Chicago!!

Cooper and I have been reading a series of books called The Sixty Eight Rooms.  They take the involved the Thorne Miniature Rooms in the Art Institute of Chicago.  (Two 11-year-old kids find a magic key that lets them shrink so they can explore the miniature rooms and the worlds outside them -- 1937 Paris, 1692 Massachusetts, etc.)  We decided to take a quick trip there on Saturday to see them for ourselves!

Our agenda for the day:

Airport:

On the train ride to downtown:

The Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower) from the train:

Giordano's pizza -- my favorite!

The bean sculpture:

Halloween party

On Friday, the 30th, we hosted a Halloween party.  Turns out, 8-year-olds LOVE candy corn:

Coop had the three-hour evening pretty well scripted.  First up, a costume parade so kids could model their costumes for the parents.

Second, a scavenger hunt around the inside and outside (in the rain!) of our house.  Coop and I had a ball making all the clues (they rhymed!) and putting things in order for the various teams.

In the box full of food, in the place that makes ice

If you find your next clue, that would really be nice.

For supper, we served hot dog mummies, bugles (to make witch fingers!), fruit, cheese, and cookies.

Activity number 4: pumpkin painting!

My sink:

The last activity was supposed to be a bon fire and scary stories, but it was raining.  So instead, Alan took the kids down to the basement and turned off the lights to tell stories.  Apparently, the kids had had way too much sugar to be willing to sit and listen, so things got a little hairy (and not in a fun Halloween way).

In time, Coop and I will recover.  And I'm sure we'll be planning an Easter party eventually.  Once we forget the trauma of this one! :)

Party Prep

Cooper was beyond excited to host a Halloween party for some of his friends here at the house.  We spent weeks, months, planning this thing.  Man, the kid has ideas!

Making cookies:

 Indian Jones costume ready:

Indiana Jones cleaning up pretzels that spilled in his excitement to get the food ready:

Getting ready for Halloween

Coop and Alan went to a pumpkin carving party:

 Lovely.  Just lovely!

And Coop found a new friend.  He's been wanting a praying mantis for a pet:

A few new Halloween decorations for Alan's place:

Weekend

We bought some fake blood in anticipation of Halloween.  And just my luck, I found a vampire that needed to be stabbed in the heart with a wooden stake.  Mission accomplished.

Coop and I went to KC to see Wicked:

Very cool!

And then we went to Ikea.  Way less cool.  Still impressive, but overwhelming.  And heavy.  We picked out a new desk and chair for him, though.  And then I spent hours assembling it all:

And then Coop spent hours getting it all organized:

Success!

Campout

Our church held a weekend campout event in celebration of its 20th anniversary.  Coop and I were able to go for some of festivities.

At the bonfire:

Fishing:

Pedal boating:

Frog!!

Ren Fest and A New Car!!

Coop and I headed out to the KC Renaissance Festival on Saturday.  A fairy gave Coop this origami dragon, which he loved:

And we ate a scotch egg, which I loved!!

(The outer breading coating is sausage based.  Man, it's good!)


In other news, the Hyundai Santa Fe (lovingly named Stanley) died recently.  I went car shopping and Coop send me with this list of "approved colors":

I think I did ok with this RAV4:

Coop's rendition:

(He's lucky I picked the base model and so there were only two extra "features" for him to list!)

Halloween prep

Coop has decided he wants to be Indiana Jones this year for Halloween:

He's quite excited about the bull whip, even though we can't actually make it "crack."

 He even drew Indiana Jones maps that we aged (by burning and soaking in tea):

Unrelated to Halloween or Indiana Jones, Coop had a playdate with his friend Molly and came home with this:

Yeah.... that's sharpie.

Magic

Coop's been working on some magic tricks.  He's getting pretty good:

Misc

Coop and I have been working on a model airplane thing:

Eventually we finished:

Though not without some frustration.  Hence the first item on this "to do list."  But we solved the problem and crossed off that item.  The others are pretty interesting though:

Coop's karate studio had a parents night out event where kids could bring nerf guns.  Coop had a fabulous time, and he actually won this new nerf gun in a drawing that evening:

Big kid

Coop requested tennis shoes for the start of the school year (instead of the cowboy boots he's been wearing all summer).  In addition to the velcro ones we bought, he was interested in tie shoes.  So he's been working:

One afternoon, we went with Carrie and her kids to a small circus that came to Baldwin.  Coop invited Eleanor to go with him to buy peanuts.  Too precious:

In order to convince Coop to go grocery shopping with me, I agreed to divide up the list and give him several items (and his own cart!) to go find.  I secretly stalked him from around the corner, but he did a great job hunting down groceries: