Hometown Summer Fun

Friday night we headed up to the Taste of CP. I love that hometown fun! This year it was not on the courthouse lawn, which was sort of disappointing. It was on the strip of main street, like the corn roast. We had to miss the corn roast this year since T was gone at convention, plus it stormed bad that night. I thought it was going to be super crowded, like it is at corn roast, but it wasn’t that bad at all.

Ethan was giddy with excitement when he saw the bouncy houses. Like really giddy! He chose a corn dog. I had pizza from a local place and T got a gyro.

E actually saw his fav friend, Jill, there! He just casually mentioned that he saw her & I think I was more excited than he was! I just remember how fun that was to see school friends over the summer. Well, we he went to in the bouncy houses, there she was again!

 

   Then he wanted cotton candy.

Then we ran into Riste who wanted to treat Ethan to something and just had to get him ice cream… he actually waited in a long line and got E that ice cream cone.

T got a beer back at Crown Brewery, where they make their own ale…not bad.

Oh, and Ethan is holding a green Willy Buck! It isn’t hometown fun until you see Willy. And it isn’t 4th of July without a trip to Willy’s Works. 

We have been married for 10 years!

We celebrated 10 yrs on June 19. But not much fanfare due to T being away at convention. We decided not to do go on an extravagant trip. I was happy doing something as a family in Chicago.

We decided to go to the Museum of Science and Industry on Monday following Father’s Day. So it was a nice outing for a combo Anniv, Father’s Day, and Trent’s birthday. I knew he would love to see the Harry Potter exhibit there. He has read all the books and seen all the movies and even owns all the dvds. I have just seen the first movie with him.

  We couldn’t take any pics in the Harry Potter exhibit, which was a major bummer! They had a ton of costumes and props from the movies. They had wands and beds from the dorms. Occasionally they would have a flat screen playing a scene. The dining hall was my fav, complete with the huge doors and the floating candles.

The museum has changed alot since we had been there. I think the last time I was there I was a senior in hs! T said he had not been there since 6th grade! They still have some exhibits I remember like the old time main street and the big pendulum, and the whispering gallery.

MainStreet…

I think E thought the whispering gallery was really neat

 

model city & model railroad

Hatchery…nothing hatched when we were there.

Ethan was happy to push any button or grab any phone or play on any computer, of course! I remember that from when I was little. It is fun to push a button or wow, listen to a phone!

Ethan had the most fun checking out Idea Factory…perfect for his age

 

Even had an arcade in the Toy section…so of course he had to try our snowboarding.

Awesome shadow, these butterflies were flying and then would land on your shadow

below Ethan’s face is projected on the that mannequin 

the sub exhibit that has been there for years was cool looking through the periscope and seeing the cars on the street. Not sure if E really got it, but it was nice to have one down low for him to look in.

the big submarine, but we didn’t tour it   

Fun day! Plus we had a coupon for a free admission!

Father’s Day weekend

Trent got home from convention on Saturday. I had to go online and track his flight, it is too neat! It is on Flight Tracker.

For Father’s Day I had planned on taking T to lunch and then E wanted to take him to mini golf. T picked to go out to Peking Buffet for lunch, he loves his chinese food. Well, it was super hot & humid that day and we waited until after 7:30 to go golfing.

And I remembered to put E in his ‘My Dad Rocks” shirt!

We went to visit both sets of dads. We got T’s dad lounge pants that were lightweight for the summer.

For my dad I made up these awesome shirts. When he taught he would always sign his tests & quizzes with a little sign with the letters “swtws”. Everyone wondered what it really stood for and he wouldn’t tell them until they guessed correctly. I remember having to keep it a secret when I was in high school. It is Stick with the White Sox. So with my mother’s help I designed a shirt for him thru Cafe Press. She got him to draw the little sign so I could scan it.

I ended up making a grey one and black one for him. The grey one has it small on the front pocket and then big on the back with the text & logo. I think we pulled off the surprise and he really like them.

It does look like I just drew it on there with a sharpie, though! What I scanned was in pencil, so it has that look.      

Then the 3 of us went golfing and E got to play in arcade a little. We ran out of time to do go-karts. We had a coupon for a free round of golf PLUS all dads were Free!! Not bad, huh?

Ethan has started to pose for pictures with his hand on his hip. I don’t know why. T scolded him here about it…

Which resulted in this pic of E looking glum and T laughing…

But then E grinned again for me!