Go Wildcats!

We are so fortunate to live so close to Northwestern University and all it has to offer.  Even though we are nowhere near having college age kids there is still plenty of family fun to be had on or around campus.

Northwestern has a beautiful campus right on the lakefront in north Evanston.  One of my favorite walks/bike rides is up to what Eloise and I call "the most beautiful spot in town".  From this point you can see the campus, the lake, gorgeous trees, grassy areas, and all the way down to the city skyline of Chicago.  Also there are hundreds of boulders bordering the lake that have layers and layers of graffiti on them.  There are love letters, spirit cheers, poems, secret messages, and family portraits.  Eloise loves to read all the rocks and of course climb out onto them while giving me a heart attack.

We headed up to Northwestern recently for a morning of fun.  We showed Mike and Harriet "the most beautiful spot in town" and then attended a Kids Fare concert at the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.  These concerts are 1 hour long and geared towards young children.  Having said that, I actually learned quite a bit myself.  The very talented music students perform and talk about the instruments and do silly things and make it pretty entertaining for their young audience.  This month's show was all about percussion instruments.  After the show, all the kids are invited on stage for an instrument petting zoo of sorts.  Good times.  Loud times.    There are still 4 more concerts scheduled in the Kids Fare series so check them out if you are able.

After the concert we enjoyed an easy breezy lunch in Norris Hall which is right next door and then the girls rolled down a "ginormous" grassy hill.

I'm pretty sure Northwestern also has some sports or something...

out on the rocks

chi city in the background

on stage at kids fare

100 kids + percussion instruments = this picture

on campus getting ready to roll

hallow-gleen

We had another fun filled halloween this year.  Eloise decided we should all dress up as glee kids. (Mike and I bailed) She picked Rachel for herself and we thought it would be funny to make Harriet a Warbler.  I had so much fun putting the costumes together, it is one of my favorite things to do every year.  I don't even want to think of the days when they won't let me do it anymore.

Eloise's was very simple.  Most of her costume was made up of normal clothes we got thrifting or at Target.  We decided we definitely needed plain white knee socks so I purchased those as well.  Eloise was very sure that they needed to be plain and white and told me several hundred times.  We made a little 'Hello my Name is' sticker and wrote 'Rachel Berry' with her signature gold star.  Also added an 'I heart Finn' button to really seal her identity.  Eloise played the part of Rachel well and loved dressing up as her favorite glee kid.  It was her dream come true. She recently told us that she will only be going to a high school and a college that has a glee club so could we please check to see if ETHS and Northwestern has one.  We'll get right on that, Rachel.

Harriet's costume was so much fun.  I got a used boys navy blazer and used red bias tape to edge around it Warbler style.  She had grey pants and a white shirt and I found the tie at Nordstrom (it's perfect match of Warbler colors temporarily clouded my judgment allowing me to spend as much as I did on a tie for a toddler's costume).  I made her Warbler patch by scanning the back of the Warbler CD (a favorite in our house) and printing onto photo paper.  Harriet had no idea, of course, who she was supposed to be but we got her to wear her costume by telling her she could dress up 'like daddy'.  Thank goodness that did the trick because I was fully prepared to submit a photo of her costume laid out on the table with no person in it.

The girls had a blast hitting all the houses that halloween night.   I just trailed behind laughing and being totally entertained by my little gleeks.

rachel berry

little warbler

a quick performance before heading out

trick or treating

the aftermath