Zach's elections

Sure has been an interesting election season, hasn't it?  We have a new element to consider in our house - Zach's interest in this whole process.  We don't tend to talk a lot about politics in front of our kids, but we have talked about the importance of voting, and he's been learning about the election in school too.  So he's been asking some interesting questions, and even staging his own elections!

This picture is of a very physical election Zach created.  He was happily setting up the vote amongst his Mario guys in our toy room when our 8 year old neighbor came over.  She expanded it greatly, pulling out every single car, Little People person or animal, and other miscellaneous toys, and giving them the vote too.  I don't quite understand what we're looking at, but each line represents votes for one candidate, and within those lines some toys were granted more votes than others (that wagon full of animals was worth about 50 votes, I think I heard).  Don't ask me who the winner was, or what exactly they won!

Zach's class held an election today, for president.  He filled out (and brought home) a little ballot - complete with pictures of Obama and Romney on them.  The result?  The kindergarteners were overwhelmingly in favor of Obama, 14-6.  I wonder how many electoral votes their class gets?

This afternoon Zach was hard at work, creating ballots for each of his Mario guys.  The candidates were his green Yoshi (he has several differently colored Yoshis) and the random frog tub toy he got at the dentist yesterday.

I was impressed with his diligence - he created about 30 ballots, each one with "Frog" and "Yoshi" written on them, with a bubble to fill in next to each name.  He apparently doesn't believe in anonymity in voting; each ballot had the initials of the voter on them.

Top left is Donkey Kong's ballet (DK), bottom right is Dixie Kong's (DixK)

Scott and I each got a vote too.  We asked for a summary of the candidates beliefs; once I heard that Zach likes to argue with the frog and that Yoshi is a nice guy, I voted Yoshi.

Zach and the candidates - the winner was Yoshi!!!

Considering how the last few days have gone, it's going to be interesting to see what questions Zach has for us in four years!

So many treats

Halloween was a success!

We have been talking excitedly about Charlie's costume for weeks now, to prepare him.  I brought it out almost a month ago because I suspected he was not going to be thrilled about a costume with a hood.  While he no longer acts like his coat is burning his skin right off, a hat or hood still remains out of the question.  So the costume was a big question mark.

Besides the hood, our other problem was that our two and a half year-old has an opinion of his own.  I was able to choose Zach's costume for his first three years, so I naively assumed the same would be true of Charlie, and bought him an adorable monster costume way back in April.

Over the last six weeks Zach has waffled between Star Wars and Super Mario Brothers characters.  I thought Obi-Wan Kenobi was going to win out, but in the end he ultimately selected and was thrilled to be Toad (click the link if you have no idea who that is!).  Charlie took one look at that costume and said "I Toad."  Either that or Donkey Kong (complete with a roar) - that's who he wanted to be.

So in the last few weeks when we've had a few chances to put on our costumes, Charlie instead chose to wear his Halloween Mickey shirt (thanks Grandma & Grandpa!).  He would tell people he was going to be a monster, and roar at them, then politely decline when it was time to actually put the costume on.  But Scott was determined, and he's generally more successful at these things than I am... so in the end Charlie wore his costume - even the hood!  Hooray!

One thing we did not have to work hard to convince Charlie to do - trick or treat!  We went to our next door neighbors first, and they made such a big to-do about him in his costume, AND gave him a full-size Hershey bar, and the boy was hooked.  Zach's encouragement didn't hurt either.

Scott took the boys around the neighborhood while I manned the door, and apparently some people were asking the kids if they wanted chocolate or other kinds of candy.  Charlie picked up on that, and at one house said "no, choca!" when given something like Skittles.  (We can't help but smile and be proud about this one, we're chocolate people in this house!)  Zach was patient with his brother's little legs, and they managed to cover a large part of the neighborhood.

Our neighbors across the street sat outside - under blankets - to hand out candy.  I knew our boys where home when I heard Charlie outside, standing in the driveway, repeatedly roaring at the on the tops of his lungs.  He got into the spirit!

Zach couldn't wait to show me his haul - and wow, was it a haul.  I wonder how much of it will still be in his treat box when Halloween rolls around next year???

One last adventure

We lugged our exhausted children home on the train Friday night, and Saturday morning got up for one more adventure before we headed home.  We met up with my brother and his family at my sister-in-law's bowling alley.  I think if you asked the kids, they would likely tell you this was the highlight of the entire trip.  A game of bowling, darts, video games (well, sitting on them anyway), and several games of chase through the enormous bar/bowling alley - heaven for kids!

The ball almost didn't make it to the pins.

Chase & Sophie know what they're doing!

Chicago - the view from above

The rain managed to hold off throughout the day, and while I can't say the sky cleared, we could now see the top of the Sears Tower - so we were off on our final adventure.  We had been listening to "when can we go to the top of the tallest building????" all day, so it was a relief to be able to say "NOW!!!"

I had read that 5 pm was a good time to go to avoid the lines, and that advice turned out to be solid.  I'm sure the weather helped too, but it made for some cool pictures!

There are now glass boxes hanging off the side of the 103rd story of the tower, called The Ledge. (Amazingly enough, they don't charge extra for this!)  As we stood in line for our turn to stand on/in it, I was freaking out more than a little.  Especially watching a man lay his 2-month old baby girl down to take a picture... yikes!  The kids, however, had no fear:

Anyone know why there are mustache souvenirs all over town?

Chicago - da "Bean"

We bribed, bullied, and begged the kids to walk from the Aquarium to the "Bean" - officially known as the Cloudgate sculpture in Millenium Park.  Then as we got closer, we played "who will be the first to spot the bean!"  It was a bit funny how long it took the kids to notice the ginormous silver jellybean!

As you probably guessed, I am splitting our trip into separate posts because once again I took too many pictures.  And the amazing reflections created by the bean... I could stand there all day and take pictures!

Buckingham Fountain isn't as impressive without the water!

This one just makes me smile.  I love his stance.

Off to Starbucks for some hot chocolate, mochas, and yummy treats!

Chicago - adventures in an aquarium

After arriving in the Milwaukee area Thursday afternoon, we enjoyed some playtime with my parents, a swim in Cindy & Caitlin's hotel pool, and some pizza.  Then Cindy, Caitlin, Zach and I took the train south from Milwaukee bright and early Friday morning.  We thought the kids would be entertained by the train ride itself... wrong.  Apparently when you are 5 and 7 riding the rails isn't so different than riding in a car.  Between some old-school classics like Mad Libs and new video gaming systems, the train ride passed relatively uneventfully.


Our first planned stop was the Willis Tower (FKA the Sears Tower).  Until we walked out of the train station and discovered we couldn't see the top third of the tall building - there wasn't going to be much of a view!  So instead we jumped into a (stinky) cab and headed to the Shedd Aquarium.

Apparently we arrived at the wrong time on the wrong day, because we were greeted with a very long line.  We passed the hour relatively well by leaving Cindy standing in line while I took the kids around to take pictures of the amazing sights (which for the kids and their cameras included a squirrel, some geese, and possibly even goose poop).

Once we were in, we checked out a 4D movie experience.  The 4th dimension turned out to involve disturbing odors floating through the air, getting poked in the shoulders from the backs of our seats, having water misted/sprayed on us (when a cartoon character sneezed - yuck), and a little tube whacking us in the legs.  The kids were delighted.  Did I mention it was an Ice Age movie?


Then we set about exploring the habitats of the penguins, beluga whales, sea otters, and jellyfish.  After lunch (somehow the kids were hungry despite about 17 snacks thus far) we were off to the aquatics show - the demonstration of how the dolphins, beluga whales, and some hawks were trained.  Our adventures included a yellow submarine, touching sea urchins and starfish, and playing in a canoe and tent (camping at an aquarium...?).

Whew.  Time to head on to our next destination!