Nature Museum

I’m feeling queasy and have a headache tonight. No, I’m not pregnant, and I don’t think I have swine flu. I think I just need to drink more water and get more rest. I’m going to be in bed by 10 p.m… hopefully.

But first, some pictures. Below are our pumpkins that Ben so masterfully carved, only to have a squirrel bite off part of Blue’s ear. Squirrels are so pesky! Ben even sprayed the pumpkins with WD40 (he didn’t know where my hair spray was, probably because I never use it). Apparently it didn’t scare the squirrel away.

The rest of the pictures are from earlier today, when we went to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. The place is celebrating its 10 years of existence and is free through Nov. 3rd. We drove down with Khania and Evelyn – Evelyn and Eli are cute friends. We even scored free street parking – that’s hard to find in Chicago!

The highlight of the museum is the butterfly haven, with more than 75 species of exotic butterflies. This greenhouse has 1,000 butterflies. It’s amazing.

Eli had a blast running around this room, seeing all of the butterflies. It was warm and humid inside, so his cheeks turned pink pretty fast.

This is outside the haven in a separate display – you can see the larvae, getting ready to hatch (I think). I’m not a butterfly expert, that’s for sure.

Charlie had fun too. I let him loose in the butterfly haven, but the rest of the spaces he mostly hung out in the stroller.

Some more butterflies:

Here’s in a tree house room, where there was a fun slide, caves, and other areas for little kids to explore.

This butterfly bench is at the front of the museum. The kids were really cute, and then after we took their picture, Khania tried to get Evelyn to take our picture with her camera. I think you had to be there, but it was HILARIOUS watching 3-year-old Evelyn try to get us in the picture and push the shutter at the same time. Really, really funny. Eventually another mom saw Evelyn struggling and offered to take our picture, but Khania has it on her camera, so I’ll add it later.

And last but not least, I wanted to share a few pumpkin recipes I came across tonight. I haven’t had a chance to try them yet, but they all sound delish!

Pumpkin cornbread

Turkey pumpkin chili

Pumpkin fudge

Whole wheat olive oil pumpkin bread

The “L” Family Photo Shoot

On Sunday morning, I met up with my friend Krista and her family to take some family pictures in a pretty area with lots of trees that follows the canal (near the ecology center). The tricky thing was that we met around 10 a.m. and the sun was pretty bright. I’m still figuring out finding correct exposure in that kind of light.

I quickly realized that you have to be fast when you’re taking pictures of a family with two young kids (ages 3 and 2). Their little boy goes at lightning speed! Both kids were really cooperative though and it was fun trying to get them to laugh.

Twirling in the leaves:

Aren’t they such a cute family?

Krista loves photography too, so we swapped after this was over and she took some pictures of our family. Krista did a great job – but when I looked at the pictures afterward, I decided I hated my outfit (not the most flattering) and Ben’s comment was that both of our outfits would probably look outdated in a few years. Great. The quest continues to get a decent family picture for a holiday card :)