Day Eleven

Today was a crafty day.  We used our bus pass and headed down to the our home away from home Michael's for the 5th Passport to Fun activity.  This time the country was Canada.  Then after a quick errand to get me a pedometer (which I still haven't read the instructions for so it isn't accurately counting my steps) we headed back to our neck of the woods for a crafty afternoon.  We completed part of a birthday present for a birthday party Meghan is attending this weekend, we did several iron-ons for shirts and a head band for Meghan and we embellished another pair of flip flops.  I think perhaps the 5-6 hours I've spent at Michael's in the last 10 days is starting to seep into my brain.  As for Meghan's pedometer, well we're having some problems it seems to keep getting reset and so we lose track of the number of steps she's taken, but we're working on it. 

Today's academics:

• I'll get back to this

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage, by Gyles Brandreth

Today's Images:

Hanging out at the bus stop waiting for a bus

Canada Passport to Fun

Today was the Canada Passport to Fun activity. We made Mr.Moose. Mr.Moose is made out of a wooden spoon,brown paint,a brown pom-pom,two brown pipe cleaners,ribbon,and two googly eyes. While the paint was drying I made the hat swap. The hat swap was a red and white maple leaf. You make a maple leaf out of red foam and a bigger maple leaf out of white foam. Then you glue the red leaf on top of the white leaf. After that I finished my moose. I can't wait to have more fun at Michael's!

Day Ten

Meghan spent much of today with her nose burried in the final Harry Potter book.  I spent some time reading myself, but I also found time to help her bling out a pair of flip flops for the upcoming holiday weekend and a few other smaller projects.  My biggest project was cooking okra for the first time and doing it quite successfully I might add.  I was nervous since I wasn't frying it that it would come out slimey and it came out delicious with no hint of slime, I also whipped up an old favorite dish which consist of meat and potatoes.  The okra became a necessary project because I bought a pound of okra on sunday and told Meghan that was her birthday dessert.  We also managed to squeeze in three bus rides hither and yon.  I can't believe July will be upon us in barely 24 hours. 

Today's Academics:

• I'll have to update later.

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage, by Gyles Brandreth

Today's Images:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I love J.K. Rowling & her books. Today I read a bunch of chapters from one J.K. Rowling's books: Harry Pottter & the Deathly Hallows. It is interesting so far. I saw part one of the movie and I can't wait to see part two. By a matter of fact I saw part one on DVD. The DVD was mine I got it from the easter bunny. My mom promised me she would take me to see Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows part two in theaters if I finished my copy of the book. I can't wait to read more!

Day Nine

Today involved more bus rides than we've ever had in a single day.  We were actually very organized and accomplished a lot in a single day.  We headed out for another Michaels Passport to Fun activity, this time it was the Bahamas.  From there we were off to the library to check in with the summer reading program and return a book.  Then we headed back towards home to meet up with my mom so we could head downtown for the ultimate destination: Taste of Chicago.  A good time was had by all and lot of food was eaten by all.  The sun was out in a big way which made it more than a little warm but in the shade it was beautiful.  Meghan has discovered the joy of churros.  Tomorrow will hopefully be fun, but perhaps a little bit more low key, I'm ready for a rest.  We broke out Meghan's new pedometer, but unfortunately it got left behind at my mom's so step counts will have to wait.

Today's Academics:

• Write a letter to one of the Goddess Girls from Mt. Olympus

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage, by Gyles Brandreth

Today's Images:

You can't quite make out the pool of cranberries they are standing in!

The Taste of Chicago and Michael's Passport to Fun

Today I went to The Taste of Chicago. I had some yummy sweet corn and a slice of yummy pizza. I also tried a beignet and some different styles of churros and had a bag of potato chips. I had a bunch of drink samples. Before we went to The Taste of Chicago we did the Passport to Fun activity that was happening today. We made can hugs and the hat swap was a mini flower lei. Did I mention I won a tic-tac-toe game aganst my mom (who should be the queen of tic-tac-toe) and won a nice sierra mist natural cooler. At the tic-tac-toe game instead of x's and o's there are green and yellow bean bags into a wooden chart.

Day Eight

Today was low key, it was raining quite a bit in the morning, but we did venture out to my parents house and worked on planting some plants for my mom and other projects.  Miss Meghan also learned a bit about etiquette after receiving a multitude of gifts for her birthday.  We also got some use out of our CTA bus pass.  Not every day of the summer of fun can be full of excitement and thrills.  But it is important to get some quality time with new birthday presents and even to occasionally watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

Today's Academics:

• Writing a good thank you note
• Book reports on completed books for the library reading program

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain, by Joan Holub and Susan Williams
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage, by Gyles Brandreth

Today's Images:

Using My Virtual Zhu-Zhu Pets

Today I got batteries for my virtual zhu-zhu pets. you need 3 AAA batteries for each zhu-zhu and mom didn't hane any AAA batteries only AA batteries. So when we went to my grandmas house today we looked to see if they had any since they had so many batteries there.They didn't. So on our way home we stopped at walgreens to get batteries. Then when we got home mom put in the batteries and I started playing with Jilly while mom put in the batteries for Mr.Squiggles. Then mom played with Jilly and I played with Mr.Squiggles. Then me and mom traded zhu-zhu pets. I can't wait to play some more with my virtual zhu-zhu pets!

Day Seven

Today was all about the birthday girl.  We started off with brunch at Connie's Pizza.  Took a break from the birthday extravaganza to go to church and continued with the birthday activities this afternoon, including trying out a new pair of roller blades and visiting with our doggy pal Dakota.  Of course no birthday is complete without cake and candles and in fact this morning there was a muffin with a candle in it, because really can there be too much singing of happy birthday?  Tomorrow the summer of fun returns to something resembling normal.  One of Meghan's gifts was a pedometer and a pedometer activity book which we are looking forward to breaking out and also to tracking our steps and doing some mathematical comparisons.  I can barely stay awake to recap the day long extravaganza since I was up last night at 1:18am to take this picture:

Today's Academics:

• Who can think about academics when there is birthday celebrating to do?

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling
• Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain, by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage, by Gyles Brandreth

Today's Images:

The Birthday Muffin

My Great Birthday

Today was my 8th birthday. I got like 3000 presents. One was this really cool virtual zhu-zhu pet. You can feed it,make it dance,and play games. If you have 2 of them you can play even more games. I can't wait untill this very day next on my 9th birthday so I can get even more great birthday presents. Thats one of my great birthday presents I got on this special day full of fun (and opening presents)!

Day Six

Today was actually busier than expected and very weekendy and different from how we've been spending our days so far this summer.  We didn't once set foot on a form of public transportation.  But it is the weekend and it is also Meghan's birthday weekend, so it's a little bit of an adjustment for us.  We did make it to Michaels for Passport to Fun and today's country was Egypt which was very cool even if we were a bit rushed.  We also had lunch with my uncle which included a ginormous dish of ice cream when the waitress heard it was Meghan's birthday.  As the birthday extravaganza continued there was shopping and then dinner with my mom.  Meghan prefers to celebrate her birthday as much as possible so the party will continue at various points throughout the weekend. 

Today's Academics:

• Too much birthday no time for school.

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage, by Gyles Brandreth

Today's Images:

The Day Before My Birthday

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm not going to see my uncle for my birthday so instead my mom and I had lunch with him today. We went to Yia-Yia's and I got mini-waffles, my mom got a skillet and my uncle got pancakes. I gobbled up my waffles, because they were super YUMMY! Then I got ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate sauce for my birthday dessert. Afterwards I got a grape dum-dum and then I got my birthday present from my uncle. The present was four zhu-zhu pets. The Zhu-Zhu pets were really cute, they were the cutest ones I ever saw. After that we met my grandma at Kohls and I got some really cool new dresses. Before I had all of this cool birthday fun, I did the Egypt Passport to Fun activity at Michaels. I made hieroglyphics with model magic and paint markers. Then I made a mummy hat swap out of tissue paper, googly eyes and a clothes pin. That was how I had lots of fun on my birthday eve!

Day Five

Where to begin, I guess the best place would be the beginning.  Today involved my most ambitious plans for the Summer of Fun to date ( I know it's been five days it isn't really much to compare to.)  But I decided that we would get up early and head out to the burbs for the Midsommar Festival (Swedish Days) in Geneva, IL.  I used to spend many days every summer with my grandparents at Swedish Days when I was a kid and I knew Meghan would enjoy it.  My grandmother grew up in Geneva and then lived one town away the rest of her life and I spent all of my summers out there.  (Swedish Days incidentally is one of the oldest if not the oldest of the summer festivals in Illinois.)  For us it meant a bus ride to downtown and then a peaceful train ride Geneva.  No traffic, no hassle and  the bulk of the festival activities were just down the block from the train station.  The weather threatened rain all day, but never rained, it was actually chilly but I'm never one to complain about cool weather.  We enjoyed shopping through the sidewalk sales and all of the kids activities on the County Courthouse Lawn.  We watched the kids' day parade.  We ate food from a food tent.  Then we headed for the carnival.  The carnival was hands down the highlight of the trip for Miss Meghan and I got a bargain, for $20 she got unlimited rides until 4pm and she's big enough and brave to go by herself all I had to do was watch and take pictures.  With one break for me at Starbucks, because port-a-potties are yucky and besides 3+ hours at a carnival definately called for coffee.  The biggest glitch in our day occured when the excitement got to Meghan and she pouted when it was time to go so we ended up missing the train I intended to take home.  We caught the next one by virtually running through town, I'm sure we were a sight, especially since she was wearing a viking helmet.  But we made it safely on to the train and were headed home after a great day, then two stops down the line the train lost power and we were stuck.  We stayed stuck for more than an hour, until the next train could come down the track, all of us could deboard and our train could be hooked up to the other train and be pushed into Chicago.  This required a monumental amount of patience and made our one hour train trip more than three hours long.  Which resulted in a lot of this:

14 hours after we left we got home.  It was dark we were tired but her highness still declared it a huge success and hopes we'll make Swedish Days an annual event.

Today's Academics:

• Learning all about patience when things don't go as they should.

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage, by Gyles Brandreth

Today's Images:

Swedish Days Kids' Day

Today we went to Swedish Days because it was Kids' Day. Swedish days was way far out in the suburbs in Geneva, Illinois. We got there by a train and we rode on the very top way high up. We got off at the Geneva station and started looking at the stores and tents outside. Then we went over and actually did some activities. Some of the activities were spinning a wheel and winning a prize and brushing a stuffed animals teeth and making a booboo bear. Then we went to the Rosemauling show and I also got a viking hat. From there we went to look at the carnival. Then it was time for the kids day parade. The parade was cool! After that I had some yummy sweet corn. Then we went to the carnival and I got a wrist band that let me go on any ride until 4pm. I went on zero gravity and a little roller coaster and the raiders and the fun house (that wasn't very fun in the end.) I went on lots of other rides too. Then my wrist band ran out and I did the power jump across the street. Then we went back to the train and at the third stop from Geneva that train broke down and we sat there for more than an hour. At 7pm another train came and hooked up with us and pushed us all the way back to Chicago. This was the most fun we had this summer so far!

Passport to Fun Germany

Today I did another Passport to Fun workshop at Michael's. This one was on Germany. We made Loden hats. We made them out of green constrution paper and a feather. Before we made the hats we made hat swaps. The hat swaps were made out of little bells & red,blue & gold ribbon. I cant wait to do another Passport to fun workshop!

Day Four

The summer of fun continues.  We slept in again but then got a quick start to our morning heading for the bus downtown and back to Michael's for another Passport to Fun activity.  This time Meghan made crafts from Germany with complicated directions which took all of the brain power the store employees and myself could muster to figure out.  We made a quick stop for nourishment at Panera before heading down the street to Target to do some birthday shopping for the one of us who is turning 8 on sunday.  That accomplished it was finally time to make pasta salad, I've only been talking about it for days.  Actually it turned out quite delicious I made my own white wine garlic vinegrette and added peas, carrots, salami and sun-dried tomatoes.  We followed that up with some of popsicles from yesterday.   Of course we got good use out of our 30 day bus pass taking 6 different buses to get around. Tonight we plan to turn in early since our trek of fun starts off bright and early in the morning. 

Today's Academics:

Write a letter to one of the professors at Hogwarts

Meghan's Current Book(s):

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling

Rachel's Current Book(s):

Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage, by Gyles Brandreth

Today's Images: