Chrissy and I had talked about putting the boys into karate a while ago, but we decided to wait until they were both old enough to go together.  The academy has a curriculum for ages three to six that is geared towards self control and following directions (with some self defense thrown in).  Self control is exactly what Gavin needs right now.  Aiden is entering a phase where he’s afraid of the dark, so he could use a dose of confidence to help in that department.

I set up an appointment to bring Aiden and Gavin in for a trial class.  There were a lot more children there than I had expected, over a dozen, and some parents participated as well.  Sensei Dale is surprisingly good with little kids.  He’s stern, but always explains his reasoning, and the little ones respond to that.  The boys really enjoyed themselves.  We’ve signed them up to attend on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  I’ll be suiting up to practice at the same time.  Should be fun!

I’m not sure if water mains are like lightning strikes, but it happened again in the same spot.  Again, the town brought in equipment and dug up a goodly chunk of my backyard.  On the bright side, the boys got to sit in the mini-excavator.  They actually ate their lunch on the back deck while watching the workers do their jobs.  It might have been a little cold, but they were bundled up and happy.

The yard itself has changed a bit since the first time this happened.  I was worried about the new concrete patio next to our garage, but they didn’t damage it at all.  They did crack a couple of fence post toppers while removing the fence, but the guy who came out said that they would replace those within a few days.  So the water main got fixed and we shouldn’t be any worse for wear.

Unlike the rest of the Shrek franchise, set in the fairytale land, this movie is set in the Old West, reminiscent of the badlands of Mexico.  There are still talking animals, but it’s more like Rango than the Shrek movies.  There was plenty of action and lots of humor. The 3D was used to great effect.  Puss in Boots is easily better than either Rango or the previous Shrek offering.

The boys really seemed to like it too.  They were both very attentive and wore their 3-D glasses the whole time.  This was a big deal for Gavin, because the 3-D glasses aren’t exactly made for a three year old’s head.  He has made a lot of progress since the time that we took him to see Cars 2.  There may be hope for this one yet.

For example, Gavin calls Aiden “Ya-Ya”.  Not sure why.  Aiden used to call Gavin “Bay-Yay” because that’s as close as he could get to “baby” when he was little.  Now that Gavin is older, we don’t call him “the baby” anymore, so Aiden stopped calling him “Bay-Yay”.  But we think that “Ya-Ya” was as close as Gavin could get to “Aiden” when he started talking.  It’s cute, so we didn’t correct it.

Now that Gavin is in pre-school, they are encouraging him to use more and better words.  TLC was great for Aiden in this way; he was talking much more after his first year of pre-school.  With Gavin, they are encouraging him to say “Aiden” instead of “Ya-Ya”.  And Gavin is doing it.  But it’s a little sad that we won’t be hearing “Bay-Yay” and “Ya-Ya” in the house anymore.

The cut-off date for kindergarten was the first of August.  Aiden just missed it, so he has to spend another year in preschool.  I thought that this would mean more of the same for Aiden, but TLC has a special kindergarten preparation class.  It’s set up more like a classroom and desk work will be assigned.  They’ll also be teaching him to tie his shoes.

We are very happy with the pre-school situation.  TLC is a great place.  Aiden wasn’t talking at all when he started there, and the social aspects and speech role models there really helped.  We’re hoping that Gavin starts talking better as well now that he is there too.  Gavin has class three days a week and Aiden gets four.  They’re getting so big!

Full access to the aquarium for two adults and two children costs about $100.  However, you can get an annual family membership for $175.  Our boys really enjoy the aquarium, so we picked up the annual membership.  We also have a membership to the Brookfield Zoo.  The drive is about the same distance, but zoo parking is free while it costs about twenty bucks to park near the Shedd.  We saved a lot of money with the zoo membership, so splurging for the aquarium was an easy choice.

Since entrance to the Shedd is essentially free for us (despite parking costs), the boys and I headed to Chicago for the day.  Membership gets you access to all parts of the aquarium except for the 4D movie.  This includes the shark reef, the dolphin show, special features like the currently-running jellyfish exhibit and the play area downstairs.  If Aiden had his way, he would play in the submarine that they have downstairs for hours.  I literally have to drag him away from it.

The food in their cafe is good, but it’s a little expensive.  Lunchables are cheaper.  We always bring our own lunch in a cooler bag that fits nicely in the bottom of the stroller.  This way, we can hang out for a while instead of leaving to eat.  We were there from around 10 o’clock to two o’clock, when the exhibits start getting crowded.  We got to see everything and we had a very good time.  We returned home at about the same time as Chrissy, and (best of all) I didn’t have to do any housework that day.

The last item on our summer list was the Renaissance Fair.  It only occurs on the weekends until Labor Day, just over the Wisconsin border.  We knew that there was a chance of rain, but we decided to risk it since there was other stuff to do out there, like the Jelly Belly factory tour.  But the weather would not be kind to us, and we arrived in Wisconsin just as it started raining.

The worst of the storm came while we were on our Jelly Belly tour.  The tour was indoors and consisted of a train ride around the Jelly Belly warehouse.  Along the way around the warehouse, the train would stop at televisions that would show video of the company history and how the jellybeans were made.  At the end of the tour, we were given free jellybeans.

Although the Ren Fair is open rain or shine, I know from experience that it’s no fun to be there in the rain.  If you want to see any of the events, you basically have to stand in the rain and walk in the mud.  That’s no fun.  So we did the next best thing: Chrissy called to make reservations at Medieval Times.  We were going to see a joust that day one way or another.

On the way back to the highway, we ran across a small outlet mall.  They had our favorite stores: Fossil, Osh Kosh, Carters and Columbia Sportswear.  Chrissy found a purse for $20 (a steal) at Fossil and we got tons of clearance clothes for the boys.  We grabbed some lunch and a short potty break at McDonald’s before heading back across the Illinois border.

A little while down the road, we came to Schaumburg.  The LegoLand is right next to the Woodfield shopping mall.  We had thought about stopping at the mall to do some more shopping, but Legoland seemed like it would be more fun.  It was a little crowded because of a birthday party, but it’s a good place to take the kids for a few hours before your dinner reservations.

They have a large room full of Lego parts and racing ramps.  Gavin and I spent about twenty minutes building and racing small cars.  First, it’s very hard to find wheels.  Some kids have eight or nine axles on their car, and you wonder why you can’t find any wheels.  Once we found wheels, we rebuilt Gavin’s car five or six times, making it better for subsequent races.

Aiden was playing in a nearby ball pit area.  It was like a giant jungle gym except with a Lego theme.  Gavin wasn’t interested, preferring to race his makeshift cars.  There was also a dragon ride where you move through a castle made of Legos.  And we saw a 4D Lego movie, like a 3D movie except with wind and bubbles blowing at you.  The boys had a lot of fun.

We had to watch the time because we didn’t want to mess up our dinner reservations.  Chrissy wanted to get there sooner so that we would get a better seats. The last time we went to Medieval Times, we were pretty high up in the arena bleachers.  We wanted the boys to see everything, and we luckily got third row, right in the middle of the arena.

Aiden and Gavin have never been to a tournament like this and have never seen a joust.  They are familiar with the concept of knights in armor, but I doubt they understand why they’re dressed that way.  Well, now they know.  It didn’t take them long to understand that we were supposed to cheer for the Blue Knight.  Sadly, he didn’t win. But neither did the bad guy.

Dinner was interesting.  Aiden had some trouble drinking the dragons blood, or tomato bisque, because there were no spoons.  He didn’t like that you had to pick up the bowl and sip it.  Also, it was dragon blood.  Furthermore, there were no utensils.  They didn’t have utensils in medieval times, so they don’t have them here.  They do, however, have wet naps.

It has been a very long day already, crossing three states and visiting four vacation spots.  The boys slept on the way home.  We would end up relaxing the next day, but we still wanted to spend a day at the Brookfield Zoo.  The Renaissance Fair and St. Louis would have to wait until next summer, and the boys will most likely be old enough to appreciate both then.

The movie itself wasn’t bad, but it didn’t live up to the high standards that Pixar upholds.   It revolved around Mater getting mixed up as an international secret agent while Lightning McQueen races in exotic locales.   Mater eventually comes to the realization that he is an idiot, but in the end everyone accepts him for who he is.  Which doesn’t alleviate the fact that he’s an idiot.  At any rate, it’s a hard sell for anybody who doesn’t like either talking cars or Bond movies.  Or neither.

I don’t think that we’ll be taking Gavin to see another movie anytime soon, either.  He’s just not ready yet.  Aiden was four years old before we started taking him to the movies, so we’ll give Gavin another year to see how he does then.  I hope that whatever Pixar movie comes out at that time doesn’t fail to impress us as much as Cars 2 did.  We were really looking forward to this one, too.

We got there at 8 AM and there were already people there, picking strawberries in the field.  It was very foggy and a little wet, but not terribly cold.  There was hay lining the walkways between the plants, so we didn’t get muddy at all.  The farm supplies little white buckets to collect strawberries in.  We each took one and headed out.

Aiden came with me to one side of the field, but there weren’t many good strawberries to be found.  They were mostly small and green.  One guy told me that last year’s crop was huge and you could fill a bucket in five minutes, but this year required some hunting.  Chrissy, Gavin and Mom were having much better luck than Aiden and me.

After filling up our buckets, we headed out.  We had to stop at Marilyn’s Bakery first though.  It’s built into the side of the market there.  They had strawberry donuts, strawberry pastries (still warm), strawberry pie and strawberry bread.  We got some of each and ate a few donuts there in the cafe.  It was all very tasty.  We’re definitely going back for more!

Our tickets were for the same venue as the Imagination Movers concert that we recently attended.  It’s a bit of a drive out to the Rosemont Theater (up by O’Hare Airport), but we stopped at the O’Hare Oasis for some lunch on the way.  The boys love eating at the oasis, since they can eat while watching cars and trucks pass under the restaurant.

The theme of the show was to use your imagination to go anywhere you would like  (camping, to the moon, home, etc.).  Elmo taught everyone the trick of it.  Rosita wanted to go to Mexico to see her aunt.  Bert wanted to go under the sea to play with various bioluminescent fish.  Ernie wanted to be a pirate captain or something.  Just close your eyes and imagine it…

Gavin was riveted to the stage.  There was a lot going on up there, with a dozen or so people-sized Muppets dancing and singing.  There were a lot of characters that I’m not entirely familiar with, as I haven’t watched Sesame Street in a very long time.  But this was the first time that I had ever seen Big Bird up close, which everybody should do at least once.

Again, we had the issue with sitting center stage at the Rosemont Theater: characters use the stairs to the right and left of the stage, not the center.  So when they come down from the stage to interact with the audience, we were too far away.  Actually, about ten feet away, but with no means of getting close to them.  Next time we book tickets there, we’ll shoot for seats by the left or right walkway.