Decatur Children's Museum

Back when I was in high school and college, I worked at the Children's Museum of Illinois. On this day we brought Emma. It was exciting to interact with new exhibits and interesting to see which ones remained after my ten-year absence. The grocery store, toddler backyard, skeleton on a bike, mechanics' garage, kitchen, and ambulance topped Emma's list of favorite spots. In the "Construction Zone," Scott built Emma a Lego race car and showed her how to send it down the ramp. There was so much to see and do that we didn't get a chance to explore it all before Emma had her fill.

Play-Doh Creations

Grandma Connie has so many neat cookie cutters from her Kindergarten classroom. Emma played with shapes, letters, animals, and different types of transportation. (There were several more bags of cutters, but we limited her choices.) She has fun naming the colors and objects, rolling the Play-Doh on the table to form snakes, using a ball of clay to pick up smaller pieces, and mashing up the creations to make new ones.

Beardstown History

Papa Ross and Grandma Connie regularly volunteer at the Beardstown Historical Museum. They gave us a private tour of the many rooms on Thomas Beard, Rudy Black, the Illinois River, the Beardstown Ladies, and more. We also saw the jail and courtroom. Abe Lincoln tried many cases in the courtroom including his famous "Almanac Trial" in 1858. Lincoln successfully defended Duff Armstrong against murder charges. This is the only courtroom where Lincoln practiced law that is still used today. We let Emma sit in the judge's chair, which she loved. Before we knew it, Emma had picked up the gavel and rapped it several times on the podium! Order in the court!

Decatur Public Library

Emma loves to go places and see kids. Her face lights up when we ask her if she wants to go to the library or museum or park. She'll squeal, "Kids! Yeah, OK!" Papa Mike, Grammy Jill, and I took her to the Decatur Public Library's Children's Department to look around one day when Scott was at his ISU grad class. She bopped from one thing to another . . . coloring, puzzles, blocks, stuffed animals, books, puppet stage. Emma had fun, but we were sure tired!

Read a Good "Boo"k!

You may notice a Halloween theme in these pictures at Beardstown Library. Well, they are not from last fall. It was the theme of the summer reading program. Grandma Connie, Papa Ross, Scott, and I took Emma to investigate the library one Saturday, but she was more interested in playing with the toys and Halloween decorations, tapping on the computers, and running around. She sat for a few minutes and worked on a monster art project, but was on the go for most of our visit.

Summer Trip

Scott, Emma, and I took a trip to visit good friends during one June weekend. Drew and Heather grew up with Scott in Beardstown and now they are raising their two children, Olivia and Jack, in Indiana. Scott's known Drew since he was three, so it is fun to have all of our kids together and watch them play. We chased bubbles, swam in their little pool, drew on doodle boards, rode on push cars, played with a kitchen set, dressed up as fairies, rode a rocking horse, organized Matchbox cars, built with Legos, ironed clothes, read books, and much more. You'd think this would tire a kid out, but not Emma. She was wide awake during the four-hour car rides to and from their house and skipped her nap the full day we were there. Thank goodness Heather suggested a portable DVD player and gave us several of her children's DVDs for the journey home. It was a life saver!

Animals Galore

During the first week of "squatting" with my parents, we all ventured to the zoo. I thought that getting an early start would be good to avoid the heat and crowds. But it turned out to be an 80+ degree morning, and the zoo was hosting a free admission day. We made the best of it and saw many animals: flamingos, monkeys, turtles, zebras, camels, emus, alligators, meerkats, prairie dogs, and much more. We took Emma on a train ride and the carousel. She had so much fun, and didn't want to get off when the carousel's white tiger came to a stop.