Kohl Children's Museum

Jackson and I visited Kohl's Children's Museum last December with Auntie Cassie and Jonah, and we had such a good time!  We decided Daddy needed to come with us the next time :)  To kick off the second half of our time in Evanston, we headed to the museum, and I don't know who had more fun: Josh or Jackson!  We started out at the Car Care exhibit again, and Jackson had just as good of a time racing cars down the ramps with the other kids.  

Jackson was super pumped about doing his own grocery shopping at Dominick's!  He LOVED everything about this exhibit: the just-right-sized shopping cart, the apron, the check-out, re-shelving the groceries, picking out special food items, and working the conveyor belt!

Perhaps a future after-school job?

Daddy has quite the cart-full!  Good thing there is such an efficient checker :)

Choosing some bakery items

Jackson loved picking out the produce even though he doesn't eat any of the veggies!

Yummy chocolate milk!

Rolling the groceries down the conveyor belt

Leaving Dominick's was tough, but we promised Jackson we could come back once we checked out everything else!  We didn't visit the Hands on House exhibit last time, but we did this time.  We thought it was pretty cool, but it didn't hold Jackson's attention for very long.  There were different cushions available to finish putting siding on a house!

Paint supplies were available so the kids could practice painting the interior of the house.  There were also carpet squares to carpet the floor and some shingles to practice adding to the roof.

I LOVED this moment of toddler teamwork: Jackson watched this little girl and then decided she could use help putting the beanbags on the conveyor belt while she continued to operate the belt.  I watched the little girl to see if she wanted to be playing by herself, but she was totally fine with Jackson helping out.  It was so cute!

Jackson was pretty unsure about Waterworks, but once Josh showed him how the neat activities worked, he was pretty excited!

LOVE this picture!  The water was shooting at chimes and the notes played depending on where the water hit!

Jackson loved watching the balls spin at the top of the tunnel from the water pressure

We also didn't explore Music Makers the last time.  Jackson LOVED trying out all of the different instruments.  I think the drums were a favorite :)

Science and You was the special traveling exhibit while we visited this time.  Most of the concepts were a little old for Jackson, but this one was pretty cool: there were a few different boxes with gloves attached.  The idea was to show how scientists use these special gloves and boxes to conduct experiments with more dangerous chemicals.  There were various containers to rill up with the beads in the boxes.  It was fun experimenting with how much each container could hold!

Jackson got a kick out of Pet Vet!  He chose a doggies to check out in the animal hospital.  One memory he has carried forward is how he checked the doggie out but then there was a girl in the doggie's cage so he had to put the doggie in a different cage!  LOL

Jackson had a great time pretending to make sandwiches at Potbelly!  He got to work the cash register...

...put the sandwiches through the broiler...

...and make sandwiches!  Jackson played with lots of other exhibits, including a second trip to Dominick's and Car Care.  It was so fun watching Jackson explore the museum one year older than last time.  I think he and Daddy really enjoyed this special outing together :) 

After naptime the same day, Mimi took over Jackson duty, and Josh and I headed to Naperville for a double date with the newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Cocallas :)  Kim and I have been friends since my sophomore year of college, and I love getting to spend time with her when we go home.  This time I got to see her TWICE!  YAY!  We were so excited to visit Kim and David's adorable house they are renting!  They cooked us a yummy dinner and then they introduced us to the game Rummikub.  We had such a nice evening relaxing and catching up--can't wait to do it again!

When we came home, however, we checked on Jackson and found him totally sound asleep just like this: with socks on his hands!  I thought there was some funny story about bedtime, but my mom said she put him to bed with his socks on his feet--this means he must have had this idea to put his socks on his hands after she left him!  SO funny!