Summer Vacation Week 10

As we roll into Week 10, we arrive at another very hot weekend. On Saturday, we drove down to the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie with the Hiking Club. We took their guided tour and tried to find some grazing bison, but unfortunately they were not visible to us on the path. We did find a cool bunker that the kids enjoyed running in (and screaming in).

It was a nice hike, despite this being the only bison I was able to spot

After lunch, we stopped by the fire station open house. We got to take a ride in the fire truck around the Metra lot.

And use a real fire hose

The also had a bouncy house and an obstacle course for the kids to crawl under.

Oh, and refreshments

And finally we went home to do a little relaxing

The next day started with a tea party

And then we ventured out for our annual summer trip to the Morton Arboretum.

It was another super hot day so we had to spend some time dipping our feet in the creek.

After stopping briefly to watch some Sumo Wrestlers (it was a festival weekend) we set off on the Troll Hunt.

The first one we found was not too far from the visitor's center and appeared to have some anger management issues

The second one was lying in some bushes just outside the pond, hoping to catch a tasty treat in his trap

That tasty treat was Noah

The rest of the trolls were off in the forests surrounding the main visitor area and we had to drive and hike to find them

We also found their hideout where they sleep and make meals

This guy was either napping or took a nasty fall. The boys thought nothing of crawling inside his giant mouth.

For reference, Charlotte was about the same size as the troll's foot.

The hardest one to reach was the troll on lookout duty (the one who looms over the tollway). It was quite a climb on a 96 degree day, but we made it.

You can see the troll in the distance as we make the long walk back

Wyatt really wanted to climb this tree

Charlotte fell asleep on the long hike and missed the last troll completely

Noah was still set on being captured

The following day was our last day with a two year old in the house

She went to gymnastics on her birthday and had to wear a birthday tutu for the occasion. We also discovered another girl in the class was born on the exact same day.

After gymnastics we met the boys at the village Night Out event.

And ended the day with a birthday cupcake

Here she is enjoying her birthday gift from Aunt Michele

On Friday, we had family over for a joint Wyatt/Charlotte birthday party. Since Wyatt had a kid's party, I referred to this as Charlotte's party when talking about it with the kids. The theme of her party was her favorite show, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.

So we could enjoy some cousin time, we had a kid's pre-party before the main party. We took them to check out our nature center (which is like our second home) and then splashed around on the water slide.

It's her party and she can stay dry if she wants to.

After pizza, we had cupcakes.

Karen, showing us how to make a cupcake sandwich

Charlotte had to wear her new princess dress with her new matching princess shoes. She lost the medallion of one of the shoes that night and we've never found it.

And then the presents

Emily and Lily were just as scared of dogs as Charlotte used to be. Sassy convinced Charlotte to love dogs, so it was no surprise that she also won over the other girls.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Charlotte