Random info from October and November

1. Another reason why I love Rick. Rick took Olivia to preschool one morning and it happened to be the day to sign-up for the Thanksgiving Feast. He signed me up for juice. Not the main dish, dessert or even a salad. He is such a sweet husband! I would have signed up for something way more complicated. The other bonus is that I have zero guilt about it because I brought the main dish and desserts for last years party and I wasn't the one to sign up for it.

2. Ben is loving playing 1st grade basketball. It is pretty fun watching him play. The games are all played with awesome sportsy music also. He says his favorite part is shooting and taking the ball down the court.

3. While at Hobby Lobby last week Ben was looking at a display of Santa statues. He then said 'Hey mommy, this is what Santa would look like with dark skin." and pointed to the black Santa. He then said ' but he doesn't have dark skin.' I promise we are not racist.


4. I have been feeling crafty lately. Ok that is an understatement, I have been craft crazy over the last few months. Of coarse I'm not as crafty as my mom but here are a few things I have made.

Cupcake wreath for Olivia's room

Burp cloths

Polka-dot pumpkin topiary & feather boa wreath

Flower bow

Ruffle Table Runner

Baby Lima Bean Wreath

Sweater Pumpkins

5. I was going through some pictures and I realized I never put pictures up from Labor day weekend. We had so much fun with the Gold family visiting us. Although we took lots of pictures, we were both enjoying having someone to take pictures with the entire family. I would take family pictures of them with their camera and vise versa, which means no pictures of the Gold's on our camera. :(

On the ferris wheel at Navy Pier

Ben & Rick on the swings

Gorgeous Chicago skyline

Rebels

On the boat

6. Olivia said that she was sad that my Papa (her great grandfather who she has never met and who passed away 10 years ago) wasn't coming to Thanksgiving. She then said that he would live again and come for Thanksgiving dinner.

7. Proud parenting moment of the month: After months of asking Ben if his shoes were feeling tight or uncomfortable (we hadn't bought him new tennis shoes in over a year) and him saying no. I saw a blister on his toe and decided to take him to get new ones anyway. When the nice man measured his foot, he was a size and 1/2 bigger than the shoes he was wearing. Nice! I felt like mother of the year that night.

Navy Pier

One thing I have learned after living in Chicago for a little over a month is always bring a coat. Always! The weather here changes very, very quickly. I've never seen anything like it. This particular Saturday it was supposed to be clear and 70 degrees. We thought that it would be a good day to go to the Navy Pier in downtown Chicago. We woke that morning to gray skies and a little rain but we thought it would blow off by mid day and it wasn't too cold. We drove down instead of taking the train just because it was the first time we had been their and wanted to get the lay of the land. This is the Chicago skyline coming into town.

To the left is Lake Michigan and in front is the John Hancock building.

Navy Pier

Me & Olivia

We planned on going to the Children's Museum first and since the weather wasn't great we headed over. The kids had a great time! This is Ben in a net climbing from one floor to the second floor. The rest of us took the stairs.

Olivia the artist

The mad scientist

The view from the windows of the museum.

Daddy helping the kids build a house

Olivia got bored of building the house and decided to accessorize!

Ben being eaten by a dinosaur

This is Ben & Olivia's shadows with butterflies and bugs.

There was an area for music and dancing. Olivia loved it, Ben was a little standoffish at first.

But then Ben caved and joined the fun

Olivia hanging around

We had spent a couple of hours at the Museum and thought we would go check out all of the other things at Navy Pier. We walked outside and it was raining, very windy and the temperature had dropped about 30 degrees!! So we opted to go watch the IMAX 3-D Under the Sea show and hoped that it would get better.

After the show, the weather was just as bad so we called it a day. Getting back to the car was hilarious. It was so windy and cold that we ran all the way back to the parking deck. It felt like the kids were going to blow away. We drove down Michigan Avenue (The Magnificent Mile) and past the beautiful Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. As we were driving home we passed a temperature sign that read 40 degrees! So much for 70.