Gymnastics

Will had his first gymnastics class today.  He loved it!  We decided to try it out since soccer is over, but the winter is not!   He must do tumbling in school, because he knows about things like balance beams and often demonstrates his "gymnastics moves" at home (which usually involves jumping on the bed and spinning before diving into the pillows).  Today was just a free trial class to see if he liked it.  He was all smiles during class and afterwards he said he'd like to go every Saturday, so I'm going to get him signed up for the next session that starts in a few weeks. 

Snow Play

We are so tired of being cooped up inside in the cold!  Because while we have snow gear, when it's single or negative digits, you can't play outside.  Finally yesterday it was warmer (mid-twenties) and sunny, so we went out for an hour after lunch to play.  For the most part, we just moved snow from one spot to another.  Will attempted to uncover his sand box (ironically, I typed snow box the first time), but stopped once he found his dump truck toy. 

Rachel was out back with us, and I figured the snow was too deep and she was too old to go far, so I let her off her leash.  I was wrong.  She took off through our long back yard, through the neighbor's yard behind us, and around to the front of their house before I finally caught up with her on their street.  Then I had to haul her back by her collar through knee high snow drifts.  She got put back on her leash after that.  I would have sent her inside but Jason was working on a kitchen project and wouldn't have appreciated her whining to get back outside.

Will and I walked next door to visit with Ms. Vanessa and Jazz and Sigma, and saw this hot air balloon as we were neighboring.   Rachel joined us, as well, since she was so jealous of Jazz and Sigma getting Will's attention that she pulled hard enough on her leash to break it at a weak spot.  So much for my old lady idea. . . .I know I'm exhausted after the whole thing!

Will, however, still had plenty of energy, so we took him swimming last night.  He did great!  His progress through swimming lessons these past few months has been amazing.  He kept initiating a "race" where he would swim between me and Jason.  I was shocked at how he went farther and farther each time - always sticking his face in the water.  He didn't want to wear his Puddle Jumper floatie at all. 

Bulls Game

I had suite seats at the United Center for Bulls-Nets on Thursday for work.  I'm not a basketball fan, but the environment is always fun.  This is only the second time I've been to a Bulls game for work, since most of my clients are in New York, so we do games there. 

I planned on buying Will a new t-shirt since the last one was a size 3 that I bought when he was 2 1/2.  I won a free replica jersey from a BMO Harris giveaway, so I thought I'd get to avoid any out of pocket cost.  But those were only available in adult XL, so I've got a nightgown now, and I bought Will a size 5/6 shirt that matches his old one.  I can't believe how much bigger the new shirt (and my older boy) is!

 

Equality Illinois Gala

I was Ryan's guest at the 2014 Equality Illinois Gala on Saturday evening which included a cocktail reception; silent auction; and dinner. It was a great excuse to get dressed up and mix and mingle while supporting a fabulous cause.   There were a lot of government officials in attendance, so I met Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel; stood next to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn; and talked with Lt. Governor Sheila Simon, whom Will and I met this summer during the bike ride.

The event had a particularly festive feel this year since the passage of marriage equality legislation in Illinois this year.  Honorees included Chicago-native Lana Wachowski, who along with her brother is the creator and writer of The Matrix trilogy. 

Wisconsin Dells

We had a weekend roadtrip to Wisconsin Dells, a family friendly vacation destination about three-hours from Chicago.  (Think Branson for the KC crowd.)  One of the big draws is its hotels with indoor water parks.  The one we stayed at had both an indoor water park and an indoor theme park.  

 

Since we were leaving directly after soccer, we picked up lunch at Wendy's to eat on the road.  Will ended up with this cool toy that was little pieces to put together, so it entertained him a good deal of the way to the Dells!

 

 

Our package included unlimited miniature golf, so we played three or four rounds between Saturday and Sunday.   On our first round, Will got a hole-in-one on #10.  So exciting!  Jason got his on 11, and I got mine on 14.   We all played pretty competitively!

Not so competitive was our bowling game.  One game and the shoe rental for four people was included.  One game was all we needed!  Since we had four spots, we let Will play two people.  He bowled with the guide, but not the bumpers.  As you can see from the scores, he got an 82 - beating my 67.  His second slot was only a 53, so I guess I've got that going for me. . . .My favorite part of bowling was the appetizer of fried dill pickles that we had!

The theme park rides included Go-Karts (for the 42 inch and taller crowd, so Jason and I took turns without Will), ferris wheel, carousel, something called 360 that made me sick to my stomach, and these cool bumper boats for the under 48 inch crowd.  Will LOVED these!

Kalahari, as its name implies, has an African theme.  In addition to these statutes of animal throughout the resort, they also had a little display of animals from a local animal sanctuary.  I found it at bit disturbing, but Will liked seeing the baby kangaroos in the lobby.

The water park portion of the resort was exhaustingly fun!  We actually ran into one of my co-workers and her family at the water park.  (Ironically, another one of my co-workers is going next weekend.  I told you, this is where Chicago families get away in the winter!)  

The play area here is for kids.  Parents can play in the water areas, but can't go down the slides.   The green slide was Will's favorite.  

In addition to the big area with kid slides, there were four "body" slides and four raft slides.  Two of the raft slides had no height requirement and all of us could ride together.  Since we are old pros at the Disney "rider swap" game, we did our own version on the slides.  The Rippling Rhino family slide queued up at the same spot as our favorite slide, the Tanzanian Twister.  So, one parent rode Rhino which was alway a short line while the other ditched for Twister if the line was short enough.

 

I found this picture of the Twister on Kalahari's website.  It's an enclosed tube slide that dumps into this bowl where you circle around and around before dumping (usually disoriented and not the least bit gracefully) into the pool.

 

We had a fantastic 48 hours away, and Will proved himself to be an excellent traveler again.  No fussing in the car or needing any entertainment help.  And he slept great in the hotel for at least 10 hours each night and woke up happy each morning.  He even chose to sleep on the couch in his sleeping bag, so no one had to share a bed with him!   We will definitely be looking forward to a return trip once he has grown two more inches!

Soccer Wrap-up

The soccer season has come to an end.  Will had his last game, and all the kids received participation medals.  This was our first activity like this; luckily I knew the protocol from "Hannah's Mom," my friend, Michelle.   Will's orange team actually played Hannah's black team for the last game, so she's in our pictures too!

 

 

Will scored at least two goals in each game except the last one.  He was just running around being silly and not concentrating on the game.   I think a lot of the kids are stir crazy that we're going on about week six of below freezing temperature and snow.  In fact, Saturday morning we woke up to about 3 of the 5 inches of snow we were getting Friday night through Saturday noon.   Our street wasn't plowed, but once we got out of our subdivision the streets were fine for my all-wheel-drive car.   Jason missed the last game, because he stayed home to drop off Rachel at the kennel and pack his car up for our roadtrip.   Luckily he didn't miss much except the medal and team photo.

Chicago River

I finally braved the cold and commuted by train today.  The other days this week I have carpooled with a friend, driven myself, and worked from home.  As I walked across the river from Union Station to my office, I was amazed at the beautiful, iced-over river and had to snap a quick picture.

Sledding

Schools are closed again today due to incredibly cold temperatures and wind chill forecast for the next two days.   In anticipation of being stuck indoors for a few days, we tried to get lots of fresh air and exercise yesterday.   It was almost 30 degrees; that's practically spring!

First up was a sledding adventure.  Everyone had done a nice job of clearing their sidewalks already, so we mostly pulled or carried the sled on our way to find a "hill" to sled on.  A few houses had snow covered pavement, so I pulled Will past those houses for fun.

Ready to launch down the hill!  He is terribly afraid of getting frost bite (the school has been drilling that into the kids' head to get them to bundle up for recess), so he has his face down in this photo to keep snow from getting on it.  His cheeks were the only part of him exposed.

The snow ended up being too thick and soft for this sled, so we had a little snow ball fight and some fun climbing on this mountain that many weeks of snow plowing had left behind.  I got a decent workout hauling that sled, and later that evening we went to the indoor trampoline park for the first time.  Will was still asleep when I left for work this morning, so I think he got a good workout, too!

The frostbite fear is both good and bad.  I'm glad he's aware of the need to button up, but it does make him afraid to go outside sometimes.  He also had a breakdown when we were outside after leaving Ryan's house a few weeks ago.  He saw black on the palm of his hand and started bawling because he was certain he was going to lose his hand.  We reassured him it was just marker smudges from their drawing time, and that he should pull his hands up into his coat until we walked the one block to the car.  

Children's Museum

We made a quick trip to the Children's Museum before it closed on Saturday.  After the required stop at the train table, we moved on to the wind tunnel and the energy bike. 

Afterwards we finished our afternoon with hot chocolate and a muffin at Starbucks.  We sat at the counter and watched the barista while we ate our snack.