After seeing how much Jack enjoyed Lil Kickers, we decided to sign him up for the big leagues – AYSO.

Lil kickers starts as early as 18 months and runs up to age nine, AYSO’s youngest members are 4, it’s oldest are in high school.

At Jack’s age group they have teams of 5 guys, but only 3 play at a time during the game. The field is smaller than a normal size and so are the goals, the time per quarter and soccer balls. But other than shortening everything, it’s a real game. With real scoring, real uniforms, real coaches on the other side screaming and acting insane sometimes.

Parents show up with other kids in tow, carrying their spectator foldable chairs and their team cheer.

Jack is proving himself to be quite a defender. I love to see him get in there and pull the ball away from the other guys. He’s totally engaged, and fearless. He runs after the ball the entire time he’s in the game, never tiring. And somehow, innately he seems to have picked up the code of sports conduct.

AYSO’s smallest spectators

On my quest to cover all the water parks in the suburbs, we visited the Centennial Family Aquatic Center in Wilmette.

I must say on first glance I was a bit disappointed. Everyone kept saying what a good water park it was and it seemed small compared to Highland Park and Skokie. But after spending the afternoon there, I changed my opinion completely.

The park, much like it’s customers, is quiet and understated. Yet when you look closer, you can see it’s really well planned.

There are three different areas, a large lap pool with big kid slides that was fenced off. I liked that I didn’t have to walk by it and worry my small children would fall in. The fence kept my kids out. There was another, smaller wading pool with a tot slide that Ben loved. It was also fenced off and I loved that fence because it kept my kids in. The main pool was zero depth entry with a dump bucket play structure and two slides for mid-range aged kids, pictured above.

Each section was done by age, so my kids didn’t have a bunch of older kids around pushing into them, and they didn’t push into younger ones either.

In the end I realized there was just enough exciting and different things for them to do, but it wasn’t so big it was overwhelming. It was a calm, relaxed atmosphere.

The concession was better than most water parks and the bathrooms were also noticeably cleaner.

Last year we discovered this water park and fell in love. I wanted to go back every day! It was the first water park I went to in the suburbs. I heard there were many more in different suburbs and I couldn’t wait to see them all.

Today we went back for the first time in a year. After having Ben’s birthday party in at the Skokie water park I now have a comparison.

I still love it for it’s sand pit, kid friendly slide which we did over and over again, and zero depth entry pool, where Jack and Ben mostly played today. I think they will learn to swim very quickly this way. Jack was like a dolphin, turning and twisting under water with no fear. He kept pretending he was a shark and attacking my legs.

Meanwhile Ben ran the length of the pool over and over again, pretending the other side was China and he needed to go there to work. I’m guessing he picked up on the fact that Adam sometimes calls China at night. So China must be work. The kid misses nothing.

Watching him in the water makes me happy we never pushed swim lessons on him. We tried it once and he was shaking with fear. After that we stopped. Just exposing him to water over and over again is teaching him to swim in a fun, relaxed way. Learning on the sly! If only I could be that clever about learning all the time!

Still, I think between the two, the Skokie water park has more to offer. It also has a zero depth entry pool, but it’s also got a spray only area for the littlest kids, which Ben stayed in most of the time. It’s also got more slides for Jack’s age group. At Highland Park, there are five slides total, two for kiddies as young as 3 and three for kids ages 7 and older. I think it’s missing the middle range of slides that Jack can use.

I’ve heard Wilmette has a good one that I’d like to try as well, maybe for another blog?

Adler and Ben on the Pig Train

I absolutely love Chicago in the summer.

Something is happening all the time.

Today we hit the Sheffield Garden Walk. Not only is it a street festival, but it is also a garden walk. Another thing I’ve never seen anywhere else but in Chicago. Only here would people be trusting enough to open their doors to complete strangers, letting them come into their private grounds to look at their garden. For this garden walk, over 100 people opened their doors.

We didn’t walk the gardens, don’t think the kids would get much enjoyment out of that. I can just imagine Ben trampling people’s hard work in one second.

We did hit the kid’s corner, which had a moonwalk, a pig train, kiddie ferris wheel, petting zoo, and a pony ride. Also face painting, tattoos, and an activity center where you can decorate sun visors and butterflies, create crowns, and design masks. Even Home Depot had a booth where kids can make wooden crafts like frames for free.

Jack Riding the Pony

Bike Exhibit at the Nature Museum

The temperature high today was 105°, so we decided to pick an indoor venue for the morning activity.

We checked out the new bike exhibit at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. I had heard from my friend Cynthia that it was quite cool for boys. They definitely enjoyed it. Bikes to mount, bikes to fix, lots of stuff to touch and look at.

Unfortunately it was Thursday and summer, so everyone else had the same idea as us. Including a bunch of summer camps.

It got busy and the rooms are all open, some with multiple exits. Most of the time it was quite manageable with three moms, one helper and eight kids. There was one point where I was herding the two five year olds down the stairs while breast feeding Sam in the one arm and carrying Ben in another. The other moms & helper had the rest of the kids and were meeting us downstairs via the elevator with the strollers.

Otherwise it was a great day for the kids. I highly suggest a visit if you are looking for something new and different to check out.

More Bike Stuff to Play With

This week a bunch of my friend’s children have started summer break. Which made me realize that summer is right around the corner for Jack as well.

Soon instead of covering 3 kids for most of the day with 2 adults (my mother and I), I will start having 4 kids around with 2 adults supervising (my summer helper, Kristen, and I).

Also, my mother is staying with us. So she is here all the time. By 6am I normally wake her up to pass a baby off to her and she helps until 8 or 9 at night.

I’m starting to get nervous about coverage. Even hiring someone for 40 hours a week doesn’t cover all the times my mother is here. If Kristen works 9-5, how will I manage the evening hours until Adam gets home around 7:30 or 8? The hours from 5-8 are when all four kids get a breast feed, bathe, eat, brush teeth, and read bedtime stories. It’s a lot to juggle.

Last night, for example, mom fed both babies bottles in that time frame and bathed them while I cooked, then fed, bathed and read stories to the older boys. It will be impossible to do all this with just one adult around.

Ben loves Banana Bread

Still, if I have Kristen start later in the day, we will miss any chance we have of going out in the morning. I can’t cover 4 kids outside of the house. Yesterday when we went to the park, I had my mother holding one baby, I was breast feeding another, and I repeatedly had to ask my girlfriends to help me with Ben, who decided to have a series of hissy fits for no apparent reason. He kept bawling loudly on the ground while I sat helpless. Other mothers eyed him awkwardly, wondering whose kid was being neglected. That’s 3 adults needed for 4 kids! In fact, even with a helper, I’m scared to go anywhere on my own!

I didn’t manage to get any pictures of our play date at Supera Park yesterday, since I didn’t have a hand free the entire time, but I did get a photo of Ben the next morning, his bed head arranged peacock style, eating the banana bread our friend Kelly baked and gave us that day. Yummy!

And just as I was worried about handling all the kids on my own, this afternoon I left the twins with Mom and took Ben to pick up Jack from school. When I returned home, both kids were screaming from hunger. I tandem fed them while Jack and Ben played at my feet. Mom disappeared downstairs for a few minutes. In those few minutes they had both dumped a bunch of little toys that were easy to trip on everywhere. One minute later Jack slipped while running on one of the toys, slid and banged his head into the corner of the table. He was crying and bleeding. I pulled the babies off me, resulting in three out of four hysterically crying kids at once. I checked Jack’s head, blood was dripping out but quickly stopped. All the while I kept my eye on Ben, who has a tendency to want to either hug or pet the babies until they cry. It was a very stressful moment which seemed to last forever. I was tired and everyone needed attention immediately. But there was only one of me.