Chicago Mini-Adventure

This past weekend Eric needed to scout a location in Chicago for a shoot he has next month, and we figured, why not make a little weekend trip out of it?  So we did.

We drank lots of coffee, did a little shopping, got myself a spiffy new jacket, ate delicious sushi in a very dark restaurant, saw a good movie, enjoyed breakfast at a wicked-awesome cafe and got caught up in the coolest antique shop ever.  All in all, a very successful getaway for parents of two toddlers.

 

Butterflies v.2

This week, we visited butterflies for the second year in a row. The boys loved it so much last year, that we had to go again. Here, a local indoor/outdoor sculpture and garden park has a butterfly exhibit every spring.  During March and April, thousands of butterflies are hatched and released in a large habitat, and guests are able to walk around this habitat and see a wide variety of butterflies up close. This year, we didn't think things through and ended up going during spring break which made it much busier than usual, but the kids still had fun. After seeing the butterflies, we spent some time outside in the children's outdoor park and then ate lunch together before heading home. Things like this make me love our little city so much more.

Making the Best Of It

It's no secret, I am totally over winter.  I am more than ready to put the winter gear away, play in warm weather, and be outside more.  Unfortunately, Michigan is still covered in white and instead of moping about the house, we decided to get out in it.  So my mother-in-law and I took the boys sledding.  We were out for about an hour, which is pretty much the perfect amount of time.  The boys had a blast and there were just a few tears when snow ended up on faces.

Celebrating Africa

The whole reason for our weekend getaway was to attend a party that our adoption agency hosts every year.  This was the first time we've ever attending, because this is the first year I thought the boys would really like going.  It's called Celebrating Africa and it is an entire afternoon listening to African music, eating ethnic food, making ethnic crafts and watching an African dance group.  

When we arrived there was a man and woman singing and playing drums as people mingled.  Atticus was immediately drawn to them both and just stood there watching them for so long.  After the majority of the guests had arrived, which was probably upwards of 150, the man and woman got out small drums and spent some time teaching the kids a song to sing and play on the drums.  The boys are still singing it on a daily basis.

Towards the end of the party, an African dance group was introduced and performed several different dancers, and once they were done, took the rest of the time to teach the children a welcome dance.  Unfortunately, the party took place right over nap time, so by the end of the event, both boys were pretty worn out and ready to head home.  

But one of the best parts of the entire party was seeing our agent again along with our Congolese lawyer, who was also the woman who escorted Baxter and Atticus home.  This was the first time any of us had seen her since that day at the airport over two years ago.  I won't lie, I teared up a bit upon seeing her.  She's just tied to so many emotional memories, it's hard not to get a little emotional.  It also was hard to not get emotional as I saw my kids play with so many other kids of the same heritage as them.  I definitely think that this is something that we are going to make an annual tradition.  It's just too important not to.

And if pictures aren't enough, Eric put together a little montage on his phone of our trip.

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Chicago Adventure

Eric's parents needed a ride to the airport in Chicago, and we saw an opportunity for a mini family vacation.  Eric only worked a half day on Thursday so we headed to Chicago Thursday afternoon.  After dropping his parents off at the airport we went straight to our hotel.  It was pretty late and we knew that the boys had a pretty busy day ahead of them on Friday.  

Our first stop of Friday was Shedd Aquarium.  We weren't sure how much the boys would like it, but it turned out to be very kid friendly with a life-size submarine, climbing rocks and slides, and an entire room of water tables.  Needless to say we had to practically drag them out.  Yes, there was a lot of fish, but for $16 it was well worth the 3+ hours we spent there.

After the aquarium, we headed out to lunch but chose a place that required some public transportation.  Both boys were beyond excited to ride the L train.  At every platform they were bursting with anticipation.  If the aquarium wasn't so awesome, we probably could have just ridden the L all day long.  Both Eric and I were really impressed with how well they did being so busy, walking so much and going without naps.  It was definitely encouraging and I am actually looking forward to going on another trip soon.

Okay, so I guess I can't say that they went the whole day without naps.  Once we were back in the car it took them a whopping 60 seconds to fall asleep.  From there, we headed further south to Indianapolis for a party that our adoption agency was throwing.  More on that very soon.

Christmas Time

Since I'm so behind, here is a peak into what our holiday season looked like, including getting our Christmas tree, extended family parties, Christmas at home and Christmas with our families.  On your mark, get set, go!

Just your average Christmas holiday.  The only difference, at least from most people, is that we had between 9 and 17 people living with us for two weeks.  So maybe it wasn't your average Christmas holiday, it may have been a little unusual, but we liked it that way.