Joyfully Weary

A morning exploring The Art Institute and an afternoon at Maggie Daley Park is one my favorite ways to spend a day in Chicago with my kiddos. They are just across the street from each other, so I only have to park once and there are no complaints about aching feet. It's also an inexpensive day out. The Art Institute is always free for children under the age of 14 and if you register it's also always free for teachers - if you homeschool you'll just need to show a co-op id. Our favorite place to park is the Millennium Lakeside Garage - there is a stroller friendly elevator that takes your right up to one of the entrances to Maggie Daley Park. We always use Spot Hero and park for the day for around $15. We went last week and had such a good time. I need to make more of an effort to visit Chicago more often....it always feels like such a big task (it's the hour in traffic that get me) to do solo but once we are in the city we have so much fun.  We are curr...

Every Monday we walk to our town's local library. When I was a kid libraries were my favorite places to hang out. My house was always kind-of-hectic and the library was my escape. It was a magical place for me - my path to another world.   Even now as a grown-up when I enter a library, any library, I feel this sudden burst of joy and anticipation - I just may stumble upon something wonderful! Gail Borden, our local library, is a magical place. Their childrens' areas are huge. They have a large play area full of imaginative toys for younger children. They also set out new games and crafts each week for older children. I don't think my kids see library as the escape the way I did as a child, but they relish going. I delight in the fact that we share this common affection. Right now our library is even more impressive than usually. It's currently hosting a museum quality exhibit, The Robot Zoo. There are 8 robotic animals throughout the library. Some of them the k...

This past weekend our family went to Cantigny Park . This has been on Big Buddy's list forever. They have a tank park with eleven tanks that kids can climb on and explore. For over a year Big Buddy has been reading every book he can get his hands on about military vehicles. He also has a couple journals full of tank sketches. His current dream job is to design tanks/weapons for the military. Unfortunately, they are in the process of doing some renovations, so only a couple of the tanks were open for climbing. We still had fun reading about all the tanks - I was so impressed that Big Buddy could name and tell me about so many of the tanks' features before I even started to read the info plagues.  Next to the tank park is the First Division Museum. I was blown away with the exhibits - it was way more remarkable than I had imagined! Their interactive displays transport you back-in-time to all the wars the 1st Division has served in from World War I to De...