Who’s ready for Last 90 days?
I am!
I did it for the first time last year and absolutely loved it.
It starts on October 1st for 90 days.
Here’s a preview
Here is my tracker but you can use the link to download a blank one!
And a Gratitude journal! Grateful
So excited to be going on this amazing journey with you!!
💞 Keri
Kicking off our 100 parks in 100 days 2019 version in Vernon Hills! It’s a great area to live or visit! Check theses out if you are in the area!
Kids Castle- Deerpath Park
Deerpath Park
Peterson Park
Vernon Township Park
Augusta park
Century Park
It’s been a crazy busy school year and can you believe it… it’s almost over! Wow!
And what does that mean… Summer bucket lists! Yay! I’m still bullet journaling my way through life.
Come visit me on my IG page 😃 and check out my newest and improved summer bucket list!
Can I just say… we had a pretty amazing summer! We were able to cross off a good majority from our bucket list and even added a few more as the summer went on.
We’ll miss you summer!!! But I’m excited for what fall has in store for us… Fall fests!! Pumpkin fests!! Jumping in leaf piles!! Pumpkin carving!! And of course… Halloween!! Yay!!
Come follow my bullet journal adventure on Instagram 😊 momdotlove
💞
Keri
My family’s packing list in a nutshell!! My excitement for Disney Cruising can’t be contained! By far, the best family vacations we have ever gone on 😃
Where are some of your favorite places to go with family?
Keri 💞
We all associate the “New Year” with January 1st. And yes, it is.., but for me, my “second” new year starts with the start of the school year. I swear life changes drastically more in August than it does in January!
I can’t believe my little big boy is going into First grade! Full days!! Packed lunches!! Wow!
I have mixed emotions of being Proud, Excited, Nervous, Happy, Sad… my baby is definitely not a baby anymore!!
With the start of a new school year it means the start of so many things and activities!!
Start of:
To keep myself organized and let out some creativity… I started bullet journaling last January. I love it! I can’t wait to show how crazy in love I am for bujo, my moleskine dot grid journal and let’s not forget my all time favorite… my sharpie markers and highlighters! I’ve added some non-sharpies (gasp!) to the mix too!
I plan on tackling this new school and all the new and revised activities head on!
I can’t wait to show you!! I even added a new Instagram page just for my bujo! Momdotlove
💞 Keri
When it’s cold outside and your mind just doesn’t want to work, sometimes it’s great to have a handy list of things to do outside of the house. For us, that means in and around the Chicago N or NW suburbs.
Libraries
Indoor Pools with zero dept:
Open Gyms:
Indoor Kids play center (Physical Play):
Indoor Kids play centers (Imagination Play):
Kids Museums:
Shopping Mall Play areas
Forest Preserves: Nature Centers (indoor exhibit and play areas)
Other Fun Kids Activities
Arts and Crafts for kids
Come follow me on Instagram and Facebook to see what other fun places we discover!
💞 Keri
I remember when The Bean was being built.. It was pretty amazing! But it took me YEARS to actually go and see it. Going into the city is a rare occurrence for me nowadays. Especially since becoming a mom. As much as I would love to take advantage of all that the city has to offer, packing up the littles and getting going… is easier said than done. But when it does happen… it’s AMAZING!
First off: Tip #1… use SpotHero App to find parking! Yes, you can drive down there and just “look” for available parking but why would you when you can make a reservations at whatever parking lot or valet station and prepay it! No worries, it’s done! It was super easy and… if you can get referrals for it.. you get free money to park! yoohoo! Awesome right!!
Tip #2… go early. Obviously, it’s a huge tourist attraction. It gets busy! Some of the littles in our “party” still take naps so the plan was to head back out of the city by 1 or 1:30. We arrived around 9:30. The Bean was pretty empty at that time which is great for pictures. We wanted to head towards Maggie Daley Park first so the pics are from later around lunch time. You can see that it was pretty busy. It’s a great place for locals to have lunch and just hang out.
By the time we got back to The Bean… it was crowded but not too bad. We were still able to get some great pics of the littles with the Bean 🙂 Nicholas thought it was super cool!
My oldest is such a water baby!! Loves water play of any kind so when I was creating a summer bucket list, the Crown Fountains at Millennium Park was a must!
And, we finally crossed it off our list!
As you can tell from the pics… he had a blast!! It was a gorgeous day, perfect day for water play! We went during the week so the fountains weren’t too busy. I heard it can get pretty crowded during the weekends which is easy to believe. This place is amazing!
Nicholas left saying “best day ever!!”
Tip #1: if you can go during the week.. do it. After this initial visit, we did go again on a weekend and WOW.. crowded!!
Tip #2: Bring swim wear! Yes, for Mom’s and Dad’s too! I wore a summer dress and ended up pinning it up to stroll in the water. The second time, I wore my swim suit underneath my sun dress. You won’t be the only parents well prepared 🙂
Tip #3: Bring a towel. I brought one of my son’s hooded bath towels and that worked great. I also have a couple of small thin bath towels that I brought the second time around. Both were small but large enough to cover the boys so they could change into regular clothes without showing off…
Tip #4: Water shoes. Our first trip… we just took our shoes off and everything was fine. But for our second, I had my son’s wear their Keens and Native Shoes. I prefer my kids in some form of water shoes so this worked out well. It can get very slippery… even in shoes.
Tip #4: Just have fun! Yes, there will be a lot of people and letting your kids just roam around can give even the most sane parent some anxiety… just have fun. I also tried to dress him in a bright outfit (red) so that I could keep a better eye on him.
As a mother to two littles, little boys… Play places are my life! I’ve visited almost every one within an hour drive of me which means… Everything in the N, NW suburbs of Chicago and only a handful in the city.
However, the one place I seemed to have missed visiting is Little Bean Cafe in Evanston. You see, there are two locations. The first is in the city and as awesome as it looked, I just couldn’t push myself to drive that far to go visit it.
Unbeknownst to me… They opened a second location in Evanston last year! I can’t believe I didn’t know (insert horror face!)
Well, I amended that mistake 😜 and it was amazing!
First off, a little known secret… Monday’s are half price (shhh, don’t tell anyone… Yes, it’s on their website but very few people realize it’s on there!)
Admission is roughly $10-14 for children who can crawl and older. Discounts for siblings, parents free with child admission.
That said, it really is worth EVERY penny, and I love my pennies!! I hate spending over $10 for a play place and if I do… It has to be awesome!
Well, it was!!
We were there for 3 hours and well, if we didn’t have swim lessons, we probably would have stayed longer! It’s just that good of a play place! First off, when you step in though the main doors, your first impressions are… Wow, this place seems big and clean! Really, it looked untouched! Maybe it was too early, they open at 8:30 but we didn’t get there till 9:30 am. Whatever the case is, appearance is key! The lady at the check in was super friendly and gave me a small tour since it was our first time. She was awesome! (Wish I had gotten her name).
We hung up our jackets and shoes in the open coat room and off we went! My “little” big boy wanted to see the gym & Big Bean area first. I was totally ok with that. The little bean area was slightly busier but not busy.
Anyway, the Big Bean room… Wow!!
Photo from Little Bean’s website.
A big boys dream play place!! Zip line, spider web, obstacle course, fire pole, tumbling/jumping mats, foam pit… And a gym on the other side with basketball, hockey, soccer… Etc! Seriously amazing! How could you NOT spends hours in this? As a parent, I felt like a kid just being in this area!
Here’s a pic from this morning that I took. They were offering a soccer class. They offer all kinds of classes! 
Floor projector games! Located in the lounge area of the big bean. This was a big hit for my Big boy and his friend! Hockey…
Soccer…
Squish the fish…
But their favorite was Cheese Hiest… But unfortunately, I didn’t get a pic of that. Big N talked about that all the way home!
And let’s not forget little B… He loved watching his big bro’s craziness!! 
Zip lining!! 
After 2 hrs, we finally headed across the hall to the Little Bean…
How cute is this!! You have your own little village! A clubhouse “no adults allowed” 😜trading post, ranger station, animal hospital and a little camper! Grocery carts, ride on cars… Train table!! Everything a little heart desires!!
I love the openness of it! And let’s not forget the lighting! Those big windows just make the room feel huge!
Photo from Little Bean’s website.
Photo from little Bean’s Website
And some of my own photos!
This place really is amazing! And to round out this amazing place… A full service cafe! And decently priced too! Not like some kids cafes where they want to charge an arm and a leg to eat! The prices were reasonable and the food… GOOD! And the coffee GREAT!!
Photo from Little Bean’s website
Overall, we obviously loved this place and with Monday’s being half price… I’m planning on making this my go to!
We will for sure be back soon!!
Keri 💞
Love Life As Mom 