Tag Archives: lafayette

An All Day Affair

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Today we met our friends Adler and Roya at the Children’s Museum. Our friends stayed the morning. We made it an all day affair. It was the first time I was testing out Ben and his no-nappiness. Most days I give him a quiet period, usually in front of a movie. If he falls asleep, great. If not, great!

"Ice Skating" with Roya

There was definitely a period in the afternoon where we all looked tired. In fact one Dad’s comment was, “I’m not sure who is more tired, you or the kids”. Perhaps I was pushing too hard and it was a mistake. But we made it through with a little help from some sugary lemonade. Coming home in time for dinner, bath and the last night of Hanukkah presents was much nicer than an afternoon of watching the kids move toys around the house like a tornado.

Whenever Jack has vacation from school I’m filled with dread at the thought of juggling more kids. But one thing I’m realizing is that it’s always more fun with Jack around. If he were at school today, Ben and I would be at Target or doing some other mundane task. Having all the kids with me makes me want to do more fun things for them, which at the end of the day translates to me feeling like a better mom.

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Happy Birthday to Me!

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My Birthday Play Date

When you are pregnant, it really rules out a lot of options you normally consider doing on your birthday. Like drinking. Or staying out late.

But some things never change, like wanted to spend time with your good friends.

So that’s what we did. A play date with all of my girlfriends and their kids. (Those that don’t have jobs on a Tuesday afternoon, anyway.)

 

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A Week of Play Dates

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This week’s bout of great weather, soon to be over, coupled with the fact that the life as I know it, also soon to be over, put a fire in me this week.

We spent the whole week at parks, meeting up with friends and enjoying the good weather….

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HCS In Bloom Event

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Last night we were guest of one of the board of directors of HCS Family Services “In Bloom – A Garden Art Sculpture Event“.

How bad are my bow tying skills?

Like most women, I’m a complete sucker for dressing up. At the last minute I was able to borrow this great dress from my friend Elissa. Thanks Elissa! Unfortunately you can’t see the cool swirly flower at the bottom or my very tall, purple strappy heels with matching flower on top.

Whenever we get invited to these types of events I only think about dressing up and looking pretty. I always forget until we get there and hear the spiel on the charity that these events serve a great purpose – raising money for people in need.

HCS family services help low income families raise above their circumstances through guidance, support and education.

The event had these huge, some totally crazy some beautiful statues they auctioned off. People at our table (not us, we are city dwellers and would have no place for something this size!) bought three…

Our Green Earth

Stanley

These two were bought by one couple. I’m now dying to see what there house looks like! The pictures don’t show the scale but that is a real bench that two or three people can sit on and the frog is just as big. Stanley was signed by all the Black Hawks players. To display them, they had four guys carry them to a runway type stage, put them on a pulley and rolled them around.

In The Spirit of Harmony

Adam’s colleague and our host bought this fountain as a present for his son. I thought it was the nicest one there.

The bench that Adam’s law firm sponsored was sold for $1,700. I think the highest price for one of these sculptures was $6000.

The best part of the evening was sitting next to a couple who recently invited us to their halloween party. I wasn’t going to mention it at all, since not everyone at the table was invited. But it ended up coming up so I asked, “Since this was an annual event, do you change your costumes every year?”. They looked at me strangely for a moment then said, “It’s not a dress up party.” Thank goodness they were there. It would have been very embarrassing to be at an intimate dinner party full of guests who show up to this party every year and be the only ones in costume!

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Explore and Much More

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Poor second children.

With my first born I took tons of classes at Wiggle Worms, Gymboree, Language Stars, Lil Kickers and had endless play dates with kids his own age. With my second, nothing.

Just the other day I marveled at how much we’ve all changed as moms. I was at the park with a few of my seasoned mom friends. We all huddled together in a corner chatting while our kids glommed onto another mom or nanny who was playing hide and seek with her kids. Did we go help out? Nah. Must be a nanny, we thought. Who else would have that much energy?

We’ve gone from being the cheerleaders in high school to the stoners who hang out under the bleachers at football games.

Part of me feels no guilt. When my first born is at school I need to run errands and do housework. They can both do play dates together in the afternoon (albeit with kids my first born’s age and any other younger siblings they may have). Besides, he doesn’t know what he’s missing, right?

Part of me thanks I should make more of an effort. So today, after dropping Jack at school, I invited a friend along with a kid about Ben’s age to Explore and Much More.

Ben at Explore and Much More

I’ve been to quite a few ‘pay to play’ spaces in Chicago and this is one of my favorites. The layout is such that you never have a big, open space for kids to run and smack into each other. Or shove big rolling toys into other kids. And also unlike some other spaces there are loads of really great, smart toys for the kids to manipulate. There are not a lot of places for your kids to get lost. And it’s super clean. No moms walking around with hot coffee. The cost to play all day is $12 for the first kid, $9 for siblings. Adults are free. They are open during the week from 9-1, then 2-5. On the weekends if there are no parties they have open play as well. You can also get a discounted punch card if you want to go 10 times of more. Don’t forget your socks!

 

 

 

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A Full Day

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So much happened today that, when I look backed at my pictures today it reminded me of things I had already forgot about.

Like the free air show we got when we visited the zoo this morning. Fighter jets buzzed the area all morning. It was quite a juxtaposition.

Ben was obsessed with seeing the Camels today

It was a full morning. We were met by our friends the Lafayettes and the Hutchinsons, all with kids younger than Jack. I was pleased to see that Jack is not a snob about play mates. Even if they are Ben’s age or younger, he still enjoys and can find ways to play together. Ben on the other hand is still displaying Mice and Men Lennie-like behavior. He likes to hug everyone he knows, unfortunately he doesn’t know his own strength and always makes them cry. Hopefully it will pass soon, as these disagreeable habits in your child’s development eventually do.

In the afternoon we met six other families at Adam’s Park for another concert. Ben surprised me yet again with his fearlessness and quick learning ability by climbing this structure over and over again without help…

Fancy Footwork for a 2 Year Old

Meanwhile, Jack and his buddies played in the water park…

Jack with Zack, Oscar, and Angus

And if that wasn’t enough fun, we ordered pizzas and picnicked. Then we stayed to listen to the Dave Rudolf concert. Ben was so moved by the music he ran over and danced alone to the warm up.

Congo Line

We got home so late that I had to skip the bath. All I had time for was a quick wet wipes wipe down before bed. Not my best Mom moment but sometimes you just got to put fun before clean.

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