Easter Baskets for Older Kids

Continuing in the theme of "oh, yeah, that happened a bit ago," here's what our Easter egg hunt looked like this year.

The kids are now 13.5 and 11.75 years old. Roughly. Nea asked whether we were having an egg hunt this year, which was a reasonable question, as we have been out of town for at least the last 3 Easters. It’s been awhile. I wanted to mix it up a little, since they aren’t quite as excited about candy as they were a few years ago. Boo has braces, so that also complicates sugar consumption.

So I cut out 11 pink paper squares and 11 yellow. Put those in 22 of the eggs. Filled the rest of the eggs with some candy. It was pretty wet out, so we hid the eggs in the house. Oma and Opa helped. Boy, Opa wanted to make finding the eggs super difficult!

Once they found the important clue eggs, they had to unscramble the letters to find their Easter baskets.

If you want a little brain teaser, these were the two sets of clues. (answers at bottom of post)

A B E I I L M N N U V

A D L M N O O R R U Y

Oddly, Boo had a bit of trouble finding hers (pink clues). I didn’t think that part would be particularly challenging. It was under a reusable grocery bag in the back.

This is Nea’s basket. A wrapped present from a local boutique (beaded bracelet, seen in second photo), a giant jar of capers, a book, self-sealing water balloons (sort of a gift for me, frankly, knowwhatImean, fellow parents?!), and gum. She’s been eating the capers as a snack, in a bowl with a spoon. As one does.

Boo’s basket had seaweed snacks, a trashy magazine, facial wipes, running shorts (wrapped, shown separately), and gum. 

[answers to the word scramble]

Traveling to Springfield with kids

Note: I’m stealing a lot of this content from my old buddy, old pal Suzanne, of book club fame.

Illinois State Capitol Dome, with welcoming statue

For those of you in Illinois with some long weekends on the horizon, may I suggest Springfield? It's very kid-friendly, teaches them about their civic duties, and most of it is being paid for by your tax dollars. Might as well go see what they are doing for us.

On the way down, assuming you start in Chicago, you can hit Pontiac, IL. Cute Route 66 museum (free!) and a good diner called Baby Bull's. 

In Springfield, visit:

• Illinois State Capitol (free tours!) See portraits of all the former Illinois governors, both currently jailed and dead.
• Old State Capitol (free tours!) 
• Lincoln Museum Come for the history, but stay for the bizarre future-o-rama theater productions.
• Lincoln’s home (free tours!) Be amazed by the air conditioning! Part of a whole Colonial Williamsburg-like neighborhood.
• Illinois State Museum (also freeeeee!) 
• Prairie Archives Old books piled high to the ceiling. Right around the corner from the Feed Store, which is across from the Old State Capital building.
• The Feed Store for lunch (soup even in July!).
• Charlie Parker’s for breakfast – home of the 16” pancake.
• Washington Park and its playground. It was 105 degrees when we were there, but we played anyway. Truly a sign of a good playground. 

And, if you feel like going on to St. Louis from there, I've heard very good things. I haven't been there (Except for a job interview once. Don't know what I was thinking, exactly.), so I have no advice, but Suzanne can set you up!

The portrait of John Peter Altgeld, best known for being Illinois only governor with any moral fiber

Nea telling John Wilkes Booth that he's a bad, bad man

How we plan to survive this summer

I'm sure this is probably normal for plenty of families. Right? At least, for families in which one parent works full-time and one who works part-time at home. Here's the current summer schedule for the kids.

June:

• One week at home (Monday-Wednesday) with a young babysitter from down the block.
• Thursdays with Oma.
• Two weeks at a park district camp near us, but not our actual resident one (which we didn't like last summer). This includes four visits to pools in neighboring suburbs.
• Two sessions weekly with a tutor for Nea, working on literacy and math.
• One session weekly with our private speech and language pathologist.
• Fridays, hang out with me.

July:

• One week at home (Monday-Wednesday) with a young babysitter from down the block.
• One week full-time at a YMCA. This includes at least one pool visit. I won a buy-one-week-get-one-free deal, so this is a good price.
• One week full-time at Camp Invention, a science camp the girls attended last year, too.
• Thursdays with Oma. Except when she is at knitting camp.
• Two sessions weekly with a tutor for Nea, working on literacy and math.
• One session weekly with our private speech and language pathologist.
• As time allows, Nea will go to Extended School Year classes, which are a joke, but she gets an additional 45 minutes of speech weekly there. Assuming they can work with our schedule. Right now I think she'll go 12 days out of a possible 20.
• Fridays, hang out with me.

August:

• I'm taking some time off, which I'll need after trying to figure out who I'm driving where in July.
• One week at home (Monday-Wednesday) with a young babysitter from down the block.
• Possibly some gymnastics camp and swim lessons.
• Thursdays with Oma, plus a couple extra days just before school starts.
• Two sessions weekly with a tutor for Nea, working on literacy and math.
• One session weekly with our private speech and language pathologist.
• Fridays, hang out with me.

I hope someday this will just be some confusing weird memory of how ridiculous our summers used to be.

Wild Child I and Wild Child II

photo: Whizzer

Thanks to Corporate America, we were at Six Flags Great America today. And boy am I exhausted. The kids did:

Kiddie Rides
Porky’s Buzzy Beez
Spacely’s Sproket Rockets (small roller coaster)
Big Red Cars
Big Red Planes
Dorothy’s Rosy Tea Cups
Bouncin’ With Wags
Looney Trotter (train)

Family Rides
Big Easy Balloons
Ricochet
Fiddler’s Fling
Rue Le Dodge (bumper cars, in the dark with a black light)
Roaring Rapids (water rafting ride)
The Jester’s Wild Ride
Sky Trek Tower (rotating tower for views of the landscape and park)
Whizzer (the tamest of the large roller coasters)
Columbia Carousel (merry-go-round, twice)
East River Crawler (twice)

photo: East River Crawler

And we shot foam balls around in one of the kid areas. And we steered around little toy boats and tiny monster trucks.

For the record, the official Six Flags site is pathetic and weak. For actual photos and info, see http://www.sfgamworld.com/, self-billed as “the largest unofficial site devoted to Six Flags Great America.”

Wow. I think I’ll go to bed now.

Signs of fall

N brought out the down comforters last night. Ahhhh. Nothing like the warm embrace of some winter bedding. This immediately brings out two games that summer never sees.

Evening game: A comforter-covered "Blanket Monster" Papa chases two squealing girls around the bedrooms.

Morning game: Mama tries to read with one leg supporting the comforter into a teepee-shape, while two giggling girls play underneath.

Helpful tips for childrens' birthday parties

1. Too many activities are perhaps overkill, but one or two games or organized fun events are helpful.
   
2. If you are starting the party at 1 or 2 pm but plan to serve a full meal, mention it in the invitation.
   
3. If a lot of people will be smoking right next to the kids, mention it in the invitation? Or something?
   
4. If you said “no gifts please” don’t prominently display the presents that were brought.
   
5. Anything over a pound of candy per kid to take home is excessive.
   
6. Filling the goodie bag with toys that will break and become landfill within 5 minutes is not the goal.
   
7. Champagne party poppers are a bad idea for the under 6 set. See the warning label for details.
   
   I’m sure I’ve forgotten plenty of tips. Let me know what you have experienced first-hand at parties. All of the above happened at a party we attended yesterday. Unreal.

Thrifty parenting

I went downtown with the kids today. We took the train. Kids ride free all summer on Metra – did you know that? I didn’t. The conductor never came to collect my fare, either. So, that was free. Then N picked us up, since he worked a half day. We parked by Buckingham Fountain and ate the picnic I had packed. The meter was broken, so that was free. We drove to Navy Pier and parked. Went to the Children’s Museum, which is free for my company’s employees. We then went to the Shanghai Circus - Gold show, also free, through someone at N’s work (let me know if you want the info). Spent $6.50 on healthy snacks there (popcorn, cotton candy). Paid $16 on parking.

So, we saved:
$3 (train)
0.50 (parking meter)
$36 (Children’s Museum)
$75 (Shanghai Circus – Gold)
$114.50 TOTAL

And spent just over $20 for a lovely day downtown.

Fun things to do with kids

Idea #1: If you are looking for children’s books in other languages, some of them obscure, check out the Big Universe site.

Czech? Check. French and Spanish, mais si! German? Nein! Figures.

They also have English, of course. Might be fun to browse around with the kids.

Idea #2: Need something more interactive, but still sorta techno? Set up your video camera to feed into the TV, so the kids can dance around and watch themselves live! On TV! Amusement for a bare minimum of 30 minutes. Plus, you can secretly tape their antics.