Category: Kids

October Happenings (including Halloween)

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Sunday (10/10) we headed to St. Charles for their annual Scarecrow Festival. When we arrived at Lincoln Park there were no scarecrows to be found! We drove around the area but there wasn’t nearly as much as in year’s past, no doubt due to the pandemic so we drove to the other side of the river to Pottawatomie Park where they put up tents for the craft fair.

We parked in the lot by their community center and pool. There was plenty of parking since the festival hadn’t officially started yet. We didn’t end up staying long because there wasn’t much to see. Even the amount of craft booths was less than in previous years.

They did, however, surprise us with a new pavilion and area you can play cornhole near the miniature golf spot.

It looks really nice! I’ll have to keep it in mind for next summer when we’re looking for something to do.

Thursday (10/21) the kids came over for dinner. K had been talking about missing my spaghetti and meatballs so I made it for the first time in probably years at this point. E works two jobs so Thursday is his only day off. I put together a Halloween basket for them using these fake books I found at Dollar Tree.

I was happy they liked them so much! They only stayed a couple of hours since E was so tired. We sent them home with leftovers, cookies, fruit and veggies, along with the rest of my IZZE bottled cherry lime. They were getting close to expiration and I haven’t been drinking them much. I really prefer how it tastes in cans and now they are offering a 24-pack of them at Amazon I plan to order soon.

Saturday (10/23) We visited Sonny Acres and boy was it busy! The parking lot was packed when we arrived just before 11 am. They open at 10 but their kitchen doesn’t open until 11 am and I assumed that’s where they would be serving the hot apple cider I wanted to try. Turns out they have a special booth for it, and they were just bringing it out when we got there.

There’s second booth down by the kids’ rides where they have it too, so I will try to remember that for next year since it was way less busy than the main booth.

They have some of the best apple cider donuts around, but man do they keep raising the prices! A single donut will cost you $2.50 and they do get cheaper the more you buy but they are still very costly! The hot apple cider was just ok and it was annoying how the bees followed me around trying to get at it.

We enjoyed people-watching for awhile but there’s not too much to do if you don’t have young kids to take on rides.

The rides themselves are more plentiful than back when we’d take the kids there, and they even added a trampoline-like attraction that the kids would have loved. I read that the haunted hayride is $20 per person now which is kinda crazy. It used to be $10. I have mixed feelings about this. The new owners have definitely put more money into the place which is nice because the previous owners were ready to close the place down, but it’s so crowded and expensive it’s probably not as enjoyable to visit like it used to be.

Halloween (Sunday 10/31) was pretty interesting this year because we actually got trick-or-treaters, twelve in fact, which is the most we’ve had for well over a decade now. I’m glad I made up treat bags at Joe’s request even though I was certain no one would come. I’m happy to have been wrong, although with Wookie Crankypants in the mix, it was a bit frustrating as she does not like visitors to HER home.

Saturday Brunch

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Saturday (02/09) we headed to the Oak Lawn area to have brunch with the kids and ES. We went back to the same restaurant where we ate in August with Joe’s dad, aunt, and cousin. I ordered the same thing too, although it wasn’t quite as epic as last time. That being said, it was good to catch up with the kids since we mostly only see them on holidays.

We all gave E grief about his lack of communication skills (between him not answering texts, and not letting his sister know he was actually at home and not busy like she thought, they were about twenty minutes late arriving since they drove together). I think for our own sake we’re going to stop showing up early (or even on time) when it comes to them because there’s almost always a reason they’re late and it’s aggravating waiting around. We’re two very punctual people and don’t understand how they manage to make it to school and work on time. In any case, we have tried not take it personally and chalk it up to poor time management skills. The lack of response to texts is more frustrating, though, because it’s just plain rude. It’s especially so when we’re forking over (see what I did there?) $75 for a single meal, you know? Of course, E always takes the teasing in stride (everyone was getting on his case, but in a good-natured way) and he even gave us two copies of Aggravation he found at thrift stores. We now have 5 copies of the deluxe edition and 1 copy of the original and only two of them we’ve purchased ourselves. He spent $25 on one of them which we think is too much, but neither of us can think of a way to tell him to stop buying them without sounding ungrateful.

After brunch we ordered a pizza at the place where my brother, B, got me the Hawaiian for my birthday earlier this month. We did half pineapple and canadian bacon and half sausage and took it home for later. Came to find out later that it was national pizza day so that worked out nicely!

We didn’t do much on Sunday other than shopping and a trip to the library.

Christmas With The Kids

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I only had to work one day last week – Thursday (12/27) – but boy was it a doozy. The work itself didn’t stress me out, but my coworkers sure did! One was playing his music louder than normal and the other would not stop clearing his throat frequently. In a two minute period he did it 9 times! Ugh. I could not wait to get out of that place!

Friday (12/28) was our Christmas with the kids. Originally ES was working and wasn’t going to be able to make it but he showed up. Good thing I bought an extra gift card just in case for a game we ended up playing (UNO Attack with prizes). :)

The kids got me a Funko Pop flocked Grumpy Bear and Joe a card game and a $25 Red Robin Gift Card which was nice. We’ll probably be eating there in the next week or two since I’m due for a free birthday burger soon.

The kids seemed to really like their gifts – we gave them each a Google Home Mini (we bought a three pack and are really enjoying ours), money, and some stocking stuffers.

After our dinner of ham and all the sides (including my homemade mac & cheese everyone raved about), we played the aforementioned UNO Attack and then Aggravation. I believe the kids ended up leaving sometime between 10 and 11 pm so it was a nice long visit. I recently subscribed to Spotify so I had a playlist of 30+ Christmas songs on repeat through the evening.

We were all suffering an introvert hangover on Saturday (12/29) so we didn’t shower or leave the house at all and Wookie spent most of the day napping.

Sunday (12/30) we ran a few errands in the morning, took down and packed away all the Christmas decorations in the afternoon, and went to see a few decorated houses in the early evening.

Haven’t done much today except more errands, doing laundry, and cleaning the house. Our “big” New Years Eve plans is having ribs for dinner and going to bed at a decent hour because I want to check the sales tomorrow. NYE isn’t that exciting if you’re not the partying type.

Shoes & A Visit From E

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Saturday (6/23) we decided to walk around Geneva since it was their annual Swedish Days festival. It was a beautiful day outside and it was fun looking at all the stuff for sale. We picked up these cute little garden animals for $1.39 and put them by our tree in the front.

We also got Wookie a new toy for only $1.50.

As we were walking out of a shop we ran into my good friend, C, with her husband and two of her daughter’s friends. It’s funny how we tend to run into her at fairs, festivals, or just out shopping, more than anyone else we know.

Before leaving we tried a new place called Atlas Chicken Shack and shared an order of fries and a chicken sandwich smothered with ranch dressing. We really liked the dill in the ranch dressing; it gave it a unique flavor.

On our way home we stopped at Old Time Pottery and found a plant stand for outside the front door like Joe had been wanting. It’s already come in handy for setting things down when opening the door (since we STILL can’t use our driveway … more on that in a bit) so I’m not sure I’d even want to put a plant there. Plus, we’re not so good at keeping plants alive. We planted some wildflowers in the planters this year and they just started flowering, but that’s only because they don’t require any care and the rain has been keeping them hydrated.

Joe also spotted that they had a metal baking pan with a plastic lid which I have been searching for to replace ours since the non-stick coating on the inside was coming off. It was on sale too so it was only $7.

Sunday (6/24) we ran to Kohls so I could return a pair of grey Addidas running shoes I had purchased a few weeks back. I’m bummed because I really liked the style but once I started walking around in them (in the house, to keep them clean until I was sure I’d be keeping them), I found they were uncomfortable. I replaced them with a grey pair of New Balance shoes that cost slightly less ($56 after 20% off coupon) so I’m keeping my fingers crossed they will fit better. I wanted a sneaker that wasn’t white yet light in color to go with certain outfits that don’t quite look right with my black shoes.

We also stopped by Costco and I ended up getting a black pair of Reeboks since they were only $20. I’m not positive I’m going to like them but I figured they were worth trying for the price (and their generous return policy).

Joe’s son decided to pay us a visit Sunday afternoon which was nice. He’s been so busy with school and two jobs that we rarely see him. We went out to lunch and then to the mall since he likes the FYE there. He ended up getting 6 Funko POP! vinyl characters (he collects certain ones) and a CD. I’m so glad he’s making his own money now, LOL! But seriously, he was very sweet offering to buy us the Stefon POP character that we got all excited spotting.

I took a picture of it for my Instagram but I don’t want to actually own it. If anything, I want to have less useless possessions, not more.

Back at the house we played The Logo Game and watched some YouTube videos before E took off around 8 pm.

Today I went to Savers to look for clothes because I’ve recently donated all the stuff I don’t wear and replaced it with stuff I love, like leggings and cozy shirts. I scored three items, one of which I think I might be able to wear with leggings to work since it’s long enough to cover my butt. I wish it was easier to find tunics because I don’t feel comfortable wearing shorter shirts with tight-fitting pants.

Despite being told on Saturday by someone who works for the company who is replacing our driveways and patios that they would be filling the driveway aprons with concrete today, they didn’t do it. All they filled was the remaining patios and rip up some driveways on the remaining building. We are both extremely aggravated by this since the last time they did ANY work on our building was a week and a half ago. They have been trying to do too many drives/patios at once and were nowhere to be found for a few days last week. There’s just no reason this should’t be done by now. I called to complain last Thursday but they don’t care.

Meanwhile all these people are unable to use their driveways/garages for WEEKS and it’s getting old. And because they ripped up even more while the two buildings they were in process of working on are still not done there are even less available parking spots on the street. It’s supposed to storm tomorrow so chances are nothing will be done then either. So best case scenario at this point is they will fill the aprons on Wednesday and since you have to wait four full days before driving on them we won’t be able to use our driveway until Monday which is past the last day they claimed this would all be done (June 29th). That last building won’t have to wait as long since once they are done with our two building they only have one left to work on, although at this rate I feel like they purposely drag things out that should have taken a week or less. I’m just beyond annoyed at this point.

Two Weekend Catchup

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Last weekend (9/23) was Wookie’s birthday party (she turned a year old on 9/21). My brothers and R came over to celebrate, although R couldn’t stay long as she had a wake to attend. I made homemade sloppy joes and we drove my brothers back to B’s house around 4 pm so J could drive home from there since B wanted to attend the wake as well. They brought their dog over and she wasn’t too thrilled with Wookie. Anytime Wookie would get close their dog would growl at her. She seemed better once she was off-leash in the dining room, though, so it might have been leash aggression which I’ve read about. I do hope they end up becoming friends, or at the very least can tolerate each other, since I don’t like the idea of leaving Wookie with a stranger when Joe and I go on vacation. That’s why even though we’ve talked about going to Disneyland California next year I haven’t started planning anything yet.

Saturday (9/30) we met the kids for breakfast at Denny’s. They were a half hour late which was pretty irritating, but I gave them shit about it and plan to address it again before we see them again. Unfortunately their tardiness is becoming a habit which I really don’t like as I find it rude and insulting to make people wait for you and not even give them a heads up. Other than that it was a pleasant breakfast, and E brought us gifts he found at the secondhand store – whiskey stones for Joe and a copy of Aggravation for me. Hopefully I didn’t insult him by asking whether he wanted to keep it. I just didn’t want to take it knowing we have like three others at home since we always buy them when we see them too.

In the afternoon we took Wookie to the harvest festival near where I work. We went to the same festival several years back and were underwhelmed by it. Unfortunately, it really hasn’t improved much in all those years. The only good thing was the zucchini bread we purchased from the Girl Scouts’ bake sale. Now I want to make my own!

Pumpkins

Yesterday (10/1) we spent some time at the arboretum to check out the scarecrows. Unfortunately the trees haven’t really turned color yet but I got some pumpkin photos.

We walked around Yorktown mall afterwards since there’s some home stuff we’re in need of (specifically a new bedding set, silverware, and a bath mat although we didn’t find anything we liked) and I really want some new fall sweaters. I found a black one at Forever 21 and then noticed it was tearing at the sleeve so I left in disgust. We went to Savers earlier in the week during their 30% off sale, and I went again today since everything was 50% off, but none of the sweaters I tried on fit properly and I tried on at least 15 between both visits. I did end up with a black cardigan, however, as well as two more pairs of flannel pajama pants, a blue t-shirt, and a cute Tsum Tsum blanket I got for Wookie’s crate.

I’m in the mood to shop lately for some reason. When we had dinner at Red Robin a couple of weeks ago we went into Bath & Body Works to, as I told Joe, look around, but I ended up buying a leaf Wallflower plug and 5 wallflower refills because I’m addicted to the Marshmallow Fireside scent. A YouTuber who I watch recommended the candle version but the plug-in diffusers are a better buy since I only keep them plugged in over the weekend and the smell lingers for days afterward.

Sunday after the mall we stopped at a new fast food chicken place called PDQ for lunch. I got the Thai Peanut Bowl since it sounded really good, but it wasn’t that impressive. Turns out I really don’t like mango salsa. Joe had the California Chicken sandwich which was better, but the star of our meal was the zucchini fries with ranch. Mmmm…