Fun Stuff

Oh, what do you do in the summertime when you can barely walk?
I sew American Girl clothes and make ice cream. The American Girl dress didn't turn out great even though I followed the pattern perfectly. For the next one I will modify the pattern to cover the width of the body better. But other than that it was a fun way to use some remnant fabric. The price of that dress really beats the $30 they charge at the big store.
Then the ice cream. We made peach and peanut butter chocolate. Yumm! I still have a bunch in my freezer if any locals want any.

Chicago Summer 2010

 

 

 

A few weeks ago we all tagged along with Richard on a business trip to Chicago. We had such a great time. I really wanted to make sure we did NEW things. And so we did.
We dropped Maddie off in Plainfield to spend the day with her friends and then headed for Des Plaines. Richard had a meeting there, so the other girls and I spent some time in their beautiful library reading stories and playing in their cool jungle themed reading area. When Richard was done we went for a walk to find some lunch and happened upon "Choo-Choo Burgers". It's an old diner and was totally packed. Richard didn't really want to wait, but I was thinking that anything with a 20 min. wait on a Thursday afternoon must be worth it. So we waited and we're so glad we did. Not only was the food great, for burgers and fries, the food comes to you on a train. The kids LOVED that. We will probably always remember our lunch there. So cool.
Then we went to the movie just to kill some time. Richard and the little girls saw Despicable Me and Emma and I saw Toy Story 3. We all thought the movies were great. I love the fashion show part of Toy Story. Hilarious!
Then kill time, kill time, kill more time, and finally pick up Maddie. We wanted to make sure she had her fill of fun. Then it was off to Chicago. We stayed at a nice hotel in the city with a great view of the river. Woke up early to take a walk in the city and happened upon the filming of the new Transformers movie. They had one of the city streets looking all torn up with crashed cars on fire and stuff. No, we did not see any of the actors, but they were there somewhere. We missed Shia Labeouf by "that much".
Then we headed up to Northwestern University to see a production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". The kids didn't really love it. I just think they aren't familiar enough with the characters to really understand why some of it was funny. However, Lauren really picked up on the entire meaning of "New Philosophy" and has been using that line regularly since then. eg. "Lauren, it's time to get out a book and do some reading." "Why you telling me? That's my new philosophy." Then we were going to go to the beach there in Evanston, IL and they wanted $8/person to go to the beach. We just couldn't see doing that, so away we went with two crying kids.
Then it was back to the hotel room to get ready for the big gala event for the painter group. We took a cab and he let us off at the top of Navy Pier. Well, of course our event was at the very end of Navy Pier. I don't know exactly how far that is, but I'm guessing at least 1/2 mile, walking, on uneven boardwalk, in heels. Well, we made it and stayed a while at that thing, but that is when my already painful legs started really hurting and swelling.
Next day we walked to the beach in Chicago(free of course), to let the girls play. I limped all the way. We walked to an art show. We walked to the American Girl Store on the Magnificent Mile, and my foot was swelling more as time went on. Yikes! More on that later.
We ended with Chicago style pizza at Exchequer. Love it!
Everyone got to do what they wanted. Success!

Homemade Tootsie Rolls

Tootsie Rolls just happen to be Ellie's favorite candy and have been for many years. I think that's weird. As far as candy goes there are many things I would choose over Tootsie Rolls. But anyway, one day while she was eating one she saw on the wrapper that they were made in Chicago and since we were planning a trip out that way she got excited about going to visit the Tootsie Roll factory. So I looked it up and learned that they don't do public tours. Bummer! So we took the virtual tour which got our brains thinking that we could probably make our own. And wouldn't you know it, the recipe was easy to find online.
So, we spent one summer afternoon mixing Tootsie Rolls. They require a lot of mixing and then they're kinda like play-doh, which was lots of fun. Then we got to roll them in wrappers. The kids tired out quickly during that part, leaving me to roll the little things for a while.
Fun and kinda tasty. Took care of another summer afternoon. Yay!

Ellie's Photoshoot

One day while I was out, Maddie decided to play with her new camera. Using Ellie as her model she took a bunch of pictures and then made a really cool slide show with music. I don't know where that slide show is now, but here are some of the pictures. I just thought they were cute.

4th of July Food

I was so excited about this jello dessert as I was making it, because I was sure it would be a big hit, despite the fact that it was red, white, and purple instead of blue. :( But, as is turned out my kids picked at it and mostly put it aside. This left more for me and I thought it was great. The white layer is cream cheesy and the purple (blue) layer is mostly blueberry pie filling. It was soooo good. . . to me anyway.

Wicked

The big girls and I went on a date last week. We saw Wicked in St. Louis. It was fabulous, of course, but didn't have the same effect on me this time as it did the last. I didn't cry once. The girls were thrilled.

Summer Sugar Cookies

This was a fun project that took a good chunk of a summer day. We had friends over to help us decorate. Fun and tasty!