The Return of the Hutsons

Johnny and I graduated from Wheaton College outside of Chicago over five years ago.  And aside from a short jaunt back to Wheaton for his sister's graduation, we haven't been back to Chicago since we packed up the Uhaul and skee-daddled to Philadelphia.  We wanted to get away for a weekend this winter, so we decided to revisit the town of our glory days.  We dropped off the kiddos at my parents', hopped on a plane, and arrived to this:

Ahhh beautiful.  Just as I remember it.  Freezing cold, wet feet, wind-burned face...the place I could not get out of fast enough.  It all came back to me.  Time seems to smooth over the truth.  I exaggerate.  The weather actually wasn't as horrible as it could have been.  The snow stopped right after we got there, and the temp stayed in the 30s and 40s.  Lovely.

One thing I love about Johnny that you might not know about him is that he is really good at planning vacations.  Exceptionally good.  He does all the research and finds great activities and restaurants that you might not normally come across.  This is good for me because even after living in Philadelphia for two years, I'm completely terrified of and stressed out by public transportation and I also tend to just want to eat at Chili's all the time.  He's the ying to my stay-in-the-hotel-and-watch-TLC-yang.

So one of the first things that we did upon arrival was go to The Driehaus Museum downtown.  It's an old mansion that has been turned into a museum.  It was gorgeous, and the tour was really interesting.

Instead of refurnishing the upstairs bedrooms, they made them into exhibit spaces.  Right now they have an exhibit on Louis Comfort Tiffany's stained glass.  All of his famous lamps and such.  It was really impressive.  I definitely recommend this museum especially if you've already done the Art Institute and the Field Museum.  You should also join the Army because they give you free admission if you do.

After the museum we scurried on over to Lou Malnati's, one of our favorite deep dish pizza places.  Just delicious.

After pizza we made the first of THREE attempts to go to the Christkindlmarkt (yes I spelled that correctly).  We went here every year in college and never had a problem getting in or walking around.  I don't know if the cat's out of the bag or what, but it was so extremely crowded that we couldn't even elbow our way into the "open air" much less buy anything.  It was insane.  I'm all about traditions until they're a pain in the butt, so we took a bad selfie and called it a day.

Ok so this day is going to seem really long because it was.  We took the 6:30 am flight, which gave us a large amount of time to fill.  So after attempt number one at the Christmas market, we hopped on the train to the suburbs and reunited with WHEATON! I threatened Johnny that I was going to say hi to all the students we passed in order to help us look like we still fit in.

We visited the student center, said hi to one of my old professors, bought some Wheaton paraphernalia for the bebbies, explored the fancy shmancy new science building, and then realized that we had nothing else to do on campus.  We were going to meet one of my old high school students and his roommates for dinner, but we had something like two hours to kill.  So we decided to do something we could have never done in college: drink alcohol in downtown Wheaton!  The mulled wine was delicious.

We decided to have a bit more relaxing day on Saturday.  We ate breakfast at a place called Pittsfield's, tucked inside of an old Gilded Age high rise.  The mimosas were a good start to the day.  In college, I had always wanted to go to Shedd Aquarium, but never did (ie I was waaay too cheap back then), so we Ubered on over there.  It was great! Definitely a must see if you're heading to Chicago.  They have Baluga whales and those sharks that look like they have a saw for a nose and jelly fish and 4D movies and cute penguins.  The only thing I don't recommend is the live show.  They had people playing violins in the water and whales swimming and Frosty the Snowman and it was just a total mess.

That night we ate at Farmhouse, THE best restaurant I have been to in a long time.  They had a fabulously fun drink selection and the most delicious cheese curds in existence.  I would seriously have eaten them until I died right there...which wouldn't have taken very long I'm sure.

Sunday morning we woke up and had cappuccinos and croissants at one of our favorite Philly-based coffee shops, La Colombe.  We were then thirty minutes late to a church service at a tiny little PCA church called Cityview.  It was nice to be back in a city-based church that had such a heart for the people around it.  I definitely miss that aspect of our lives in Philadelphia.

After a tasty brunch at Yolk (did you know you can make quinoa just like oatmeal?) and another attempt at the Christkindlmarkt (I'm sure the girls will forget about our promise to bring back an ornament) and a nap at the hotel, we ventured out to the Chicago Cultural Center which used to be the Chicago Public Library.  I remember accidentally wandering in here in college looking for the library.  They have more amazing Tiffany stained glass, particularly this huge Tiffany glass dome.  Johnny and I have already figured out where we're going to have our next wedding.

That night we had tickets to go see a comedy show at Second City, so we stopped for an early dinner at The Purple Pig.  They don't take reservations, and we were lucky to sneak in at the bar.  They bill themselves as "cheese, swine, and wine," so basically all things that are good.  We got some wine and a charcuterie platter and all was well in the world.

Second City was super fun.  We got to see a lot of talented people perform, and we're saving our programs so that in ten years when they're on SNL we can say that we helped them get there,  You're welcome, comedians.

Aside from the 6:20am flight we had Monday morning to leave Chicago, we had a wonderful time.  I absolutely recommend everything we did, save the violin/dolphin show.  The only thing that has really changed about Chicago is that it's easier to navigate now that we have these new fangled smart phones.  Using the Uber app to get rides was amazingly easy and cheap, and we never had to wander around hoping we would find a coffee shop other than Starbucks.  There are seriously 17 of them within walking distance of each other.

I will say that coming home from vacations is a lot easier when you have this waiting for you.

The College Talk

Rachel: Lila, you can go wherever you think is right for college, but Mommy and Daddy think that Wheaton is a really good choice.

Lila: But I don't want to go to Weakness.

Rachel: Wheaton.

Lila: I don't want to go to Wheaton.

Johnny: Why not?

Lila: I don't want to!

Rachel: Why don't you want to go to Wheaton?

Lila: I don't want to go to Wheaton.  I want to go to the grocery store.

Rachel: Well they have grocery stores at Wheaton.  They even have Trader Joe's.

Lila: But I don't want to...okay I could go to Trader Joe's.  (Pause) Lights and display contest!? Win money, money, money!

Sisterly Love

Before we left for preschool this morning, I put Olive in the car, ran back into the kitchen and told Lila to run down to the car.  As she went down the stairs, I heard Lila say, "Oh hi Olive! Oh haha dat's not Olive; dat's Baby Chloey!"

Should I be concerned that Lila was not at all concerned about the position the baby doll was in when she thought it was her baby sister?

Happy Halloween!

I've decided that Halloween is much more stressful as a parent than as a kid.  You plan your kids costumes for months until they decide right before Halloween that they want something different.  And then the costume is WHITE so you have to be worried all day that they're going to poop on it, and they don't fit as well in their carseats when they have tutus on, and they don't want to wear their tutus because they are scary, and talking all week about being a zebra is apparently much more fun than actually being a zebra, and then when you finally get them to trick or treat they don't understand what's going on and they try to go inside the houses of the people that are giving them hand-fulls of candy.

But they look cute, darn it.

Happy (late) Halloween from our little bunch! 

Mike, Sheriff Callie, zebra one, Spiderman, a witch, zebra two, and the Hulk.

Lila Gets Her Hair Cut

I've been putting this off for months.  I have envisioned putting Lila in the hair cutting chair only to have her collapse into extreme meltdown, totally terrified of scissors cutting off her hair.  But her hair finally got to such an unruly point that I either needed to get it cut or start saying she was the neighbor's kid.

So I took her to Beckie at Hair Lovin' in downtown Overland Park, she's amazing, by the way, if you're looking for a new stylist.  Though she says she doesn't know why anyone listens to me and comes to her because I get my hair cut about two times a year.  Anyway, Lila sauntered right in there, waved to everyone, and scurried up into the chair.

Notice the macaron bribe on the counter.

For the most part Lila did a great job...until Beckie wanted her to keep her head straight, and the tears started flowing.  Lila is apparently more of a cocked head kind of gal, and would NOT keep her head straight.  But I quickly morphed into the kind of mom that I vowed I would never be and turned on Netflix.  While Lila's eye glazed over, I grabbed her head with my hands and held it straight for the rest of the cut.  Problem solved!

Success!

Right around the end of the haircut, I thought about how you're supposed to save a lock of your child's hair during their first haircut, but then I thought about how we were recently looking through my grandmother's photo albums and my dad found Olive chewing on and swallowing a large chunk of blonde hair, presumably my mother's or my aunt's.  Soooo I'm gonna go with no hair saving in our house.

I told Lila that after the haircut she could go get a cupcake at Small Cakes in honor of Aunt Jessie's birthday and for doing a good job, but they were sold out! So I had the brilliant idea of getting her one at Wal-Mart and letting her eat it in the car.

"Mommy, it's yike soap."

Mmhmm.

What's New Pussy Cat?

So we have a bit of a feral cat problem in our neighborhood.  Scratch that, not our neighborhood, but a chunk of about nine houses with ours in the middle.  We were really upset with these kitties a few months ago because the dad was swaggering around with a big oozing sore on his neck, crawling all over Lila's toys in the backyard.  Lovely.

So we called animal control, and did you know that they do NOTHING for feral cats?  The only thing that we could do would be to somehow trap them ourselves and then animal control would spay and neuter them for the low low price of $25 a pop.  Then they would give them back to us so that we could set them free back in our yard. Tempting.

We now have another problem:

 the mommy had kittens and they are soooooo cute!!!

And they play inside of Lila's barn!  Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!

We also seem to have another problem with the person who cleans the windows.

And it's also a little scary to be sitting at the dining room table and look over to see five cats staring at you.

The Hutsons Go Apple Picking

I haven't been posting lately because I try to post interesting things.  Our days at the moment go like this: wake up, Lila says something about Daniel Tiger, I feed everyone, Lila watches Daniel Tiger, I make macarons, Olive eats like five things off the floor that she isn't supposed to, Lila plays pretend about Daniel Tiger, Olive gets stuck under the dining room table, we go to bed.  I might feed them at other points throughout the day, but this is a basic summation.  Not very interesting. 

But today, we mixed it up and went apple picking with the Reids and the Kidds!  Apple picking has always been special to me because my family would go when we were little, and Johnny and I went every year together in college and in Philadelphia.

And now we get to bring the wee ones.

Olive got to ride in style the whole morning.  She had a strap to chew on...she was in heaven.

The orchard that we went to was called Cider Hill Family Orchard up North.  It was super cute, but I will say that it was a little picked over.  Lila did find a few trees that had apples low enough for her.  "The apples on the ground are for the animals," she continued to remind herself.

I wish I had gotten a better picture of Lila and her buddy "Cahhhter," but this picture of Carter being nice and sweet while Lila spins in front of him pretty much sums up their relationship.

And I can't wait until these two get a little bit older and can really play together.  Lila loves her cousin Chloey, and between the two of them I think they bit into about 15 apples.

And thanks to Danielle for understanding that when you take a family photo, you need to press the button about 7 times to get a halfway decent picture.

  Umm sorry Olive.

I'd say a very successful apple picking extravaganza.

And hey, it's just across the highway from a great strip club called Whispers, so it's got that going for it.

Eight Years

Eight years ago today, Johnny and I went on our first date...so did five of our closest friends.

Lila and Olive's Shared Room

Hooray! It's finally done! Well, not so much "done" as I'm just tired of doing anything in there.

When I was pregnant with Lila, we painted this room green (Koi Pond by Sherwin Williams) in hopes that it would stay a gender neutral nursery. (The original before and after post is here.)  The color served us well starting originally with Lila, and then Little Guy, and then both Lila and Little Sister, and then just Olive, and now both Olive and Lila.

We're lucky to have a house that has three fairly large bedrooms, so I tried to split up the space into a few smaller spaces.  Here's the girls' little hand me down kitchen from the girls I used to babysit.

The dish towel was one of Johnny's grandma's, and the tiny little rug was supposed to be a giant rug that I was latch-hooking out of jersey sheets.  This tiny rug is as far as I got.

The bunk beds are the biggest addition to the room.  We bought beds that could come apart and be used as two twin beds, which came in handy when we had both Lila and Little Sister sleeping in here.  Now that we bunked the beds, Lila loves to climb the ladder and tell everyone that you "just need a yiddle courage!"

The duvets I made myself with fabric from Jo-Ann's.  The top one is backed with light pink, and the bottom one has dark pink.  The fabric at the end of the beds is left over from the valances.  Eventually they will be blankets...probably in about four years when I get around to it.

So no one in my family has supported these little poofs; we'll see if you jump on their bandwagon as well.  I saw this on Pinterest and tried to recreate it.  I like mine, but they are not as cute as the ones in the picture.  They must have used something other than tulle...ideas?  And I tried cutting them with curved edges, but they don't look any different.  I'm pretty sure Johnny still thinks I just threw tutus on the beds.

The chair was a Craigslist find back when we were pregnant with Lila, and the cute flower table was my sister's.  My aunt crocheted the gorgeous pink blanket for Olive.

I planned to do more tissue paper flowers, but that never happened either. Almost as cute as what my cousin did in her daughter's room.

Still using the same teeth marked crib that was a fabulous Craigslist find.  Lila has figured out how to climb into it, so she likes to climb in and bounce Olive.

The Boo Boo likes it too.

The girls' dress up collection is quite extensive.  They're using my old dress up box that my grandmother got me as well as all my old dance recital costumes because I was such an amazing dancer.

We took the doors off of the closet so that we could fit a dresser in there, and I am still happy that we did it.  I'm not sure how long we will be able to fit both girls' clothes in there, though.

The girls also have all of my old Madame Alexander dolls on display.  I once caught Johnny explaining to Lila that the ones on the left were wearing such weird dresses because they were from another country.  They are Little Women dolls.

And here's my favorite part of the girls' room, their little book nook.  The only problem is that now Lila is starting to try to climb up the shelves to get to books she wants on the top.  I wrote in an older post how to do the gutter shelves.  It's super easy, and they hold a lot, but I think you could do something similar with baskets or Ikea shelves for a little bit cheaper.  Gutters ain't cheap, yo.

So in the end, I'm happy with how the girls' room turned out.  Johnny couldn't understand why I was doing a post on it because he said I just rearranged stuff.  But I'm pleased with my rearranging, and I hope that eventually we'll get both girls to actually sleep in there together without waking each other and subsequently us up.

Happy Weekend!