Bouncing and Giggling

Here we are bouncing on Rachael's crib mattress and giggling. You can see who Rachael got her "silly" from, right??

Easter- Cold and Sunny with the Bunny

Rachael enjoyed her second Easter in Michigan City with the family. We had an Easter plastic egg hunt and Grannie and Grandpa's house. She found all ten eggs. Each egg was filled with a shiny coin and sweet little note to Rachael. We enjoyed eating out this year, and after our afternoon brunch we went to Aunt Judy's to visit cousins Lisa, Scott, Abigail and Harrison and my Grandma. Rachael had fun hurling the bocce balls around the golf course that sits behind my Aunt's home. She has the "muscles of a steelworker" as Goomba Harold would say.

Lincoln Park Zoo

We took our first trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo today. We joined our friends Mara and Ana for a beautiful spring day amongst the creatures. There were no pictures taken because I was too busy wrangling up our little explorer. We enjoyed seeing the monkeys, apes, barnyard animals, and llamas. Rachael really enjoyed trying to feed her cookies to the seagulls at the picnic area. She doesn't share her mothers unnatural fear of large birds yet. We liked the gibbons best. They entertained us with acrobatic swinging. The zebras and chimpanzees seemed to be starting their "spring romance", so we decided not to stick around too long. When I was a camp counselor, the zebras started "mating" in front of my group of 7 year olds. I didn't need to relive that memory! Overall it was a great first trip to the zoo. I am sure we will be back with a camera next time!

Waterpark!

We took a trip to Lake Geneva to enjoy the warm waterpark at Timber Ridge Lodge when Marjean and Harold visited a few weekends ago. It was a great diversion from a hard cold winter...We realized after we returned that the spots that we thought were "skin sensitivity" were the start of hand, foot, and mouth, so I hope we didn't pass it to all the other kids there! Hopefully the chlorine killed the virus. Luckily, it seems like spring is peeking around the corner with the slightly warmer weather we've had the last few days. Here are some pictures of our adventure at the waterpark... Rachael also loved the giant chess board.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth...

Poor baby Rachael has hand, foot, and mouth disease and is pretty miserable. Hopefully she is at the tail end of it...We all are lacking sleep, and thank goodness Harold and Marjean are visiting to help us out!

Mommy's little helper

About a week ago, we noticed a few rather nice toys out in the alley for trash pick-up. We aren't picky, and they were in good condition. I felt like posting a note for our neighbor on how to use "freecycle". We grabbed the toys to do our part to keep them out of a landfill. After a good cleaning and check on the internet for recalls, Rachael had a new toy vacuum, school bus push toy, and a few Tonka trucks. Here is a picture of Rachael enjoying her new vacuum cleaner. "Dusty" the vacuum says things like "this place is a pigpen" and "let's clean the floor". She likes to chase me around when I vacuum, so now she has her own vacuum to push around. She vacuumed in front of our hallway mirror while having some random conversation with herself.

Skokie Exploratorium

Rachael and I met our friends Mara and Ana at the Skokie Park District Exploratorium today. Wow, what a fun place! We highly recommend it. I would have taken pictures, but Rachael was so busy, I couldn't stop to grab the camera. She love the big sized dinosaurs, scooters, legos, train table, toddler slide, play mat obstacle course, water play area, and more scooters. She loved dropping the rubber duckies, plastic dinosaurs, and rubbery crabs into the big pool of water. Just like bathtime, but bigger without the naked bottom. We colored a picture of a snowman, and she only tried to eat one crayon. The orange one. Maybe it looked too much like a carrot. Pshew.... are we tuckered out. We will definitely be visiting again when we get a chance. This is going to be a favorite spot this winter and on rainy days.