Garfield Park Conservatory

Our field trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory was a lot of fun. I believe I enjoyed it as much as the kids did, if not more. The Conservatory in honor of Valentine's Day, was showing all of the different "sweet" plants that they grow there. We also had taste stations where we got to taste all the delicious things that these plants give us.
For instance we got to taste candied ginger, vanilla jelly beans (I love the vanilla plant!), non processed sugar, agave juice, dried fruits, and so much more. It was quite a treat, but by the end of the tour I felt as though a sugar cube explosion had just happened in my mouth.
We did decide that when we move to California we will do our best to have a vanilla plant, and some agave plants. We are also switching from sugar to agave nectar as our sweetener as it simply tastes better and is supposed to also be more beneficial for your health. It is low calories, non processed as it is naturally sweet, and has a lowest glicemic index than sugar itself. But again, it is simply yummy!
We did have a surprise tasting chocolate beans, before they were sweetened. Those are definitely not very good. We were expecting something bitter, but not quite as bitter as what we got. We ate one, but then they were giving them out again at several other stations and it was just too much for us.

As we were leaving we decided to go look in the gift shop for a plant to bring home. We are horrible gardeners altogether but do enjoy having plants in the house. We did find two fat plants, that we think we might be able to keep alive. One was an aloe plant, which we wanted to have anyways in the house as they can be quite useful, and the other we haven't found yet. It might be a delosperma algoense, but I might be entirely wrong.

The rest of the day wasn't quite as much fun, as we cleaned the house entirely in order to be ready for the board game play date that we have today. I haven't heard from anyone though, so I'm not even sure that anyone will show up. Nevertheless the house needed to be cleaned and we did a pretty good job of it, With everyone in on it, it also did not take as long as I was expecting it to.

All in all a very good day, and the kids started their blogs as well, so that will be interesting to see.

February Outings

I’ve already planned most of our activities for February.
I was very glad to discover the website sciencechicago.com this past month, as it includes tons of links to activities in the city of Chicago that are either free, or not very costly. They do have more expensive classes listed on there, mostly for adults, but for now we do not need those.

From that website I was able to find, “A Quantum Journey”, which happens every first Sunday of the month, and where you get to ask scientists all of the burning questions you might have gathered throughout the month. From Quantum theory to how the Big Bang occurred, all questions are answered. I’m very excited about this, as this is something that I think we will come to rely on quite a bit. Especially since the teen years of, "but my parents aren't always right!", are poking their noses out.

Then one Wednesday of the month we will be going to the Ryerson Observatory to look at the stars. Which is why we are studying simple astrology as well throughout the month. The Observatory is free to go to every Wednesday night as long as the skies are clear, which is amazing for us.
What always astonishes me is that places like this are available all over the city, and yet, I would have passed up so many of them without proper research.

Then Garfield Park Conservatory has sweet Saturdays all throughout the month, where we can visit tropical treat stations where we learn fact and sample sweet tastes brought to us by plants, which should be a fun outing for the kids.

And then there is this amazing Meet the Scientist expo at one of the hotels where you can get in for free and attend classes about a variety of subjects and sciences.
For example there is a talk about where the bees have gone, a new dinosaur eating crocodile discovery, mysteries of space and the dark universe, x-ray vision: not for superman anymore, and many more…
I’m sure the kids will love it, and Nigel and I will thoroughly enjoy the experience.

We’ll probably also be going to the Museum of Natural History since we are buying a membership, and maybe once to the Zoo if we can find the time.
That’s about all we could fit for the month, as during the last two weeks of February we are going to a few shows during the week-end where Nigel will be selling his art. It’s also Auna’s birthday towards the end of the month, so we’ll probably have an easy going week for everyone as part of the birthday celebration.