pumpkin patch.

My parents came to visit for my birthday weekend and we spent one day doing one of my favorite fall activities -- visiting a local pumpkin farm. The day was unseasonably warm (80 degrees on October 8th!).  We had a great time taking a hayride out to the pumpkin patch, eating cider and donuts, playing in corn, running through hay and corn mazes, etc.

Here are my mom and dad as well as Matt and Cassie on the hayride.

Big brother and little sister surveying the pumpkin field.

YiaYia, Papou, and Cass with our pumpkins.

Father and son - a couple of true Detroit/Michigan fans.

More pics from Stade's Farm are here: Stade's Farm

are you ready for some football?

Lincoln played his first organized sport this fall -- flag football. He was in a league of 5- and 6-year-olds. It was a super fun time. The coaches were two very kind and patient dads and the boys really started learning the ropes on the football field as the season progressed.

Here is the team at the end of their first practice. They named themselves the Blue Sharks since they had blue team t-shirts.  GOOOO Sharks!

Here is Linc getting ready to hike the ball.

Kickoff!

Good game, good game, good game.

Lincoln is a pretty fast runner and he worked hard trying to get flags all season. He finally had success in his last game, getting two flags and scoring a touchdown. Great way to end the season. To check out more pics from the season, go here: Flag Football

He proudly displays his team picture and trophy on his dresser and has said that he can't wait to play again next year.

kindergarten!

Lincoln officially started school in August this year. He's in a.m. Kindergarten and loves taking the bus to school. Here he is on his first day.

A Lions fan through and through.

Here is Cassidy proudly greeting her big brother at the bus stop after school. 

park exploration.

While Matt's mom was here in mid-August we also visited some of the local parks. Here there are on the spider web.

Here are dad and Cass enjoying the slide!

And Dad and Linc doing some running on the soccer fields. 

 A couple of cute ones of Lincoln up high on the spider web.

While our taxes here are astronomical, at least we do see where some of the money is going -- we have tons of great parks in the area and we utilize them a lot with the kids.

Kohl Children's Museum

We visited the Kohl Children's Museum with the kids and with Matt's mom in August. What a fun place! It was like a mini city for the kids to explore with a grocery store, library, auto shop, sandwich shop, vet clinic, doctor's office, science room, music room, etc. Super fun!


Here's Linc racing cars in the auto shop. 

And here is Dr. Gough working in the nursery.

You can check out all of the pics here: Kohl Children's Museum

Five minutes in Kenosha.

As mentioned in the post below, it feels like it's 109 degrees outside today.  After visiting the dinosaur museum, we drove a couple of blocks to take a peek at Lake Michigan.  We took a 5-minute walk and then were ready to get back into the air conditioned car.

I discovered this area with a nice beach on a drive with my parents last month. Seems like a nice place to swim and relax. We just need to find a decent day to get out there.

The beach is off in the distance.

Little girl walking along the boardwalk.

A few more pics here: Kenosha, WI.

Stay cool, everyone.

escaping the heat.

With the heat index at 109 degrees, I thought it'd be a good day to find an indoor activity - whew!  We drove up to Kenosha, WI (just about 1/2 hour or so from Grayslake) to visit the Dinosaur Discovery Museum.  It was a small museum, but it was air conditioned and educational!  When I gain some familiarity with Chicago, we'll take the kids to the Field Museum to meet "Sue".  For today, though, we learned about "Little Clint," a juvenile T-Rex.  And, of course, Lincoln schooled me with dinosaur facts and amazed me by pronouncing dinosaur names with 5- and 6-syllables (Quetzalcoatlus anyone?)

The remainder of the pics are here:  Dino Discovery Museum pics