Reenactment

School is out. Gabby finished third grade, and my little Alex finished kindergarten:
to celebrate the school year coming to a close, Noah and I took the kids to a civil war reenactment. We parked the car, heard cannons firing, and made it to the fight just in time to see the troops leave the battle ground. Apparently the North won (which, we heard isn't always the case in Indiana reenactments).
After the battle, the kids got to talk to the troops (we learned that the people who do these reenactments buy all their own uniforms, tents, guns, etc. and then they travel around joining groups who share their love of the civil war).
For Noah though, the highlight of our civil war adventure was finding an aqueduct:

Oh Yeah...

Noah insists that I make mention about his big win in the lawnmower race--he took first out of 2!

Surprised in Chicago

On the spur of the moment, we decided to take advantage of having Good Friday off by heading to Chicago.

Friday was reserved for exploring the city. This is a gigantic bean at the Millennium park:
Can you see us?

Gabby and Alex were big fans of the bean.

Then it was off to see Lake Michigan--which is quite big I might add.

Then there was the token melt downs because the kids had to walk so much.

Again, Lake Michigan:

More of the city...

And then Gabby discovered the American Girl Place. Suddenly she became very excited about the TWO American Girl dolls sitting in her closet at home (which she has NEVER played with).

After prying Gabby away from the doll store, we let her hold the largest Hershey's Candy bar. All the while I was sending my little brother in Utah pictures of us to make him jealous. Somewhere near the Sears Tower (which is no longer called the Sears Tower by the way but I can't remember the new name so I'm sticking with tradition), my mom got wind from my brother that we were in Chicago. She called my phone.

"Are you in Chicago?"

"Why yes we are Mom," I replied.

"BRUCE [my step-dad] IS IN CHICAGO!!!"

"Seriously???"

So I called my s-dad and asked him nonchalantly where he was. He confirmed that he was in fact in Chicago for a Shakespeare conference. "Well that's only four hours away from our house." I said. "If we drive out there will you pay for dinner?" I added jokingly.

"Sure!"

"What hotel are you staying at?" I asked.

"The Regency Hyatt, why?"

"NO WAY!"

"WE'RE STAYING AT THE REGENCY HYATT TOO!!!"

So we got free dinner...at Giordano's which is apparently a big deal. AND we got to see family, which is an even bigger deal.

that is cheese folks:

Following dinner, we took "Grandpa Bruce" to see the big bean.

Then it was back to the hotel where Nadia, the receptionist had sent the kids night time snacks and drinks.

They were overjoyed. Now Gabby has informed me that she will only stay in Hyatts' from here on out.

Cheers!

Saturday we said our goodbyes to Grandpa and we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry (Gabby is fascinated with science-particularly with weather phenomena and they had a 40 foot tornado so we HAD to go). Some how I forgot to take a picture of Gabby with the tornado, but here are some other highlights:

Static electricity at work:
Ship deck:

Train set:

Bubbles:

Oliver was thrilled to find a river full of balls and an air pipe to shoot the balls up. He was bound and determined to get every ball up the pipe and was simply devastated when our time in that particular exhibit was over.

When first discovering the air pipe, and letting his first ball go, Noah made the mistake of telling Oliver to say "bye bye to the ball." Immediately, Oliver burst into tears until Noah showed him that he could just grab another ball.

Squirt gun for Alex:

That pretty much sums up one of the very best weekend trips we've ever had.

Bring on the Holidays!

The ornaments are on our tree (starting about half way up due to a certain one-year-old). The train was up and running but is now unplugged and de-railed (again due to said one-year-old). I even strung a garland around our front door and wound lights on a tree trunk outside our house.

As for presents, Noah believes in waiting until the last possible moment to buy them (in his mind he's saving money) so we have one gift for Gabby (an expensive set of cups) and that's it. The big present this year is plane tickets to Utah. Noah originally wanted to drive but I welled up some authentic tears and he folded.

This year's homemade siblings gifts are on their way to getting done. Alex is just about finished stapling Gabby's fabric covered bulletin board. As predicted, the staple gun was a huge hit with him.I've re-thought what Gabby's making after realizing that I'm not really up to helping her sew a tent so instead she's making Alex a batman growth chart which she'll have more fun making anyway. For Oliver, Gabby and Alex are going to help paint a picture of monkeys to hang in his room. Over all I think I've spent about $35 total on the supplies for the kids' gifts to each other, which isn't too bad.

For our neighborhood friends, we made hot chocolate-on-a-stick (directions here). Unfortunately, they were such a hit in our own family that none of them made it out the door to our neighbors. Maybe next year. . .hot chocolate-on-a-stick's biggest fan:Over the weekend we spent the evening freezing at the city parade. There were fireworks too apparently but Gabby (who was with a neighbor friend) was the only one in our family willing to brave the cold long enough to see them. This week, my goal is help the kids finish their gifts so we can all veg in front of the TV on Friday night and watch A Christmas Story.

Really Noah, You Shouldn't Have

Not to make you feel bad or anything, but my Thanksgiving holiday makes your Thanksgiving holiday look like a really long, boring business meeting. For example--did you see the Parthenon? Well, we did (and not the crappy ruined one either).

This is me with the Parthenon (below). But wait--it gets better!
Noah drove me to this really dumpy part of Nashville, Tennessee to show me something.

That's right readers--it's the Noah Liff Opera Center (always thrifty, Noah didn't want to fork out the extra money to finish spelling our last name, so he abbreviated with "Liff") For me??? Oh really Noah you shouldn't have!

So did your husband build you an opera house for Thanksgiving? I didn't think so.

I'll let you all know when I do my solo debut there but I'm afraid you'll have to pay your own way, we're a little short on funds right now after building an opera house and all...

P.S. Thanks to the Tennessee Lifferths who let us crash at their place and eat their food--we had so much fun! I wish I had pictures of Thanksgiving day with the cousins, but Noah didn't realize the camera was on manual so all those pictures look like they were taken in a cave.

What You've Missed Out On

Columbus Indiana is a melting pot and every year they celebrate that with a parade and lots of food (as all things should be celebrated in my humble opinion). Noah had the flu so the kids and I went it alone this time. Bonus: rain= short lines for food.

And then there's this--I bought the kids snow gloves which in turn became boxing gloves. Noah and I were snickering behind walls when the kids donned their boxing alter-ego attire (Spider boy vs. Kitty girl). Alex proclaimed, "This boxing is more fun than Wii boxing!"

Gabby got her first shiner (not from the boxing match) just in time for school pictures. She was creatively getting off our office chair when she some how got her foot caught in the arm rest, landing head first on a fold up chair.

We also bought pumpkins.

Apple Works

Yesterday was just another fantastic day--we're getting pretty sick of those around here. We went to Apple Works, which is a beautiful orchard about 40 minutes away from us.

Made me really want to plant my own orchard.

We had juice. . .

Carmel apples and apple dumplings. Oh my gosh, get over here right now and try the apple dumplings. Yumm.

Gabby and Alex couldn't get enough of the slide. . .

Or the rope swings.

I couldn't get enough of the photo ops.

Happy Fall everyone.