It’s a sidewalk sale- revamped! Who wants to drag their kids down the sidewalk, kicking and screaming while simultaneously fighting off the crowds for that LBD (little black dress) on sale for 70% off?

To avoid this potentially very whiney dilemma, cruise over to Evanston’s Central Street Sidewalk Sale/ Family Fest and Budding Artist Art Fair. (* Insider tip…AVOID SHERIDAN ROAD AT ALL COSTS…Hello construction capitol of the North Shore! For a road with less rage, take Green Bay!) This is not your average sidewalk sale – although it comes equipped with quite the crowd, it stands above the rest because of the diversity in shopping opportunities. Where else can you find spices, antiques, restaurants, clothes, and distracting kid friendly entertainment all in one place?

Sizzling details:

Sidewalk sale
Date: July 10^th-12^th (Thurs –Sat)
Time: 10am-5pm
Location: 2100 Block on Central Street, Evanston

Family Fest & Budding Artist Art Fair (featuring kids artwork ages 6-17)
Date: July 12^th (Sat)
Time: 10am-5pm
Location: Independence Park (across from sidewalk sale)
Activities:
10:00 a.m. - Nili Yelin (The Storybook Mom)
11:00 a.m. - THE WEE HAIRY BEASTIES
(world renowned musicians with tons of family friendly songs)
11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. - KOHL CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
(Crafts and activities for your inner child as well as your offspring)
1:00 pm - WILMETTE CHILDREN’S THEATRE
(Drama, Drama, Drama-Performances and theatre games)
3:00 p.m. THE CHANG BROTHERS BAND
(These talented young folks could be the next Rolling Stones)

Got those sidewalk sale munchies? RUN (don’t walk) over to Food Stuffs cookout to refuel and rest your body (and credit card) before your next shopping binge!

Technorati Tags: Evanston sidewalk sale, art fair, Evanston Central Street Shops

Looking for a place to get away on less than half-a-tank of gas? We took the kid up North last weekend to Milwaukee for a couple of nights. A former resident as a teen, I was anxious to get them to the lakefront for Summerfest. (I prefer it to the Taste, always will, and nothing will ever change my mind.) Here’s what I can tell you:

The Milwaukee Hilton is conveniently located just off the highway in the downtown district, within walking distance of the Summerfest grounds (there are additional festivals all summer long), the Riverwalk and the Third Ward. A bonus for the kids was the hotel pool, which is really a small-scale water park. As part of our two-night stay, the kids got wristbands and were able to go nuts. (Warning - the rope/lilypad crossing? Ripped my kids hands open. And the lifeguarding is sporadic. My youngest was whizzing down the slides for more than an hour when they switched up, and the next set of guards told her she was too little and had to take the swim test. Wha?)

The Safe-House is a really fun restaurant/bar that’s family-friendly, provided you’re not there at 11 p.m. for the bar scene. You have to find it first (Psst…it’s on Front St. between Wells and Wisconsin, behind the International Exports, LTD. door), then get by the guard, who’ll ask you for the password. If you don’t know it, you’ll have to perform an embarrassing task to get inside, all of which is captured on closed-circuit TV for everyone to laugh at. The kids had a blast checking out all the spy memorabilia inside, and the food wasn’t half-bad.

Summerfest is always a blast, and very kid-friendly from about 12 p.m., when the gates open, until about 8 p.m., when the crowd becomes decidedly more adult. And that’s OK, because by then, you’ve had your fill of all things fried and brewed, and the kids are beat. Upcoming events worth checking out? The State Fair is in early August, on the west side of town, and is excellent. Get the cream puff. Seriously.

Miller Park was our last stop for the weekend tour, to watch the Brewers take on Pittsburgh. I feel as I can still be a fan of both the Brewers and the Cubs, as when I lived there, the Brewers were still in the AL. It’s a beautiful stadium, and the crowd outside before the game is a colorful one, to say the least. My kids witnessed about three different drinking games before we got inside to our seats - tailgating is serious business in Milwaukee.

All in all, a fun weekend not-so-far-away from home, and fairly inexpensive. If you’re looking for a night away, it’s worth considering.

Technorati Tags: Milwaukee with kids, Summerfest, Wisconsin State Fair, Milwaukee Brewers, Miller Park, Milwaukee Hilton

I had one of those “Is it 5 o’clock yet?” days last week.

My morning started out as normal - ran my oldest son to his summer school class, then came home and cleaned up breakfast and got my youngest son and daughter, so as to head over to football camp. My daughter and I dropped her other brother off, the set out to retrieve my oldest from class. The next stop was the aforementioned Children’s Gift Shop in Northfield. With errands out of the way, we headed home until we needed to head back to football camp. The plan was to go straight to the pool. However, when we got home, my oldest went up to his room that he shares with his brother and discovered MooKitty sitting patiently next to the lizard cage, now tipped over sideways on the ground.

The lizards joined our family in a weak moment this spring when I got the phone call most parents dread - “My teacher says somebody has to take these lizards/mice/bunnies/turtles home…PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!” My mom turned me down when I was a kid, so I was going to be different. Heh. Joke’s on me.

Upon inspection, I could only find two of our three reptile friends. I couldn’t tell if MooKitty was smirking or not, and now we’re running late to pick up my youngest son from camp. I’m frantically tearing apart their room, and manage to give myself a goose egg on the noggin in the process. So - now I’m near tears, we’re going to be late, and I don’t know what to do.

I grabbed my phone and called the vet to see if anoles are poisonous to cats. They get back on the line and say, “Maybe, call this number.” I dial it on my cell phone as I am speeding in the car to football camp. These jokesters want to charge me $60 to answer my question. Say wha? I get that you receive no funding and make your money this way, but $60 to tell me if something’s poisonous? I explain I don’t have a sick cat - yet - I just need to know if something’s poisonous. Sorry, that’ll be $60. I don’t think so, I tell them - I’ll take my chances with Ask.com and hang up.

Remember how we were going to go to the pool? In the frenzy, I forgot the towels. As it was, I was too worried about our cats. What if they ate it? What if they got sick? What if I had to clean up vomited lizard guts? EWWWW! So we returned home and in the process of cleaning the cage and then dusting the vents in the boys’ room (one expert online said to look “up” when searching for them, so in the process I noticed the vents, which were, frankly, nasty, so of course this OCD gal had to dust!), I see the third anole scurrying about on top of a dresser. I screamed, and the kids came running, and luckily I was able to catch it and get it back into its rightful place. Crisis averted. I knew there was NO WAY my oldest, who is naturally skittish, was going to sleep in his bed that night if he thought there was an escaped lizard running about, and I was literally sick over whether or not our cats were going to be ill.

Tell me - are you the type of parent who would have let the little buggers come home? I’m wondering what others would have done in the same situation. Talk back to me - leave a comment! I want to know if I’m the only one crazy enough to say yes to instant pets. And where you can get lizard food on the cheap!

Technorati Tags: parenting, anoles, North Shore Chicago pet stores,