Weekend Fun with Nonni Pat

Brett's mom came to town this weekend so we could see a show and she could watch the kiddos while we were at a wedding.

Saturday
On Saturday morning, myself, the kids and Pat went to the Nature Museum to hang out for a bit. They had a tree exhibit with a big tree house in the center. Owen had lots of fun climbing on the ropes and nets through the tree.
Maddi had lots of fun crawling around the trees in the exhibit!
There was a giant nest with a giant egg. Owen thought it was hysterical.
There was a special herpetology exhibit going on the same day. A bunch of people brought animals/insects such as spiders, lizards and turtles. Owen thought the turtle was so cute.
But, the real highlight was the five snakes on exhibit. They were all so sweet and gentle and were so good with everyone touching them. Owen and I had such a blast. Pat enjoyed hanging out in a far corner with Maddi away from the action.

Owen is super observant and brought up the fact that this snake looked like a brown pretzel when all twisted up. It was pretty accurate and the owner was impressed. She said she had never thought of the snake that way before but that he was right. I know I'm his mom, but he is one smart cookie.

We also had fun in the butterfly habitat. One of my favorites any time a museum has one. Even Maddi really enjoyed looking at all of the butterflies fly around.

flying like a butterfly

Saturday night Brett and I went to my good friend Tiffany's wedding while Pat watched the kids. These little girls are three of Tiffany's nieces. They were SOOOOO adorable.

Tiffany and her Dad

Tiffany married a Greek man. Here they are exchanging the crowns.

Me and Tiffany

The reception was at the Rookery. It's a historic building in Chicago rich in history. If you have ever read the Devil in the White City, you would know about this building. Built by Burnham and Root.

This is the famous staircase

Thanks to Nonni Pat for babysitting. Especially since we forgot to make bottles and a slew of other things we said we'd do before we left. Guess it's obvious that we trust her and have a second child...

Sunday
Sunday afternoon Pat and I went to see the musical Burn the Floor. It was fantastic. The dancing was amazing, the music was great and the whole thing was fast paced. Absolutely fabulous.

Maddi has really been getting into playing peekaboo. She can do it on her own now and it cracks everyone up, including herself.

snOwMG

Well. It came. All the snow they predicated came. I have to say, I didn't believe it until it happened. Usually they create all this hype and we get four inches. Boring. But this time was different. And we could tell. Jim Cantori showed up in Chicago and I knew we were screwed.

For those of you who don't know about Jim, he's the Weather Channel guru that only shows up in the most extreme weather conditions. You don't ever want him in your town.

It started around 3:30. Not too bad snow-wise but the wind was crazy. It was sustained at about 50MPH with gusts up to 70MPH. Crazy.

Shot outside of our house around 5:30pm

Around 6:30

Enjoying some blizzard snacks

When I opened the front door to look outside, we saw all of the snow that was blowing in around the seams on our front door. Crazy.

Around 7:30

At 8:45 we lost power. I'm not going to lie, I was freaked out. The thought of not having heat during a bad storm is scary. Especially with little ones. But, what was really frustrating was the fact that it was literally only our block. We had our faces pressed to the glass on our front windows while watching our neighbors in their homes with heat and electricity. Sucked. When I called the electric company they told me only 50 homes in our area were without power. Nice odds. Too bad it wasn't for winning the lottery. All in all, we lost power for 19 hours. Thankfully we had plan B to stay at a Bed and Breakfast two blocks away (thanks for the idea Barbara!) in the case that it didn't come back on at all. Our house was down to 47 degrees when the power finally came back on so there is no way we would have made it another night.

Wind blew snow all over our screen

Another front door shot

View when we opened our back door

Drifting along the side of the house

Our backyard. That circle in the middle is a table we eat at that was almost covered. Crazy.

Our poor Nissan. Buried.

Drift in front of our garage. Was at least 4 feet high.

Hiking to the bed and breakfast

Finally around 3:30 the power came back on. Some little boy I know enjoyed all of this though!

Big snowball!

Coloring the snow blue. Fun!

Showing off all the snow Daddy shoveled in the back

Our poor grill

Another table shot

The Backyard

Side of the HouseOur alley

But, we survived and have good stories to tell. I have to tell you though, I love modern amenities like heat.