Field Day

The holiday season is behind us and, while it was jam packed with fun and family, I’m pretty happy to find our lives returning to a normal pace for a little bit. And as eventful as the last 2 weeks of the year are, I find myself not really *enjoying* my kids. I know that sounds terrible, but with all of the events surrounding the holidays, there is not a lot of *sit back, relax and enjoy* time with 4 small kids. There’s a lot of crabbiness due to staying up too late, being pushed too hard, missing naps, being completely over stimulated and getting out of the normal routine. With all major events behind us, this past week I tried to focus on getting back on track as a little family and enjoying each other.

On Wednesday, I took the kids to our local library after Faye woke up from her morning nap. We had a splendid time together.

The kids put on random puppet shows for me, played with giant stuffed animals, did puzzles, jumped on a little bouncy book, played with trains and played dress up. These things aren’t terribly different than what we do at home, but it was a different environment and new {to them} toys to play with. They had a blast and I had so much fun just sitting back and *enjoying* them…focusing on them, helping them, laughing at with them, no agenda, no *gotta rush to get to our next event*.

With today being the last day of Cole’s Christmas break, Michael and I decided to do something a little bit bigger as a family. This morning we headed to Starbucks, grabbed some breakfast and made our way to the Windy City. Our destination? The Field Museum. It’s amazing. It’s kind of like the zoo, but way better because the animals are all not moving {obviously…} and super close so you can actually see them! I’m pretty sure the last time I was at the Field Museum was when I was in grade school on a field trip. Thankfully, the museum was pretty empty and it felt like we had it to ourselves {of course, we like to hit up things right when they open for this very reason…it was a bit busier by the time we left}. The kids LOVED it. And we did, too.

Here are a few pics from our field trip to the Field:

When Faye saw this gorilla, she immediately started crying, which is so rare for her. This thing totally scared her!

Oh my girls. When you tell Rems to smile, this is what she does…throws her head back, closes her eyes and bares all of her teeth. Very, um, sweet? And Lila…I promise she was having fun. I asked her what was wrong, and she said she was not happy with us taking so many pictures. But Cole and Sue {The T-Rex} look amazing .

Flamingos.

We spent quite a bit of time in the bird exhibit. Michael. Was. In. Heaven. This picture isn’t even posed. If you can see his face, you’ll notice it resembles the face of a little kid in a candy shop.

Speaking of birds, this one was a gem…all day. She was pretty content to take off of her shoes and socks and say “Uh oh” all day.

Me and the middles.

When we saw this one, I was telling the kids about how animals like this use their horns to fight each other. Lila says to me, “No, mom, I think they’re just hugging.” Ah, that girl. All is right in the world all the time with that one.

And when Cole saw the bison he said, “You do NOT want one of those in your basement.” True story, bud.

Checking out some elephants.

Thankfully there’s a McD’s in the Field Museum so we hit that up for lunch after a while to recharge the kids. They saw so many animals with tusks, they decided to mimic them. I have no idea where the *weird* gene came from…

We had such a fun family day today and now I’m *definitely* enjoying my children while they are all taking killer naps! Ha! I hope you’ve found a way to enjoy those you love lately and detox from all of the holiday mayhem!

Have a great weekend!

~L~