We talked about swimming at the Recplex on Friday but decided to take it easy instead in hopes that Chloe could rest off her illness. We did manage to go to Target and some nasty juice bar that Valerie wanted to try. I don't care how healthy it is, that beet juice tasted like straight up dirt. We also took Alyssa and Luke for haircuts but we spent most of the day just relaxing at home.
While we were at Jelly Belly I bought 5 bags of Belly Flops, those are the beans that suffer from some slight imperfection...misshaped or where the logo got smudged, etc. They don't sell them in stores but they do sell them at the warehouse and I wanted them for an art project. The kids and I have been having Creativity Camp once a week all summer. I will tell you more about it when I post the rest of our projects but this was one of the things on our list for Creativity Camp. If you go to Jelly Belly they have lots of artwork made of Jelly Bellys. Google them if you want to, they are amazing! We wanted to try our hands at Jelly Belly art. Our pieces were not quite as impressive but they were a lot of fun and the kids had fun munching on beans while they worked. I will say that these were a bit time consuming and while the kids were so excited at first they did run out of steam after about 30 minutes. We let them take a break and come back and finish later.
Alyssa's cat is on the top left; she never finished hers. Val's peace sign is on top right. Audrey's castle is in middle left. Alex's batman logo is dead center. Chloe's flower is middle right. The Jelly Belly logo on the bottom left is mine. I was going to make the Packers logo and Alyssa wanted to do the JB logo but she was having a hard time drawing it. I would have printed it but we were out of ink and stuck drawing freehand. While I was drawing for her she moved on to a cat so I took over the logo. Luke made the star from Super Mario on the bottom right.
Valerie's was our favorite. I think she had the right idea by choosing a simple shape and just making it look pretty. I think that would look really cool on top of a cake.
And since we were having an at home day, we decided that a blanket fort, cousins sleepover was in order. The kids were not all that adept at fort building. We had some epic forts as kids, but as we tried to help the kids we realized that Jeff must have been the mastermind behind our blanket forts. We pulled together and made it happen though.
We moved one couch right up against the stairs to build the fort and that might have been a bigger hit than the fort itself.
We eventually put a stop to couch jumping and got all the kids situated in the tent to watch a movie. This next picture sums up the whole week. Everyone was happily watching the movie and Chloe was having a tantrum because she couldn't see the TV. She refused to move up front with the other kids and wanted them all to scrunch on one side of the tent so that she would have an unobstructed view. She ended up being moved to my bed. Audrey also gave up on the sleepover and came upstairs to sleep but the oldest 3 slept there all night.
July 27th
We had planned to go to Chicago on Saturday but it was barely 60 degrees so we decided to move Chicago to Monday and stay closer to home. Thankfully Chloe had not had any stomach issues on Friday so we were pretty sure she was on the mend this time. We decided to go to Taste of Wisconsin which was just a few minutes from my house at the harbor on Lake Michigan. We had lunch and roamed around for a little while and checked out some of the local singing talent. And of course the inflatable slides and funnel cakes are a must. They didn't have an all day wristband and it was $2 per ride so each kid only rode twice but that was enough to keep them from feeling deprived.
After Taste of Wisconsin the kids wanted to ride the trolley and we also stopped at the free local museum on our way to the trolley stop. We ended up staying there for quite awhile because they have a fun room where kids can create and explore. I didn't take a single picture but Audrey said it was her favorite place of the whole trip. After the kids room we went upstairs to the art gallery and they have an art studio where a live artist is sometimes working. No one was there so the kids used it to play office instead and Alex was interviewing and hiring the rest of the crew. Funny how we jumped through hoops to entertain these kids but they always seemed to have the most fun on their own little impromptu adventures.
We left the museum and walked across the street to wait for the trolley and as we waited Chloe clutched her stomach and gave me the OH NO face. I ran her back across to the museum but as soon as we walked in the door the look on her face told me that she was not going to make it one more step, so getting to the bathroom was out of the question. I turned her around and stepped back outside the museum where she lost her taste of Wisconsin all over the sidewalk. I felt bad for the rest of the gang but I had to squash the trolley ride to get Chloe home.
Thankfully when we got home the older 3 kids continued the fake business they started at the museum because that kept them occupied while Chloe, Audrey, Valerie and I napped on the couch. When we woke up I felt achy and exhausted, you know, how you feel when you are getting sick? I told Valerie that I couldn't tell if I was tired or getting sick and she said she was about to say the same thing and then Audrey had one small episode of the runs so we thought we were all doomed, but thankfully the three of us felt fine by Sunday morning. Phew, or as Valerie pronounces it Phwoo.
Oh and the fake business was called VG Inc. and their slogan was We're Not Afraid to Play. We got a good laugh about that.
We took it easy the rest of Saturday and welcomed Seth home safely on Saturday night. He looked just as beat as the rest of us so we all turned in early that night, and by early, I mean midnight.
July 28th
No pictures from Sunday. I left the kids home with Valerie, for fear of another puking incident, while I went to teach my class at church. Seth suggested that Valerie and I go to see Phantom that night in Milwaukee since it was the only time he would be home to watch kids. Upon closer inspection he discovered that it is not playing until next July. We did sneak away from the kids for a little while to get Sushi though. When we came back Chloe was already asleep and apparently 14 hours of sleep finally killed the evil stomach virus. Hallelujah!
Val and I took the rest of the kids on a late night bike ride, which was awesome. We have a church on our street, which is weird because it is in a residential neighborhood where the street dead ends but it is a great place to ride. There is a parking lot on each side of the church and if you ride around the back of the church there is a big hill to ride from one lot to the other and it is so much fun. Simple moments like that ended up being some of the most talked about when we recapped the trip with the kids.
And just one last post before we are all caught up and on to all new adventures.
6 comments:
Ugh, looking at these pics makes me want to come back so bad!!
Those fort pics are awesome.
That jelly bean art is so cool. I'll have to try it sometime. And that is an epic blanket fort.
You always come up with the most funnest things to do! Love that jelly belly art, I might have to talk myself into one of those big jars to do something like that. What a fun trip--despite that evil flu.
Gotta love fort time! My gosh how fun does that look to jump off the stairs like that. That's so cool!
The Jelly Belly art is such a great idea, too. I'd have a hard time giving up all that candy in the name of art though...haha.
The blanket fort is awesome! And I wish I had thought of the jelly bean art for our summer art. That is such a cute idea!
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