Safety Town

Paige is an official graduate of the Naperville Safety Town Program. Each year a women's service group organizes and plans a weeklong program for 5 year olds. The kids go to Safety Town everyday for about 90 minutes during which they learn everything from fire, water, bike, bus, animal safety, etc. It is very fun for the kids and they learn a lot of valuable stuff, plus they get to interact with police officers, firemen, K-9 units, and other community officers.

They meet at a cute little facility actually called "Safety Town" in which basically a small town with streets and buildings has been built on mini scale. It's very cute and the kids always have a good time. Some of Paige's favorite things were riding Kett cars while obeying street safety rules, going in a smoke house, and spraying a firehose. In turn, Paige came home and reminded us of all the safety rules there are such as, "water and electricity do not go good together, because the electricity can go right through the water and shock you."



On the last day of Safety Town there is a little ceremony at which each child gets a ribbon. Then the kids can show their parents around Safety Town and take pictures.

This is Paige in front of one of the Safety Town "buildings." If she had a blue and white dress she would be just like Alice in Wonderland.

On the streets, in the background are the Kett cars the kids get to ride.

Paige and her three friends. They all signed up at the same time and took the course together.

Our Famous Dave

On Father's Day we honored "our Famous Dave" with a homemade dinner at Famous Dave's Restaurant. If you ask Ashley and Paige, they will say they have the famously best dad in the world. They are very lucky to have a dad who loves them and who also knows how to have fun. In fact, on the Father's Day card Ashley made at church she wrote the usual thank you but added a special thanks to her dad who "always finds good music for me and Paige to listen to, mom doesn't do that." This made me realize just how important Dave is and how grateful I am to him for being a great dad and doing the things that mom doesn't/won't do.


Anyways, we started out the Father's Day by sleeping in and then eating some blueberry muffins for breakfast. We also went outside so that Dave could see his Father's Day gifts. We surprised him and had his car washed, waxed, vacuumed and cleaned.
The girls and I also gave him a framed picture of "his girls" to update the baby pictures he has at work. We also thought it might give him something to smile about during the day when he is in the meatgrinder a.k.a. work.

The girls and I used our portrait membership and got our pictures taken last week. This is just one of them. The picture we gave Dave was in black and white and was a collage of 4 different shots.

After gifts, we went to church and came home to the restaurant. The girls made a poster, it says, "Happy Father's Day to OUR Famous Dave." Then we sat down to beef ribs, cornbread, honeybutter, fresh green beans, and corn on the cob. We even had the full selection of actual Famous Dave barbecue sauces from "Sweet and Sassy" to "Devil's Spit"--thanks to Costco. For dessert we had apple pie ala mode.

After dinner and a lot of wiping up sticky fingers, we just lounged around the rest of the day. I even think Dave may have gotten a short nap---although he really deserved a long one.

Shedd Aquarium

This week was free at the Shedd Aquarium so the girls and I decided to take a summer fieldtrip to downtown Chicago to visit. Free days at the aquarium equal huge crowds but we went first thing in the morning and considering we only waited 30 mins. to get in and saved $75, it was worth it. (When we left the aquarium at 2:00 that afternoon, the line to get in was 3 hours long--now that is not worth it!)

We had a great time looking at the exhibits. We saw lots of turtles and rays but the girls favorites were the sea otters. It has been about two years since we have been to the aquarium

so it still felt new enough to the girls who were a little jumpy
as some huge fish swam by them or a Japanese King Spider Crab crawled up to say, "hello!"

We ate lunch at the aquarium but sat in the outdoor cafe which is right on Lake Michigan overlooking the city. It was a beautiful view and the warm breeze felt great---this was one of my favorite parts of the day. Ashley didn't agree because she was so paranoid about the seagulls flying 100 feet overhead, but we won't go into that.

As we left, we stopped at the gift shop and bought a glow-in-the-dark torpedo tiger shark toy to play with in the swimming pool.

To make the day even more special instead of driving downtown, we took the train and got to ride to work with Dad. When it was time to go home, we decided to wait 45 minutes and ride home with Dad too! The girls and I enjoyed a smoothie from Jamba Juice and a cream cheese brownie from Corner Bakery as we watched the White Sox vs. Cubs game on tv at the train station. Then we all rode home together, happily ever after.

Freezer Jam

Yummy! Paige and I made strawberry freezer jam two weeks ago and it has been a big hit. In fact, at the rate the girls are eating it, we are definitely going to have to make some more soon. For making the jam, I followed the suggestion on http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/ and used Ball Simple Creations: No Cook Freezer Jam. It's no cook and low sugar---so easy.

Our Friendly Neighbor

We have a pretty friendly neighbor who lives right next door to us. His name is Jacob and he likes to come over and visit us all the time. When he comes over, he always climbs the fence and comes into our backyard. It also seems like he plans his visits for when we are eating dinner outside, entertaining friends or playing games. I think he really likes to be around people. The girls really like him and always go outside to play with him when he comes over. A couple of times he has asked to come inside our house, but we have limited our playtime with him to outside, because he does have some boundary issues. For example, besides coming over anytime uninvited, he also does like to rub against your legs and frequently requests that you scratch behind his ears, or give him a belly rub. I know that his mom and dad are worried about him and are concerned about his intrusions into our backyard activities, but we really do like Jacob so we are very patient. In fact, I am beginning to think that Jacob is a dog that looks like a cat!

How many cats do you know that would come over and play with 12 preschoolers during a party? Usually loud, rowdy crowds are when cats disappear, but not Jacob. He just comes on over and joins in the fun, totally loving all the attention and petting he receives.

A big sign of Jacob's congeniality is that he is starting to win Dave over. Yep, I have a picture of Dave playing with a cat! Since Dave basically has a life threatening allergy to cats, this is a pretty big moment.

It's a little difficult to tell, but here is Jacob playing catch with Ashley and Dave. He watched the softball go back and forth between them like a dog would.


Here the clever cat is getting a free belly rub...



and a back scratch.

The best part about Jacob is that after we have had our fill of him, he goes back home where someone else feeds and cleans up after him. He has also provided us with some pretty serious laughs, like the time the bird in our tree started dive-bombing him. The bird chased Jacob all the way back to his own yard, where the cat had to hide under a deck chair to keep the bird at bay.

Starved Rock and Harley-Davidson

This weekend we decided to visit Starved Rock. It is a beautiful state park about an hour from our house. It is pretty popular around here and it was kind of embarassing that we had not been to visit in the the six years we have lived here. The park is in a lush and green wooded area that runs along the Illinois River. It is filled with trees, streams, waterfalls, poison ivy, hiking trails and small canyons cut by glaciers thousands of years ago.

This is the Legend of Starved Rock, which I thought was really interesting:

Starved Rock State Park derives its name from a Native American legend of injustice and retribution. In the 1760s, Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa tribe upriver from here, was slain by an Illiniwek while attending a tribal council in southern Illinois. According to the legend, during one of the battles that subsequently occurred to avenge his killing, a band of Illiniwek, under attack by a band of Potawatomi (allies of the Ottawa), sought refuge atop a 125-foot sandstone butte. The Ottawa and Potawatomi surrounded the bluff and held their ground until the hapless Illiniwek died of starvation- giving rise to the name “Starved Rock.”

Anyway, our time at Starved Rock did not include starving. We had trail mix for our hike and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch afterwards. (SIDE NOTE: We discoverd some yummy new candy at Trader Joes: mini chocolate peanut butter cups and Australia's Darrell Lea Strawberry Licorice. You should try these because they are sooooo good, but you shouldn't try these because if you do, you will become addicted---your choice.) Our family went on a 5 mile hike, up to the top of Starved Rock and then up and down a couple of small canyons and up to the top of some bluffs to lookout and enjoy the view. Our favorite was Wildcat Canyon which ended with us standing on top of a canyon looking at a waterfall cut into the sandstone. We also enjoyed the peacefulness of walking along the trail listening to the birds and the wind rustle the leaves. Fortunately, the park is filled with trees so most of the trails were shaded and cool. The toughest part was probably navigating some of the rustic wooden staircases up and down the bluffs, etc., but everyone survived and was happy.

The other new sight that we experienced was the largest group of Harley-Davidson motorcycles that we had ever seen. As we drove to Starved Rock, we noticed that there were a lot of bikers on the road. In fact, there were a lot of bikers and Harleys at Starved Rock, so many that I even commented to Dave that "I didn't know that Harley-Davidson owners were such nature lovers." Anyways, the crowning moment was as we were leaving the park and driving through the nearby town of Utica. Utica is a small town, with a main street (no stop lights) lined with brick-front stores. Parked up and down the street in front of the stores was row after row of motorcycles, there were so many. Not sure what the big event was or if there even was an event but it was pretty cool to see all those "road hogs" with fancy paint and shiny chrome. In fact, there were so many motorcycles on the road that day that we even learned the hand signal that bikers give each other as they pass one another on the highway.

I am generally not a motorcycle fan. I am of the "motorcycles are too dangerous" opinion, but I will admit for just a moment, I was thinking it would be fun to go fo a little ride! In fact, just last week a friend (Meredith) told me that she preferred bullet bikes because they were more sexy. I didn't really have much of an opinion then but the more I think about it, I am definitely a Harley girl--maybe it has something to do with big guys and facial hair?!

We Look Pretty

We had a nice visit with Aunt Debby. It was especially fun for the girls who got make-overs courtesy of their stylish Aunt.

First up was....actually it was me, but I didn't take any pictures of the final result. Love ya Deb, but that make-up was never to see the light of day, although my hair was great! I agreed to let Debby do my make-up for me one day. I was not in front of a mirror but I could tell by the heavy and repeated strokes of the eye brow and eye liner pen that it was going to be way too much. Plus, the girls were a big hint to how things were progressing. They would walk up look at me with a shocked face, then quickly shake it off, smile, and tell me, "you look interesting, mom," then run out off the room giggling---a pretty good indication of how things were going. The finished product included some serious dark and thick eyebrows---ya, I know like I don't already have the world's bushiest eyebrows! Anyways, once I wiped 3/4 of it off it wasn't too bad, and at least I know what I would look like as a 70s drag queen or Real Housewife!

Paige and Ashley didn't want to be left out and so the next day, Debby did both of them up. It was very cute and fun for the girls to have someone make them look pretty. Now if only Debby would come and do that for me every day!

and after you do the girls hair for me each day, could you make breakfast too???