Christkindl Market Chicago

I recently chaperoned a field trip with Alyssa's German class to the Christkindl Market in Chicago. It's not as big as I remember it being when I went there as a kid, but such a fun place filled with all sorts of unique hand crafted gifts. It made me feel in the Christmas spirit to walk around there. Especially since we don't have many Christmas decorations of our own up this year, because of limited space with the construction, I really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful ornaments and other decorative things.

Chaperoning a middle school field trip is much like trying to keep a watchful eye on potentially naughty sheep from a distance that is far enough that those sheep can retain their cool factor, but not so far that they might actually make a run for it and join a new flock.

I realize that the fact that I just used the words "cool factor" to attempt to describe characteristics they would like attributed to them is probably why they don't want to hang out with me more. Alyssa doesn't mind me being around at all, in fact each time I walked away to take a few pictures I ran into her classmates who told me she was looking for me. They said it in a way that insinuated that even my absence was a burden to them. Ugh, so teenagery.

Verry pretty Lebkuchen hearts.

Amazing ornaments:



Delicious pretzels!!

These were larger than the faces of the kids who were eating them ~ HUGE!

Alyssa and one of her best besties.

These hand painted pewter art pieces were absolutely beautiful! I wanted the Noah's Ark one, then I saw how much it costs and I didn't want it as much anymore.

These nesting dolls were precious too, every single little delicate detail was attended to!

Alyssa bought one of these for her new room.

I opted for a souvenir mug full of what I think was hot apple cider.

Such a huge collection of steins!

The group of mostly good, sweet, potentially naughty sheep that Alyssa has gone to school with since kindergarten. It's been amazing to watch these kids grow up and it's at least a little sad that many of them will be going in various directions next year for high school...only about six more months together with their crazy and wonderful group!

Home Sky Feather

Backing up a bit here to June, I wanted to share photos from Rebekah's end of the year first grade field trip to Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary. I never knew there was a place like this so close to where we live. The animals were amazing, it was a really neat day.

The guide gave the kids a short introduction to some of the things we were going to see, then sent them outside for a little playtime.

It was fun to see the imaginative play that went on when the kids were dropped into the forest with just a few basic toys and told to "go play."

Then it was time to see all the animal habitats at the sanctuary.

This baby deer was the most precious thing! It could not have been more than a couple days old, it's legs were all wobbly as it walked around.

Beautiful horses.

This poor guy was rescued by the sanctuary. He was found by some people when he was just a kitten and they decided to make him a pet. They de-clawed him which essentially assured his inability to survive out in his natural habitat. As he got bigger the people realized that he could not be easily domesticated despite their efforts, and they turned him loose. Fortunately he was found and brought to Shalom before any harm could come to him, he will however, never live outside the sanctuary.

Buffalo in their pasture.

This is their oldest and the leader of the buffalo herd. I think our guide called him Bob. Each of the animals had a very large enclosure for their habitat. It is very much like being in the wilderness there, as close to their natural home as possible. You'll notice in many of the photos the animals are approaching the fence and this is because they know when they hear the tour wagon coming through that they are going to be fed.

What does the baby fox say? I learned on this field trip that foxes are known for their loyalty.

Yep, that's Rebekah willingly holding a skunk tail to the back of her head.

At the end of the day, our guide passed around a basket, explaining that each of the kids was going to be given an Indian name at the conclusion of their adventure at Shalom. He asked the kids to feel around in the basket where they would find bags of rocks that each had a name and meaning included within. He said one of the rocks would feel right in their hand and that is the one the kids should take as their new name.

Rebekah chose the name "Home Sky Feather" which is a pigeon. Now I have to admit, I have never thought of birds in a very affectionate way, and my initial response was along the lines of, Pigeon? That's kinda yucky. But then I read the meaning of the name and I warmed up to it...and right away I thought of my mother in law, knowing she would love the meaning behind the name. The meaning on the card said: Pigeon- It knows how to find it's way back home, no matter how far it has gone. They help us to remember and find the love of home that we have moved away from or lost. They are the only bird that can drink by sucking water up into their beaks. This indicates their ability to draw on the love of home no matter how distant. - "Home Sky Feather"

Fieldtrips with Friends

I recently went on a fieldtrip with Rebekah's class to the art museum.

The super cool Milwaukee Art Museum.

We had the most amazing German speaking docent for our fieldtrip. That meant it wasn't an overly informative fieldtrip for me, but the kids loved her and it was so neat to hear them interacting in German with her.

Photo 113 of 365, taken April 24th:

We stopped to look at this artwork, by a German artist. This was his very dramatic representation of his village after an explosion. {I think that was what she said anyway, I could not understand much of the explanation}



Rebekah told me this was her favorite piece of art we looked at all day. The old man's eyes kind of scared me a little.

These next photos are a bit out of order. Dave also went on a fieldtrip with Rebekah's class back in March. I just recently saw the photos he took off his phone:

She loved her day at the Milwaukee Public Museum, and loved that Dad was there too!


Thank you, Dave for this wonderful photo of the girls in front of my favorite honey tree :-)

Rebekah and her sweet friend, Ramsey. They have been best buds this year in 1st grade!!

A Field Trip to the Museum of Wisconsin Art

One day last week I went with Emma's class on a field trip to the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend. I had never heard of the museum before our trip and it was a really neat place.

The artist needs to be from Wisconsin, or a current resident of the state in order to have their artwork on display. Much of the artwork was incredible, some of it was a little odd. The museum is in the process of moving to a new location, we were the 2nd to last school group that got a tour before their closure until April. I hope to go back after they re-open when we can spend more time going through the museum at our pace. There was at least one gallery that caught my interest but we didn't have time to see it.

Getting a good look at Robo-girl. She was quite interesting, made of pipes, aluminum scraps, and other various materials. Her heart was a lightbulb, she held a baby doll head in one hand and was smiling as a tear trickled down her cheek.

The museum had a really cool activity planned for the kids that I am not sure if it is available to all visitors, or just school groups, but it sure kept the kids engaged in all the artwork they saw. The kids started at this treasure box where they received a smaller box that revealed some clues about a piece of work they needed to find.

Once they found the artwork described in their box, they had to open their booklet and learn more about the piece and artist.

There was information in their booklets that they were asked to record, along with filling in missing pieces of the portion of the artwork they were given a snapshot of in their book.

Each of the students I worked with that day, which ended up being about half of Emma's class, seemed super excited about their scavenger hunt around the museum. I thought it was a great way to get the kids to explore the art!

This is an artist's portrait of Byron Kilbourn alongside Emma's portrait of him. She came pretty close, right? Along with a man named Soloman Juneau, Kilbourn was instrumental in the founding of Milwaukee. I wish I knew more historically accurate facts about the story, but from what I understand Kilbourn and Juneau's business relationship soured and the two men argued about almost everything during the development of the city. There is a Juneau Ave. and Kilbourn Ave. downtown with some bridges that make very awkward crossings of the Milwaukee River as a result of their fued and each man's individual attempt to stake his claim of the development there. Again, I'm not sure how well informed I am on the subject as I am trying to recall what I learned on a Jingle Bus tour, but I heard Kilbourn was the nicer of the two men.

Our tour ended with the kids getting to spend some time creating their own artwork using this huge pile of recyclables. The tour guide gave the kids some great news when she told them that since we were one of the last school groups to come through for the year, she was packing up half of the materials you see on the floor so they could take it back to their classroom for future art projects. The expression on Emma's teacher's face was priceless, just what they need, two large garbage bags full of...well, garbage. It was one of my favorite field trips!

Rebekah and the Rats

I'll start this by explaining that on the particular day these photos were taken, Rebekah was having some hair issues. She went to bed the previous night with her hair slightly damp from her bath, which made it even more wild than usual when she woke up the next morning. She decided that morning that she would have nothing to do with pony tails, headbands or even a small clip. She informed me in a very matter-of-fact way that "Hawaiian girls wear their hair plain!" So now we can add culture lessons to the list of all the things she is teaching me.

On Monday, Rebekah's class had a field trip to Hoffer's Tropic Life Pets. It has got to be one of the neatest pet stores I have ever been in, if you live anywhere nearby and need a fun birthday party idea, they do one of the best birthday parties ever!

We started the field trip in their classroom where a bunch of animals were waiting to greet the children.

The first animal we saw was this cute hedgehog. I learned that the German word for hedgehog is Igel. Which made a recent conversion I had with the girls about an "eagle" make so much more sense.

A note to my mom: Mom, this is the part where you will probably want to look away, just skip the rest of this post in it's entirety ~ it's too gross. I'll post new photos of the girls soon, and you'll enjoy that a lot more than this.

These were the second animals we got to meet. Many of the children were a little scared. I said a silent prayer that Rebekah would be one of those children.

No, Rebekah, don't do it!

Really?!? You are scared of most dogs, but you're happy to put your face that close to a rat?

The white rat was too much cuteness for her to resist.

We saw so many cool and unique animals at Hoffer's like...

This softie chinchilla...

These tortoises that Rebekah and Amy raced across the table...

This bearded dragon eating a worm...{gross but true: our gecko attacks crickets in this same way. Just when I thought I was warming up to the cute little guy}

The kids each got to take a turn holding a sea star...

And see baby sea stars that were even smaller than their little fingernails...

Everyone marveled at the store's Nemo tank where all the fish friends from the movie make their home.

We fed the koi...

And saw the alligators.

When this snake slithered it's way into the insturctor's shirt sleeve...

Rebekah managed to offer a hesitant smile in gentle support. I guess she's smiling and doesn't mind that the snake is making it's way closer and closer to her neck, so I should smile too.

After all that excitement and fun, this is still the image from the day that is burned into my memory:

Apple Orchard

I love going on school field trips with the girls! It's sometimes exhausting, as this day at the apple orchard was, but always worth it!



Maybe it's just the excitement of being out of the classroom, but I always see a wilder, crazier bunch of kids when we leave school. It's fun!

Today at the apple orchard, we learned about apples, Johnny Appleseed, honey bees, pumpkins, and we were able to pick several different kinds of apples to bring home. Yum!



Peeking at me through the tree as she picks out the best apples! She was so excited.



So proud of her beautiful apples, we baked cinnamon apples for dessert that night and Rebekah was so happy with her contribution to the meal.



A happy group of victorious apple pickers.

Choosing her tiny pumpkin from the garden. The smile Rebekah is showing here she inherited from my mom's side of the family. Pencil thin lips that all but disappear when we smile big is completely a Currie trait.



These chilly little faces don't look like they are up to trouble, do they? Well about five minutes later I discovered they had the idea up their sleeves about how they might lose their chaperone for the day.



It all started with me taking this photo above, thinking they looked so cute with the corn towering high over head...

Which led to this ~ all four girls giggling and running away from me in the corn maze. I loved this picture because Rebekah is airborne as she happily leaps and runs after Sophie. And if you've never chased four little kids frantically through a corn maze ~ you should give it a try. It's a good time, and an even better workout (especially if you happen to be carrying loads of apples and a very heavy camera around your neck).

A cute little daisy at the end of a long, but fruitful day.