Zoo Day - no pics

Today was GLORIOUS weather - the weather that summer in Chicago is SUPPOSED to be: low 80s, with a nice breeze.  So we decided to go to the zoo.  Ahhh, let the drama begin.  Drama??  For what??  First, Zachary did NOT want to go.  He wanted to stay home and play with his toys.  Art said "no way, the weather is too nice, we are not staying home, we are going OUTSIDE".  So off to the zoo we went.  Us an everyone else in the Chicagoland area.  No, it wasn't really that bad; I've seen it way more packed out than that.

The rest of the day will follow with "Yea & Boo" descriptions:
~ Yea: we found a parking place, though Boo, it was not free, but Yea, it was cheapy street parking, and Yea it was pretty close

We brought the double stroller because it happened to already be in the car.  Very sadly, the two who wanted in the stroller were our SIX and FOUR year olds.  Seriously.  Our ONE year old only wanted one thing: DaU to carry him.  Sheesh.

The boys have been watching Wildkratts on PBS Kids (I love you PBS!), and adore it.  They always teach them about different animals, and a recent episode was about Servals (medium sized wild cats, like leopards). Z and W have been going around the house pretending to catch small animals (stuffed chickens, ducks, and even a stuffed Beluga(?!)).  This was the impetus for going to the zoo - Lincoln Park Zoo has a Serval.

First bit of drama.  We stop by the flamingos, always a family favorite, and I want to take a picture of all 3 boys at the fence watching the flamingos fight (this flock seriously belongs on Ricky Lake!).  What?!  No camera.  I did not replace it after last night's VBS show.  Double WHAT?!, no phone either...left it in bed where Z was playing Brick Breaker (he constantly bugs me for not having Angry Birds like Oom Paul and Aunt Staci).  So now our whole outing will not be recorded visually.  Which of course means, blogwise, it never happened.

~ Yea we saw a leopard walking around and drinking from a waterfall.  So beautiful. Yea, we saw the Serval, Boo she was napping, but Yea, the tiger was awake, and Yea we got to hear her "meow" (a sound that deep and scary can barely be called a meow!).  Yea, we also saw the Lynx, another Tiger (this one sleeping), and a lioness.  Boo, the boys were not impressed.

As a note, we have been to the zoo a lot, just not with Art, who is always at work.  Art was excited to go to the zoo and see everything, but the boys were really only interested in seeing the Serval and Polar Bear (this morning's Wildkratts animal).  So they were a bit whiny and unimpressed.

~ Boo the polar bear was off exhibit, but Yea, we got to see the Rhinos up close, which is rare, on the way to the polar bear.

After the polar bear we were all getting hungry and grumpy and decided to head to the cafe area to eat the lunch I packed earlier this morning.  HOWEVER, we were stopped in our tracks by a juggler/comedian (who got no laughs, poor guy).  The big boys were very into it, and sat down to watch for a good 10 minutes.  Art walked off w/ the stroller and Yannick, thinking we would catch up, but finally came back when he realized we were not following him.  Each of the boys gave the guy $1 after he was done.  Even Yannick (with a bit of help from Zachary), which was cute enough to make you cry (if you are a schmaltzy kind of gal). Yet no picture of that. sigh.

Yea, lunch, boo yellow jackets, yea/boo (depending on who you are) sea gulls swooping in to get leftovers, yea Nick eating a good lunch, boo Wyatt complaining about the "seeds" in his sandwich (crunch peanut butter will not enter our house again).

Art had promised the boys an ice cream treat after lunch if they could be reasonably behaved.  Despite a lot of whiny behavior, and fighting over the back seat in the stroller (again, SIX and FOUR), Art wanted ice cream so everyone got it.

Boo, we did not have much cash and had to buy at the Cafe instead of a "fun" cart, yea chocolate chip cookie dough (mommy), yea swirl soft serve (all the males), boo Zach - AFTER much enjoyment of his ice cream - complaining that he did not want ice cream but wanted a Spongebob popsicle , boo Wyatt complaining he would have rather had popcorn. Yea kids enjoying chasing gulls during ice cream time, boo Wyatt getting ice cream in his hair.

Our trip to the bathroom afterwards is a trip I don't need to write about nor remember (long line, 3 of us in a small stall, loud/scary hand dryers). so boo to that.

Off to the monkeys.  USUALLY, this is a big favorite of the big boys.  boo not today.  boo whining about not wanting to see monkeys and monkey house too hot.  fine.  Off to gorillas? Art says yes and puts his foot down when boys want to go home. Yea, gorillas active and awake.  Some outside.  Very enjoyable.  Wyatt starting to lose it, so time to go home. Yea, shockingly, not a bad walk back to the car, no complaining, etc.  I gave Z a piggy back ride for part of it which he thought was super fun!

Everyone gave the trip a thumbs up.  I think perhaps the boys have gone to the zoo too many times recently to be overly impressed.  Next time we'll hit the less visited places.

Zachary Kindergarten Picnic & End of Year Show

Today Zachary had a special end-of-year show for Kindergarten. Poppi and MeMa were here during this time.  Zach had a picnic with his class then back to the school auditorium for their presentation.  Lucky for us, Joanna (aunt Juicenana) was able to join us.

We stopped by Subway and grabbed lunch to take with us to the picnic, not knowing if the kids would eat lunch there or not. We met at Zach's class to "assist" all the classes to the park.  I did not know the park they were talking about, and it turned out to be pretty far away.  We walked them out the school, then crossed Demptster, then walked all the way to the playground through some HORRENDOUS pollen spores.  So awful.  I don't know if I have ever seen anything that bad.  It was difficult to even walk through.   Turned out that the kindergartners had already eaten, so we (me, Wy, Nick, Poppi, MeMa, and Joanna) found a table a little out of the way and had our lunch while Z's class, plus the two others, played.  Then we played and watched all the kids.  The teachers passed out Popsicles to the kids, and Wyatt was granted one.  Yannick spent most of the time walking across a bridge and putting his sunglasses on and off.  Special thanks to Aunt Juicenana who was happy to oblige his sunglasses obsession.

Entire Kindergarten (3 classes) Zachary back row, far right with a stick, leaning on the grass

 Then long trek back to the school where the families went to the auditorium and the kids back to their classes to prepare for the show.  We were not sure what it would be besides singing.  Turned out they all sang songs they learned during their weekly music class.  Art was able to leave work to come watch the show with us.

Zachary in the purple shirt behind his friend David in orange

Zachary in the middle singing

The three Kindergarten classes.  Z's head is in the middle row, middle, to the right of the girl in the pink shirt, and above the girl with the white shirt.  He was not so into all the singing really.  But he did participate some.

video of Kindergarten class singing

After the performance, all the kids came down to sit with their parents to watch a slideshow of pictures taken of the kids throughout the year.  They said they would send home a copy of the picture slideshow at the end of the year.  Here we all are watching the performance:

Quite the audience to support Zachary!

Little guy doing some good clapping - a favorite past time at the moment

Best audience ever!

Afterwards, Art had to go back home, and we collected Zach and brought him home.

Typical Saturday

Try to sleep as late as possible
Eat "fun" breakfast of pancakes, or biscuits or muffins, bacon, eggs, etc (not cereal)
Play
Shower
Yannick morning nap
**atypical moment:  Go to "adoption fund" garage sale at Mangrich's.  We score 2 giant super soakers (wedding presents for Ben and Steph), 2 Xbox games (which we later found out do not work on our Euro Xbox), a soccer ball for Art
Visit Ms. Beanie

Yannick with Ms. Beanie in the swing

Go home for lunch and naps

Play outside at park

Play inside

Eat dinner

Play

Clean up dinner

Get ready for bed

Finally warm enough for the boys to sport their FULL new jammie outfit they got for their bdays from Aunt Joy.  Always such great smiley boys. :)

Read bible stories

Pray

Hallelujah kids in bed

Party like it's 1999

Opa & Oma Visit!

Opa and Oma had been trying to get away and come up here for weeks and weeks, but something kept coming up.  This weekend they finally made it!  They called on Wednesday and said "we'd like to come Friday", and we said 'Absolutely'.  We rearranged some things we had planned, and then kept some other things the same, and just enjoyed them being here.  BUT boy did they work hard; esp Opa.  They had brought the unfinished crib/toddler bed up, and got it done while they were here.  Sanding, priming, painting. They did it, and it got done.  We did a few other things while they were here though!

On Saturday, the Dutch school was throwing a party to celebrate the Queen of the Netherland's birthday (Koninginnedag).  I thought it was a big party thrown by the Dutch club of Chicago, but it turned out to be a small party thrown by just the Dutch school.  One of Zachary's friends from school, Visanth, was there with his mom, which was fun for Z.  Since nearly all the games for kids, instructions, and announcements were in Dutch, Oma got to go help out the big boys.

Zach and Wyatt were on the "yellow" team, and Oma is helping them at each activity center

Later Saturday evening, Oma babysat Yannick while Art and I and the boys went to the Watsons' house for a cookout in honor of some old friends (Pigstorm) who used to live in Evanston but moved back to Singapore in 2009.

Sunday was church.  Then our Ethos group planned a kickball tournament with another group.  Opa and Oma again preferred to babysit Yannick instead of going.  It worked out great, because that meant that Art and I could both play kickball and be involved in the game.

Monday, Oma went to Zachary's school.  First we ate lunch with him (Wyatt and Yannick just had snack), then we played outside on the playground with his class, then Oma got to read a story to his class.

Zachary introducing Oma to his class

Oma reading to his class - Zach is sitting by Oma, and Wyatt is there wearing red pants, sitting on a purple circle.

Mrs. Soverinsky let Wyatt sit and listen to the story as well.  She said Yannick could, but I declined since he decided he'd rather pull all the books out rather than sit and listen to one.  So I mostly spent the 20 minutes or so out in the hall with him.

Here are all the rewards from their hard work:

Our little guy proud of his new bed!

It was an enjoyable visit, and a bit too short.  They left on Wednesday, so we would have a few days to regroup before Aunt Joy came to visit.

YMCA Family Fun Day

After visiting our Sr., Ms. Beanie, we made our way over to the Y to take part in their Family Fun Day.  They have stuff for families all over the Y, with the majority of things in the gym.  A family Zumba class, which we did NOT do, several inflatable mazes, which we did do, and many stations for fun things.  The boys hit the face painting station, the inflatable basketball station, and grabbed some freebies at other tables. Then downstairs for "lunch", make-your-own trail mix, then smoothie station, then the chocolate milk station, with a bit of a break in the artwork station.  Art was pleased with a sign that said "Be art healthy, do art everyday"  I am embarrassed that he stole that sign.  It was just a piece of paper taped up, but still. We ran into several Y friends there which is always fun. Boys had a good time, we had a good time, then off to home for naps for all!

Zachary trying his best at the inflatable basketball

Wyatt giving it a shot, literally, but never making a basket

Zach with an eagle on his face, Wyatt with an eagle on his hand.  They went back later and got more tatts added, then refused any hand washing for meals!

Northwestern Spring Game

Sadly, the big event on Yannick's birthday was not a party or other thing for him...it was the spring practice game for Northwestern.  Along with getting to watch the football team run plays against each other for free, NWern hosted a kids football clinic, complete with actual football players running the drills.  Our boys LOVED it.  Kids would line up at stations, participate in the activity as many times as possible before a bullhorn sounded indicating they needed to move to the next event.  It helped that Zachary's best bud, David C. was there too.  His little brother Archie was there, but not interested in the clinic, where Wyatt was very into it, for the most part.  We too tons (too many!) of pictures and videos.


I am also embarrassed to admit it, but we tried to get a babysitter for Nick today.  We thought the football clinic at NWern would go better without him.  Yes, a sitter on his birthday.  We are terrible parents!  However, it worked out wonderfully that we could not find one.  We took him with us and he did great.  He took a nice nap in the Ergobaby for awhile, then played a good bit during the clinic.  Here's some of what we did:

Wyatt missed the ball - this time

Zach makes the catch

Zachary during warm-ups

David, Zachary (yes, he IS wearing baseball pants with a star wars shirt), and Wyatt waiting their turn

OH MY - Art using the baby to get cheerleader attention.  Of course they all fawned over Yannick and he did his part, flirting up a storm.

Oops, Zach missed this one!

Zachary and David waiting in line.  Can you guess which one is the NWern football player?

Z doing a strange victory dance, while Wyatt watches to see what the deal is bf he gets up there

Big boys in the bleachers watching the "game".

Each clinic participant was given a little purple backpack containing a t-shirt, water bottle, and some coupons. At the game, both big boys wanted to put their shirts on.  Yannick did so great at the game, even though he had to sit with us the whole time and not walk around.  He was intrigued by the marching band (oh no!) and was standing in Art's lap, waving his arms like a drum major.  People around us noticed and thought it fun to see how into the band he was.  A constant source of amusement.  We finally left a bit early b/c it was drizzling off and on, and it was getting closer and closer to nap time.

It should be mentioned that Art and I made a parent blunder as we were leaving.  Z was desperate to get a NWern mini football.  I was willing to, since we live in Evanston, and will hopefully start supporting NWern a bit.  Art balked at the $12.  Z was very disappointed, so I came up with the not so brilliant idea that we would go by the bookstore, thinking they would be cheaper there than at the game.  I was wrong, and drama ensued.  We finally, badly, resolved it by saying that if she still wanted it (though was unwilling to share it) and willing to pay for 1/2 of it, then we would get it on Monday.  He never mentioned it again.  

Oh yes, I nearly forgot, the accompanying videos, of which there are several.

Wyatt's videos first:

Wyatt doing a blocking drill.  I believe he was by far the youngest kid out there taking it seriously

Wyatt going out for a pass and throwing it back

The pass fell short, but Wyatt picked it up and ran it back.

Here Z misses the pass and falls over dramatically.  We will not be calling any scouts just yet! 

Z with a complete pass

 

More videos of Zachary

JRfT Comes for a Visit!

While we were in Germany and head of the youth group at our church, there was a family there that was very special to us.  The Trees family is in the top 5 things we miss about living in Duesseldorf.  That said, we must have made an impression on them as well...Joanna (Joey, or JRfT) came to visit us for 10 days in February.  It was an amazing time with her, and we would love for her to come again and bring brothers Josh and Jethro. :)

I am a total slacker and took zero pictures while she was here.  Luckily, she took several and here are the highlights:

Her first day here, I thought we'd just relax, hang around Evanston for a bit while JT got over her jet lag.  Well, it was also Z's day off from school, and I usually let him choose what he wants to do, and he chose the zoo.  Yes, both Z & W went to the zoo in their jammies.

Can't come to Chicago and not get Chicago-style pizza!

I took Joanna to Bennisons (high end bakery) while Wyatt was a his swim & gym class, and we came back to the Y to drink our coffee and eat our red velvet cake donuts!  DELISH

Mommy reading to the boys

Joey taking Yannick downstairs to play with Buster so I could get dinner ready

Joanna went sledding on the last snow day of the year with Art and the boys.

crazy panoramic shot of our upstairs after dinner: Art/Shayna laying on the floor playing with Yannick, Wyatt in the fridge putting his cup away

The McF family lived in Germany for a time and knew Joey from IBCD.  While she was here, we invited them to come down and spend the night with us to visit w/ Joanna.  The dad, one son, and an exchange student (oddly, the brother of JT's bro-in-law) came for the night.  Art took them downtown CHI for a tour while I stayed home with the maniacs....uhh boys.  Here they are at the S. Blvd el stop.

Joey being crazy at the el stop

Art giving his guided tour

Everyone at The Bean (officially: cloudgate)

I made some heart shaped pink pancakes for J for breakfast

Wyatt finishing up b'fast and Z playing chess

Wyatt helping mommy vacuum. 

Art making sure the baby stays happy

Frank Lloyd Wright House tour.  We got a sitter for Nick and Wyatt and Art took the day off work.

No pics allowed inside of the house, but the outer was ok

We met OUR Joanna and her roommate Connie for lunch, since we were across the street from Booth.  The 3 of us (me, Art, JT) got taco salad bowl.  Joey thought it was very cool to be able to eat your bowl.

Part of Univ of Chicago.  As Joanna Frazier says "where fun goes to die"

Us signing postcards for Jemima and Josh bf Joey mailed them.

Joey and I took the boys, minus Zach, on a little tour of the Ba'hai temple.

We got a sitter and went to Pinstripes for the $2 burger night.  I went into some sort of functional coma b/c I bowled the WORST EVER.  First game, lost by 1 point to Art, with a low 128, then the next game was so low that I can't honestly type about it.

Me happy bf I started losing.

Joanna happy to be out on the town

Standard bowling shot for JRfT

See...something was majory awry!

Let Z skip school and took all 3 boys plus JT to the children's museum.  Wyatt's favorite part, the water room

Zachary also enjoying the water room.  YES, they BOTH are AGAIN wearing their PJs out.

Little Nick chilling in the infant area

Percussion for all

My little drummer in his star wars jammies

Zachary rocking out to some classical wearing his spiderman jammies

Cutie Wyatt in the music room

Oops, sideways!  Too tired to fix it.  Zachary rabbit, Shayna donkey (?) and little puppy Nick

Yannick would rather chew on the puppy face than pose in it

Cutest kitten ever! :)

Finally, a 5 point car seat for adults!

The next day, Joanna had to leave us.  She was in the USA for 10 days.  Spent one night in Naperville w/ an old InsideOut leader, before our time.  When she and her boyfriend came to drop JT off at our place, we took them all out to dinner at a yummy burger place.

It was a wonderful visit, and I hope that we will be able to see her next year, possibly in Duesseldorf!

No wait, I DID take one picture:

Joey reading to Yannick