Christmas Break Activities

Other than playing with toys, watching some movies, swim practice, and science fair, we did get to do a few fun things over the break. I admit that knowing we'd be leaving on the 10th for a big family vacation, I was not worried about packing tons of fun into our days. Some great friends of ours, the Liddells, moved to Colorado at the end of our break, so we had them over to provide a dinner to a family whose kitchen was packed in boxes and to sneak as much fun in with them as possible. They received a Wii with the Just Dance games for Christmas, so we HAD to try them out. I discovered that Emma is a dancing machine. She would do it all day if she could. Braxton, although shy, did better than everyone expected. We thought he could only do the robot! :) Lizzie and Emma got Just Dance for Kids, but I'm seeing a possible purchase in the future. I need to add more opportunities to impress my children. ;)

We went to see Brookfield Zoo's Holiday Lights. Steve got to see the new Bear exhibit, which is great! All of the big cats were active, roaring, pacing, and fascinating to watch. The wolves were amazing. One got reprimended by the alpha and was hanging his head and slunk off away from the pack.

So having been to both zoos in a week, I asked the kids which they liked better. The concensus was that both were good for the animals, but that Lincoln Park Zoo's lights were better. FYI

The Chicago Art Institute is FREE in January. I am so grateful that I have a great friend who invited us. We try to visit it at least every other year, but it had left my radar. I really wanted my in-laws to see it, so we piled in and just did it! I LOVE this museum. It's gone through some changes and they've moved things around, so we passed through the Asian Art Hallway probably 5 times trying to find our way from one building to the next, but we saw some phenomenal art. I printed up a paper with pictures that highlight some of the pieces I wanted to make sure we saw as a make-shift treasure map for the kids. Also, knowing some of the things the kids study in our PTA Art awareness program, I tried to make sure we saw things that would be familiar.

Monet- this and the Degas statue were Lizzie's favorites

Georgia O'Keefe

The Thorne Miniature Rooms

Kelle has read a book about a child living amongst these rooms. It's on my list!

Chagall Windows entitled "Peace"

Armor

Our whole group with the iconic lions dressed up for the holidays.
On our walk back to the cars, I asked Kelle where the "bean" was (having never seen it) and learned that I was within a 2 minutes walk of it. So...

The kids loved playing with their reflections!

Our weather over break was warmer than ever expected. We were even able to go to the park and pick up a friend for Lizzie one day!