Category: Kids

Pumpkin Farm

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Scarecrow We ended up visiting Sonny Acres this morning even though it was far too hot for Fall day. Joe noticed on the girl’s volleyball schedule that she has a tournament the next weekend we’re supposed to have the kids so she’ll be busy with that all day and we wouldn’t have time for a pumpkin farm like I originally planned. So today was the only day we could do it before Halloween.

The place is much bigger than it looks from the street. They have a bunch of rides so the kids went on a few. They also had tons of concessions and I tried something I never heard of before – a walking taco. Apparently I’m out of the loop because the girl knew what it was.

We spent nearly two hours and only $32 so it wasn’t a bad deal after all. Nobody wanted to visit the Haunted Barn like I thought they would. I take that back – the boy wanted to, but I know him better than he knows himself, so I took him into the Spook Shed instead. It’s meant for children under 12 and even there he was a little spooked because it was so dark inside. Hehe.

I want to go back and go on the haunting woods hayride.

More photos from Sonny Acres.

Fall fun

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I’m trying to plan some fun things for the kids to do to celebrate the wonderful Fall season but it’s rather hard when the weather isn’t cooperating. It’s supposed to be in the mid-80’s this weekend; taking them to a pumpkin farm seems wrong. We might take them bowling instead since I have a coupon for a free game. Of course there’s still shoe rental. Why are those god-awful shoes so expensive when you’re only wearing them for an hour and a billion other people have worn them before you? It’s pretty gross if you think about it too much.

I’m really looking forward to when it gets a little cooler and we can take the kids to this place called Sonny Acres. We drive past it all the time since it’s close to home, but we’ve never stopped. We’re just not up to the apple picking trip this year (or last year, apparently, since we never went). I just can’t justify the cost of all those apples that end up rotting before we can eat them. There’s nothing else for the kids to do there so we drive 45 minutes one way for them to pick apples for 10 minutes and then we browse in the bakery and leave. Hardly seems worth it.

But Sonny Acres looks like it has a lot for the kids to do. The petting zoo sounds cute, and they have a spook barn which isn’t too scary for the boy, and a real haunted house for the girl. Not too sure about the hayride, although I think I’d enjoy it. They have concessions and whatnot too. I’m guessing we’ll drop $50 on our visit but I suppose that’s to be expected. Although, I must be cheap because that seems like a lot for 1-2 hours of fun. I’m just glad we only have two kids. When I see huge families at these places I often wonder how they can afford it. Or how they can stomach spending so much money on one excursion.

It’s kinda like those large families who I see at the movies from time to time. Each kid has a combo meal and the parents have a huge popcorn and pop, sometimes candy too. I marvel at what that one movie must have cost them. And there we are with our small popcorns, sneaking in candy and water bottles to avoid paying the outrageous concession prices. It’s kinda funny when you think about it.

Be a hero

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Last night we had my family over for The Girl’s 13th birthday party. My mom wasn’t feeling well so she stayed home, but my dad and both my brothers showed up. I was shocked that Brother #2 came because he has never been to our place in the three years we’ve lived here and he’s been invited many times. I made spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread for dinner and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Brother #1 liked it so much he later told me I have to make it again the next time he visits.

Brother #2 brought Guitar Hero for the PS2 and everyone took turns trying it out. I really wasn’t planning on playing, but it looked fun so I gave it a try. I didn’t do great, and couldn’t get through half of Message In A Bottle by The Police, but I did improve with each try. It’s pretty addictive, in fact! All we need is the guitar since my brother let us copy the game, so we’re going to look at Walmart tomorrow. I might just end up spending my American Express gift cheque from work on it. I could just imagine what my boss would think of that. Hmm, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that the brain on LikeBetter guessed I was a male, huh?

Garage sale finds

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Check out the Halloween decoration I picked up at a garage sale today for only a buck. Nice! I don’t usually buy stuff when we take the kids garage-saling, but I couldn’t resist. I just love Halloween stuff!

The kids made out too. The Girl got Disney Scene It and The Boy got Trivial Pursuit For Kids Nickelodeon Edition. Together they go for $55 new and they only paid $3 each. Other than a missing character (Mickey) in the Disney game, they were both in mint condition.

I’m not ashamed to tell you that the only Trivial Pursuit game I’ve been able to win to date is this kids edition. I don’t watch any of the shows they ask questions on, but I’m very good at making an educational guess. I also won Scene It. Yea, I guess I’m a bitch like that, haha. But the kids are so cool that they were happy for me and not upset they didn’t win. As far as they are concerned as long as their father doesn’t win, the universe is still in balance. LOL!

Flyers

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We took the kids to a minor league baseball game last night. It was a Schaumburg Flyers game to be exact, and the event was through my employer. Each employee got a free ticket plus $15 in what they call Bearon Bucks, which is good for purchasing concessions (which are expensive as all hell, let me tell you.. we went through the $15 and then some quite quickly). We also got the additional seats at a discount.

Schaumburg Flyers game

Even though it rained most of the day, by the time we got to the ballpark the skies had cleared up. It was an interesting experience as I’ve never been to such a small park before. The only thing that always irks me about sporting events is how no one ever just sits and watches the game. They are constantly talking and getting up to get food, use the bathroom, whatever. Since we were seated at the end of our row we got up so many times to let people by that I lost count. Other than that, it was fun, even though they lost. They ended the night with a decent fireworks show. By the time we got home it was 11 pm! On the way home we drove past a miniature golf course we’ve never seen before, so I’ve added it to my list to check out.