Shedd Aquarium Visit

Today was another delightful afternoon to remember along with my other family stories. My son, Jason, and his two kids, Alex and Nicholas, ages 6 and 7 respectively, met me at Shedd Aquarium in downtown Chicago. I hadn’t been there for some eighteen years or so, and it was nice to see how many new exhibits had been created.

Everyone’s favorite was the Caribbean Reef, which is an award-winning 90,000-gallon circular habitat open on all sides to allow patrons to walk around and view the huge variety of fish, including gigantic tarpons, Moray eels, parrotfish, sting rays, manta rays, and many more I don’t know the names of.

At the appointed hour, a docent named Lee arrived and asked the surrounding crowd to step back “five giant steps” to outside the blue circle marked on the floor so everyone could see clearly. Amazingly, everyone complied, which was a pleasant surprise, and we had ideal seats for the entire show.

A diver named Brooks entered the water to feed the sea creatures and interact with them. He stroked the manta rays and turtles as they calmly approached to feed from his hand. Another pleasant surprise was that Lee fielded questions from the crowd and relayed them to Brooks for a response.

Alex, my granddaughter, asked if they remove the stingers from the sting rays. The answer is no, they don’t. However, Brooks said the one ray swimming around without a tail was due to a fish that liked to nibble on its tail, until the tail was finally gone.

Brooks talked about the big green sea turtle named Nickel. He was injured by the motor on a boat and brought to special veterinarians for repair. Severely damaged hind flippers meant he’ll never be released back into the wild, but he’ll always have a good home at Shedd. How did he come by his name? When the doctors took x-rays, they found something stuck in his throat: they removed an old 1975 nickel, so that’s what they called him.

Nicholas liked a huge old lungfish called Granddad. He had black spots all over his long body. According to the Shedd website, “Granddad has lived longer than any fish in any aquarium in the world.” He came from Australia as a mature adult to Shedd for the World’s Fair in 1933!

Some of the other animals we saw were fogs, jellyfish or “jellies”, dolphins, sea otters, penguins, and small turtles.

We all had fun while we learned something new about the sea life all around us. This is one place we’ll need to visit again. There was too much to see in one day, plus the exhibits change on a regular basis.

Have you been to an aquarium recently? If so, what did you like best?

33 Ways for Fun with Grandchildren

This post was written for Simple Marriage by Home and Family columnist Beth LaMie.

Spending time with grandchildren is among the best things in life. In fact, it is priceless.

Although it’s always a pleasure to visit my son and his family, I thoroughly enjoy having the two grandkids all to myself. It seems the dynamics of how we relate to each other is totally different when their parents are elsewhere. That’s why I encourage them to go out on a date, or run some errands, or just go off by themselves for several hours.

That gives me a chance to spoil the six- and seven-year-old grandchildren just a bit while we have some fun. Of course, I keep them safe and secure the entire time, but a few of the minor rules may happen to fall by the wayside. Nothing serious, though.

By the way, one rule I try to enforce is that we play nothing that requires batteries. It seems to me that children have much more energy that grownups do, so it makes sense to let them use up some of that vigor while they play.

Regardless of a child’s age, there are endless ways to have fun with them. Every age offers its own challenge as well as opportunity. Keep an open mind and look for various resources for suggested activities to accommodate your young ones.

The trick is to figure out several options to offer them and to have any necessary items prepared in advance. For example, on my last visit with them, I brought along pages to color, a craft project, new books to read, a few snacks, some word games and puzzles, and the expectation that we’d have a wonderful time together.

In addition, my fallback plan was to investigate their roomful of toys, games, books, balls, etcetera, that they love to share. At least usually.

Here are some ideas on things to do with your grandchildren. Use it as a thought-generator to come up with your own activities. Some of these will appeal more than others, so don’t be afraid to experiment, either.

COOK SOMETHING YUMMY
1. Pancakes with mouse ears or rolled up with cinnamon and butter
2. Cookies from scratch or prepared mixes
3. Cupcakes frosted in fun ways
4. Make-your-own pizza
5. Dip pretzel sticks in chocolate or icing, then sprinkles
6. Build a gingerbread house (Hint: Use graham crackers for easy structures) XXX

GET CREATIVE
1. Dress-up or make-believe
2. Modeling clay, crayons, pipe cleaners
3. Scrapbook album or a single page
4. Art projects
5. Make hand or sock puppets

PLAY GAMES
1. Card games, word games, dominoes
2. Tic-tac-toe, connect-the-dots
3. Board games – checkers, Candyland, Sorry, Bingo
4. Hide-and-seek, blind man’s bluff, follow-the-leader
5. Simon says, Mother may I?

GET OUTDOORS
1. Walk, bike, go to a playground
2. Pick apples, pears, or other seasonal fruit
3. Draw with chalk on the driveway or sidewalk
4. Play tag, hop-scotch, or statue
5. Toss a ball, balloon (water?), or frisbee
6. Explore your yard – flowers, trees, birds, animals
7. Build a snowman

GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER
1. Play 20 questions
2. Talk about what you remember from your childhood
3. Ask about the child’s friends, toys, dreams, and share your own
4. Interview – Getting to Know You: A How-To Story for Kids on How to Interview Family Members (pdf) The Mini Page, Dec. 25-31, 2010) (c) 2010 Universal Uclick (2.0MB)

MORE IDEAS ON Grandparents.com
1. Instructions on how to play simple games
2. Great newsletter
3. Activities by age group, including seasonal pages to color
4. Easy recipes that kids enjoy
5. Suggestions on books, games, toys
6. Groups to join, such as “Grandparenting From Afar”

What are your favorite pastimes with your grandchildren? What activities can you plan for the upcoming holidays?

Grandparents Day 2011 - Building Memories

Yesterday was Grandparents Day in the United States and I had the pleasure of spending the previous day with my two grandkids. At ages 6 and 7, they are young enough to enjoy being with Grandma and old enough to carry on some lovely conversations. I love that we are building memories together.

In preparation for my visit, I packed up my usual Bag of Tricks to keep things lively. Anything not used for one trip is saved for the next one, so nothing ever goes to waste.

Here are some of the items in the bag:
BOOKS
Books are some of my favorite diversions. Whether I read to the kids, they read to me, or we take turns reading, it’s always fun. Sometimes, the hardest part now is finding books for a girl and a boy to both enjoy. The selection this time happened to be a children’s version of the Roman Catholic Mass. As both their Godmother and Grandmother, the dual role can sometimes be a little tricky. Fortunately, these little books were a hit with both of them.

Having given the grandchildren many books over the years, they now have a lovely collection of them. Invariably, we’ll also read through several of their (and my) favorites, whether it’s Yertle the Turtle or The Velveteen Rabbit.

GAMES
I always try to bring a couple of age-appropriate games or activities. The kids love to color, so I printed off some Grandparents Day pages from www.grandparents.com: a greeting card to color and fold, as well as a word search puzzle. It turned out my granddaughter really liked the card and my grandson favored the puzzle. So they were each happy with my choices.

Usually, we play a few of their games, too. Each of the kids gets to choose a game and we complete at least one round before we move to the next one. Of course, whoever gets the game out has to pick up all the pieces and put the box away.

EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS
Educational toys are also among my favorites. I shop the local garage sales to find something they might like. If the seller’s kids happen to be around, they are usually brutally honest about whether the toys they offer were fun or not. The other tell-tell clue is the condition of the toy: if it is still in pristine condition, then likely no one found it fun. For this trip, I had two sets of age-appropriate flash cards held together by a pin on one corner. They look like fun, but we ran out of time this trip, so back they go into my Bag of Tricks until next time.

Now that both of the grandkids are in grade school, I expect we might have some homework to do from time to time as well. And that’s just fine. I love to know what they are doing and what they are studying.

FOOD
What Grandma doesn’t bring something good to eat? I always toss in some small snacks, such as cookies, cheese crackers, or candy. In addition, I bring along fruits and vegetables they may not be familiar with. This time, it was Honey Crisp apples, miniature sweet peppers in red, yellow and orange, and fresh raisin-pecan baguettes from our local farmer’s market. Surprisingly, the six-year-old loves fruits and vegetables; the seven-year-old, not so much.

If we will be eating together during our visit, I generally try to ensure we have something nutritious but fun. In this case, we had smoked sausage, which I cut into thin coin-shaped pieces and browned in a skillet. Not knowing how much they’d eat, I prepared about half the package and wrapped the rest to refrigerate for another meal.

At dinner, each of the kids wanted seven (not six, not eight, but seven) 'pennies,' so that’s what they got, along with their choice of rice or macaroni and cheese, with various vegetables. Thank Goodness for leftovers! For whatever reason, they thought the food was really yummy and asked for seconds. Sure, no problem! I gave each of them four more pieces while I started heating up the rest of the package. The new batch was barely warmed up before they were clamoring for more. Perfect timing!

Maybe that meal doesn’t sound very special for you, but it was for us. At times, dinner can be rather contentious, with each of the kids wanting something different that isn’t readily available. So it was a real treat that they both ate well and liked what Grandma fixed for them. Of course, it was a huge help that Mommy & Daddy had the kitchen nicely stocked, too. Good planning, good prep, and good execution. Now that’s the way it should be!

Here’s your challenge: How are YOU building memories with your grandchildren?

Before you know it, they’ll be grown and gone, so start now and have fun WITH them!

Finally - Spring Is Sprung!

Since Spring in the Midwest is so-o-o slow coming this year, I dug out a previous Ode to Spring post to help it along.

Spring is sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where
The flowers is!
(Anon.)

When I was a kid, Spring was my least favorite season. I loved Fall, followed in order of preference by Summer, Winter and finally Spring. In the Midwest, Spring was usually wet, rainy and muddy, which meant outdoor adventures were too often thwarted.

But a strange thing has happened. Now that I’ve gotten older, Spring has become my season of choice. Unfortunately, it seems to last for such a very short time in Illinois, followed suddenly by hot, humid weather. In fact, there is a saying that goes “Spring is the loveliest day of the year here.” Ha! I could almost be happy with spring-like weather most of the year, except for the fact that I do enjoy the change of seasons.


Photo by Amber Domke

Our winter seemed especially harsh and drawn out this year, so when it finally started to warm up, we reveled in the changes. Here are just three of the Spring Things we’ve been enjoying.

• FLOWERS – A Rose by Any Other Name . . .
I love to see the Spring flowers, such as daffodils, crocuses and tulips, but I never seem to get around to planting them in the Fall like I should. Maybe the problem is deciding which ones to buy and when/where to plant them.

One year when we lived in Wisconsin, Mom gave me a large package of tulip bulbs for my birthday in November. Now you’d think that would be the perfect time to plant, right? Well, it turned bitterly cold early that year, but I still wanted to get them into the ground. I dragged my 10-year-old son outside and we picked a spot on the south side of the house for planting.
Unfortunately, the ground had turned rock-hard as the temperature plummeted. No way could we break through the frozen crust with our shovels, so we finally brought out a pickaxe!

After working up a sweat taking turns with the big axe, we eventually had a shallow hole about the size of a dinner platter. My plan had been to plant a row all along the back of the house, but that was obviously not going to happen. As the wind picked up and it started to sleet, I made an Executive decision: we carefully positioned all the bulbs into the hole and covered them with frozen chunks of dirt as best we could.

Winter that year turned out to be one for the record books, with unusual cold and snow. When Spring poked its head out at last, we were amazed to see that the new tulips had not only survived, they had thrived! We had the most beautiful flower display imaginable. In fact, it looked like we had planned it that way all along.

If I had to pick just one favorite spring flower, I wouldn’t have to think about it for long. For me, the sunny little dandelions are the true harbinger of Spring. When I see that these resolute little wonders have returned to brighten up our world, I am thrilled. Now, if I could only convince my hubby that he doesn’t need to attack them like Attila the Hun!

• BIRDS – Our Fine Feathered Friends
We have a couple of Maple trees in our yard and were lucky enough to watch a yellow-bellied sapsucker again this year. (Yes, that really is its name. And you probably thought that was just an insulting phrase used in old Westerns on TV, right?)


Photo by Beth LaMie

The Sapsucker migrates North each year and spends up to a week in our part of the country. The picture above shows a replica of the bird and the horizontal holes they drill in the trunk of our favorite bird-watching tree. It was a real treat to sit outside and watch them get the sap running, then lap it up along with insects. We were surprised to see that squirrels also appreciated the fresh sap.

We also get a nice grouping of other birds, such as woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, finches and, of course, robins. Sometimes they visit our birdfeeders in harmony, while at other times they squabble and fight until the aggressor has chased the smaller birds away. Squirrels join the mix and delight us by hanging upside-down from the suet feeder, then pull themselves up to grab more tidbits from the wire cage. After all that work, they must develop some awesome abs. LOL

• TREES – Our Friends in the Forest
We had a few days of unseasonably warm weather, followed by much cooler days. The result was that many of the trees stated to show their buds but they didn’t mature fully for quite some time. As a result, we had a much more gradual display of Mother Nature that seemed to occur in slow motion. From one day to the next, we could actually see the slow but sure leafing out of the trees.

One of the benefits of such an unusual awakening is that we could more fully appreciate just a few varieties of trees at a time, instead of everything blossoming in a rush. One day might have a beautiful Magnolia tree in full bloom, while another was the purple plum and finally the apple trees. The steady progression of come into bud and bloom was especially enjoyable when it could be savored over many days.

So here’s the challenge:
What have you seen or experienced this Spring? Have you taken time to smell the roses, or at least dally with the dandelions? If not, it’s still not too late. Take a few minutes each day to renew your energy and your Joie de Vivre – that’s the Joy of Living and something that every one of us can enjoy.

Viva La Spring!

Stories from a 5-year-old

It looks like our family may have a young personal-historian-in-training! My grandson is only 5, but he captured his own thoughts and actually wrote them down. In fairness to his Dad, I do have to say his story may be just a wee bit exaggerated, for effect, I'm sure.

In case you can't read the original, I will take the liberty to interpret it for you here:
[sic] sum tems my dad dzit let me hav iscrm. My dad dz not evr let me hav pop mountain dew. I see my dad laying down.

So the question for you is this: If a 5-year-old can write a story, what's your excuse?

For help getting started today with your own stories, sign up for my free monthly newsletter at www.bethlamie.com.

How Well Do Your Children Know Their Grandparents?

In today's society with our families scattered across the country, it is becoming much more difficult to keep in touch with our grown children and young grandchildren.

Most kids don't know much about their grandparent's early life. In fact, they most likely think of their grandparents as "old people," not as "real people."

One way to correct this situation as grandparents is tell them details about our own growing up. Talk about the games you used to play, such as checkers, cribbage and dominoes. Better yet, teach the kids how to play with you. What a great opportunity to spend quality time together and establish a true relationship with them.

I have already started teaching dominoes to my grandkids at 3 and 5 years old. Each time we get together, I plan to show them simple games that I always enjoyed. And no batteries needed!

Obviously, the age of the children and the frequency of your time with them will make a tremendous difference. But how much better to play interactive games with them than to plunk them down in front of a video game.

A delightful blog that I follow deals specifically with generations in different locations and how to use technology to bridge the distance. I recommend it highly to all grandparents. It is called http://www.grandparentstlc.com/blog/.

Sweet Bedtime Stories

My grandson is four and a half years old. He loves to have me lay down with him at bedtime, almost as much as I love it. When his family was here over Christmas, I was elated to put him to bed. In addition to singing the usual songs and rubbing his little tummy and back, I started a new tradition.

I reminded him about all the fun things we had done during the day and then told him stories about what I did at Christmas when I was a child. He seemed to enjoy the stories and asked a few questions about them, so I definitely plan to do it again.

When my grandson is a bit older, I will also start working with him to write down our little adventures. Whenever we read the stories together, I hope he will become even more interested in creating more memories to capture.

What do you remember about your parents and grandparents? How do you build memories with your kids and grandkids? How do you preserve those memories?

Home for the Holidays

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. It's more of a whole season rather than just a single day. It's kind of sad when we have to take down the decorations, so one year I left everything up from the day after Thanksgiving until mid-January. We had a real tree and all the needles were dropping off rather badly, and I had to wrap it with a sheet while I dragged it thru the house to the curb.

It was such a nuisance to get the needles picked out of the carpet that I learned my lesson. No, I didn't take the decorations down much earlier, but at least I did get an artificial tree (better for my son's allergies, too) so I didn't have as much of a mess.

This year, we were especially blessed to see all four of our kids and their families during the holidays. With them spread from California to South Carolina, it has been a real challenge to make that happen. So we thoroughly enjoy it whenever we can and make do when we cannot.

I hope the holidays were pleasant for all of you. I would love to hear about your favorite holiday traditions, whether for Christmas, Hannakuh, Kwanzaa or whatever. Those traditions are what make us all a family, either by blood or by choice.

Easy Gingerbread Houses

I thoroughly enjoyed an early Christmas gift this last week. I spent the weekend with my grandchildren, aged 4 1/2 and 3. They live in another state some 12 hours away (or even 14, if I happen to get lost on the way), but the trip was a total success.

The kids opened their Christmas toys early so we could play with them, which is a great perk for any grandparent. I don't usually like battery-operated toys - they have a whole lot more natural energy than I do, so I wanted something to burn off some of that energy. Both games were a big success, even when the sound effects became annoying.

In addition to the usual pastimes of games, reading and playing with Thomas the Tank Engine trains, I cautiously tried out the new trampoline in the backyard. We had a ball, even though I wasn't anywhere near as agile as the kids.

One of my favorite memory-makers with the kids was to build individual gingerbread houses for each of them, which is a tradition we started last year. We all put on aprons, including some I had made for the kids with gingerbread on them. Given how young the grandkids are, we opted to use graham crackers to speed up the process and keep it geared toward their relatively short attention spans.

To make gingerbread houses this fast & easy way, you will need a box of graham crackers, a pound of powdered sugar, water, food coloring and assorted candies for decorating. We had an eclectic mixture of candy to include their favorites, such as gummy goldfish, as well as gum drops, miniature candy canes and M&Ms.

We carved the crackers into squares for the walls because they did not cooperate in breaking evenly and dry-fit them around a smaller floor section. The roof was two more squares, plus a square cut diagonally for the end pieces. The frosting we made was super simple - 2 cups of powdered sugar blended with 3 Tablespoons of warm water until smooth. Add more water if needed and a few drops of food coloring if desired.

To keep the kids occupied while my son & I assembled the two houses, I gave them each a plate of graham cracker pieces in various broken shapes covered with a dab of frosting. They delighted in sprinkling the "cookies" with colored sugar, red hots & M&Ms. They had a ball and grinned each time they popped one in their mouth.

We found it worked well to put a bit of frosting on a plate to anchor the walls while the frosting set. We assembled the roofs separately until set, then attached them on top of the walls.

Once the houses were firm, the kids decided how to decorate them with just a little help from us. Who says gummy goldfish don't belong on a house? We had a great time building gingerbread houses and memories.


As soon as the houses were decorated, the kids were ready to eat them, which may have been the most exciting part of the afternoon. Daddy made a loud growling noise and took a huge bite out of each roof, while the kids happily broke the walls apart.

Grandkids and Falling Leaves

I love the colors of Fall. Last week before the rains started, I selected a nice sampling of leaves from pale gold to bright yellow, soft pink to bright red and variegated hues to a deep burgundy. I carefully pressed them flat for a few days, then divided them between two envelopes for my grandkids some 800 miles away.

I enclosed a short personal note for each of them and sent the leaves on their way. I was really tickled a few days later when my son called so the kids could sing me Happy Birthday and chat about the leaves they had just gotten.

I reminded my son about how we used to lay a leaf upside-down onto a piece of paper, cover it with another piece and then rub crayons over the leaf to trace the raised veins for a simple little art masterpiece. He had forgotten about doing that, but he was glad to have a new rainy-day activity for young kids.

I miss seeing my grandkids as often as I'd like, but I enjoy sending them little surprises that we can talk about on our calls. Now that truly makes my day!