Starting 36 off on the right foot

I got 3 new things for my 36th birthday last month. My mom and in-laws gave me cash, which I put towards a brand new pair of roller skates. I decided, two years into skating twice a week with Derby Lite, that I'm definitely committed and ready to upgrade. And boy did I ever. Getting fitted for these top-of-the-line Riedell boots, trucks and wheels from Steve at Lombard Roller Rink was like trading in a beat-up Kia for a Rolls Royce. (Only for now I'm keeping my 2 sizes too large R3s for outdoor skating. Look for me in the Oak Park Fourth of July parade tomorrow.)

I'd sent Josh a few hints about what I might want, including a Zappos link to these fabulous Kork-Ease platform sandals. And that's exactly what I got. Since they're pretty much my favorite color, they match fully 50 percent of my summer wardrobe. In fact, I'm wearing them again today!

The other gift I received was a total surprise--a lovely, delicate gold bar necklace with a teeny, tiny diamond in it--from my friend Kate. It doesn't look like anything else I own, but I love it so much. And wearing delicate jewelry in this beastly heat is a revelation, I tell you.

Growing another year older isn't just about getting new stuff. I'm getting a new job! I'm not leaving Leo Burnett/Arc, but I'm getting to broaden the number of brands I work on and start a brand new team focused on concept development.

A total beginners guide to King Spa

"This looks like Vegas," says Kate upon arrival

Kate totally earned her best friend badge today, agreeing to accompany me to a traditional Korean Spa in spite of the copious nudity I warned her would be required.

And man, was there ever a lot of nudity. This is not the place to feel modest, but if you can get over your discomfort with being totally naked in front of your BFF (not to mention a diverse crowd of women--Koreans young and old, Russians, and a handful of Americans of all shades), you will experience the finest relaxation money can buy.

I'd bought a Groupon, which saved me a few dollars off the entrance fee and included the $5 admission to the Base Rock Room. Admission is good for 24 hours, and while it might seem weird to spend the night at a strip mall spa, I can totally see how this place would be preferable to (and much cheaper) than a youth hostel. We were given high tech wristbands, which included a key to our shoe locker and our larger clothing locker in the women's room. Leave your wallet in your locker; you can charge massages, food, even earplugs to your wristband at King Spa.

Upon entry into the locker room, you're instructed to strip naked and head into the single sex shower/hot tub room, where you take a non-private shower. Signs encourage guests to report anyone who doesn't use soap to the staff. We soaped and shampooed our hair, but we could have also availed ourselves of the free toothbrushes and toothpaste, had we wished to. Once clean, we could enter the hot tubs, cool plunge pool or steam room. The shower/hot tub room was also home to a row of treatment tables, where scrubs and massages are offered by a team of strong middle-aged Korean women dressed only in bras and panties.

After bathing and soaking briefly, Kate and I made appointments for our treatments and dressed in the clean cotton shorts and t-shirts provided to guests for use in the unisex areas. We explored a few of the various treatment saunas before returning for our bodywork. I got a 60 minute scrub and Kate opted for a 60 minute massage. Both were performed buck naked and with zero privacy, but man, it was satisfying. "Jenny" scrubbed every cell of dead skin off my body, poured buckets of hot water over me and greased me with copious amounts of baby oil before finishing with a shampoo, scalp massage and mini-massage. It sounds weird, but it was amazing. And my skin has never felt so baby soft.

After our treatments, we re-showered and headed back to the unisex area. We experimented with the various saunas and checked out the movie theatre and meditation (sleep) areas. My favorite rooms were the salt room, the ice room and the Base Rock room; the justifiably titled Fire Room was too hot to bear even for minute. There's also a restaurant serving fruit juices, smoothies and authentic Korean food. We had watermelon ices, a too-weird-for-words shave ice fruit salad topped with a mound of sugary black bean paste and a bowl of beef noodle soup with kimchee and other pickled sides.

Spicy and delicious

It wasn't very crowded, but the couple dozen people there were a diverse mix of Koreans, African Americans and gringos, including plenty of children, from infancy up to around 12. The ornate sofas and chairs in the area between all the saunas were populated with older people reading Korean newspapers, couples snuggled together watching videos on their iPads and children playing chess on the game tables. Foot and chair massages are offered to those who would rather keep their clothes on. And a family movie was scheduled to be shown in the theatre at 1pm.

The place was immaculate. In addition to the laser focus on thorough personal cleansing, staff were on the move, mopping the floors, changing out towels and mats and disinfecting the large leather barcaloungers in the napping and movie rooms. Although it is definitely a Korean-first establishment (the napkin dispenser reads "Here is Napkins"), all of the staff save the masseuses seemed to speak English perfectly and were very welcoming to us first-timers.

I am already looking forward to my next trip. Three hours was really not long enough to enjoy all King Spa has to offer, and I think Zoe and Ada would get a real kick out of the experience.

Losing my mummy tummy

Thanks to skating 4 hours a week and generally staying active, I'm in about the fittest shape of my adult life--certainly post childbearing. But I hadn't been able to lose the dreaded "mummy tummy," a stomach that protruded slightly  and was a very unsightly distraction from a figure I'm otherwise quite happy with.

On the recommendation of a fellow Derby Lite skater, I decided to enroll in Bonnie Wayne's Tupler Technique workshop with the goal of reducing my stomach roll by shrinking my diastasis recti (the space between my separated stomach muscles). Bonnie took before photos and measurements, demonstrated exercises (none of which are very taxing; think more like kegels for your abs) and fitted us with splints. I wore my splint every night and while exercising and I was reasonably good about doing the exercises. I definitely didn't do the recommended number of sets, but I did do them correctly.

It paid off! You can see my belly is a bit more toned in Bonnie's after photo of me. (I'm not sucking it in because I didn't want to give her program any undue credit.) I've also had my consciousness raised; thanks to Bonnie, I've gotten in the habit of standing up straighter, rolling my shoulders back and pulling my belly button toward my spine, all of which make me look less frumpy and fat. Now if only I could convince my 4 year old to stop patting my much-flatter stomach and saying "There's a baby in your belly, right Mom?"

Camp: struggling with silence in the information age

I dropped off Zoe at her first sleepaway camp on Sunday around 1:30pm, and I've been thinking about her ever since. I spent my 90 minute drive home from Indiana wondering how she was settling in. As we picnicked with friends at the Sunday night concert in Scoville Park, my thoughts turned to her dinner. Was my woefully picky eater eating? Did she pass her swim test? Did she manage to rinse the shampoo and conditioner out of her hair, reapply bug repellent and hang up her towel to dry?

As I read Ada another chapter of Beezus and Ramona, I imagined Zoe settling into Josh's old sleeping bag, perched on a creaky cot in a clapboard shack. Was she talking to the other three girls in her cabin? Were they scared to venture out in the dark to pee? Were the counselors prepared to deal with the giggles, shrieks and possible tears of 12 seven and eight year old Brownies?

I've let Zoe out of my sight plenty of times before, but leaving her in the woods in the care of strangers? That's a new one. As confident as I am in the Girl Scouts organization and my daughter's independent spirit, there was no newsy email from her counselors like I could expect from her grandmother every night she spent in Virginia. No texts, no phone calls, no photos, no Facebook updates. No communication at all until her friend's mom picks her up late Tuesday evening and drives her and her duffle bag full of labeled belongings back to Oak Park.

It shouldn't be such a big deal, but in this age of oversharing (and believe me I'm guilty), it's hard to let go so completely. I can't wait to hear all about her experience--to count her bug bites, hear her camp songs and learn the names of her new best friends--but I'm going to have to. And perhaps her stories will be all the more special simply because they'll be her memories...and they won't be told in real time.

Greening my period with the Diva Cup

Disposable plates are clean, relatively cheap and convenient, but you wouldn't eat off disposable plates every day, would you? It's just too wasteful.

Well, using tampons has made me feel like the environmental boor who uses disposable plates and drinks bottled water for breakfast, lunch and dinner (at least for 5 days out of the month). So I finally switched to the aluminum water bottle of the femcare world, the menstrual cup. The Diva Cup, to be precise.

It arrived in a package that included a cute little cloth drawstring bag and a "Diva" lapel pin that I'm absolutely never ever going to wear.

I'm not going to lie--there's a bit of a learning curve. But aside from one unfortunate retrieval attempt (the one before I thoroughly read the instructions), it was really no more difficult or time consuming than using tampons. And you don't have to worry about carrying enough with you because it's reusable!

In terms of effectiveness, I found the Diva cup wasn't leak-proof, but it did leak less than tampons. And the spotting I experienced was likely due to user error--not getting the cup in precisely its happy place. Comfort was equivalent to a tampon. Sometimes I felt a little "have to pee" pressure on my urethra shortly after putting it back in, but the more I inserted it, the better I became at putting it in exactly the right spot (and opened all the way).

There is the matter of emptying and cleaning the Diva cup, which is definitely best done in the privacy of your own bathroom or at least a bathroom with a private sink. I'm not going to lie: you will see blood. A lot of blood. Some women recommend carrying a sport bottle of water into a public stall and others say a quick wipe with TP is good enough, but fortunately the Diva cup can hold more than even the most super absorbent tampon, so I didn't have to deal with that challenge at work.

Now if I was going to be at an all-day rock festival and dealing with port-a-potties, you can better believe I'd use tampons instead...but I'd also be eating off disposable plates without feeling too guilty about it.

My $13 prescription eyeglasses

$100+ Jessica McClintock

I got PRK laser vision correction about two years ago. I have 20-15 vision and I love it. But I'm getting older and 9+ hours of sitting in front of a screen every day was giving me headaches.

So I got a pair of reading/computer glasses. They're about as strong as the cheaters you see sold at the drugstore, but since each of my eyes are slightly different, the cheaters weren't quite doing the job for me.

I used my vision insurance plan to get fitted for a traditional pair of glasses. Yes, insurance paid for more than half, but these glasses cost about $150. They're on an off all day long and I was afraid I'd lose them. I feared a day at the office without them, so I was reading on the train and at home without their benefit.

$13 no-name

So I went online to Zenni Optical (famous for their $6.95 glasses) and ordered a second pair. Same prescription. Same wait time (about a week). These ones were $12.95 + shipping. And I think I like them a little better!

The battle of the Readers: Ruckus vs. Leapfrog Tag

Reading time in the House of Klein

As an avid lover of books, I feel lucky that both of my girls learned to read before age 5. I give their Montessori preschool most of the credit for teaching them phonics, but it can't hurt that that we read to them, read a lot ourselves and as two writers probably passed along some kind of genetic predisposition to verbal skills.

What I don't credit is educational toys. I doubt either the Leapfrog Tag Reader instrument and books (which we've had since Zoe was 3) or the brand spanking new iPad app Ruckus Reader (which I was given trial access to) will teach any kid to read. But I do believe they support literacy and reinforce verbal skills through entertainment and play. And more importantly, they will read your children books when you're too busy. Or driving. Or not yet awake. 

Both Leapfrog Tag and Ruckus Reader offer a wide range of titles, from classics to crappy TV and toy tie-ins. And both companies will monitor your child's interactions with the toy and send you email updates or showcase progress online. 

Assuming you already own an iPad, however, the Ruckus Reader is more affordable. At least upfront. For $24.99 you get 6 months of unlimited access to classic narrated books, interactive but lamely written titles from licensed characters like My Little Pony and Cars and some Reading Rainbow-eque animated books. (The app itself is free and you can download select books for free.)

Compare this to the Tag Reader, which is $35 plus the cost of books. Even if you've got younger siblings who might inherit the Tag collection, given the pace of technology and the short attention spans of children, I think Ruckus Reader has the advantage here.

Although nothing's better than a big tote of new library books, my 4 1/2 year old likes both systems and plays with each about once a week. She tends to favor the Tag Reader because she doesn't have to ask for permission. I still monitor and limit access to the iPad as I think it counts as screen time, no matter how "educational" the content. Also? It's expensive as f--- and I don't want her to break it. I will, however, happily bust out the iPad loaded with Ruckus Reader titles on lengthy car and plane trips--it packs a lot of reading material and distraction without taking up any space or weight. 

Locks of Love

Before

Ada's been telling me she's ready to cut off her long, beautiful hair for about a month. Shortly after Zoe cut off her hair, unsurprisingly. I finally took her seriously and booked an appointment. Fortunately Sandra Ross, the salon where I typically take the girls, participates in Locks of Love (although the haircuts aren't free).

I figure someone should benefit from Ada's beautiful hair and the girls were excited to contribute to a cause that helps kids with cancer ("Like Meera," Zoe exclaimed, thinking of my friend's 3 year daughter who is currently undergoing chemotherapy).

During

Anyway, she did a good deed. She looks adorable. And Josh won't have to deal with long, tangly hair at swim lessons, which begin next week.

After

Cirque Shanghai at Navy Pier

In general, we avoid Navy Pier. It's basically the Times Square of Chicago--cheesy, expensive and universally beloved by tourists while largely ignored by locals like us who balk at the $20+ parking fees. 


But along with the mediocre food, tour boats and amusement park rides, there are some real treasures: WBEZ, our local NPR station; the Chicago Children's Museum, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater; and now, Cirque Shanghai: Year of the Dragon, which is appearing at the open-air Pepsi Skyline Stage this summer. 


I took the family on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we were blown away. Each act outshone the last, and by the time the Wheel of Destiny (pictured) arrived, the hair on the back of my neck was standing up and 7-year-old Zoe was gasping at the danger the acrobats were putting themselves in. Little Ada's mouth was agape for most of the performance, but she was just as excited by the pretty, sparkly costumes as she was by the amazing feats of flexibility, balance and juggling.


Speaking of costumes, a few of the outfits had a stylized Pepsi logo emblazoned onto the legs in sequins. And, even though it was only half the "Pepsi smile," my older daughter immediately recognized and called out the relationship to the stage name and the fact that "a whole lot of people are drinking Pepsi here."


But that's not all she noticed. Zoe was so excited by the show and the fact that I was going to be writing about it on my blog that she begged to write her own review. And here's where I hand it over to her...


Today I went to a circus called Cirque Shanghai. It was called “The Year of the Dragon.” First there was an opening finally. Next some men got a hoop and they did flips and dive rolls through it. Then the men called out “Ho!” Next some women in really pretty pink dresses did contortion, and they bent their bodies in really hard positions! One lady even touched her foot on her head and bent it to the front of her body!


Next a man did slack wire. He did lots of rolls on the slack wire and he even unicycled on it! Then some girls lay on a chair in a position called candlestick. They put balls on their feet and made cool juggling motions. My favorite was when they put one ball on each foot and passed them around to the other girls using only their feet! It was pretty amazing.


Next a girl climbed up a long red silk and did cool tricks on it. She hooked up her feet to the silk and did the splits in mid air with only her feet hooked up to the silk! Then a man did cool juggling where he did plain old juggling except he bounced 7 balls up and down stairs in a form of juggling. He probably practiced a lot! Next a woman stood on a stack of chairs and helped another woman onto a chair and that woman helped another woman and so on until there was about 8 women stacked all the way to close to the ceiling!


Zoe got distracted before she could describe the most incredible part of the show, Imperial Thunder, a death-defying stunt in which five motorcyclists (including one gal in pink!) ride their motorcycles in carefully choreographed circles inside a steel globe.


Cirque Shanghai: Year of the Dragon will perform through September 3 with regular matinee and evening performances. Tickets are $15.50-$29.50. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was pretty much perfect. Three dinners with friends. One birthday party. One fabulous parade. And the inaugural trip to the pool, where we were joined by pretty much everyone in Oak Park.

This photo was taken after the one disappointment of the weekend--we tried going back to the pool on Monday afternoon only to be turned away by a capacity crowd. This is Ada wrapped in a towel after we diverted to the splash pad. She's watching Zoe gleefully turn cartwheels through the spray.

A second later she saw me snapping a picture with my phone. I caught her right before she broke into her trademark toothless smile.

You can almost smell the sunscreen, chlorine and delicious little kid sweetness on her.

Profanity, as defined by a preschooler

"I know all the bad words," Ada whispered as she climbed into my bed at 6am.
"The H word is hate."
"The B word is butt."
"The S word is really bad," she continued, "It's stupid."
"The U word is underpants."
"And there are two P words, a brown one and a yellow one."

As the school year winds down

May is the new December, or so it seems, with every week marking another "last" and a constant stream of goodbyes and celebrations that are all coming to ahead this week.

Last weekend the girls performed in Tri-Star's annual gym show and Zoe had her last day of Hebrew School for the year. Today she is having a fiesta lunch with her extra curricular Spanish class and next week beckons with Olympics Day and a pizza picnic for the whole 2nd grade.

Ada finishes her 2nd of 3 years at Montessori school today. She'll be a kindergartener in the fall! After a full Memorial Day Weekend full of parties, playdates, a parade and the pool (!), June opens with its chaos of camps: Montessori camp, park district camp, swim camp and--for Zoe--2 nights in a platform tent at Girl Scout camp.

I know it's traditional to look back in December, not late May, but with children the ages of Zoe and Ada, it's hard not to feel a sense of finality with the wrapping of teacher gifts and mailing of graduation checks (my youngest cousin is a high school senior for a few more weeks). And this has been a wonderful year.

Zoe matured into the kind of kid who can disappear into her room (or the backyard) for hours on end, writing fantastic, dialogue-filled stories or creating lists of names (that she can use in future stories). I've also found her listening, rapt, to audiobooks as she does chin-ups underneath her loft bed. And speaking of exercise, this girl is all muscle. She spent the school year on Tri-Star Gymnastics' GIJO Level 3 Team, and mastered skills like the splits, round-offs and walk-overs. She solidified her best friendship with a fellow brainy classmate, but cultivated a wide range of friends from Hebrew School, girl scouts, the neighborhood and her class. My wish for her third grade year is an academically challenging teacher and for her to finally start broadening her palate.


And there's Ada. She's still got a ways to go in the maturity department, but we've evolved from multiple daily meltdowns to one or less per day. She's picking up on so many skills at school and can perform simple arithmetic and read simple books (We love Mo Willem's Elephant and Piggie series). She's an affectionate, fun-loving kid with a lot of friends (including two "best friends").  She's given up the stroller and willingly walks over a mile each way to school. And just this week I took the training wheels off her bike so she can start learning to balance on two wheels.

It's been a good year for me, too. My team is having a lot of successes at work, I got to redecorate our house and I picked up some tricky skills skating with Derby Lite (mohawks and backwards cross-overs for the win!). Finally, the sun is shining, it's 70 degrees and sunny and I'm on day one of a four-day weekend.

A Mother's Day gift of sibling harmony

Mother's Day came early for me. My kids chose this weekend to get along with each other.

Friday night Josh had a concert to review, so I took the girls to Hole in the Wall for frozen custard. It was Ada's first time biking anywhere (other than around the block), and Zoe was pretty gracious about waiting for us slow folks (her little sis on training wheels and me on foot) at every intersection. The shop accidentally upsized Zoe's cone from kiddie to full-sized, and rather than gloat about her enormous ice cream, Zoe reassured her jealous sister that she "definitely wouldn't finish all that ice cream." She also took it upon herself to continuously wipe Ada's disgustingly messy chocolate frozen custard face.

But the sibling harmony continued on Saturday! Zoe left Ada and me alone to bake Pinterest-inspired pretzels and oatmeal no-bake "energy balls." Then the three of us headed to the library, where Zoe read Ada a long fairy tale book until it was time to head across the street for Zoe's haircut. At the salon, Zoe let Ada sit next to her and play on the iPod Touch while Zoe had her hair reshaped into a stylish graduated bob.

Josh picked us up and the whole family went to the Depot American Diner for lunch. The food was a little off this time, but having the next hour all to myself to do a little shoe shopping more than made up that. And the cherry on my new TOMS shoes was coming home to find Zoe and Ada well intwined on the couch in front of Alice in Wonderland.

Mother's Day Sunday was pretty good too. Josh and the girls let me sleep in, and when I finally padded downstairs, they presented me with cards and fresh crepes. Ada and I played at the newly remodeled Taylor Park while Zoe was at Hebrew school, and Sunday afternoon the whole family headed to UIC Pavilion for some roller derby action. Interestingly enough, I bought Zoe a pack of derby trading cards and she immediately overcame her shyness, hounding all the skaters for autographs.

Zoe's new haircut

Thank you, President Obama

Today our President came out in support of gay marriage, and that made me proud to be an American.

I felt extra patriotic when, while assisting my 4 year old in the making of pizzas for dinner, I heard an NPR broadcast discussing the news. They mentioned the fact that--for the first time in history--more Americans support gay marriage than are against it.

I feel like we've come a long way in what seems like a fairly short time. I didn't know any (out) gay people in high school or among my parents' friends. My kids, by contrast, know my cousin is married to another man. They know that some kids have one parent, some have two, and sometimes those two are of the same gender. It's so not a big deal for them it barely registers as worth commenting. It's boring.  What's far more interesting, at least to my second grader, is that sometimes a kid's parents list two different addresses in the school directory. Divorce is more interesting (even scandalous) to a kid than a committed, loving gay marriage.

You can tell that to the defense of marriage nutjobs.

Omaha and more

As good as the Jellies exhibit at the Shedd

We spent last weekend in the city my parents were raised in and I grew up visiting during my summer vacations--Omaha, Nebraska. We were there because my cousin's daughter Lindsay was having her bat mitzvah. Since Ada and Zoe have only two first cousins (and those two live in Australia), I've tried to expose them to their second and third cousins as much as possible.

And I kind of like Omaha. For one thing, the Henry Doorly Zoo is fantastic. We (along with my mom and stepdad) headed there directly from the airport and took in the desert, swamp and aquarium exhibits.


We did some other sightseeing too, visiting the Durham Museum (an old train station filled with exhibits on Omaha history and a bunch of really cool historic rail cars that had the girls lost in a complicated game of "let's pretend") and the Omaha Children's Museum.

Naturally there were plenty of bat mitzvah-related events too: services, a 13th birthday dinner, more services, an oneg, a bat mitzvah party at a diner and a farewell brunch. Lindsay chanted beautifully and led many of the prayers, but I was most impressed by her d'var Torah, the commentary she gave on her Torah portion, which was about leprosy. She talked about the importance of making everyone feel a part  of a community and related that to her service project, which was assisting the disabled with swimming lessons.

"When's the train going to come?"

This was also the first hotel stay in which we didn't play musical beds! Zoe and Ada shared a double bed, and so did Josh and I. (P.S. The Marriott Omaha has very comfortable beds.) The girls deserve an extra commendation for their ability to stay up late and haul their own luggage. We didn't land until 8:30pm Sunday night, and they gamely wheeled their suitcases through the terminal, onto the tram to remote parking and then onto the bus to extra cheap remote parking.

In other, completely unrelated news, Ada is a reader! I'm going to post a video of her reading a book soon, I promise. While Zoe was a teeny bit younger when she started reading, I just realized that both of them started 1-2 months before the end of their second year at Montessori preschool.

Also, we booked a Disney World vacation for the fall. It will be my second time to WDW and the first for Zoe and Ada. We haven't told them yet, so please help us keep this a secret.

High highs and low lows

This week felt like it lasted a month. I won a Silver Effie and wore fantastic sky high satin heels and a sequin mini skirt to the awards dinner. Which, thanks to mediocre food and the fact that I was neither allowed to accept the award on stage (it's a political thing) nor included in the group photo with the statuette on the step and repeat was about as un-fun as events can get.

I went to a poorly attended but interesting NARAL/Pro-Choice America event and killed myself at work, revising a video case study in one day and churning out idea deck after idea deck. Creatively I was on fire, but that didn't stop me from red-eyed bawling at my desk one afternoon over a misunderstanding.

photo by Paul Goyette

Thanks to the Effie Awards and a preschool event, I missed both Tuesday and Thursday's Derby Lite practices and since work was so crazy, I didn't get to work out at all. Which made me feel infinitely less deserving of the fantastic (and likely final) One Sister dinner we attended with 10 friends until very late last night.

And as it that wasn't enough of an emotional roller coaster ride, I spent my few precious moments of free time this week planning a surprise trip to Walt Disney World for the family this fall. So naturally the girls act like ungrateful brats this morning (Zoe was adamant we adopt one of the animal shelter dogs being promoted at Oak Park's Earth Fest and would not take no for an answer and Ada repeated smacked her sister because she was frustrated over losing the free wildflower seeds she's snagged at the fest.)

A Passover potluck

Sunday was pretty much perfect. I joined some Derby Lite ladies for a sunny 9am skate along the lakefront (the first 3.5 miles were a cakewalk, but skating back against the wind was much more challenging).

I got home, showered and had lunch with the girls, but shortly thereafter a neighborhood sitter came over and kept them happily occupied playing "family" and "school" while Josh and I picked up a few last minute items for that evening's party. Then, while Josh read and dosed (he'd been up until 2am at a show Saturday night) I got busy in the kitchen.

When the sitter left, I put Zoe and Ada to work, having them clean and set the tables for our party, a meat-free Passover potluck. We had four families over for dinner, which meant a total of 10 adults and 11 kids (the 7 little girls greatly outnumbered the boys). The company (all of whom are new friends this year) was delightful and the food was delicious. I made tsimmes, apple kugel, a fruit salad and toffee-chocolate matzo. Others brought lemon soup, a green salad, chocolate-almond matzo, homemade gefilte fish (a revelation) and homemade cheese. Naturally, the (older) kids turned their noses up at  the spread and ate peanut butter straight from the jar. As I was putting leftovers away, I realized I'd also made and neglected to serve egg salad. Guess who is going to be eating that all week?

Spring in Louisville

Red penguins at 21c Museum Hotel

We took a four day mini-vacation to Louisville at the tail end of the girls' Spring Break last week(end). Although it's an easy 5 hour drive away (and Indianapolis offers a nice midway lunch stop), our trip started off semi-disasterously.

Ada, you see, was in a foul mood (for no apparent reason). Add the usual hotel room round of musical beds, and Josh woke up the loser, beginning a day of sightseeing in a sleeping bag on the floor of the plush 21c Museum Hotel. 

Fortunately, things got better from there. Every single person in Louisville was pumped for the Final Four matchup between University of Louisville and University of Kentucky, and blue and red tee shirts and banners were everywhere. 

On Friday, we visited the Mohammed Ali Center (so great) Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory (worth it), the Louisville Science Center (eh, but the kids liked it) and Kentucky Show! (the exclamation point is for the "Wow! You must have a thoroughbred's balls to charge $7 for 30 minutes of slick tourist propaganda!").

World's Biggest Baseball Bat

All of the above are located within a 5 minute walk of the 21c, which is a very cool boutique hotel that is also home to 2 floors of contemporary art and Proof on Main, a well-known restaurant and bar. We stayed for just one night, as it is as expensive as it is memorable (just under $300, which included a $25 credit at Proof).

Friday night we began left the downtown area, eating dinner at Hillbilly Tea (a hipster hangout where everything on the limited menu is made with tea). We then checked in at a well-equipped Residence Inn on the far east side of Louisville. It wasn't even off the highway, but buried in a nest of gated communities and strip malls.

Saturday we spent driving around the countryside, visiting two bourbon distilleries and Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.

Lincoln's Birthplace

Although the weather had been glorious up to that point, on Sunday morning we awoke to a crazy thunderstorm. Josh and the girls were afraid the horseback riding lesson I'd booked for them would be canceled, but it was at an indoor arena. Suffice it to said I had two very happy campers for the ride back to Chicago.

Just-don't-call-them-Easter eggs

One of my fondest memories from childhood was dying Easter eggs and hoping my artistic creation would be chosen for the Passover seder plate.

It's a tradition I'm proud to share with my otherwise exclusively Jewish children, and I was even more excited to get coloring when I found this tutorial for dying eggs naturally.

Zoe, Ada and I hunted around the kitchen for color-rich items we could use for our eggs and tried to predict what the results would look like after the boiling and overnight soaking was done.

Because we have a limited number of unused glass jars (we use them for salad dressing, leftovers and simple syrup) and some eggs didn't survive Ada's enthusiastic drop into the pot, we didn't dye very many eggs. But those we did are so pretty it will be hard to decide which one to pick for the seder plate.

 In case you're interested, the blue eggs were made with blueberries; the reddish-brown came from black tea, coffee beans, a cinnamon stick and whole cloves. The light green eggs were the result of green tea and cilantro, and the bright yellow egg was tumeric and a carrot. We dried the eggs and polished them with mineral oil before putting them back in the fridge. Also, this photo doesn't really do them justice--the camera on my Samsung phone is such crap.

Brownie, cake baker

Last week Zoe made her first cake. Sure, she's been helping out in the kitchen since she was a toddler, but in order to enter a cake in the Girl Scouts 100th Birthday Cake Contest and Auction at her school, she had to do all the prep work and clean up on her own. (I slid the cake pans in and out of the oven and offered advice.)

Zoe made a boxed Devil's Food Cake and iced it with a white buttercream from a Trader Joe's mix. Since the mix didn't contain quite enough frosting, she "glued" Whole Foods faux Oreos around the sides with icing.

More challenging was decorating the thing. My little 7 year old had grand plans that included roses and complicated messaging along the top, but she lacked enough strength in her fingers to press out any green icing beyond "100," and that was a struggle that nearly brought her to tears.

Since we were heading to the retreat and had to miss the judging and auction, we dropped the cake off with one of the troop leaders. Apparently it sold for $10! You can see photos from the event here. Tell me if you think all these cakes were made without a parent's help. I have my doubts...