Soggy Thursday

Into each life a little rain must fall and I suppose today is our turn apparently.  I'm trying to remember that 1) we've had a few very nice (in comparison with the rest of last month) days in a row and 2) it is spring - it's gonna rain!  Wish it hadn't been quite so jam packed of a day because it would have been the perfect afternoon for a nap.

Rain or no rain it's been a happy Thursday.  Kayla was off at school celebrating yellow (she took bananas and pineapple for snack today!) and umbrellas, Noah was at school earning bees in the bucket and I headed to MOPS this morning to catch up with some of my faves for a bit.  I know I say it all the time, but I am so blessed to have these ladies in my life.  To have a group of women that share not only the daily ups and downs of being a mom but share similar morals and ideals is something I am so thankful God opened my eyes to.  It made for a great, relaxed, enjoyable morning.

Then I grabbed the Bean from school and we headed home to get the house ready for the PTA Board to come over for a meeting.  I can't believe that we spent a good chunk of the meeting talking about replacing some of the Board members since the school year is coming to a close.  OK, so perhaps another two months yet (yes, Noah's last day isn't until the 13th of June!) but it SEEMS like it's ending.  Which means a whole slew of PTA events coming up - should be fun!

After sloshing to the bus stop (so glad Grant got that new golf umbrella the other day!) the kids came home to work on their State map pictures.  We had talked about it this morning but they were having a hard time narrowing down their choices of what to draw.  You'll have to see what they came up with.

When Grant got home (and I tackled getting dinner on the table) we took advantage of showing the kids some videos that Grant's brother, Keith, who lives in Wrigleyville sent us regarding Chicago's mass transit system - "The L".  Unlike most larger cities that have a subway system underground, Chicago has elevated trains they use to move the large number of people who live in and around the city.  Keith sent us some videos for the kids to check out of stops that he frequents.  If he wasn't convinced before, Noah is now determined to make a trip to Chicago.  Soon.

For dinner tonight I made Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches on homemade Garlic Hoagie Rolls.  (No, I don't ever do anything halfway).  The sandwich is said to have originated in Chicago in the 1930's, though its origins of exactly where and when it came to Chicago is up for debate.

Speaking of debates, the origins of tonight's dessert is apparently quite the hot one!  Who knew that something as simple as an Ice Cream Sundae was cause for such debate.  According to Illinois legend  - "The ice cream "sundae" was named in Evanston. The piety of the town resented the dissipating influences of the soda fountain on Sunday and the good town fathers, yielding to this churchly influence, passed an ordinance prohibiting the retailing of ice cream sodas on Sunday. Ingenious confectioners and drug store operators obeying the law, served ice cream with the syrup of your choice without the soda. Objections then was made to christening a dish after the Sabbath. So the spelling of "sunday" was changed. It became an established dish and an established word and finally the "sundae"."  Apparently, though, Two Rivers Wisconsin, Ithaca New York and Plainfield Illinois also put a claim on the treat.  No matter what you believe, we followed the instructions here for the perfect ending to tonight's dinner.

After dinner we put together the "We've Been There State" and for the first time in a few weeks ALL 4 Gatchel's can officially claim to have been to Illinois.  Heck, two of us called it home!  If it hadn't been for Illinois there wouldn't even be a Gatchel crew in Farmington Hills.  Hmmm, there's something to think about...

Storytime with the Bean in the morning, few odds and ends to take care of around here and then Chicago Deep Dish pizza, the official State Snack of Illinois and a movie tomorrow night!  Until then...

Illinois Fun Fact of the Day:  On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi and a small band of scientists and engineers demonstrated that a simple construction of graphite bricks and uranium lumps could produce controlled heat. The space chosen for the first nuclear fission reactor was a squash court under the football stadium at the University of Chicago.

Homemade Hoagie rolls - oh how I love my bread machine

This is Kayla's picture - she says it is the Chicago Fire burning

This is Noah's Prairie State (he colored in Springfield for the capital and made a star where Chicago is.  Hmmm, apparently I haven't done as much as I thought to convince him Illinois is more than just Chicago...)

Chicago Style Italian Beef

The perfect ice cream sundae

We've all been there!!