Morning?

Raj woke me up to say goodbye on his way to work this morning, as he does every Saturday (I’m awake before him during the week). A few minutes after I drifted back to sleep, he woke me up again. He asked, “Do you mind skipping swimming class this morning so I can borrow your car to go to work? It snowed last night and I don’t have my snow tires on yet.” Ugh. It’s supposed to be our last class of this session, when we get Shawn’s report card. I know it’s going to say the same thing as all the other report cards have, something along the lines of, “Move up to Pike if possible, otherwise Pike with Parent.” But, I don’t like missing class. When we overslept and missed class two weeks ago, even Shawn showed disappointment. Maybe playing in the snow today will distract him and make up for missing class. Hopefully.


Anyway, the opportunity to sleep in presented itself and who am I to turn that down? A late night last night pretty well guaranteed that Shawn would not be waking before 9:00 am. Sleeping in could easily distract me and make up for missing class this morning! And yet, I laid awake. Frustrated. I tried to go back to sleep. Couldn’t.


So, at 7:30 am, about the same time I wake up during the week with an alarm clock desperately trying to coax me out of bed, I conceded defeat and gave in to productivity. Laundry started. Bills paid. Toys put away. Not how I planned to spend a Saturday morning! At least I'll get some blogging done…

Team Work

It was a very wet and gray Chicago fall day today. Thank goodness we could burn off some energy at Gymboree! I was so anxious to get the kids going that I got my times mixed up. I thought our art class started at 9. So, we were running late and I bustled Shawn and Abby out the door. We got there well after start time, so the Ms. Kim (at the front desk) and Ms. Mary Beth (teaching a Play & Learn Level 4 class) asked me which class we were attending. I explained that we were running late this morning and were supposed to be in the art class that was well underway. After a few giggles, they both looked at me and said, “I don’t think so!” It turns out, the class that was going on at that time was a Level 1 Art class for 18-24 month olds (though no one actually showed up for it). Our class, Level 2 Art, didn’t start for another hour! Ooops!! Luckily, they are very accommodating and invited us to join Ms. Mary Beth’s Play & Learn Level 4 group, even though the other children were 16-22 months old. Then, we even got to participate in half of a Level 5 until our real class was ready to begin. Oy! I know everyone makes mistakes, but it’s not the first time I’ve done this! It’s been about a year since the last time, so it’s not like it’s a frequent occurrence, but… still! Get it together, woman!

While we spent all morning at Gymboree, Shawn and Abby did a great job playing with the younger kids. I think they had a good time doing some of the activities that they don’t get to do in the older levels anymore (like playing the Freeze game on the air log, a lap ride to The Noble Duke of York, etc.) 

Shawn's a work horse pulling a wagon.

Playing with the Rainbow Rope (bungie)

Two horses going over a big hill.

Giddyup!

Abby shaking her horse tail

Shawn with running with his horse tail

It was fun to watch them interact with the little ones too. Shawn definitely recognizes that there’s something about the children younger than he is. He is very gentle and careful when he’s around them, especially babies. Other people that notice this make sure to point out, “It looks like Shawn’s ready to be a big brother!” Yup, I totally agree he’ll make a great big brother…

In Art class, Ms. Kim subbed for Ms. LouAnn, who was out of town for the holiday. We did a review unit combing all the shapes that we’ve worked with over the past few weeks. After free painting for a few minutes, we started our projects. The first involved stamping various shaped blocks into paint. Ms. Kim encouraged the kids to combine their shapes into new things, like stamp a triangle over a square to make a house or a triangle over a circle to be a face wearing a hat, but the kids (not just Shawn and Abby) were more interested in covering their papers with randomly stamped shapes. The grownups tried to point out their accidental creations like, “That line of circles looks like a caterpillar!” but after a while, the kids just stamped freely. The second project was a simple collage of paper triangles, felt circles, tissue paper rectangles, and circle smiley-face stickers. (Neither project were very creative or original – and, unfortunately, I don’t think it had anything to do with Ms. LouAnn having a sub today! I sure hope they pick up the slack in the next unit… or I may just have to start suggested some resources for new ideas!)

When we got home from Gymboree today, Shawn and Abby played while I got lunch ready. Abby was the first one eager to sit down to eat, but lately she’s convinced herself that she can’t get into her chair by herself - even though she’s done it hundreds of times before! As the problem solver that she is, today she got Shawn involved. Here’s how it unfolded…

What a team!

Yawn

*Yawn*

Shawn woke up around 6:30 am this morning.  This is extremely out of character, as I normally have to drag him out of bed between 8:00 - 8:30 am during the week.  I was really looking forward to sleeping in today too, of course.  So much for that dream! 

*Yawn*

He woke up once earlier in the night, but he went back to sleep pretty easily.  This time, he was wide awake and I couldn’t even talk him into snuggling for very long!  He was ready to play, wanted to get Baron from the kitchen, and resisted the notion of anything deviating from his plan.

*Yawn*

The catch – he’s definitely got a cold.  In spite of the medicine I gave him (which he loves), he spent the majority of the morning sneezing, coughing, sniffing, and dribbling all over everything.  (My efforts to teach him to cover his mouth have obviously failed tremendously.)  I made him a cub of chicken broth in a fun apple-shaped cup with a squeezie spout (like a sports bottle), to encourage him to drink plenty of fluids.  My scheme worked initially, but you can lead a toddler to a sippy, but you can’t make him drink! 

*Yawn*

Shawn played, asked “Let’s get out of here!” and “What are we going to do today?” as if he was in tip-top shape.  Yet, when I sat him on my bed to read a story (after much cajoling to get him to actually sit and not stand), the next thing I realized, he was fast asleep and snoring softly.  It was only 11:00 am.  (His normal naptime is around 1:30 or 2:00 pm.)

But, now I’m awake!

St. Martinstag

To celebrate St. Martinstag yesterday, I made a German-ish twist to a Creamy Beef Stroganoff (see the recipe below), sauerkraut, and green beans. Raj & I had some beer from the Galena Brewing Company (not German, but good). We finished the frozen store bought pretzels I had left from Oktoberfest (not the greatest, but they did the trick). I was going to make Apful Kuchen for dessert, but realized too late I only had one apple. It wasn't a big deal, we were full after the pretzels anyway!  We could've done our lantern walk last night, too, but I didn't feel like the lantern was quite done yet and it simply got too late to go before we realized it! 

Creamy Beef Stroganoff (from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

1 (10.5 ounce) can beef consomme 1 tablespoon prepared mustard 8 ounces wide egg noodles, cooked and drained 1 cup sour cream

Directions:

In a skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in flour and salt until blended. Stir in soup, consomme and mustard. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the noodles and sour cream; heat through (do not boil).

However, as it usually happens with recipes, I really didn’t follow this too closely.  I left out the extra salt, only had beef bouillon crystals, added some garlic, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, and parsely, and had to substitute for a lack of sour cream (with a mixture or cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, and lemon juice - thanks to my very handy book Substituting Ingredients: An A to Z Kitchen Reference by Becky Sue Epstein and Hilary Klein).  And, to help boost the German-ish feel, I swapped the wide egg noodles for Spaetzle.  Even with all of the substitutions and deletions from the original, the final dish seemed to be intact.  It turned out pretty well and it was nice to try a different recipe.  (I should’ve reduced the amounts in the sauce though, I have waaaaaay too much left over and no more Spaetzle!)

So, we waited until this evening for the lantern, but we did that part of the St. Martinstag tradition, too. I used a guide to help get me started on a balloon and paper mache lantern, but once I read through it, I remembered that it really is pretty easy.  I only made one lantern, since *ahem!* NO ONE else was interested in helping and I didn't think it was quite reasonable for me to make three alone! (grrrr...) I tried to get Shawn excited about making or at least helping me make a lantern, but he was absolutely not interested at all.  (Sometimes he’s all about getting his hands messy, but lately it seems to turn him off completely. Bummer… in a way.)  Raj used Shawn as his ‘out,’ too.  Oh, well!  I had fun doing it!  Once it was done, Shawn (finally) got excited about it.  He helped Raj find a stick that we could use to attach to the lantern. 

(No, I didn't draw any of those pictures myself, they are clip arts that I've used on our lanterns for the past few years.
Wish I could claim them as my own, but not even close!
After paper mache-ing them onto the balloon, I used permanent markers to dress them up a bit.)

Once it got dark out, Shawn got really excited about going on a walk with the lantern.  Raj did express a little concern about looking strange as we paraded around the neighborhood, but I made sure to point out that Shawn and I had just returned from a short walk and only saw one person the whole time, and besides, who cares?!  The weather was still holding on to a few warm degrees before dropping into Chicago's sub-zero winter that is looming just around the corner. (Though, the gusting winds were a bit tricky at times.)  In past years, we've kept the lanterns inside due to weather.  So, we took advantage of the evening, and it was a lot of fun!  Shawn got even more excited about the lantern when he saw the green glow stick to put inside of it and then watched the whole thing turned into a radiant orb!

 My camera's flash was too bright to get the full effect!

Gusting winds and an excited 2 year old swinging the lantern around made it a bit tough to get focused pictures!

Shawn carried it for the majority of the walk, but I think the long stick got a little awkward to hold and maybe even a little heavy after a few blocks.  When we were almost home, and Shawn was starting to lose interest and slow down, I took the glow stick out of the lantern and the three of us took turns tossing the gleaming rod a few feet ahead of us and then watching Shawn squeal, giggle, and race to retrieve it in the darkness.  NOTE: Glow sticks + outside + night time = FUN!  (Duh!)  Once that happened, there was no way I was going to get the glow stick back into the lantern – even back at home!  So, Raj had fun teaching Shawn ‘light-saber’ sounds and Shawn was his fully-attentive student.

Next year, maybe Shawn will be more willing to get his hands gloopy.  Or, maybe I’ll find another way to make lanterns.  Either way, it’s fun in the end and I’m thrilled to be bringing back some of our old family traditions!

Happy Halloween!

Shawn's Eggs

Abby's Muffins

We started our Halloween morning with a little fun with our breakfast.

Since we don't have any scheduled activities today, we ran to Meijer to pick  up a few last minute things for our costumes.  Back at home, we played with play-dough and did a mini-art project  (thanks to Jennifer for forwarding the idea!).  I traced the kids’ feet and hands onto white paper, cut them out, and then decorated the upside down shapes as ghosts.  So easy!  Abby loved being traced, so we made a few sheets of ghosts for her.  (Bill’s birthday is on Friday, so we’ll make a birthday card for him using her ghosts.)  Shawn liked having his hands traced, but I think his feet were too ticklish to keep from wiggling while I was mid-trace.  I got a couple, but I’ll have to be creative when cutting them out to get the wiggled lines to resemble his feet!


I finished my costume last night.  With black pants, a gray sweatshirt, a bunch of scrap fabrics, and a glue gun, I’ve ‘built’ a building ablaze.  (I hate to admit that I burned myself more than once in the process!  …I guess that’s appropriate…)  I altered a red night shirt (also with a glue gun), added stripes with electrical tape,  and Raj added Chief Baron for our Fire Chief’s costume.  Shawn’s dog was store bought (from our Mothers & More Resale) and I’ve been working on his fire truck for the past few days.  It started as an apple box from Costco, but with the magic of paint, the glue gun, and some random materials, a fire truck has been manufactured.  I put some finishing touches on fire truck during naptime (the hose, drivers, lights, and siren).  DONE!

 

When Bill picked up Abby, I thought I had a little time to wake up Shawn, get him changed into his costume and truck, put my costume on, and then get Baron ready to go, but I didn’t have nearly as much time as I had hoped.  It seemed like only a few minutes later, Abby (Lady Bug), Bill, Viola (Olivia the Pig), and Heidi were at our front door ready to go.  I had my outfit on, but hadn’t done the flaming make-up or false lashes that I had planned.  I quickly tossed Shawn into his suit and then belted him into his truck and we left Chief Baron behind.  I almost forgot to grab Shawn’s Trick-or-Treat bucket as we rushed out the door!


Shawn loved being able to put on his fire truck, though I wasn’t sure he’d ‘wear’ it for long.  It didn’t make walking very easy, bumping into his legs with each step.  In fact, as we were rushing out the door to join the gang for Trick-or-Treating, Shawn took a massive tumble over the step at our front door.  I think the fire truck got caught up on either the step or the door frame, which threw off Shawn’s center of gravity, tipping him forward, over (and off) the front stoop, into the void where there should be bushes (luckily, there aren’t any right now!) where he landed on top of the fire truck completely shocked, disoriented, and scared by the mid-flight somersault he had just made.  Though the fire truck caused the accident, I think wearing the cardboard box actually prevented Shawn from getting hurt at all!  Thank goodness!  But, what a way to start the adventure of Trick-or-Treating !  It can only get better from here…

And, it did.  I was able to adjust the length of the arm straps to lift the box out of the way of his legs a little, but then Shawn said they were too tight.  So, we just walked slowly and I helped him up and down the front steps at the houses we visited.  Surprisingly, Shawn wore the fire truck the whole time we were out with Abby and Viola.  He even insisted on holding onto the fire hose, rather than tucking it into his arm straps, and preferred that I carry his treats bag.  (So, just to get this straight, you want to carry a pretend hose, while I carry candy?  OOOOOOKAAAY!)  We stopped at a handful of houses of people that Bill knew, but then Abby and Viola were ready to go home.  Shawn and I decided to go back out and visit some more houses.


As we past a group of other trick-or-treaters, one little boy stopped us and, with total exuberance, asked, "Did you make that?!" pointing to Shawn's costume.  Needless to say, he was in an entirely store-bought, plastic, one-of-a-million-just-like-it costume.  In fact, I hate to admit it, but I don't even remember what it was!  Maybe seeing us will inspire him (or his parents) to be a little more creative next year... maybe...  I can hope...


We tried finding our dog park friend, Ms. Katie, who would have really appreciated Shawn’s Dalmatian costume, but I only had a vague idea of which building she lived in within the neighboring townhome association.  It was really difficult to tell which residents were welcoming Trick-or-Treaters in her neighborhood, since some buildings had communal front doors.  Though we didn’t find Ms. Katie, we did stop at a plenty of other houses before heading home (well past dark).


I wasn't overly surprised, but still a little disappointed, that I only saw one other parent dressed up (a very elaborate witch) with the kids.  It's a fun excuse to do something silly with your child and there are only so many years that they'll let you get away with it before they're too old to tolerate having that kind of fun with Mom and/or Dad!  I say take advantage of the time while we have it!


Shawn did great and I had fun going out with him in costume, too.  He managed to find a just-loud-enough voice to say some combination of “Trick or Treat!” “Happy Halloween!” and “Thank You!” at each house.  He wore his fire truck a lot longer than I had ever anticipated and even when he was tired of wearing it, he still held on to the hose! The fire truck’s lights and siren were fading just about the same time that Shawn and I were.   It was time to go home.


Raj had been home for a short time handing out candy and his customary (and now requested!) toothbrushes.  He dressed as a crazed dentist… hmmm…


After Shawn changed out of his Dalmatian suit and into little boy pajamas, he continued to play with the fire truck and hose.  He was frustrated that the lights and siren wouldn’t work anymore, but at least the hose still stretched!

He and Raj greeted the last of the trick-or-treaters while I made dinner.  Our menu for the evening consisted of crocodiles’ eyes, lizards’ skins, owls’ tongues, rats’ hearts, frogs’ toes, and vampires’ teeth stirred in a cauldron of orange monster blood and topped with spiders and webs.  And, we nibbled on witches’ hats and severed fingers.

 

 In other words, we had carrot, cashew, and ginger soup (orange monster blood), to which I added meat stuffed tortellini (crocodiles’ eyes), diced onions (lizards’ skin), corn (owls’ tongues), diced red peppers (rats’ hearts), diced green peppers (frogs’ toes), and pine nuts (vampires’ teeth). Then, I garnished it with swirls of plain yogurt (webs) and cheese cut-outs (spiders). On the side, we had baby corn (severed witches’ fingers) and garlic dusted crescent rolls (witches’ hats). (Raj helped me come up with a couple of the Halloween-y names for the ingredients.) We had fun eating the ghoulish concoction and Shawn has now renamed baby corn as "witches’ fingers"!


We put the fire truck in the basement, since it’s still being played with, but I don’t want it to be run into the ground!  Raj thinks we might be able to use it for something next year, but I have a feeling Shawn will be ready for something different a year from now.  (It was a relief to see it last longer than a walk around the block.  Still, I kind of wish we could’ve used it at the Gymboree Pumpkin Patch Party, the Mothers & More Fall Family Party, or the wear-your-costume-but-no-accessories-please Language Stars class next week.  Oh, well.  It served its purpose.  I’ll totally admit I had fun making it, and I’m just glad it was worth all the effort and time!)


However, now that the festivities are over, I’m ready for another weekend!

A Sick Day - Abby's Turn

Abby hasn’t been feeling well the past few days, so this morning, when she still wasn’t feeling well and her fever returned, Bill decided to keep her home.  We have nothing on the schedule today, so I let Shawn sleep in and wake on his own.  He’s still getting over the tail end of his icky-ness from last week too, so I figured that the extra sleep would be good for him.  (As Oma reminded me, “He is his mother’s son, afterall!”  We do love our sleep… in the mornings, at least!)

Once he did wake up, Shawn met me at the top of the stairs with a big smile.  Nice!  I like those kinds of wake-ups!  After I helped him change out of his clothes from yesterday that he fell asleep in and into fresh clothes, I asked him what he’d like for breakfast.  “Eggs!  …and yogurt!”  That was easy.  We shared a double egg omelet, though I would’ve preferred to add cheese or something to it he politely requested, “Just eggs, please.”  Afterwards, Shawn helped me clear the table.  Then, while I was emptying the dishwasher, he helped me by sorting and putting away the clean silverware.  When he was done, he gave me a hug for being such a good helper!  (I'm not sure what I said to get him so excited about sorting silverware, but I hope I can remember it for next time!)

 

A little later, we tracked Oma down at work via Skype and chatted for a little while.  We wouldn’t want her to accomplish too much in one day!  We also figured out how to add email subscriptions to our blogs.  This will definitely help me stay on top of the news from the Barony and the NJ Hardwicks (if we can get her to join the bandwagon) better. 

During lunch, Grandma Fanny showed up at our doorstep unexpectedly.  In her very broken (yet improving) English, she explained that her passport issues were finally resolved and that she was on her way to O’Hare Airport hoping to try to get on a stand-by flight back home to Hong Kong.  Needless to say, she wouldn’t be coming over for our English lessons anymore, as long as she could get on a flight.  (This summer, she was planning a trip to meet some friends in Toronto.  The night before her flight, her daughter was helping her get ready and realized that they had let her passport expire – by. ONE. day.  So, she couldn’t go on her trip.  For the past three or four months, her family has been trying to get her passport fixed.  The winters here are very hard on her, there’s a big family wedding back in Hong Kong coming up, and her husband, who she hasn’t seen almost a year, is still in Hong Kong. She got her new passport today, and she’s very excited to be able to go home again.)  We gave each other a big hug and I wished her a safe trip home.  Though I don’t think she understood the words I was saying, I’m sure she understood the idea.  She turned around and hurried back to her daughter’s house two doors down from us. 

I’ll miss our twice weekly sessions, deciphering her attempts to tell me a story in English, trying to explain certain spelling patterns or grammar rules in as simple and basic language as I can manage, and (mostly) interacting with a student who is so incredibly motivated to learn something that is challenging (ahem - foreign!) to her.  I’ve had a lot of fun dabbling into teaching / tutoring again and I feel like I’ve actually been able to use some of the things from my Reading Specialist program, which I haven’t needed a whole lot in the past year.  I’m happy that she finally gets to go home again, but I’m sad to see her go.

A few minutes later, our doorbell rang again!  Grandma Fanny came back just to give Shawn a pack of his favorite orange flavored yogurt drinks that she picks up for him each time she shops in Chinatown.  They’re the perfect size for little hands and little mouths.  He loves to guzzle them down and since they’re small servings, I don’t mind too much that they’re really mostly sugar.  After I thanked her profusely for being so thoughtful and generous, I was able smuggle the drinks into the refrigerator without Shawn seeing them.  They’ll be a nice surprise for dessert or something later.  I'll need to ration them out, since we won't be getting any more!

When Shawn started to slow down at lunch time, I asked him if he wanted to finish lunch or if it was time for his nap.  The first time I asked him, he said he wanted more lunch.  The second time I asked him, he admitted he was ready for a nap.  WOAH!  I think this is a first!  I can’t think of a time he’s ever been ‘ready’ for a nap or bedtime!  Put this day on the calendar!

While he napped, I intended to accomplish a list of jobs around the house.  Instead, I emailed more with Oma, Skyped with Jennifer and Jonathan, and blogged a bit.  Before I knew it, hours had past and I heard Shawn rattling his doorknob, announcing that he was awake.  Darn!  Well, maybe I’ll get to those things later!

After a bit of play time together, we went to Staples to pick up a few supplies for a gift certificate that I made for Mothers & More.  We are contributing to two new mom gift baskets that will be put into a silent raffle.  I’ve created a glossy card that opens to reveal a free year membership to our chapter.  I also wanted to attach our business card to the inside, but I didn’t want to be permanently affixed.  That’s what led me to Staples, in search of temporary, repositionable glue or tape or something.  Luckily, I found some!  The dispenser looks like white-out tape, but it basically turns paper into Post-It notes!  Now, our business card is inside the card and won’t fall out, but can be removed without destroying it or the gift certificate.  Perfect!

We also stopped at Costco before meeting Raj at home for dinner.  At the end of the day, I didn’t get done nearly as much as I had hoped (especially for having only one child and no scheduled events today), but now that I see it all in writing, I guess it wasn’t a total blow-off of a day!

I got a text from Shelley saying that they took Abby to the doctor, had a throat culture, but everything is clear – even her ears.  She just has a cold.  That’s great news.  Therefore, she’ll be back with us tomorrow!  Shawn will be very happy to see her again.

Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm and Garden Center

After a late night with the Puri family last night, it was really nice to sleep in this morning.  At least, that is, until Raj woke me as he was leaving to watch a football game with some friends/cousins.  It was a sore subject and not a good way to start the day.
Shawn and I leisurely got ready and had breakfast before we picked up a stack of children’s books (including Curious George and Little Bear) and a Sansaveria (or ‘Mother In Law Tongue’) plant from Freecycle.  Then, the two of us went to Goebbert’s Pumpkin Farm and Garden Center in South Barrington.  The parking lot was incredibly full and we ended up in a spot on the far opposite corner from the entrance to the farm!  Oh, well.  It’s a great day to be outside (~68°F), and the walk will be good for us.

When we eventually made it to the entrance, there were vast displays of pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes for sale.  Scattered throughout the pumpkin fields were wooden cut-outs of various children’s characters:  Peanuts, Sesame Street, Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story… just to name a few.  Shawn would pose at one and then run to the next when he’d see another exhilarating character.  I had to click the shutter quickly!  He also found a fire truck among a meadow of climb-able structures.  He was trying to avoid being climbed over by a group of bigger kids, when Raj caught up to us after the football game.  We figured out which attractions we wanted to visit, so Raj and Shawn got in line for tickets, while I held a spot in line for a camel ride.  That’s when Shrenik, Heena, and Veer found us for an impromptu playdate.  By that time, we had made it close to the front of the very long line, so we offered to take Veer with us so they wouldn’t have to get in line themselves.  Veer rode with me, Shawn with Raj, and Heena and Shrenik took pictures from the ground.  It worked out very well.

Next, the kids rode ponies.  Then, we went to Animal Land.  We started by climbing up ramps to a lofted platform that brought us to eye-level with two giraffes!  A very different perspective from way up there!  We also visited with some piglets before touring three very large tents that housed 55 different types of animals.  It was a mini-zoo!  Somewhere along the way, Veer decided he had had enough and they ended up going home, but Shawn was enjoying the day, so stayed to see what else was around.

The highlight was when Shawn, Raj, and I got to have our picture taken with a 12 week old white Bengal Tiger.  The handler worked tirelessly to get the cub to look in the direction of the camera for a good picture.  (I thought it was hard to keep my own focus on the camera instead of on her or the adorable cub laying just inches away from us!)  Afterwards, she explained that when the barometric pressure changes, her cats get very excited and have a hard time paying attention and cooperating, part of their instinctual nature to find shelter before a storm.  With rain in our forecast, it made sense.

Are Shawn and the cub wearing the same expression?

I had hoped to watch the pig race, where a group of piglets race around a track for an Oreo cookie.  The description of the races said:

Come cheer on your favorite pigs. “Kermit the HOG”, “Miss Piggy”, “Hillary RodHAM Clinton”, and “Kevin BACON” are all here to race for that Oreo cookie. We are sorry but, Arnold SchwarzenHOGGER will not be competing this year due to a pulled HAMstring.

But, we spent too much time in the tents looking at animals and didn’t realize that we missed it.

Raj vetoed the corn stalk maze after he and I got lost in one a few years ago at the other Goebbert’s location in Hampshire.  Instead, Shawn and I ventured through a straw-bale maze that had an old west, kiddie-town façade.  Every once in a while, a dead end would actually be a photo-op for the friends and family outside because the kids would look through windows, which turned out to be funny props with holes for faces.  Shawn had a great time running through the maze and deciding which path to take… Until, three girls came from around a corner and bumped into him.  He was startled.  He was knocked down.  He bumped his cheek on a straw bale and got a little welt.  The maze fun was over. Luckily, I was tall enough to see over the bales, so we found our way out quickly and looked for other fun things to do.

We saw a pumpkin eating dinosaur demolish a couple of pumpkins and then belch smoke from his nostrils.  (It didn’t have any arms, legs, hands, or feet – it was just a head, neck, and small body.  It looked a bit like a small construction crane, which was draped in orange cloth to cover the mechanical workings inside.)  It would position its head over a pumpkin, open its mouth wide, then reach down to pick it up.  Then, it would lift it high over our heads and crunch its jaws until bits of pumpkin came crashing to the ground.  Sometimes, very large hunks would fall and splatter at its ‘feet.’  The ‘man behind the curtain’ must have had fun at the controls because he’d pick someone in the audience for the dinosaur to interact with.  At one point, he picked me!  I’d wave, he’d bobble his head from side to side.  I’d shake or nod my head, he’d mimic.  It was fun, though Shawn wasn’t too sure what to make of this huge creature with very large teeth, jerky movements, and growling roars.  We kept reminding him that it was just a pretend dinosaur, but even after we left Animal Land, he’d occasionally ask, “Where’d the dinosaur go?” and look around nervously.  It’s a good thing there was plenty to see and do to keep him distracted!

 

We ran out of time to go on the tractor pulled wagon ride, but Shawn played on some more on the fire trucks and a train before the staff made their rounds to announce the farm was closed.  On our way out, we picked up two large pumpkins.  (Hopefully, we’ll decorate or carve them in the next few days!)  Then, we headed back to our cars.  By the time Shawn and I hiked back to the minivan, Raj had already left the property!

I told Raj that we should get dinner before going home – partially because I knew Shawn would fall asleep on the drive home and I wanted him to eat first, but also because I simply didn’t feel like cooking!  So, we met at Chili’s for an easy dinner.  Sure enough, after filling his tummy, Shawn fell asleep on the way home (~8:00 pm).  Luckily, I managed to transfer him fairly smoothly to bed.  Later, I went to bed as a thunderstorm was starting.

I guess the Bengal cubs’ internal barometers were right!