spring • {kidlist} activities for little kids • Page 2

Whole Foods Market Hinsdale is have a free Family Gardening Mini Class for direct seeding at home on May 30, 4-4:30pm in the cafe. Starting an edible, organic garden at home can be simple! A local gardening expert, Amy Cox of subURBAN homestead, a seed to table lifestyle company, will teach you how to sow plant seeds at home. Sign up by calling customer service or stopping in by May 26 to reserve a place in the class: (630) 986-8500.

After the class, shop to support Field Park Elementary School’s Community Garden Project in Western Springs where 5% of the days sales will go to the expansion of the garden and nutrition curriculum. This donation will sponsor the expansion of the garden space, and it’s curriculum, which was assembled last year practicing a form of polyculture called double-cropping and moving toward a system of self-sustainability. Field Park wants to add at least two planting beds solely dedicated to supporting a local soup kitchen, construct a green house in order to begin plantings early for double-cropping and build a mobile farm stand for the students to use to sell their crops to the community. The money raised from the farm stand sales will go toward purchasing seeds and other items needed for the following planting season; ultimately promoting self-sustainability.

Be sure to shop at Whole Foods on May 30 to support such a wonderful program!!

May 30
Family Gardening Mini Class (4-4:30)
Community Support Day for Field Park Elementary School’s Community Garden Project
Whole Foods Market Hinsdale
500 East Ogden Avenue
Hinsdale, IL 60521
(630) 986-8500

For the first time Cantigny is offering membership! There are three levels and benefits of each. The new program offers much more than unlimited free parking… depending on what level you choose you can receive discounted pricing on ticketed concerts, yoga classes, Zumba, art workshops, shop and restaurant discounts, and be able to attend a Members’ Night event in late summer. New members also get to choose a free “thank you gift” in the Cantigny Gift Shop.

Gardening enthusiasts will appreciate that Cantigny membership also entitles the member to reciprocal admission to nearly 300 arboreta and gardens in North America. (Chicago Botanical Garden and The Morton Arboretum to name a few.)

Basic membership is priced at $60 per year or $110 for two years. Member Plus membership is $80/$150. Senior membership, for ages 65 and older, costs $50/$90. Basic and Senior memberships share the same benefits.

Cantigny used to only offer season parking passes, but now the membership cost is the same price as the parking pass, with so many more added benefits! Anyone who already purchased a pass in 2012 will automatically be issued a Cantigny Park membership and those who had a pass in 2011 can join this year at a special price.

Cantigny Park membership is available for purchase online at Cantigny.org or by phone at 630.668.5161. For mail orders, an application form may be downloaded from the website.

Cantigny Park Membership Program
1S151 Winfield Road
Wheaton, Illinois 60189
(630) 668-5161

When I was investigating the benefits of becoming a member of Cantigny Park I ran into all these great kids activities they have there including play areas for children and a “Family Discovery Backpack” program!

There is a playground located north of the main parking lot, past the picnic area with swings, slides and climbers. Next the the playground is the ParCourse Fitness Circuit, featuring a vault bar, chin up bar, log hop, and body curl station, and other challenging stop points. Children can test their endurance, strength, and flexibility on this challenging course. (Restrooms and drinking fountains are located nearby in the picnic area.)

You can also hike down a wood chip trail about 2 1/2 miles long. My children love taking walks in the forest preserve and Cantigny is also a wonderful place to walk and play I Spy!

The First Division Foundation has 11 tanks in the Tank Park, inoperable displays of United States Army equipment that they allow children to climb! Click here for a map of the Tank Park.
Family Discovery Backpacks

The Park put together backpacks that you can check out for up to three hours during your visit April-October, and they are free! The backpacks are geared towards families with children in preschool through fifth grade. What a great idea!

Birds of a Feather: Explore the world of birds through activities and games. Use binoculars to look for birds with the Cantigny Field Guide, measure your wingspan and flapping rate, play bird BINGO, read a story and more!

Gone Buggy!: We’re buggy about bugs at Cantigny! Borrow this backpack and discover bug facts, check out real bugs with the bug viewers, get a “bug’s eye” view of the park and learn how to tell a bug from an insect.

In the Garden: How do the plants and flowers in Cantigny’s gardens grow? What fruits and vegetables grow on vines? What do marigold seeds and carrot seeds look like? Learn the answers to these questions and more with this backpack. Also enjoy a story, play nature BINGO and draw in your take home garden journal!

I know many of you don’t live in Western Springs, but I wanted to let you know about this huge garbage day because believe it or not, people throw away tons of good stuff, especially for kids! Should I be embarrassed that I have looked through the garbage?! (Does it help that everyone does it?) I found a perfectly good Little Tikes picnic table one year… You can find cool furniture that someone didn’t want to refinish or a good fire pit that needed to be left behind before moving. Drive around and take a look.

The Village of Western Springs will hold its annual Spring Cleanup Day on Saturday, May 5, 2012. Unlimited amounts of household items including clothing, draperies, household goods, carpeting, books, furniture, scrap metals, appliances and white goods can be disposed of. No materials will be recycled.

All refuse should be placed on the parkway no earlier than 6 p.m. the day before and no later than 6 a.m. on collection day. Those items not included in the pickup include household garbage, electronics, landscape waste, construction and demolition debris, liquids, tires, batteries, hazardous or medical waste or solid material such as bricks, concrete, asphalt, or sod. For more information, please contact Allied Waste at 708-345-7050.

So you nabbed some tulip bulbs from Oakbrook Center, now what? Should you plant them or do you have to store them? I’ve heard theories about drying them out but I was curious as to why and how so I called Hinsdale Nurseries. They were so nice and explained it to me!

If you plant tulip bulbs right now the animals are much more likely to dig them up and eat them. I guess the freshly dug dirt attracts the animals and the roots won’t be established, making it really easy to take and eat. So you should definitely wait until the fall.

First, lay the tulips out to dry. Do not cut off the stem or leaves- letting the plant die back naturally allows the nutrients to go back into the bulb. You can lay them out in your garage or basement. It’s best if you line them up without touching so the air can circulate around each one. Once the green part dies back and turns yellow, you can take it off and store the bulbs.

The best way to store tulip bulbs is in brown paper bags. Mix the bulbs with wood chips or wood shavings to absorb any moisture that could get into the bag. (If the moisture remains, the bulbs will rot and be worthless.) Place the paper bags in your basement or another dark, cool place until you are ready to plant before the ground freezes in the fall.

Every year Oakbrook Shopping Center takes out their gorgeous tulips and throws them in the parking lot for everyone to take! Usually it’s around Mother’s Day, but since the weather has been unusually warm, the tulips bloomed early and they are taking them out next week.

Go to the parking lot near Walter E. Smithe, near the corner of 16th and Route 83 at the following times to get some bulbs for your garden!

Tuesday, April 24: 9:45am, 11:45am, 2:15pm
Wednesday, April 25: 9:45am, 11:45am, 2:15pm
Thursday, April 26: 9:45am, 11:45am, 2:15pm

They continually pull them out and dump them, so it’s not like you have to go during the first time slot to get the best selection. Depending on how many you plan on taking you will want to bring a container, bag, or blanket to carry them in.

I’m definitely going this year so leave some for me!