The Field Museum

This week was Spring Break in our house. We haven't done much out of the usual. We did go to Get Air (a trampoline park) and out to dinner with some friends on Tuesday, but other than that we've just enjoyed our time at home. Except for one big field trip: The Field Museum.

I've always wanted to go to the Field Museum - it's world famous! And since we have that science museum pass that gets us in for free, and our kids are getting old enough to behave in places like a museum, I figured Spring Break was a great time to go.

Unfortunately, Lance couldn't join us. Hey, someone has to work and bring in the monies so we can afford this lavish lifestyle to which I have become accustomed. (Hah! Actually, Lance might be traveling for Aimpad soon, so taking off random days here and there is probably not the best idea.) I didn't give the enterprise of driving to and from Chicago and going to a museum with the kids and no other adult a second thought - is that weird? I've talked to several people, and most were impressed. Why? I'm an adult. My kids are all out of diapers and naps. Museums are very public and safe places. Well, whatever. I felt kind of adventurous on this trip, but only because I always feel that way when I finally get to visit somewhere I've wanted to go. Not because I'm a girl with kids. Does that make sense?

The drive up was uneventful, and we got to the museum shortly after it opened. Which was perfect, because no lines! (There were LOTS of lines when we left that afternoon.) I wanted to take a picture of the kiddos in front of the museum entrance, but they were too anxious to get inside. Which is too bad, because it was raining when we left. Dang.

Our first stop was, of course, to visit Sue the T-Rex. She's easily the most famous exhibit in the museum - the biggest and most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world. Doesn't it look like Sue is smiling in this picture? Isn't that just an iconic shot, with the beautiful architecture and the dinosaur and the cute kiddos?

The fighting African elephants were pretty cool, too. But only Cole cared about them. This became a theme throughout the trip...

They had a really cool exhibit all about Africa, but I was the only one really interested in it. (I like the social science stuff.)

We of course had to visit the Hall of Gems. It was very impressive. Tess liked all the jewelry, and it was fun to see all the different colors and sizes. The big gem in the picture is almost 6,000 carats!

Then we looked at the meteorites and minerals. No surprise here - Cole is a huge fan of the natural sciences. He wanted to look at each and every thing and read each sign. I kinda wish I could have taken only Cole to the museum - what an awesome Mommy/Son date that would have been! I would have been happy to take as long as he wanted at each thing. But I didn't, and his siblings were not quite as patient as I would have been.

I have a good friend at church named Beryle - this giant Beryl mineral reminded me of her! (Tess was more impressed than the picture lets on.)

There was a really great exhibit about the Pacific islands. Here's Cole and Spencer about to get destroyed by lava.

They had this whole fake Pacific Atoll island you could walk around and learn about, and then areas to look like you were in Tahiti and such. It was so neat! The kids were not as impressed, but I was. There was also a real Maori Meeting House, which is a pretty important building in the Maori culture. It had been built in the 1800s and bought and brought to Chicago around 1905 for the World's Exhibition. (A few years too late, but still.) The carving and the weaving were amazing, but even more amazing was the museum docent, this little old lady who had studied the Maori people for years and told me all about their culture and customs. I could have chatted with her all day, but the kids had other ideas. Like lunch.

So generally I just bring lunch or snacks on trips like this. And I had brought snacks, but I temporarily lost my mind and decided to just buy my kids lunch in the museum cafe. Bad idea. $60 later and we had museum-quality food (not that bad, but not worth the price). And we had Josh like this:

Yep, this is a pretty good representation of Josh off and on throughout the day. He'd pout over something for a while, then seem to get over it, then get off on some minor thing, get offended, and pout some more. This pout was brought on because he didn't realize the meal he ordered didn't come with a soda. THE HUMANITY. I'm getting pretty dang good at balancing between ignoring the behavior, giving a little sympathy when truly needed, and using my best "don't mess with me" mom voice when he crosses a line. This phase... it's like he refuses to ever be satisfied or happy with anything, no matter what. And I'm beginning to think it's not a phase. Which makes me... tired.

So at most of these big museums there's lots of permanent exhibits and then several special exhibits that you have to pay extra for. I told the kids we could choose ONE extra exhibit (hard choice!) and they chose the underground adventure. You "shrink" and then get to explore underground and see what's going on in dirt.

See how small we were? ("In Soil We Trust". Hah!)

There were all sorts of big animatronic bugs, and it really did look like were were underground. It was very well done. I wanted to read more of the signs, but the kids just wanted to run around and look at everything.

Lots of photo ops underground.

The boys especially liked the giant crawfish, since they had caught crawfish with Grandpa ElRay a couple of summers ago.

At the end there were all these quotes on a wall about soil, and a big digital kaleidoscope that the kids were mesmerized by.

Then we visited the Ancient Egypt exhibit, which was really cool. Turns out that Tess thought mummies were real, and by real I mean Hollywood monsters that would chase us around and try to get us. Was she relieved when she learned they were "just dead".

Cole's not pictured on this spiral staircase because he came behind me. Which was a good thing because the child showed no common sense and I literally caught him tumbling down, and then had to strictly watch and correct him the rest of the way down because he apparently has no self preservation. (He couldn't understand why I forced him to hold the handrail. Holding the middle was good enough, even though he kept falling because of that, right?)

I didn't get any pictures of the mummies, but I got a picture of these kids sleeping ancient Egyptian style. (This was when Josh behaved the best...)

I think Spencer got how cool the mummies and artifacts were, but the other kids are just a bit too young to be impressed by 4,000 year old things. Like, who cares? (I care. I thought it was cool. But I'm an old mom, what do I know?)

Hangin' out with the cat goddess statue.

After about 5 hours at the museum the kids were beat. I could have gone for at least another 4, but I know my kids and their limits. Before leaving I had Spencer take at least one picture of me. I just love that building!

It pretty much poured rain all day, and it didn't let up at all as we left. It was pretty much a torrential downpour. Even in our coats and hoods we were pretty well soaked after the 100 yard dash from the museum to the parking garage. My pants and shoes were all wet, which made for a long drive home. Actually, all the rain and the very badly maintained Chicago freeways made for an even longer drive home. But whatever, we survived.

It was a great day! I really liked the museum, but we all agreed that we liked the Museum of Science and Industry even better. I feel so blessed to be so close to such an amazing city with such great museums! (And even more blessed that, even with some occasional pouting and fights, I have such great kids to adventure with!)

Going's On

It's been one of those weeks where it feels like not much happened, but really we had all sorts of things going on.

Last Saturday I decided I didn't want to make dinner. Because I'm the mom and sometimes I can do that. The big McDonald's on 52 has been under construction for quite a while, and with good reason - that place was a dump! But we'd go there because there was a playplace. Well, it finally reopened and we decided to go check it out. It's actually really quite nice. The boys complained about the playplace being smaller, but I had to remind them that they are also quite bigger.

Tess had seen Shamrock Shakes being advertised on TV and decided she really, really needed one. I was hoping she would forget, but then Lance got a shake with his meal, so there went that plan. So after everyone ate their meals and played for a bit I bought an extra large Chocolate Shamrock Shake and an extra large fries for everyone to share. Oh my goodness - the carnage. I got about 3 bites of the shake (delicious, BTW), and a few fries, and the kids gobbled down the rest like a flock of starving pigeons. It was really quite impressive.

The kids were impressed when another kid puked in the playplace and some poor teenager had to clean it up.

So all in all, a pretty successful evening out.

On Monday I had to take the mini van in for some repairs. The heater had been making weird, worrying noises. $300 and a new motor for the air blower later, and I was out the door. Since I was nearby I decided to stop at Aldi, where I scored $.65 German chocolate bars. I bought a bunch and came up with a Family Home Evening lesson about agency and making choices and such. It ended with Cole in tears and Spencer getting yelled at for picking on him, I didn't really get all of my lesson out, and the kids ran away as fast as they could after getting their chocolate. So, you know, a pretty typical FHE.

I found this camping chair at Sam's Club and new Tess would love it. It was only $15 - way better than I've ever seen them priced - so I bought one for her with the idea that maybe now she won't spill all over our big camping chairs. She. Loves. It. It's been all around the house since then, covered in toys or with her sitting in it, watching tv, coloring, you name it. And look at that sass with the legs crossed. It's like looking at future teenage Tessie.

I got a little ambitious this week and planted some seeds for the garden. I inherited lots of old seeds from a sister in the ward, so we'll see if anything grows. I already had the trays and dirt, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try!

I also got a haircut. It's much shorter than I thought it would be, but I kinda really like it. My hairdresser is the best; I can't say I've ever had a bad cut from her. She just magically knows what will look good on me. Worth every penny.

I finally replaced all of the smoke alarms in the house. Did you know they have expiration dates? Yeah, ours were WAY, WAY expired. Embarrassingly so. Like, I'm kind of surprised they don't look for that in the home inspection, because we would have had the old owners replace them before we bought the house. Anyways, they're all hard wired but I was able to replace them myself. But now without complaining to Lance about it via text. Because while I can do projects like this myself I don't always want to.

Lance went to Indy for the day on Wednesday for an Aimpad meeting. Indy's only an hour away, and he got home before the kids did from school. But then he left for dinner with a friend, so I guess he was gone a bunch. Enough for Tess to decide that she needed to make him a "Welcome back" poster. That girl loves to craft and draw. And she loves her dad.

On Thursday I replaced all the perishables in the 72 hour kits. I also added more clothing. (Clothes are hard to do when you have 4 kids who insist on continually growing!) My dad had given these socks to Spencer (I think they were too small for Dad), but when I walked into Spencer's room for something else I found them on the floor, untouched. So into the kits they went! Extra socks, heavy and good quality, seem like a good thing to have in an emergency.

Poor Tess was sick on Thursday and Friday, so her spring break started a 2 days early (much to the jealousy of Cole and Josh). The poor girl had a high fever and just didn't feel well. She insisted on being in whatever room I was in, following me around like a whiny puppy. Speaking of puppies, Tess really wants one. Or any kind of pet, but really a puppy. I keep explaining that I am not a pet mom, but she doesn't seem to believe me.

I have decided to start Cookie Friday. When I can, I'm gonna be that awesome mom who makes cookies for the kids to eat when they come home from school. And to share with friends. Because I like my kids and their friends. And I really like cookies. (Perhaps I should start 5k run Fridays as well...) I made some brownie mix cookies that kinda tasted funny, and some cranberry orange oatmeal cookies that tasted delicious. All were eaten by Saturday afternoon.

I wasn't home on Saturday to eat cookies, though. I was in Chicago with my awesome friend, Gigi. It had been a year - it was time for another IKEA pilgrimage. Tess's bed is broken in such a way that we'd really need a welder to fix it. It's uncomfortable and saggy and the springs keep putting holes in the sheets. And it's a day bed, which makes it annoying to change sheets or make the bed. What I'm saying is, it's very much time for her to get a new bed. I got her a bed and a nightstand, plus a cabinet thingy for Lance and other odds and ends. Gigi bought a bed, nightstand, dresser, and other things as well. These were our carts at the end - SO FULL! Checkout was kind of a nightmare, but we eventually made it out of the store, significantly poorer.

After IKEA we shopped at a few other places and then had dinner at Zupas. I love Zupas. Why are they not in Indiana yet! (And why is their ordering process still so weird? Seriously, while waiting in line and watching all of the errors they made and had to correct I thought of 5 different ways they could improve and become more efficient. Sheesh.)

Despite pouring rain and overcast skies, the day was lovely because I was out of the house, having fun with one of my besties. We talked so much I literally lost my voice. (The head cold I have didn't help matters.) 24 hours later and my voice is even worse.

Tessisms

Tess has been super cute lately as only a Kindergartner can. She's really expanding her vocabulary and is constantly asking what different words mean. (Defining some words is actually harder than you'd think. Nouns and verbs are easy - things like emotions or concepts? Not so much.)

Two Tessisms have stood out to me this week. The first was when she was getting after me for not reading her a bedtime story the night before.

Tess: You said you would read me a bedtime story, but you did not!

Me: I would have, but you said you just wanted to go to sleep. Remember? You were sick and very sleepy.

Tess: But I wanted a story!

Me: But you fell asleep!

Tess: I wasn't sleeping! I... was just blinking for a long time!

Blinking for a long time is just about my favorite description of sleep ever.

The second came this morning. I have a pretty nasty cold, and that coupled with a full day of chatting with one of my favorite people (looking at you, Gig!) has pretty much obliterated my voice. I sound like a teenage boy going through puberty. Who smokes 5 packs a day. It's lovely.

When Tess heard me this morning she exclaimed "Oh Mommy! You've lost your sound!"

I couldn't disagree.

ISSS... something something... Band Competition

Spencer had a band competition on Friday night. It was for the Indiana Student band something... something... I don't remember the whole name or acronym, nor do I care to look it up. But it was a big deal. I dropped Spencer off at the school at 7pm and we weren't home until after 10pm, so it took a good chunk of the evening.

Spencer was in heaven. That boy has found his tribe.

And I'm happy for him - band kids seem to be great kids.

I was not so happy about the concert time - 9:10pm. What the lateness?!

Since we had just gone to a concert on Tuesday and had no desire to deal with Josh, Cole, and Tess at another one, Lance opted to stay at home and I went to the competition. I'm glad I did - I got to sit with some other moms I know from school and have a good little visit, and the actual competition part was only 3 songs. (You only stay for your school.)

The Wea Ridge Wind Ensemble (the highest band in the middle school) did GREAT! They really did do well. I was impressed!

I recorded all 3 songs because 1) Grandparents, and 2) Spencer wanted to see them. Do I expect you to watch and listen to all 3? No I do not. But I have put them in order, with my favorite first. (The percussion is especially impressive in that first song!)







They finished playing and then hung out in the McCutcheon HS cafeteria, waiting for their results. It was fun to watch the kids interact with each other. It was especially fun when their band director, Mr. Burnette, announced their results: Gold medal with distinction! Not only did they play the hardest rated songs for the middle school level, but they won the highest award they could get!

There was much rejoicing in the form of cheering and yelling and jumping up and down and sharing of snacks.

Good job, Wind Ensemble! It was a late concert, but well worth it.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day was a bit more exciting than normal this year, mainly because we had a child who believed in leprechauns. I'm not sure how or why, but Tess completely believes in leprechauns and was bound and determined to have one visit our house.

I tried to talk her into making the traditional leprechaun trap, but she would have none of it. She made a house instead. That girl sure likes to craft!

She even made him a couch that was painted gold - fancy!

On Wednesday she got a small package in the mail - a fancy St. Patrick's Day necklace that lit up and a cute card from "Larry the Leprechaun". She was So. Excited. (When Spencer kept bringing up the fact that the package was post marked from UT, I had to tell him to zip his lips. Several times. Punk teenager.)

Well, the night before St. Patrick's Day Tess put her house on the floor in the hallway. And Larry visited! He left some gold candy and a little gift for Tess.

And a note. She was so very, very pleased.

Especially with the gift. It was this little necklace she has seen at Charming Charlie's a few weeks earlier. Perfect gift from Larry, right?

Our story should end there. But no.

For some reason, Josh kept laying on the floor by the leprechaun house and crying. Me asking what was wrong just made him sob all the harder. What in the world?

Finally I got it out of him - he had left a note for the leprechaun and was DEVASTATED that Larry had only left a note and gift for Tess.

Dang. Dang dang dang. I felt so bad!

In my defense, I had no clue he had written the note. The inside of the leprechaun house was dark and I had no reason to look inside. Plus, in all honesty, I didn't think he believed in leprechauns. In fact, I was 99% sure he didn't. But I tried to play it off. "Maybe it was under the gold couch and Larry didn't see it!"

This did not go over well.

So I tried a different approach. An honest approach. "Josh, I am so sorry. I didn't know you had written a note. I didn't see it. I'm sorry." He sniffled and hiccuped and was still very sad, but this seemed to appease him a bit.

So while the kids got ready for school I quickly typed up a couple more notes and hid them where I knew they'd be found.

Not bad, right? Staying up late and eating candy privileges? That's pretty awesome.

Cole was very excited. Josh proclaimed he didn't care and that he didn't even want to stay up late. And then he threw the note away.

I kicked him out the door to get on the bus.

And then whole-heartedly agreed to let him spend the night at a friend's house.

Punk kid.

St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday this year, and Friday is pizza night in the Madsen household. (I would love to make something traditionally Irish, or corned beef and cabbage, but I would be the only one to eat it. So not worth it.)

So I made green pizza dough. It was awesome and so very, very green!

Tess really liked it. But she was even more interested in the green mint Oreos. (Because why waste my time making some fancy green dessert when everyone would be happy with green Oreos? And boy, were they happy!)

They look kinda weird, but tasted great!

So. That was St. Patrick's Day this year. I really hope I don't have to escalate and make next year even grander. Perhaps Larry will take a year off. While it's really quite sweet how much Tess still believes in magic and such (and, most of the time, so does Cole), it's also a lot of work! (And heartache, when it comes to that Josh!)