The First Day of School

Yesterday was Abby’s first day of school. In our district kindergarten starts the day after everyone else so today would have been Nathaniel’s first day of kindergarten. I woke up feeling terrible with the start of a migraine. I was expecting today to be hard, but it was worse than I was expecting so I decided to make it like a Nathaniel Day. 

Felicity wanted to go to the park so we walked / biked to our neighborhood park down the street and played for a while. Then went to Culver’s for lunch and frozen custard. 

After some fresh air and frozen custard I’m feeling much better.

Nathaniel Day 27 - Lunch and Lighthouses

Abby is obsessed with trains. We have found a few restaurants in the area that have trains that bring out the food. She loves them. Usually she doesn't actually eat anything, but she loves going. I found a new one somewhat close to us at the Kenosha Metra station so I thought we would check it out. It was not the best that we have been to. Abby did not like the mac and cheese that she ordered, but drank all of the milkshake that I let her get. She did very much enjoy the trains though.


It was supposed to be a nice, warm day so I thought that while we were there we would also do something that I like and go visit the lighthouses in downtown Kenosha. I haven't been to Kenosha that much and had never been to the lighthouses. It was also the first week that the lighthouse museum was open for the season.

We ate lunch and visited the little museum at the lighthouse on the shore and then decided to go play at the beach and then walk down the pier to the little lighthouse at the end. It was a little cold by the beach but both girls loved it. Felicity crawled all over and tried to eat all the sand. Abby collected all the little things that she could on the beach and used them to decorate a sand castle that she made. We all had a lot of fun and were pretty worn out by the time we left.

On the way home we stopped at Nathaniel's grave to see if the tree above his grave was flowering. We knew it is a cherry tree, but had never seen it in bloom. I'm glad I decided to extend our trip to stop. It was so pretty. If I had waited I might have missed it again this year.

Nathaniel Day 24 - Birthday Packing Party

We decided for Nathaniel's birthday party this year to volunteer with our family at Feed My Starving Children. We spent the afternoon packing meals to send to starving kids around the world. Grandmas and Grandpa and Dave's sister and brother in law and their kids were able to join us for the afternoon. I signed us up as a birthday party so there was even a sign saying happy birthday to Nathaniel. It was a little awkward when they were looking for the birthday people and we said Nathaniel wasn't there. We got there late so didn't have a chance to tell anyone beforehand. But if we had talked to someone about the situation maybe they wouldn't have announced his name.

I think everyone enjoyed the packing. Abby did all the jobs. She scooped and weighed and labeled and helped box. She was one tired girl after the session was done. 

I have no idea how much our little group of me, Dave, and 5 kids packed. We weren't very good about keeping track of how many boxes we did. The whole big group ended up packing 125 boxes which would be enough to feed 74 kids for a year.

After the session we bought Nathaniel a bird and a giraffe at the FMSC shop to decorate his grave. We have been meaning to get him some new decorations, but hadn't found anything we liked yet. This way we got something fun and provided 140 meals for starving kids.

After the packing we picked up some mexican food. Most of us went over to Grandma's house for some dinner and birthday cake. It turned out to be a really fun day.

Nathaniel Day 23 - Waterpark Fun

You can read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.

We had Abby's 5th birthday party at an indoor water park near us. She has been asking when we could go again so we decided that we could go there for this month's Nathaniel Day activity. 

Open swim was in the evening so Dave was able to come with us. He came home a little early and we headed right over to the water park. We played in the water for about an hour and then headed to a restaurant close by for some dinner of BBQ (mac n' cheese for Abby of course). It was already past bedtime for the girls when we got there, but they did pretty well for being so tired. 

Nathaniel Day 22 - Continuing Christmas Traditions

You can read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.

Last year for December's Nathaniel Day we decorated his magnolia tree in the backyard. We decided do that again this year. I think it will be a new tradition for December 6th each year. I took the girls out shopping for ornaments a few days before. Abby chose one for herself and one to be for Felicity. We invited family to join us to help decorate and asked them to bring an ornament for the tree. 

After the tree decorating everyone else left and we got ready to go the the Chicago Botanic Garden for their holiday train exhibit. Abby loved all the trains. There was even a Thomas train and snow falling every once in a while! I think Felicity enjoyed it too. There was so much to look at.

At first Abby ran through the exhibit in about 10 minutes and then wanted to go outside to see the lights. It wasn't dark yet and we had paid to go to the train exhibit so we convinced her to stay and look a little longer. I also wanted to see the cool landmarks and Chicago buildings and hadn't had much of a chance since I had been focused on making sure I knew where Abby was as she darted from train to train.

We ended up staying until the exhibit closed. Then we headed outside to see the lights in the garden before heading home for some dinner.

Nathaniel Day 20 - Children's Museum

You can read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.

My sister and her two daughters were here in the beginning of October so they got to join us for a Nathaniel Day. Usually we wouldn't go to the children's museum for a Nathaniel Day because we go there all the time, since we can go for free, but with the cousins around and Felicity starting to be able to do some stuff we decided to go.

We had so much fun. We shopped and worked in a restaurant and took care of babies and pets and danced and played music and surfed. It was a beautiful day so we were also able to enjoy the outside part, where we usually can't get Abby to go. Out there we found things to climb on and a maze to run through and a tunnel to go through.

I think the highlight of the day for both big girls was right before we left I gave them both a penny to put in the donation thing by the entrance to the museum. They were both enthralled watching them go down.

1. Abby working in the deli 2. cousin change race 3. prairie maze 4. getting some money at the ATM
before grocery shopping 5. Abby playing with an infrared camera 6. surfing 7. cousin faces 8. grocery
shopping 9. caring for babies 10. Abby being a checkout person 11. playing music 12. sandwich making

Nathaniel Day 19 - Volo Car Museum

You can now read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.

Since Nathaniel Day this month fell on a Sunday, Dave was able to come with us. I had him help plan since he was able to come along. We had looked at going to a circus in the park in Chicago, but it was outside in a tent and it was supposed to be in the 90s so we decided that wouldn't be a good idea. Neither one of us had been to the car museum in Volo so we decided to go there. It was also the last day Abby would be free since under 5 are free and it was her 5th birthday the next day.

Church has changed services to 11 am so our activities for the day started a little late with lunch at a local hot dog place a few minutes from church, right down the street from the museum. Of course Abby only wanted macaroni and cheese which they didn't have, but we convinced her to eat a little chicken with her french fries so she could have a milk shake.

After lunch we headed over to the museum. It was huge! We saw so many cars. There were really old cars, not quite so old cars, cars from TV shows and movies, military vehicles, tractors, a train, and a fire truck. We stayed until the museum closed and then Abby played on the playground outside for a while. We were there so long that the gate got shut on us and we had to find an alternate way out. I don't know if we will ever go there again but it was fun to go to once.

Abby had to go on the car slide outside the entrance to the museum before we went in.

Weird, tiny one person car 

Abby found a car just like her favorite matchbox car, but hers was yellow

Felicity had fun looking at the ceiling. 

Movie cars

Seeing what was in the turtle van

Lightning McQueen!!!

Nathaniel Day 18 - 1/2 Birthday Celebrations

You can now read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.

I've gotten really behind here. It's almost time for Nathaniel Day 20 and I haven't even written about Nathaniel Day 18 yet. I need to find some time to write here a little more often. It's hard to get anything done during the day. One of the girls wants my attention all day long.

We were asked to bring cupcakes to Dave's dad's birthday party a few days later so I made them a little ahead of time so that we could have a couple for celebrating his half birthday. Abby helped make the frosting and decorate them with all the colors of sprinkles that we had.

It was Thursday so Abby had story time at the library. We went to that and then headed over to another library in a neighboring town that I had heard had a really cool kid's area.  It was like a children's museum with a fairly tale theme. It was not nearly as cool as I was expecting and one part that I thought Abby would like was being fixed, but she still had fun.

After library number 2 we headed home and then went for a walk to the neighborhood playground. Dave picked up some dinner after work and met us at the playground for a picnic dinner and the half birthday cupcakes.

It was a pretty low key day, but we still had fun, explored some place new, and did something that we wouldn't have normally done on a regular Thursday. 

Nathaniel Day 17 - Bookworm Gardens

You can now read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.



I had two ideas of what to do this month. One was in the Chicago area. The other was in Wisconsin. It was supposed to be really hot around us so I decided that we would head north to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where it was supposed to be much cooler, to check out a place that I had heard about that looked like it could be fun for Abby. I had never been there before so it would be fun for me too.

I intended to leave in the morning and stop for lunch somewhere along the way. It was an hour and a half drive and it closed at 4 so I wanted to give us enough time to enjoy the whole place. We got a bit of a late start so packed a lunch and ate it in the car on our way.
We drove through heat and pouring rain but when we got there the rain stopped and it was fairly pleasant.

We had a fun afternoon exploring the gardens. They were very cute. Abby had a great time darting all around to see everything and sitting in all of the Adirondack chairs. Felicity even woke up for the last half hour that we were there so got to see some of it too.

We stayed until they closed and then played in the magic school bus that was outside the garden for a while and then it was time to get back in the car for the long trip home. Dave was able to drive partway after work so we met him at Cracker Barrel and were able to all eat there for dinner.

It was a lot of driving for one day, but it was worth it. We found a fun new place to go.

The magic school bus

Abby hanging laundry

Sitting in Papa Bear's chair

Abby watching the cute little baby fishies

Checking out Stuart Little's house