The Mouse Family Blog

Lauren and mommy (and most of the rest of Chicagoland!) went to the Morton Arboretum today to celebrate Arbor Day (free admission) and also celebrate the first 80 deg. temperatures. Lauren loved the activities in the kid zone. We spent at least 3 hours there and didn't go anywhere in the rest of the park. She could have played in the Adventure Woods stream all day. I think it was even worth fighting the traffic and crowds. I'm seriously considering getting a membership this year even though the Arboretum is in Lisle, IL - a good 1 hr drive give or take depending on traffic. I loved that Lauren left her hat on all day - it was a gift from Grandma Saundra last year as is really going to get a lot of use this summer. Here are some pics and videos...

Lauren and mommy with the sea of humanity in the background.

She's a great climber!

"Come help me jump off this rock into the stream!"

"I just saw a bullfrog in the pond."

Labels: Movies

Well actually, we didn't go anywhere. We've just been really busy lately. Our main project of late is putting our place on the market. That's involved a whole lot of moving things to storage and tackling some other projects.

The biggest project was a overhaul of the master bath, to ditch the dated marble tile and the low-end bath fixtures. That was a classic ordeal -- lots of people available to work on your project, except the one priced right that you can trust -- you'll have to wait two weeks for him. Then, he'll be delayed a week. Then, it will take twice as long as you expected. We'd often heard that natural stone was a real pain to install, and I guess we chose an especially difficult travertine stone. The tile guy about pulled his hair out, getting all the pieces to line up well. But that's behind us now and we're really happy with the results.


The rest of the projects were hundreds of tiny little touch ups that kept me and Liz busy for weeks. It's amazing what a little paint and proper staging will do for a place.

After all that, we're now on the market. We're going to wait till our unit sells before seriously looking at other places. However, the market doesn't appear to be as rough as the media makes it out to be. We've already had some good interest in our place in the first days, and that should continue as the weather improves and the outdoor area comes into bloom. For us, it's just a matter of patience to find the right buyer. We're bracing for the low-ball offers that are bound to come, but we know there's virtually no other place in our neighborhood that's this good for entertaining and so perfect for dogs. Besides, there are a lot worse things than spending another summer in this place.

I think Lauren will also be happy for things to return to some sense of normalcy. She's been a little attention-deprived lately, and there have been all manner of ladders, buckets, tools, and cleaning supplies around that have been taunting her. She got a little reprieve on Friday, when it was warm out and we let her put on her bathing suit to help me hose down the deck outside. And just in time for Spring, the new park across the street is fully open. The playground has been open for a few months, but now the big grassy field is also open. Toddler soccer starts soon, and we're thinking of enrolling Lauren. When it gets a little warmer, they'll also turn the water play area on as well.

If you know anyone interested, our here is a link to our listing.

Have you seen this video yet? Since it's approaching 50 million views, I guess many of you have. If not, check it out.

This spring has had some cold days and some wet days (but mostly cold and wet days). Here are some pictures of Lauren sporting her "spring in Chicago" gear. My favorites are the new Hello Kitty rain boots that look adorable but can be kicked off in an instant...usually in the car but sometimes at the playground or in the middle of the sidewalk.

Looks like Lauren had a great time at the park today with the Campins!

We had a fun time hunting eggs in the backyard at the Bischoff house on Easter afternoon. As you can see from all of us wearing coats, it was a bit chilly, but still lots of fun. Lauren is wearing her Easter dress and tearing into her first chocolate Easter bunny, a gift from Heather.

They may be small, but they offer some key advantages over other teams:

• They might not work for peanuts, but will gladly work for Cheerios.
• If they drop a box on their toe, they yell "Ouweeee!" instead of a curse word.
• They will gladly help you unpack your boxes, especially the ones you just packed.
• They don't know how to say "We can do that, but it will cost you extra."
  
• When they return a few weeks later to steal the things they moved for you, they leave an incriminating trail of goldfish, gum drops and other toddler detritus that leads the police straight to their lair.
  

Labels: Movies

In the weekends leading up to Easter, we enjoyed some new activities with Lauren. We dyed eggs and were impressed with her control of the egg on the little wire handle that you dip in the dye. We also made some cookies and Lauren helped decorate them (read: she mostly ate sprinkles and frosting).

want to read the Pottery Barn catalog while going on the potty.