D-Dad Comes For A Visit

My Dad arrived 4 weeks ago last Friday, the girls call him D-Dad, a nickname that stayed, when they couldn't pronounce Grandad and D-Dad stuck instead.

The first thing Tilly said when we told her D-Dad was coming was "D-Dad licks my ear" yes D-Dad is the ear licker.

We've had lots of fun with D-Dad and it's been an absolute pleasure to have him. He came at the perfect time, the girls were still off school, the weather was still gorgeous and there was plenty to do & see

Plus having D-Dad around freed me up for a few important school & pre-school meetings, visits to the dentist etc.

So we had lots of visits to parks, our favourite free pastime, an excellent way to keep the girls busy, and burn off some energy.

D-Dad the swing pusher

D-Dad the balance helper

We've had plenty of days out with D-Dad we've taken him to the Field Museum on their free day to see Sue (the dinosaur skeleton) and lots of other things, we've had cocktails up the John Hancock Tower before heading off to a Cubs baseball game, they lost but we all had fun.

View of Chicago 96 levels up

Once Ruby started school, Tilly & I took D-Dad to the Botanical Gardens, where he showed Tilly how to collect spider webs on sticks - do you remember doing that? I do, D-Dad really enjoyed the gardens we showed him our favourite bits, the model railway, Japanese Garden and the waterfall area and didn't even see half of it - we've saved the rest for next time

D-Dad showing Tilly how to collect spider webs

We also took advantage of the Science & Industry Museum free days and went twice in one week, D-Dad absolutely loved the museum, it is packed full of interesting things to do and see for adults and kids, the first time we went we only saw half of it, which is why we ended up going again and still we could have done with more time there.

Another exciting trip we did with D-dad was our trip along Route 66, it was very interesting and D-Dad knew more about it than us, a highlight of the trip was discovering this fabulous gas station, it was truly iconic.

D-Dad outside an old fashioned gas pump

I think this was one of our favourite days out. And in between the days out, we had plenty of time at home chilling too, where D-Dad and I got a little addicted to some TV pawn, Pawn Stars, Hardcore Pawn were our favourites - good job the shows are all about Pawn shops.

We discovered we liked travelling into the city better by the Metra rather than the "L" as it's much quicker and quieter, and still easy to get to where we needed to go from the station.

We took D-Dad down to the Children's Museum at Navy Pier and had a great day there and around Navy Pier, we've seen the Bean in Millennium Park and hit the shops shopping, all in all we've had such a good time with D-Dad.

Cuddles with D-Dad

The girls absolutely adore him, especially Tilly she was always cuddling D-Dad, it helps he is a big kid too. We're glad D-Dad liked Chicago and where we live, phew as it is a change from Sydney.

He's been a wonderful help too, around the house and coming with me to PTA meetings/play dates at
Ruby's school (I did keep having to explain D-Dad was my dad not my husband as people just assume), looking after the girls for me to attend parent room nights (whilst Mr C was away), getting jobs done etc. It's lovely having family over.

And we even got 2 extra days with him, as his flight got cancelled after I've dropped him off at the airport, I went back for him later in the evening and the girls were very very surprised to see D-Dad the next day, the earliest they could get him on a flight back was 2 days later and we weren't complaining.