A couple weekends ago, we decided to go to Kiddieland, since we’ve heard good things about it and Dora the Explorer was going to be making an appearance. Kiddieland is a small amusement park in Chicago (actually Melrose Park) that’s been open since the 1930’s. This year is its last year - I did a little research and found that there’s a family dispute about the land (half of the family owns the park, the other half owns the land) and Kiddieland is not getting a lease renewal, most likely to make way for a more profitable gig, like a Costco or Sam’s Club. It’s a little sad - we just discovered this place this year, and it closes at the end of September, FOREVER!

That said, we’ll probably be going there a lot this summer, since unlike Six Flags, there’s a LOT of rides then Ben can ride here, on his own. He totally had a blast and didn’t want to leave. His favorite was the Mushroom ride, which is kinda like the Teacup ride at Disneyland. I couldn’t ride it more than two times in a row because I’d get so dizzy, but he got a kick out of all the spinning. I thought he was going to love Dora, but I don’t think he had anticipated that she’d be taller than Dave, which freaked him out a little, which is why he’s so far away from her in the picture…

Here’s some of our other pics from the day…

The kids in the back totally make me laugh.

More pics here

Tags: Ben, Pictures by Yano
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So as I’ve mentioned before, I really don’t have a lot of free time anymore. With a lot of changes going on at work and work responsibilities, and my other job - Ben, there’s not a lot of time for me to do…stuff. Actually, I have no idea what I really do with whatever time I have left over. Wash dishes, do laundry, pick up toys, cool meals…mom stuff. After that, the rest of my time is spent on my laptop, goofing around.

As I mentioned eons ago, I’ve been really wanting to be artsy again. I had always loved art as a kid, drawing, coloring, etc. So much that I wanted to be a fashion designer when I was in 8th grade. Anyway, one thing I have been making more time for is creating art on my computer. I’ve got a sketchpad, eracers, charcoal and pencils taht have been sitting my my garage, ready for me to use, but that will have to wait another time. Right now, I’ve been playing around with Inkscape, the poor man’s equivalent of Adobe Illustrator. I gave in and actually bought Adobe Photoshop, not ready to buy Illustrator yet.

So I’ve been playing around with graphics…getting some stuff together to create an Etsy shop together…once I make more sales and have more graphics together, I’ll share the shop address. Anyway, here’s a taste of what I’ve been doing…

Tags: Photoshop by Yano
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