Joyfully Weary

This past school year the kids earned some free tickets to Santa's Village Azoosment Park  for reading. I have lots found memories of amusement parks as a kid and I want to pass the joy on to my kiddos. Jeremy, however, is not such a fan. He's a good sport though and was happy to go and watch us have fun. He also did go on a few of the rides like the bumper cars and the fire truck. One of things I like about Santa's Village is that they have the traditional rides like the tilt-a-whirl, the pirate ship, and the carousel; but they also have some unique rides like the fire truck and the a ntique country cruisers .  There is also have a petting zoo, a reptile house, and a parakeet house. The park is geared towards younger children so most of the rides aren't 'scary' and only a few of the rides have a height restriction. The park is also fairly small - I think this is perfect because then you don't have kids complaining of achy legs.  Currently, they are hav...

One of our neighbors works at a nearby theme park called Santa's Village Azoosment Park , and was kind enough to share one of her family passes with us. This was our second visit, we went last year with my sister's family, and once again we had a blast! It's now closed for the winter but if you are local I definitely recommend checking it out next spring/summer. The park is geared towards families with younger children, only two of the rides have minimum height requirements.  It is a small park with just under twenty rides, but the  $19.75  price feels like a bargain. Most of their rides are the traditional kind : a g alleon ship,  bumper  cars, a  carousel , a tilt-a-whirl, etc. 

One of our family fall traditions is to go apple picking. Around the Chicagoland area there are several orchards, the only problem is that some of them aren't sure if they want to be orchards or amusement parks.  Now I have nothing wrong with amusement parks, I quite enjoy them actually, but when I think about picking apples I'm not really wanting rides or concerts. I personally believe apple picking should be simple: a pretty setting, a wagon, and my family. What about you? Do like to keep apple picking simple or do you prefer to make an event out of it?  So we are very glad we stumbled upon Prairie Sky Orchard by accident. This year we had picked out an orchard in Woodstock to visit but when I was checking details the night before, I found out they were out of u-pick apples for the week. A few google searches led us to Prairie Sky , and since it was actually twenty minutes closer to our home we figured we'd give it try.  We are so glad that we did. We...

It's been a busy last couple weeks...I guess I almost always say that, huh? Life with kids is just plain hectic, even when we don't have plans it feels like we never really stop. I've been especially thankful for the few naps I've gotten in recently.  Even twenty minutes can make such difference. Our front porch has become quite the hang out spot for our family this summer. In the afternoon and evenings it's full neighbor kids. In the morning, however, it's peaceful and the perfect place to enjoy a cup of coffee. Jeremy and I try to sneak out there before the kids are awake but sometimes they end up joining us.  a mug of milk, not coffee :)