Sam at the Bat

Yankees Fan

Sam's having a great season on the Yankees this year~

Life's A Beach

Today was the R.O.C.K. end of year picnic. As always, it was a blast~

Jurica-Suchy Nature Museum

This morning we discovered another of the suburbs' hidden treasures. The Juricha-Suchy Nature Museum on the campus of Benedictine Museum, is definitely something to see. We had a little field trip today, with a really lovely curator (it happened to be her last day - her successor is going to have some very large shoes to fill!) ~
To start, she sent the kids off on a scavenger hunt~
The museum is very small, but is jam-packed, with almost 10,000 specimens~
After finding everything, the we were able to touch and really examine some really cool animals, like this hawk~

A couple of different feathers were passed around~

A skunk skin~
Cheetah cap~

A turtle shell~
Mountain goat~
It's really amazing how many landscapes and animals they cram in to such a small space - everywhere you look (up, down, sideways) there is something to see~
This polar bear was very cool~




















It was only after being in the museum for almost an hour that I looked up and saw this skeleton of a baleen whale~
Charlie says it best in this video he took. "It's amazing in here!"

This place is definitely worth checking out, again and again. Best part is it's free!

Chama Gaucha

As usual, we're having more of a birthseason, than a birthday celebration. Between baseball, and fishing trips and everything else that keeps us busy, we just tonight were able to take Charlie for his surprise birthday dinner~
Charlie was thrilled with everything at Chama Gaucha~
Grandma and Mary had fun, too~
Two of my boys~
Happy birthday~


Charlie really loved this place. He said his favorite meat was some sort of sausage (which cracked Scott and me up - he could have had unlimited filet mignon!), but he liked everything, including the extensive salad bar. The service was excellent, and our server generously didn't charge us for the kids, and gave us a coupon to come back for a free lunch!

ROCK Park Days

One of the older boys suggested bringing baseball equipment and having a friendly game at the park today~
The match-up of the century~
Mary just can't get away from the game~

The Sam and Mary Show

Sam and Mary have a lot of fun playing together (all three kids do, actually, but Sam definitely enjoys his role as older brother/master of ceremonies). Sam called us down tonight to see this~