How to Beat the Winter Blues Part 2

On Valentine's Day we went to the Field Museum.  We hadn't been since Jesse was around Max's age, so it was time for another visit, especially since Jesse is really interested in mummies and Ancient Egypt stuff.  The entire month of February is free for Illinois residents, so that was another bonus.  Of course, the place was packed, but we got there before it opened and got about 5 minutes of the Ancient Egypt exhibit nearly to ourselves (then the place got crazy!).  It was a REALLLLLLY cold day with lots of wind, but luckily the walk from the car to the museum wasn't too long.

Some of Jesse's favorite books right now are the Magic Tree House series, which includes a book about Ancient Egypt, hence the recent fascination.  Jack, one of the book's main characters, is always taking notes in his notebook about the places that he and his sister visit, so Jesse wanted to be just like Jack and take notes about everything (literally, everything) he saw at the museum.  It was really cute, and I will have to make sure that the notes don't get thrown away.  He certainly looked pretty funny sprawled out in front of the exhibits writing notes (he told us what he wanted to write and we told him how to spell it).

If you can see his notes, you will notice a rectangular-shaped box and two stick figures.  That was a picture he drew of two mummies in a sarcophagus.

We also enjoyed seeing lots of mammals.  Max seemed to really appreciate these, as he is in the stage of learning/liking animal sounds.

This was inside the second level of the Egyptian tomb. We went through it several times.

Max is not sure whether or not he likes all this mummy stuff...

I thought he looked so grown-up here, walking down the hall.  Not sure what he was thinking, though...

Max was worn-out by the end but was woken up since we had to bundle him up to get back to the car.

How to Beat the Winter Blues Part 1

Though the temperatures have been consistently cold, and sometimes downright frigid, we have managed to stay warm and (mostly) fend off the winter blues around here.  We moved to a much larger apartment back in November, so the added space has certainly helped in preventing us from all going crazy.  I thought I would chronicle our winter with a series of posts about the fun things we have done to keep busy this winter. 

At the end of January we spent a Saturday morning at the Garfield Park Conservatory.  It's part of the Chicago Park District, so it's totally free!  We discovered this place last spring break, and while it's a little bit of a trek to get to the West side of Chicago and through some rough neighborhoods, it's worth the journey for a little bit of tropical warmth.  We have still not seen a few of the rooms (fern room and desert room) since these are in the process of being repaired after getting damaged from a hail storm several years ago. 

Max especially enjoyed being able to walk all over and splash in the puddles; he was soaked by the time we left (and we didn't think to pack a change of clothes!), but he had the time of his life.  The nature-loving side of Jesse really loves exploring all the hidden paths and finding fallen oranges.