Last week was The Boy's and The Girl's spring break from school. We had been planning to visit Grandma and Grandpa Texas in Houston for our annual escape-from-Chicago-winter trip, but Uncle Chris's new baby was baptized on Easter Saturday, so we headed to the Emerald City instead, leaving The Dad at home to work.
Apparently, as anyone who reads this blog already knows, I am a brave soul to take 3 children on a 4-hour plane trip by myself. Especially because, unfortunately, The Tot woke up on the morning of our trip in a crib full of sick. The Dad and I discussed leaving The Tot at home with The Dad, but ultimately decided that he'd be happier with me. He slept most of Tuesday, both on and off the plane, but rallied on Wednesday. Unfortunately, he got sick again on Thursday, and woke up on Friday morning screaming. I took him to see the folks at Wallingford Pediatrics, around the corner from our flat, on Friday morning, and they very kindly squeezed a sick out-of-towner walk-in into their schedule. The doctor we saw, Dr. Hadley, was wonderful with The Tot, getting on the floor to do the exam and waiting until he warmed up to her to let her do the diagnostic checks she needed to perform. I was very impressed, even The Tot's regular peds are not that good. As it turns out, he had a viral bug and no ear infection, and was just crabby from feeling crummy. Unfortunately, he later passed his bug onto Grandma Texas.
Because Uncle Chris still lives in a vertical 2-bedroom apartment, and because the thought of 3 kids in a hotel room gives Mama fits, we stayed in a little apartment in nearby Wallingford. So cute! After we settled in to the apartment, we walked up to Wallingford Center for cupcakes (and a latte for me) at Trophy, and then down to the park to enjoy the rare (so they tell me) warm, sunny day. Only in Seattle would you see a mom nonchalantly nursing a 3-year-old in a public park; Chicago is not nearly that crunchy.
More after the jump.
Uncle Chris picked us up for dinner; we joined Aunt J. and Baby N. at Ivar's Seafood on the pier. It was too cold by then to eat our fish-and-chips outside, but we took The Boy, The Girl, and The Tot down to the drive-in pier to see the boats. The Boy wasn't "so sure about this." And The Girl kept disappearing among the tables on the patio, which made my heart flutter, especially as there had been an attempted child abduction at Pike Place Market only a day earlier.
Grandma Texas arrived on Tuesday night. She had rented a car, so she drove us all down to Pike Place Market on Wednesday morning. I had given each of the kids some spending money, and The Girl was especially excited at the thought of spending it at Pike Place Market. The Boy had regaled her with tales of the market from his trip last year. They both bought stuffed snakes and Seattle market t-shirts. I talked to pottery vendors about the art of throwing while admiring their work and drooled over the beautiful produce. We had lunch at 3 Sisters cafe (The Boy complained), and got mini donuts and lattes at the Daily Dozen. Then we met my old friend Valerie at Seattle Center, where there was an indoor carnival of sorts. The Boy and The Girl tired themselves out on the various bouncy castles ($15 for 2 all-access wristbands? priceless), got twisty balloon shapes, and The Girl got her face painted as well. The Tot took a naplet while Valerie and I talked. We visited Uncle Chris and Aunt J. at their apartment for dinner.
On Thursday, we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, and drove the 11 miles down the road to Poulsbo, a seaside village with Scandinavian roots. We stopped for pastry at Sluy's Bakery, spent an hour looking at and buying used kids' books at the Book Stop, and had the best mac & cheese in town at MorMor's Bistro.
Our adventure for Friday was to Mecca: the flagship Nordstrom, where we had lunch at the loudest Nordstrom Cafe I've ever been to, and bought The Girl and The Tot shoes. Afterward, we headed out toward the airport to visit the Museum of Flight. Both The Girl and The Tot fell asleep in the car and while The Girl slept for awhile with me in the car when we arrived, The Tot woke up and wanted to go with Grandma Texas and The Boy into the museum. At the museum, we checked out the Blackbird and other amazing planes, made the hot air balloon go up, and test piloted a mini Blue Angel plane. All of the museum's docents were men in their early 60s, wearing khaki pants, blue buttondown shirts and navy blue blazers; an entire docent staff of retired enginerds. For the record, I am very thankful for those enginerds, but it made me chuckle nonetheless.
At the end of the day, Grandpa Texas arrived from his 6-hour flight from Connecticut, and we went to dinner with him, Grandma Texas, and Uncle Chris. Aunt J. and Baby N. stayed at home to work on projects. We ate flat-bread pizzas at the cavernous Bella Terra. The Girl, a normally adventurous eater, does not like pizza, but still managed to try several pieces. Afterwards, Uncle Chris chased The Boy, The Girl, and The Tot around the lawns of Lincoln High School.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 06, 2009
Mama-Girl Playdate
Yesterday, we had a family outing in the morning -- to Supercuts in Six Corners for haircuts for The Boy, The Girl and The Dad. The Tot played and I read Nylon. After that exciting morning, we headed up Cicero to Whole Foods - Sauganash to kill two birds with one stone: lunch at the grill and a 1/2 gallon of milk from the dairy case.
Once home again, I headed out again to Jo-Ann Fabrics to buy lining fabrics for my latest large-scale sewing projects: making pretty bags to sell at the GIPNA Fine Arts & Crafts Fair. The Tot took a nap and The Boy wanted to stay at home, so The Girl came with me and we made it a little Mama-The Girl playdate. She helpfully picked our fabrics with me, and then we braved the hail-like white substance that was then falling from the sky in advance of the April snow shower, and hurried over to Starbucks in the same strip mall for a snack. She got kids' hot cocoa with whipped cream and a blueberry muffin. She very nicely shared her hot cocoa with me and we talked about what we were going to do at her birthday party in a month, and what we should do in Seattle this week.
Then we went home. When we arrived at our car on the other side of the parking lot, it was parked to a VW Beetle. A pink VW Beetle. TG: "See Mama! I told you there were pink cars!" This pink VW Bettle had ears and a pug nose on its front and a curly tail on its back. The license plate read "JIMS PIG." She's still talking about it.
Once home again, I headed out again to Jo-Ann Fabrics to buy lining fabrics for my latest large-scale sewing projects: making pretty bags to sell at the GIPNA Fine Arts & Crafts Fair. The Tot took a nap and The Boy wanted to stay at home, so The Girl came with me and we made it a little Mama-The Girl playdate. She helpfully picked our fabrics with me, and then we braved the hail-like white substance that was then falling from the sky in advance of the April snow shower, and hurried over to Starbucks in the same strip mall for a snack. She got kids' hot cocoa with whipped cream and a blueberry muffin. She very nicely shared her hot cocoa with me and we talked about what we were going to do at her birthday party in a month, and what we should do in Seattle this week.
Then we went home. When we arrived at our car on the other side of the parking lot, it was parked to a VW Beetle. A pink VW Beetle. TG: "See Mama! I told you there were pink cars!" This pink VW Bettle had ears and a pug nose on its front and a curly tail on its back. The license plate read "JIMS PIG." She's still talking about it.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Score at the Treasure Store
Sometimes I wonder why anyone shops retail for kids' clothing. Sometimes I wonder why I shop retail for kids' clothing (although I did get The Boy a fabulous t-shirt at Beth T.'s Boden trunk show yesterday). After the trunk show, I met The Fam at the the park and spent a good hour chasing little kids up and down slides. Then I headed to our local Treasure Store to find something for us all to wear to my nephew's baptism in Seattle next weekend.
The purpose of the trip was not to find name-brands, but to find pieces for The Boy and The Girl that would coordinate with an existing outfit (a gift) for The Tot. And I got lucky. Found a dress for The Girl that both has pink in it and coordinates with the yellow and blue of The Tot's set, as well as a pair of khaki dress pants in The Boy's size and an Arc-en-Ciel (name brand) blue dress shirt for The Boy. Also got a pair of cleats for The Boy's new Monday afternoon soccer club and a pair of dress shoes for me to go with the $6 new-with-tags Ann Taylor dress I got last week during my other T.S. outing with Debra.
The purpose of the trip was not to find name-brands, but to find pieces for The Boy and The Girl that would coordinate with an existing outfit (a gift) for The Tot. And I got lucky. Found a dress for The Girl that both has pink in it and coordinates with the yellow and blue of The Tot's set, as well as a pair of khaki dress pants in The Boy's size and an Arc-en-Ciel (name brand) blue dress shirt for The Boy. Also got a pair of cleats for The Boy's new Monday afternoon soccer club and a pair of dress shoes for me to go with the $6 new-with-tags Ann Taylor dress I got last week during my other T.S. outing with Debra.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Spaghetti Dinner
The Independence Park Advisory Council has been running a spaghetti dinner and silent auction for a many years, to help fund special projects and improvements at the park itself. Last night marked the 20th anniversary of the IPAC spaghetti dinner. The Dad and I have been around for 6 of those years, although we have not attended the dinner every year.
Despite the foul weather and the conflict with St. Ed's Big Red Auction, the evening was well-attended. The Boy saw two of his classmates and hung around with them. The Girl was happy to hang with her older brother's friends. They had two entertainers -- a Frank Sinatra imitator singing on the main floor, and belly dancers from nearby Arabesque, demonstrating and performing in the auditorium on the third floor. The Girl took part in the demonstration, but commented later that she didn't think it would be comfortable for one of the dancers with all the stuff she was wearing (arm bands, hair pieces, etc.). The Dad and I saw and chatted with many of our neighbors and contributed to the fundraising.
Despite the foul weather and the conflict with St. Ed's Big Red Auction, the evening was well-attended. The Boy saw two of his classmates and hung around with them. The Girl was happy to hang with her older brother's friends. They had two entertainers -- a Frank Sinatra imitator singing on the main floor, and belly dancers from nearby Arabesque, demonstrating and performing in the auditorium on the third floor. The Girl took part in the demonstration, but commented later that she didn't think it would be comfortable for one of the dancers with all the stuff she was wearing (arm bands, hair pieces, etc.). The Dad and I saw and chatted with many of our neighbors and contributed to the fundraising.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Tapping the Trees
Have I ever mentioned how much I love maple syrup? I love maple syrup. Not the colored, flavored corn syrup that comes in a funny plastic bottle at Jewel, but the real stuff that is made from tree sap and tastes like the outdoors. So when I learned that there was a Maple Syrup Festival at North Park Nature Village last weekend, I had to pack up the kids and The Dad and go.
It was amazingly crowded when we got there at 10:15, with extremely limited parking (we found a spot in the lot by the recycling center) and folks backed up into the fire lane. They had vendors in the fire lane selling everything from coffee to garlic to Peruvian tchotchkes (The Dad and I split a coffee from Stivers Coffee and successfully diverted the kids from their requests for various noisemakers from the Peruvian wares), but the real action of the festival was inside the nature village center and behind it along its trail.
Did you know that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup? That sap is 97% water and 3% sugar? That they boil the sap for 8 hours to concentrate the sugar enough to make it palatable? That the amber color comes from the sugar carmelizing during the boiling? I learned all this from the volunteer at the head of the trail. The Boy, The Girl and The Tot were less interested -- they all wanted to get pancakes (with real maple syrup!) from the tent set up in the parking lot. A local church's men's club was running the food tent as a fundraiser; 2 pancakes and 3 sausage links went for $3.50/plate. We ate 3 between the five of us (The Girl had decided that she didn't want any).
The Boy and The Girl also made a stick and string craft of some sort, and were assisted by our former neighbor, who is now 14, tall and willowy. We never would have recognized him if he didn't recognize us. How did these kids get to be so big already? We went to the festival partially with our current neighbors, whose daughter is right between The Boy and The Girl in age. The Girl and our neighbor had such fun dancing to the tunes of the folk band playing in the nature center itself. The Boy ran into one of his classmates during the concert also, and shyly went up to say hello to her. It was a fun outing.
It was amazingly crowded when we got there at 10:15, with extremely limited parking (we found a spot in the lot by the recycling center) and folks backed up into the fire lane. They had vendors in the fire lane selling everything from coffee to garlic to Peruvian tchotchkes (The Dad and I split a coffee from Stivers Coffee and successfully diverted the kids from their requests for various noisemakers from the Peruvian wares), but the real action of the festival was inside the nature village center and behind it along its trail.
Did you know that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup? That sap is 97% water and 3% sugar? That they boil the sap for 8 hours to concentrate the sugar enough to make it palatable? That the amber color comes from the sugar carmelizing during the boiling? I learned all this from the volunteer at the head of the trail. The Boy, The Girl and The Tot were less interested -- they all wanted to get pancakes (with real maple syrup!) from the tent set up in the parking lot. A local church's men's club was running the food tent as a fundraiser; 2 pancakes and 3 sausage links went for $3.50/plate. We ate 3 between the five of us (The Girl had decided that she didn't want any).
The Boy and The Girl also made a stick and string craft of some sort, and were assisted by our former neighbor, who is now 14, tall and willowy. We never would have recognized him if he didn't recognize us. How did these kids get to be so big already? We went to the festival partially with our current neighbors, whose daughter is right between The Boy and The Girl in age. The Girl and our neighbor had such fun dancing to the tunes of the folk band playing in the nature center itself. The Boy ran into one of his classmates during the concert also, and shyly went up to say hello to her. It was a fun outing.
 |
| From Blogger Photos |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
