• Review,  Travels

    A Visit To Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial

    Like most others, my family has a bunch of different interests. Take television, for example. I love sitcoms and a little bit of reality tv (don’t judge). Jim loves anything on the History channel. D loves to watch shows like “Storage Wars” with a little bit of “Mythbusters” on the side. J overlaps all of us, but his go-to show as of late is “Friends”. My sister likes all kinds of tv, from British shows to reality to documentaries to sitcoms. That’s just one example…don’t even get me started on music, sports teams, food, or any other category (times of day, even!) because all five of us run the gamut.…

  • Family Fun,  Fun in Chicago,  Review

    Princess and Knight Training at Medieval Times: A Giveaway, Too!

    With all of the things my family has ever done in the Chicago area, believe it or not we’ve never been to Medieval Times. Correction: We HAD never been to Medieval Times until just weeks ago. The Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament has always been on our to-do list, and why not? Horses! Battles! Colorful characters! Jousting! Eating food without utensils! My family was invited to check out the show as well as the Princess Training (we just watched, of course, having not brought a young girl with us, though I tweeted at the time that I probably could have taught the course…) and so we headed to the castle.…

  • Proud Moments,  Review

    Back-To-School Fashion: This Time, It’s All About Attitude And Seniority.

    I hope you enjoy this month’s contribution to Hallmark’s “Life Is A Special Occasion” campaign! (I bet you’ll love it. It’s got funny pictures, even!) Today is a very special day. It’s not just the first day of school in our district. It’s the first day of J’s SENIOR YEAR. Let THAT absorb for a moment. I know from experience that this year is going to fly by for all of us, what with all of the special activities crammed into a final year of high school education combined with the college search, his girlfriend, his job, his car, and all of the other things he’s got going on. (Related:…

  • Family Fun,  Review,  Travels

    Lake Erie Shores And Islands: A Fun And Easy Trip For Chicago Families! (part 2)

    Welcome to Post #2 about our family trip to the Sandusky, Ohio area! I have tons of pictures to share with you from our second day of the trip (and third morning before we got back on the road to Chicago in the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid that General Motors let us use: thanks again, GM!). But first, if you missed Day One you should probably catch up before reading this post. Click here to experience Day One. I’ll wait. We spent Friday and Saturday nights at the Maui Sands Hotel, which has just recently reopened. (The pool is open, but the waterpark doesn’t open until 2013!) We thought the rooms…

  • Family Fun,  Review,  Travels

    Lake Erie Shores And Islands: A Fun And Easy Trip For Chicago Families! (part 1)

    We just got back from vacation on Sunday! Well, it was technically a working vacation for me, but the best kind: I was invited to bring my family to the Sandusky, Ohio area to enjoy a whole bunch of stuff that Lake Erie Shores and Islands has to offer, for the explicit purpose of sharing it with you. (Yes, YOU.) Before I get started, let me summarize in case you’re the type that likes to read the last chapter of a mystery novel first so you can see whodunnit: WE LOVED IT. ALL OF IT. That said, I encourage you to read more. (And MORE: this is post number one…