  I missed great great great pictures.  The park is jam-packed with real, decommissioned , full-size tanks that you CAN CLIMB ON!  The kids, and Mommy, and DaU, got on and off so many of these cool tanks.  Then we looked at an exhibit on soldiers in Iraq - their downtime life.  We ate a picnic lunch in the park, then headed home.  It was a great day, and I had no pictures of it.  We'll have to go back sometime (it's about an hour away though) to get some pics. 

Counts go Camping!

Thanks to the efforts of Stephanie W., 4 families in our small group convened on a national park in Wheaton, IL (of all places!), about an hour away, for an overnight camping adventure.  For each of the families, this was a first in some way for them.  For us, it was the first time we had gone camping without Wyatt in the pack-n-play.  All 4 of us were going to be in our own sleeping bags.  For the Wr family, it was the first time their younger daughter (nearly 2) was going camping, and the first time for their whole family.  For the Wa family, it was the first time ever w/ their 3 boys.  For the C family, it was the first time w/ their youngest daughter.  Recipe for fun (or disaster!).

The C family and the Wa family showed up early afternoon, and we showed up around 4pm.  The Wr fam arrived about an hour or so after we did.  We all got there in time to set up our tents, go for a little walk, and play in the lake (by throwing stones etc) for awhile before it was time to start dinner.  We all brought hotdogs, chips, and side dishes for dinner.  All the kids ate, more or less at the same time, then the adults got in on the action.  Mostly the kids were not around for the grilling of the hotdogs, but they came out in full force for SMORES!

Curtis, Tom, Ani w/ marshmallows; Art, Curtis, kids

Kids eating their s'mores

Wyatt caught stealing chocolate

Wyatt toasting marshmallow; Art & Wyatt toasting together

After yummy s'mores, it was time to start calming down.   Stephanie W was so great and brought crafts for the kids and also read them a story to get them all ready for bed.

Steph reading to all the kids

Wyatt, uninterested in the story, was enthralled with Matt's ice cream maker ball.  They spent a good deal of time rolling the ball around hoping to make some good ice cream.  Unfortunately there was not enough rock salt, so the experiment failed, but Wyatt was happy to roll away with Matt.

Kids waiting patiently

Chocolate face!!

All the kids went to bed - some better than others.  I'm happy to report that our boys were exhausted and went right to sleep w/out any issues.  My favorite story was of little Lilly who just would not go to sleep, and instead was standing up in her pack and play, pointing at the lantern in the ceiling of the tent saying "light" over and over like a mantra.  Too funny! (though not for her parents).  The adults all sat around the campfire chatting for a few hours before turning in sometime after 11pm (so late for us oldy parents!!).

Morning came early, with the light, before 7am.  It was glorious to wake up all together in our tent.  I loved that part (could have been at a later hour though).  All of us snugly together.  It was so humid and I was so sticky from repeat applications of bug spray that I opted for a shower.  Back down to the campsite  - Happy Father's Day!!  We gave Art his little present (applesauce in a squeezable/drinkable container), as did the other families.  Then BREAKFAST!!!  Oh yum!!  Eggs!  Pancakes!  Fruit!  So good!  Of course it started to rain right after breakfast, and the families hustled to get the tents packed up.  Stephanie coming through again with a craft to keep the kids busy while the rest of us packed up.  Naturally, once everyone was all set to go, the sun comes out (now that everything is WET).  We can the idea of leaving, and all drive over to the lake to do some fishing.  The Wa and Wr families all had fishing poles and all the other kids took turns with them.  Jack and Max caught fish!  As did Audry!  Zach had a good time, and Wyatt just loved throwing rocks into the lake.

It was a great outing for us, and we all had a fun time!

Date Night!

Art and I switch off Thursdays w/ another family...us babysitting their daughter and putting her to bed at our place while they have a date night, and then them taking our boys the next week while we go out.  A good system!

This week we went to a free concert at James Park (they have them every Thursday in the summer) and saw Marshall Crenshaw.  A fun evening!  Then, after the concert, Art "needed" to get some McDs french fries, as is often the case during our date nights.  It was a few weeks ago after I picked the batting cages (I had to get some practice in b/f my first softball game!) for date night.

View of the park at dusk, people at the concert

Not the best picture, but proof we were there; without KIDS!

Getting Our Culture On - Field History Museum

Today we went to the Field History Museum, to get a bit of culture, with the D family.  Back story - Alicia called around 10pm last night and asked if I wanted to go w/ them to the Aquarium on Monday.  It was free all week.  With nothing but grocery shopping planned, I said SURE!  Alicia picked us up and we somehow got 2 extra car seats into her van and we headed to museum campus.  We waited in line OUTSIDE the Aquarium for about 15 minutes, barely moving forward, to get into the place.  We finally gave up and decided to go to the adjacent Field Museum, which was, thankfully, also free that Monday.  No line, no waiting.  Right decision.

Wyatt, Evie, Alicia, Zach (so charming!), and Kale w. baby Gwyn in the stroller

Their main attraction right now is Sue the dinosaur - smaller than I'd pictured, yet cool nonetheless

Snake exhibit (requested for DaU), and Evie sitting on an Alligator

Wy, Kale, Zach, Evie in front of a rhino

After walking around lots and lots and lots of exhibits, it was nearing time for lunch.  The Field Museum is great in that it allows you to bring your own lunch and sit at the picnic tables (unlike the Art Museum which won't allow you to sit at the tables w/out purchased food).  We all shared some lunch then hit the bathrooms (no small ordeal).  By that time Gwyneth was awake and ready for her lunch.  While Alicia was nursing her, I took the 3 big kids over to a small alcove w/ butterflies & insects in display cases.  Evie asked for the camera and took many many many pictures.  Here are the best from her series.

Pictures Captured by Evie

Butterfly pictures by Evie

Zachary and Kale - both wearing superhero shirts

Dynamic Duo

Lovely self-portrait

After the photos by Evie, it was time to move on.  We went to the kids section of the museum which turned out to be wonderful!  There were several areas where they could explore things and be interactive.

First Up: Dressing up like Woodland Creatures

Kale as a Redbird; Kale as a bat, Evie as a Skunk

Wyatt my cute baby turtle

Zach & Wy as turtles, Kale as a redbird, and Evie as ??

After woodland creature dress up, off to gather corn & turn it into meal

Zachary, Wyatt, Evie gathering rubber corn husks off the stalks

Lastly, a huge hit for my boys: the percussion room

Kale at the bongo, then Kale giving Evie the stiff-arm at the drum w/ Zach in line

Wyatt at the bells, then Wy at the drums

Wyatt & Zachary at the xylophone, then Wyatt on bongo, Zach on drum

Wyatt on the table, Evie on the bongo, Zach at the drum

It was a wonderful time; we hated to leave, but it was well past my kids nap time.  Wyatt started to lie down on the floor, and then later sort of lost it.  So off we went back to the minivan, and off towards home.  All 3 off us took a nap when we got home.  Exhausting, but fun day!