Nathaniel Day 4 - Museum and Food

Nathaniel Day 4 came quickly for me. May was busy with the start of this blog and my parents visiting so June was here before I knew it.

I had a hard time coming up with something to do for Nathaniel Day this month. It needed to be fun for me and not something that we can do all the time like go to the pool. We had gone to the train museum with Grandma and Grandpa while they were here so that was out. This month I also was thinking I might want to volunteer somewhere, but Abby's not old enough to do that most places. I decided to try to do both. June 6th fell on a Friday so Dave could participate in the evening and we didn't need to get home at any particular time. We just needed a place to volunteer and a babysitter.

On Wednesday I still didn't have a plan. I happened to look on the website for Feed My Starving Children and they had 14 spots to fill for Friday night. We called Dave's mom. She could babysit. We decided to all go to dinner beforehand. Evening activities planned.

I decided to check and see what museum passes were available at the library on Thursday. That way Abby and I could do something fun for possibly free. The Lake County Discovery Museum pass was available and we hadn't been there for a long time so I got that. Daytime activities planned.

Eating lunch with the mastodon
outside the museum

Friday was a beautiful day so I decided to bring a picnic lunch with us to the museum. It is at a forest preserve so I figured we could find a picnic table and maybe play a little before going into the museum. It's not a very big museum. It was not going to take all day to look at even if we read every sign there.

Abby's favorite picture

We had fun at the museum. I think we were the only people there for a while. There was a kid's play room that we hadn't been in before. Abby had fun playing with buffalo on the prairie and building bird's nests. Some of the time she was in there I was able to look at the photography exhibit that was right outside.

Playing with the buffalo

Building a nest

After we looked at everything in the museum we decided to see if we could find a playground to play at for a while. We found some baby swings. From there we could see the big trucks working on the road. We watched the trucks digging for a long time. Then it was time to go home so that we could go to dinner with Grandma.

Highlight of the day for Abby. Watching the construction
across the street.

We met Grandma for dinner at Red Robin and then Dave and I left them at our house. We had a great time packing meals for about an hour. There was a fairly small group of 75 people there that night. Together we packed enough food to feed 45 kids in Haiti for a year. I will definitely keep it in mind for another Nathaniel Day activity. I can do it any time as long as I can find someone to watch Abby for a couple hours. That shouldn't be a problem. We have a long list of people who would love to play with her for an afternoon.

I had fun with Abby. I helped feed kids. I hardly even cried. Nathaniel Day was a success once again. I already have the next one planned. It's on a weekend so Dave can join us all day for the fun.