maple syrup festival

Last weekend we took the whole fam out to one of my favorite events in Chicago.  North Park Village Nature Center hosted its 30th annual Maple Syrup Festival.  

The weather was chilly, but beautiful and sunny and we were able to trek out to the maple trees to see how they are tapped every year in the spring.  The Nature Center does a great job making this a fun and educational day for families.  We were able to watch (and smell!) as they boiled the tree sap down turning it into maple syrup and we were allowed to sample it also.  Some of us (Mike) may have gone back for more than 5 samples.  The kids could make a little craft out of nature-y stuff and they could take a turn, with a grown up, at the crosscut saw to make a wooden "cookie".  There was also a farmers market and handmade goods for sale as well as pancakes with, you guessed it, maple syrup!

After we finished with all the outdoor activities and some exploring we headed inside to warm up by the roaring fire and enjoyed a performance by a storyteller.  We played for a bit in the discovery room where they have loads of animal and nature themed toys and books.  Eloise treated the crowd to several puppet shows and Harriet tried to ruin each of them by stealing all the puppets,  just like a little sister should.

One of the highlights of the day was discovering a new band that we all loved.  They were folksy and hippy and cute and cuddly and they call themselves The Giving Tree Band.  Harriet was completely mesmerized by them.  As we sat in the front row she was absolutely still (a rarity) and focused.  The only thing moving was her head which nodded up and down, up and down through their entire set exactly in time to the music.

The perfect finish to our fun adventure was lunch at the amazing Smoque BBQ.  If you haven't been yet, get your ass over there.  It is so delicious and worth the trip--go early, the lines can be long.  We ate ourselves silly and then headed home for well deserved and lengthy naps.

ready for some maple fun

boiling down the sap--takes 40 gallons of sap to make 

1 gallon of syrup

tapping a tree

in the discovery center

very clever little animal faces painted on the mirror

love this

word games

The other day I found a pad of post-it notes with lines on them like a little legal pad.  I seriously love post-it notes and wanted to use them for something fun.  I remembered a scene from one of my favorite movies, The Color Purple, and was inspired.  We got to work playing a new little game.

"What's it Called?"  is basically sitting around on a Sunday morning, drinking coffee, and having my 4 year old, who is learning to read and write, label different things in the house.  Or more specifically, label anything I can see from where I am sitting on the couch.  This is a parent-sits-in-one-spot game, my favorite kind.
Mike and I took turns picking things, giving clues or hot/cold hints and once she guessed what it was she had to write the name of it and stick on the label.  This was a fun activity for all, except maybe Harriet who got labeled, simply, "baby".  Nettie and Celie would be so proud.

here is the scene from The Color Purple

our version 

working on a label

nothing could escape a post-it

costumes from mom

This year I made Eloise's costume for Halloween again.  She is dressing up as Laura Ingalls and has been planning it for months.  Every year as Halloween rolls around, I feel like I am paying a little tribute to my own mom.

Every single year my mom created our costumes for us.  We would come up with the ideas together and she would sew different components or the whole damn thing.   She would paint or tape or pin or stretch or manipulate any variety of materials to get just the right look.  She also must have run about 50 errands to find that extra little touch that our costume needed.  My mom is extremely creative and talented.  She is a terrific sewer also.  There were times I remember going to bed (at whatever time The Carol Burnett Show was over) with nothing to wear and waking up the next morning with a complete outfit and accessories newly sewn and hanging from my bedroom door--all sewn in a few hours time.

 Looking back on it now, I realize how special it made me feel to have a homemade costume.   Also, I remember what I was for Halloween just about every year of my childhood:  angel, clown, ladybug, bumblebee, Rubik's cube, valley girl, bag of jelly beans, Dorothy.  I know they may not have been the most unique and most creative costumes of all time but to me they were brilliant and they were just one more reason I was in awe of my mother.  I mean, there were four of us!

As I do the costumes for the girls each year now, I know that the joy of putting them together is not just for the costume wearer.  I know why my mom did it.  It is so much fun.  Whoever thought I would be so in love with 5 trips to Michael's to find the perfect flowers for Mary Poppins' hat?  Why didn't I expect the thrill of piecing together a pirate vest and cutting a little skull and crossbones out of felt?  Who could have anticipated the excessive giggling brought on every time I thought of one of my black DKNY knee-highs stuffed with batting for a tail on the black kitty costume?    When I see the excitement on Eloise's face and I see how much fun she has dressing up in the costumes I made, and I see just how darn appreciative she is, I take a moment and thank my mom.
I get it now.

maggie simpson,  2006

black kitty, 2007

friendly pirate,  2008

mary poppins and bert,  2009

laura ingalls, 2010 

(still working on this one...)

little house

Around January this year Mike thought it would be fun to start reading the Little House on the Prairie series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder to Eloise.  I guess he thought that she would like them because she loves books, loves stories, and loves animals and farms.

 I think every single morning, for the last 2 years or so, she comes in our room while Mike is getting ready for work and asks if he "wants to play farm".  I think every single morning he has said "sure!".  They have a whole little scenario in which he plays the farmer and she is some visiting guest (her characters vary)  that is coming to help with the animals on the farm and do chores.  It is hilarious.  Usually, I am told that I am the farmer's wife and I just sit inside and drink tea all day.  Fine by me.

Well, Mike was right about the books.  She has loved every minute of them.  I think what she especially loved was the fact that is was something special for her and her dad to do.  They made a special trip to the library each time to get the next book and talked about what they thought might happen in the coming chapters.  He has read just about every word in all 8 books of the series, with only a couple chapters to go.  Sure, we have had a few guest readers at bedtime every now and then---Aunt Vicki, Grandpa, even I was allowed to read a couple, but for the most part, all was read by 'Pa'.

We did worry a little that the material would be too mature for her at times.  I mean these are stories about a real family trying to settle land of their own and facing everything from droughts to long winters, sickness, and sadness.  They had to make do with the very little that they had.  I remember one time Mike came down after putting her to bed and reading to her and he looked sick with worry.  I asked him what was wrong and he said the Ingalls had lost their bulldog, Jack, and hadn't been able to find him for two days.  He was so worried that something was going to happen to him, he put Eloise to bed and snuck the book out of her room so he could read ahead to make sure Jack didn't die.  I think he was prepared to rewrite history if needed.  We know how Eloise feels about dogs.

Because I wasn't the one reading to her it made for some interesting interactions where I had no idea what she was talking about at first.  Like the time she asked if I knew where we could get a calf's stomach so we could make some cheese.  Or the time she asked if we had any thimbles so she could write her name with her finger in the frost on the window.  Or the time I was supposed to be  "blind Mary" and  Laura was bringing me some books written in "pail" that I could read with my fingers.

It seems as though the timing of finishing up the series this week is working out perfectly.  You see, this week is Halloween and I'm sure you can guess what Eloise has planned for us.  Our Halloween 2010 has been decided, by Eloise, for about 6 months now.  She will be Laura, of course.  Mike will be Pa and I will be Ma and she even has Harriet in the act as Baby Carrie.  A friend of mine asked her who would dress up as older sister, Mary.  Anticipating this potential kink in the plan, and not wanting to be inauthentic, she answered swiftly and confidently, "She's at blind college."

half-pint

pinkalicious

We had a fun outing yesterday.  I took two very excited girls,  Eloise and her friend Isa, to see the musical Pinkalicious at the Emerald City Theater.  This show is based on the very popular, and much loved in our house, book of the same name.  Its about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes, turns pink and then has to eat all kinds of healthy green foods to return to the right shade.  You might be wondering how they made an hour long musical out of that and I was dubious as well, but it was darling.  Great songs, funny characters and a nice little sideline plot about Pinkalicious's younger brother loving the color pink but having to hide it because people will make fun of him.  Eloise told me later that it is okay for boys to like the color pink and that people like different things and that doesn't make them weird.  Well done, Emerald City!

If you have kiddies ages 3-12, check out the Emerald City Theater.  They do great productions of some of the classics and some interpretations of popular kids books and they do them in a very age appropriate
way.  This is fantastic for us because Eloise is super sensitive to things that are mildly scary or even suspenseful or loud.  They also make it fun for this age group by inviting the kids to do a great craft beforehand in the lobby for each show.  The kids can go up on the stage before and after the production and look at the props and scenery, and after the show, the actors are in the lobby signing autographs, posing for pictures, and making the kids laugh.

 starting off the day of fun with a little craft at our house

they made pink paper cupcakes

"my colors are blush and bashful..."

being silly at lunch before the show

of course, there must be ice cream

craft in the theater lobby

up on stage before the show

 (I'm not sure why Eloise pretended to be frozen)

with Peter and Pinkalicious after

*

holy harriet

Did you know that I have another child?
Poor little second child.  Always the forgotten one.
We never call her by the right name.  We forget to teach her stuff like "sooo big!".  We don't check on her milestones that were so important with the first one.  We wake her up from precious slumber often because the older one needs to be taken somewhere.  She wears mostly hand me downs and has only a handful of toys and books that are just for her.  She eats all her baby food from jars even though the first child's was all homemade.  She doesn't get bathed nearly enough.   There is no Wiggleworms or Gymboree or special playdates thus far.   We finally got around to getting her baptized, only about 6 months late.

In spite of all this, our Harriet is the happiest, sweetest, friendliest, little girl with the biggest personality around.  She has brought so much joy to this household there is no way she could ever understand how much we love her.

In the blur of all the things that are always going on around here, Harriet managed to teach herself a few tricks.  When the whole family was over this weekend for her Baptism, she put on a show of all her newly acquired material.  It went a little something like this:
Sit up.  Smile and show all 7 of my teeth.  Wait for laughter.  Crawl to something.  Sit up again.  Look cute.  Clap hands.  Hold for applause.  Shake head from side to side.  More applause.  Try and try to stand up. When that doesn't quite work, go back to the clapping and the head shaking.  Big smile.  Wave.  Repeat.
She repeated this sequence, or something very similar, about 30 times.  I could have watched it 30 more.

Time is going by so quickly with Harriet.  All of a sudden she is into everything and all over the house.  I had barely gotten the baby gates back up.  She tries to open the oven and climb onto the dishwasher.  She is the Roomba I have always wanted and cleans up all the food on the floor (and probably some leaves and dust bunnies and, who am I kidding?, a coin or two).  She is like a magnet to any electrical outlet and chews on cords of any kind.  She can't be left alone for 1 second.  Was the first one like this? I blocked it out if she was.

I try and try and try to slow her down, her movement and her growth, both are impossible to do.
 I always think of the line in one of Eloise's books,  Clifford the Small Red Puppy.  When Clifford, the soon to be Big Red Dog, is a puppy and he keeps growing into his future huge self,  Emily Elizabeth says to him, "Clifford, stop growing!  You're perfect just the way you are!"
My sentiments exactly.

sitting

crawling

clapping

being cute

standing

O.M.Glee

I know, I know, enough about Glee already.  Well, I can't help myself.  It is a big part of what consumes us these days.  We have been listening to the soundtracks in the car all summer long and it doesn't seem to be losing its interest anytime soon.  

Eloise has never seen the show but she knows most of the songs and asks a ton of questions about the characters.  She wants to know who sings every song, what the name of the song is, what they are talking about and if it is a "Broadway song" or "just a pop song".  What?

We started watching some of the songs on YouTube and she was completely enthralled.  I also showed her the original songs of some of them if they are showtunes like Patti LuPone doing Rose's Turn and Barbra doing Don't Rain on My Parade.  

She performs the songs all the time, wants the "glee kids" to come to her birthday party, and talks about the cast of this Fox television show as if they are her closest friends.  One day, when she was disappointed that I didn't have their phone numbers to call them to invite them over, I suggested we make some glee puppet type figurines and have them play on a stage and sing songs and stuff.  As you can imagine, she loved the idea, and next thing I knew we were cutting up the cd booklet and pasting heads on popsicle sticks and dancing them around an empty box.  Hours of entertainment.

supplies

rachel, finn, and mercedes

quinn, kurt, and artie (by eloise)

For some reason, she identifies most with Kurt, the homosexual male character.  Not that there's anything wrong with that...

She is crazy about Kurt and Rose's Turn is one of her favorites to sing.  I actually love his version of it as well.  I wanted to share Kurt's, played by Chris Colfer, performance with you and then check out Eloise's version.  She made a "Kurt" sign and hung it in the background and set up a stage comprised of two very wobbly Ikea chairs.  Hope you enjoy, Gleeks!

doggone it

When Eloise was 2 she started asking for a dog.  I thought of an age that seemed like an eternity away and told her she could get a dog when she turns 6.  If you think she has maybe forgotten that promise, think again.  She pretty much brings it up every day.  She has researched, with the help of her dog-loving aunts, what breed she would like to have.  She has started countless sentences with, "When I'm  six and I get my dog...".  Whenever she draws a picture of herself petting a dog she tells me she must be 6 in this picture because, see, she has a dog of her own.

Don't get me wrong.  I love dogs.  We had dogs growing up and I really do want a dog... someday.  I hope that when her 6th birthday comes I'll be a little more ready to welcome a huge, lovable, responsibility into our home.

Until we get the real thing, we'll continue to love the current dogs in our house--Commander Flufferton and Wags.  We received Commander as a gift when I found out I was pregnant with Eloise.  Mike named him, we both fell in love with him and when Eloise was born, the two of them became inseparable.  (Just so you know, I do realize I am talking about a stuffed animal in case you felt like you needed to call somebody on my behalf because I had finally lost it).

Commander has been everywhere with Eloise, sleeps with her every night, and has never let her down when she needed him at the doctor's office or during a particularly scary Blues Clues.  She has taught him numerous tricks, taken him for walks (drags), read him hundreds of stories, and when he isn't allowed to go somewhere she takes photos to show him upon her return.  She has made up his entire life story including his family lineage, his likes and dislikes, and some jokes that he finds particularly funny. It is true love.  I don't know what we would do if anything ever happened to him.  Please, don't let anything ever happen to him!

Wags was a gift from a very, very dear friend, Marie Vogt.  Eloise took a liking to him while visiting her house in Toledo one evening.  The next morning she brought him over to my parents house where we were staying, set him on the front steps, rang the doorbell and watched from a distance as Eloise discovered another new friend.  Precious.

If Eloise is half as caring and loving and attentive to a real dog as she is to her toy dogs then I think we'll be okay when the time comes.  It is going to be here before we know it and I don't think I'm going to be able to get out of this one.

newborn Eloise and Commander in the hospital

Wags sitting for his portrait,

 Commander napping in the distance

girl's best friend

*

soccer mom

Yesterday was Eloise's first soccer game on her AYSO team.  It is a team of 4 & 5 year olds.  There is a 30 minute practice and then they play a 30 minute game with another team of the same age.  Eloise is not super athletic but I don't think she has any idea.  She started off a little slow but by the end of the game she was running around and kicking and having fun doing just what she was supposed to be doing.  At least, I think she was.

She comes by her lack of athleticism honestly.  I have never been into sports, hardly played any sports as a kid, and rarely watch sports on tv.  When I have watched a game I am the cliche wife watching and commenting on the uniform colors, tightness of the pants, and can't they do something about those squeaking shoes?  Soccer is something I know very, very little about.  I know the ball is kind of hard, and you are not supposed to touch it with your hands.  I know that there are 2 goals and goalies are trying to keep the ball out of them.  Is that right?

I am going to make a real effort to try and learn about the game and become the soccer mom I always dreamed of being.  Hmmmm.  Not sure if I can pull it off.  Well, here are a few things I learned at my first game:

The shin guards actually go under the socks.  I should plan to show up looking a little cuter next time because all the other moms seemed to have 'outfits' on.  Soccer is, surprisingly, not played in an area with lots of shade trees but is, in fact, played in a wide open field with blinding sun.   I should maybe get my player some real soccer shoes instead of some tennies from Nordstrom with sparkles on them.  The coaches' kids are always the worst behaved.  I am supposed to have a little chair that folds up all nice and neat and is easy to carry.  I should know the names and locations of all the different fields so I don't have to walk around in previously mentioned blinding sun for 15 minutes looking for other kids that seem about the same size as mine.  I should bring my little soccer player already dressed in her uniform and not a skirt, t-shirt, and head of hair with 8 butterfly clips in it.  Snacks are very important at soccer (we were there for one hour and they had 2 snacks and a lemonade--I can definitely get behind the snacks).   I am supposed to stand at the sidelines and cheer at the appropriate times and yell encouraging things, instead of sitting on a blanket taking pictures and cheering at random moments that may or may not have anything to do with our team.  I should bring Starbucks.

So as the weeks go by (only 8 more!) I hope that we all get better at soccer.   It will be a learning process for the whole family.   Did  you know some countries call it 'football'?   Isn't that cute?  Who knew?

'before'

'after'

doing something soccer-y

the all important snack

making an effort

*

"our farm"

Over the weekend we visited Wagner Farm in nearby Glenview.  Eloise calls it "our farm" as in, the farm that is our family's and our town's.  It is neither.   It was a working farm at one time and instead of being turned into giant suburban houses and retail spots it was purchased by the village of Glenview and turned into a museum.  Kids (and adults) can learn about what life was like on a family farm,  play with interactive exhibits, and see different farm animals.  We have been many times, in all seasons, and we continue to go and enjoy it every time.  If you get a chance, check it out for yourself.
Here are the reasons why I love Wagner Farm so much:

It is only about 15 minutes away
It is completely FREE
It is open year round
It is educational and entertaining
It is a nice getaway from the city
It is great for all ages
It is a place where you can explore on your own with few restrictions
They have an ice cream parlor on site

the farm

milking a "cow"

collecting "eggs"

cows in the fields

don't look now, but there is a cow behind you

relaxing a little

does it seem like everything we do ends with ice cream?

it does.

*

toothiness

I feel like we've been talking about teeth a lot lately.  Harriet just popped out her 3rd tooth and we've been blaming everything we can on her teething.  Her recent fever, her current diarrhea, the fact that she now insists on only nursing on one side rendering me a lopsided freak, and while we're at it, let's blame the oil spill, global warming, and skinny jeans on her teething too.  Poor thing.  I had been rubbing teething gel on her top gums for weeks, and massaging them and checking them and then, when I was feeding her this weekend, I noticed that new little guy just snuck in on the bottom!  Sorry, Harriet.

In addition to all that teeth talk, Eloise and I both had dentist appointments this week.  I was prepping her for days and we were talking about what the dentist might do and what kind of prize she might get when her appointment was over.  I was so nervous she was going to freak out and not cooperate. (She fell when she was 18 months old, knocking out 3 of her teeth and she's been, justifiably,  a little skittish ever since) She did amazingly well.  This dentist, Dr. McWhinnie, had such a great way about him.  She was totally at ease around him and responded in a way that I have not seen before.  They were laughing and joking and best of all-- No cavities!

Then it was my turn.  I had not been to see a dentist in probably 5 years.  I am the one that was totally freaking out.  I am super squeamish about my teeth.  I can't eat a popsicle for fear that the stick might touch my teeth.  I can't be in the same room as any kind of porcelain dish for fear that something might scratch against it.  The sound of someone scraping a fork on their teeth almost makes me pass out.  So as you can guess, I am not very relaxed at the dentist.  I basically spend the whole time alternating between whole body shivers and suppressing the need to vomit.  Since I finally got myself in the chair and
ass clenched my way though the appointment, I was very happy to hear some great news.   Even though I haven't been in such a long time and even though I lied about flossing 5 times a week, I don't have any cavities or major issues at all, whatsoever.

Am I the only person that doesn't floss?  Tell me you are all flossing! I hate it but I must make a change. I considered myself very lucky this time around and I pledged that I would make every effort to floss each night from now on.  So far, I have kept my pledge.  It has been one night.

new toothy grin

my favorite toothless grin

*

lazy

We've been a little lazy around here lately.  Summer is winding down but the temperature and humidity are still soaring.  All of our summer trips and big events are over and we are just going to stay put for awhile.  Since I am not really good at staying put, I've been looking for simple, fast, easy, and fun projects to do during nap time.  Something other than sitting on the couch and watching whatever has been tivo'd from Bravo.

I came across this sewing tutorial that seemed to fit the bill.  It was called "Lazy Days Skirt".  How perfect can you get?  It is a PDF provided by Liesl of Oliver+S.  They have darling and amazing patterns which are super easy to read and follow.  Most patterns from the big companies (McCalls, Vogue, etc.) can be very confusing and somehow seem like they were translated from another language not quite correctly.  Oliver +S makes patterns for children (please make them for adults!) and they run about $15.00.  This one is absolutely free, easy, and great for lazy days.  It is simple and not fussy at all.

I loved that there was no pattern, just instructions to read.  I made my skirt even lazier by using bias tape to finish the hem instead of the grosgrain ribbon she suggests.  We had a scrap of fabric that Eloise loves.  We got it here.  It has fairies, butterflies, stars, castles, AND it is pink and purple.  Basically, it was made for my daughter.  Finished this in one sitting and plan to do some more for school days.  Give it a try!


http://www.oliverands.com/downloads/Oliver+SLazyDaysSkirt.pdf

scrap fabric turned into a garment!

sometimes I wish she felt just a little 

more lazy

*

favorite saturday

Saturdays have always been my favorite.  Saturdays in the summer are even better because of our morning outing to the Farmer's Market.

Every Saturday morning from May to November, a pretty boring parking lot in Evanston is transformed into a full on bounty of delicious food, flowers, cheeses, meats, eggs, people watching, and entertainment.

We are not super early birds when it comes to the market.  We show up at a reasonable hour with our bags in hand and ideas of what might be ready that week.  Eloise guesses "peaches" every time we go but, of course, they only show up for a few delicious weeks in the middle of summer.  We have our favorite farmers (like this one, and this one, and this one too) that are there week after week and we know who has the best sweet corn and the best blueberries.
 
I was remembering today that at the last market of the year this past fall we were saying goodbye to some of the farmers and I had a big old pregnant belly then.  They said "see you in the spring" and I couldn't believe that I would have a 5 month old baby the next time we would see them.  Well, we did, and now she usually joins us on our weekly outings too.  I love taking the girls to the market.  I love for them to see and smell and taste all the fresh food, to understand the seasonality of food, and to have an idea where food comes from.  I was a little proud of Eloise today at the market when she held up a bunch of green herbs, smelled them, and said, identifying them correctly, "mom, do we need any cilantro?"  It was sort of the same kind of pride I felt a couple of weeks ago when she asked me what a Frito was.

There is always one or two or three people performing in different parts of the market.  Today were three of our favorites:  a bluegrass band, a guy playing guitar and singing what seemed like the entire Beatles collection, and Annie the tap dancing lady.  Annie is Eloise's favorite.  She has her own little stage that she brings with her.  She wears super awesome white and gold tap shoes and she taps to great old timey songs that she plays on a little speaker.  Eloise is totally in awe of her, as are most of the kids gathered around.

The market is a great community event that truly shows you your  community.  It never fails that we run into a neighbor or two, someone from playgroup, our favorite librarian, friends we've met at the park, or someone from the coffeehouse.  We can chat about what looks good this week and what we'll be making with all the goods we're scoring.  This week it looks like we'll be making jalapeno jelly, sweet corn and goat cheese salad, carrot salad with feta, and about 34 dishes that use peaches.

 I feel very lucky to have such a great market so close to us---Chicago Magazine just named it the Best Suburban Farmers' Market.  A nice honor, but we already knew it.

custom made bouquets while you wait

summer's bounty

Annie, the tap dancer and Eloise, the #1 fan

shoppers

this week's haul