McDonalds In Wheaton

When its a rainy day and you're in a pinch for someplace fun and cheap to take your kids to, sometimes McDonalds Playplace is the only thing that comes to mind. At least, thats how it is for me! I don't always like to take the kids to the same old neighborhood McDonalds, though. I try to make things a little more exciting by finding new Mcdonalds to check out. You can easily find a list of McDonalds restaurants with playplaces by entering your zipcode into the McDonalds Locator. Some playplaces are better than others, though. So I thought I'd start reviewing individual McDonalds playplaces around DuPage, to find the best ones!
Yesterday we visited the Wheaton McDonalds Playplace, at County Farm and Roosevelt. This used to be one of my favorite McDonalds to take Little Bear and Tigerlily, because it seemed really huge. They also used to have riding toys and stuff. This time, though, it seemed a lot smaller... maybe because a birthday party was going on and there were little kids everywhere!
There is a pretty big play structure for kids to climb around in.

It also has a little hiding place underneath, with a small basketball hoop, and a cool little musical instrument on the wall. Pufferfish, who gets overwhelmed in crowded situations, liked holing up in there!

The riding toys have disappeared, but there is still a little slide for smaller kids to enjoy.

Pufferfish also liked playing a quick game of basketball! She didn't really mind that she couldn't throw the ball hard enough to reach the basket.

One thing that sort of annoyed me was that there were some video games and other things there... for instance, this DDR-type game...

... but they were broken! They weren't even turned on! I seem to remember that these games were also broken a year or two ago when I last brought Little Bear and Tigerlily there. It just seems sort of ghetto to still have these items there, when kids are unable to play with them. (Besides, do they really need video games in a playplace, anyway? Isn't the idea for them to clammor around and get their energy out?)

Oh well. Not the coolest playplace ever, but still a decent one!
If you know of any super cool McDonalds playplaces (or any other cool places) you think I should write about, please let me know!

Cici's Pizza Buffet In Downers Grove

Place: Cici's Pizza Buffet
Location: 1340 Butterfield Rd, Downers Grove, IL
Type of Place: Pizza buffet restaurant
Secret: Kids three and under are completely free! This is nice for those of us with little ones who are old enough to enjoy a slice or two of pizza but young enough to not have to pay!
Appropriate ages: Anyone old enough to eat solid foods.
Cost: $4.50 (plus about two dollars for a drink) for adults, $3.00 plus one dollar for drinks for kids between four and twelve. For kids three and under, it is free!

I always see the commercials for this restaurant, and I'm a pizza lover, so I've been wanting to check it out for a long time. Recently Diana, Jimmy and the kids went there on a night while I was at school, and Diana and Jimmy said it was horrible. But I wanted to see for myself! So yesterday Pufferfish and I decided to go there for lunch. (Okay, so I decided. But Pufferfish thought it was a great idea!)
The first thing I noticed was that the guy at the counter gave us a cheerful greeting and a smile as we walked in, asking us how we were doing. I know, that seems like a small thing, but you don't really get that much anymore! So many people just hate their jobs and let it show. I appreciated the friendliness here!
The buffet consisted of about ten different kinds of pizza, plus one pasta dish, and a mini salad bar with different toppings and dressings. One thing that I wished was that the items at the buffet would have had labels of some sort, the way Old Country Buffet does. It was hard to tell which kind of pizza was which. Of course, some were obvious, like the vegetable pizza, sausage, pepperoni, etc.But others were less obvious. For instance, I had always wanted to try the macaroni and cheese pizza, but I wasn't sure which one it was (and I was too shy and socially awkward to ask!) I think they don't put out all of the pizzas on their menu at once. I didn't see the deep dish kind either, or the Mexican style, or some of the other kinds that are on the menu.
I got Pufferfish a couple slices of the cheesiest-looking pizza, and I loaded up my own plate with about six different slices. (I didn't bother with the salad or pasta, although it looked good! I wanted to try all of the pizzas!) We found a table, and sat down to eat.
The pizza was... not spectacular. It wasn't horrid, either. It didn't taste old or greasy to me, but it was more like regular frozen pizza you get at the grocery store. It was tasty, but definitely not awesome. But... buffet food never really is, right?
Pufferfish liked it though! She ate half of each of her two slices, which is really good for her. (She eats like a bird!)

We moved onto dessert, my favorite part of any meal! The dessert had three choices... cinnamon rolls, brownies, and some sort of apple pizza. The cinnamon rolls and the applie pizza were delightful! Especially the apple pizza. It was thin but sweet, apply and cinnamony, and had icing on top. I could have eaten forty pieces of it! The brownies were a little weird though... sort of bitter and chalky. (I ate three of them. I have no idea why.)

Finally, Pufferfish and I checked out the little arcade in the back of the restaurant. The arcade games were a little above Pufferfish's little. There were driving games and shooting games and things, and an air hockey table... things more suited for the eight and older crowd. But they also had one of those games where you lower a claw into a bunch of candy and try to grab as much as you can. Pufferfish loves candy more than life itself, so she was ecstatic to play this game! I had four quarters, so she got to play four times, and won a bunch of candy.

My overall opinion? If you're going on a date or having an adult night out with friends, choose a nicer restaurant. But if what you're looking for is a clean, cheap, family-friendly restaurant where you know your kids will eat and enjoy most of the food and where five bucks in quarters will give your kids half an hour of fun in the arcade, then Cici's Pizza will really fit the bill! (By the way... little kids will probably enjoy the pizza here more than they would like more expensive, fancier pizza from a regular restaurant. Kids are weird that way. I mean, they think the pizza at Chuck E. Cheese's is terrific, right?)

Sweet Street Candy Store in Lombard

Place: Sweet Street
Location: 17 West St. Charles Road in Lombard. (Downtown area.)
Type of Place: Candy store
Secret: Ask for samples of the bulk candy behind the counter! Also, this summer they will start serving ice cream as well!
Appropriate ages: All ages, except for little ones who are too young for candy!
Cost: Depends on what you buy!

I've noticed this little candy shop a million times a million times, and I've always wanted to go in. I have a tradition with the kids where, every Monday we go somewhere and they can pick out a piece of candy (or in hot weather we get ice cream from the truck in the park.) It isn't linked to good behavior or anything else... its just something we can all look forward to to make Mondays a little sweeter! So this past Monday I decided to take them to Sweet Street.
Sweet Street has the look of an old-fashioned candy store. When you walk in, all you see is colorful candy displays everywhere! Little Bear, Rafael and Pufferfish looked like they were in Heaven!
The store carries modern candies such as Crunch bars and Kit-Kats and Push Pops, and novelty candies like suckers that double as toys, and they have Door County Fudge and lots of penny candy. But they also carry a ton of retro candy, such as candy cigarettes, candy buttons, Doscher French Chews, Fun Dips, wax lips, flying saucers, Razzles, Fizzies, Tootsie Rolls, etc. I liked looking at the retro candy, while the kids were excited by the novelty candies.

The little ones deliberated for what seemed like hours over which candies to pick, and eventually settled on Bubble Tape and novelty suckers. They went up to the counter and dumped all that candy in front of the lady to ring up. (The lady said she didn't want to be in the picture, so I blurred out her face!)

Anyone who has ever met Little Bear and Rafael (and even Pufferfish, to a lesser extent) knows that they are not the most well-behaved children in the world. They can be really noisy and hyper, even when I warn them ahead of time that they need to use indoor voices and be respectful. I thought the lady there would be kicking us out the door. But instead, she offered the kids samples of the penny candy behind the counter! Theys each got little cups of candy... Rafael picked candy corn, which is his favorite, and the girls chose some pink rock candy.
This little candy shop is a great find! I think this will be a regular stop for us, at least on Mondays when its too cold or rainy for the ice cream truck!

Kids Town In Wheaton

Place: Kids Town

Location: 1141 E Butterfield Rd, Wheaton (In the shopping plaza behind the Seven-Eleven.

Type of Place: Make believe village.

Secret: Remember to have your kids wear socks... but if you forget, they have brand new socks of every size, with Disney characters on them, for sale for two dollars a pair.

Appropriate ages: Its geared towards the six and under crowd, but older kids who like pretend play will enjoy it too!
Cost: $10.00 for kids over one year. Adults and infants under one are free.

Today was a dreary, rainy day, about the millionth one in a row! Pufferfish and I were in search of a new indoor place to go have some fun. We decided to check out Kids Town in Wheaton! It is a little more expensive than the make believe village we usually go to, Kiddie Klub Lane, but I figured we could spare the money this week.
I hadn't realized that they had a no-shoe policy (it keeps the floor cleaner for crawlers) so I had let Pufferfish wear her bare feet and sandals. Luckily, the people at Kids Town had an entire rack of socks in every size! It was an extra two bucks, but it was way better than having to drive all the way home to get socks, or even trying to find a near by store to get socks from. Pufferfish was excited to be the owner of brand new socks with Cinderella on them!

Inside, there were lots of little rooms decorated with different themes. Pufferfish was so excited to run from room to room! Her very favorite room was the one that had a tea set, beauty salon, diaper changing station, and lots of dolls. She can be a real girly girl sometimes!

There was also a police station...

...with a jail,

a little kitchen with a refrigerator, sink, stove, washing machine and dryer...

(the washer and dryer were cool because if you put doll clothes in and turned the cranks, the clothes spun around inside like in real life!)

a veterinarian's office...

...with live goldfish,

a construction zone with all different types of building blocks, trucks and tools,

a well-stocked library with kid-sized couches (there was also a train table in the library, for you Thomas fans out there!)

gas pumps to fill up your cars with,

a dance club with kid-friendly music videos playing on a TV screen and colorful strobe lights bouncing around everywhere,

a climbing structure with tunnels and a slide,

and way more!

Pufferfish is still in a stage where, when we go out places, she wants me to be right there with her at all times. But if you have kids who are old enough, and content enough, to play in your line of sight without you directly interacting with them at all times, there is a parent lounge with magazines and comfy chairs. Its right out in the open, so parents can sit there and relax while supervising their children. The place is small enough that you are able to see where your children are at all times!
I didn't get a picture of it, but there is also a special area for babies. It is matted, and blocked off from the rest of the room by low walls, so crawlers can move around on the floor safely without being trampled by the bigger kids! There are lots of soft toys and other baby things in there. They even have bouncy seats and exersaucers for babies to hang out in!

The one thing I wasn't as impressed with was the art room. I love doing arts and crafts, so I'm always excited to hear about a place that includes an art room! But all this art room included was a few coloring pages, and some cups full of broken crayons and dried-up markers. It would have been nice to see some supplies available for open-ended art projects. I realize they might not want to leave out messy things like paints for kids to use on their own. But craft sticks, pompoms, magazines, feathers, googly eyes, and even "garbage" like empty cereal boxes and coffee containers, could easily spark kids' creativity, and messes could easily be swept up.

All in all, though, Kids Town was a very cool place! I probably won't be able to afford it all the time, but I know Pufferfish will love it if I take her there once in a while for a special day!

Events For The Week Of May 17 to May 23

If you live in DuPage and you need an occasional babysitter, I can provide that! Check out my babysitting website, and contact me for references!

Anyway, every weekend I post a list of free and cheap events happening for kids in DuPage for the upcoming week. As the weather gets warmer, look for lots of local festivals and other outdoor events!! Be sure to check in here when planning the week ahead!


MONDAY

Preschool Playtime at Prairie Gymnastics in Batavia. 12:00 pm to 1:15 pm. $5.00 per child.

TUESDAY

Story Time at Pottery Barn Kids in Oakbrook Mall, 11:00 am. Kids who attend five times get a special gift! Kids can also play in the store before and after the story time!

WEDNESDAY

Story time at Bloomingdale Barnes and Noble, 10:00 am.

Preschool Playtime at Prairie Gymnastics in Batavia. 10:15 am to 11:30 am. $5.00 per child.

Excel Gymnastics Jr. Open Gym at Excel Gymnastics in Batavia, 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. $5.00 per child.

Story time at Oakbrook Terrace Barnes and Noble at 11:00 am.

Excel Gymnastics Jr. Open Gym at Excel Gymnastics in St. Charles, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. $5.00 per child


THURSDAY

Story time at Land Of Nod in Oakbrook Mall, at 11:oo am.

Excel Gymnastics Jr. Open Gym at Excel Gymnastics in St. Charles, 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. $5.00 per child.

FRIDAY
Cop On Top! Some Itasca police officers will be he hanging out on the roof of the Dunkin Donuts at Irving & Prospect in Itasca, from 6 a.m. - 2 p.m. They are doing it to raise awareness and funds for the Law Enforcement Torch Run to Benefit Special Olympics Illinois. Dunkin’ Donuts will be donating $10,000 to the Torch Run fund. If you visit the store and make a donation today, you'll get a free donut. People who donate $10.00 also get a free mug and a free coffee.

Excel Gymnastics Jr. Open Gym at Excel Gymnastics in St. Charles, 10:00 am to 11:00 am. $5.00 per child

Open Gym And Moon Jump Friday at Gymnasti in Carol Stream, 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. $5.00 per child.

Preschool Playtime at Prairie Gymnastics in Batavia. 1:15 pm to 2:30 pm. $5.00 per child.

Story time at Bloomingdale Barnes and Noble, 7:00 pm.


SATURDAY
A JustPlay event will take place at the Carol Stream Town Center, on Gary Ave and Lies Rd from 10am-5pm, both today and Sunday. Kids and families can try their hands at golf, lacrosse, flag football, volley ball, bad minton, Baggo, soccer and more! There will also be other events such as fishing demos, arts and crafts, kite flying, dog training and agility, backyard games like Bocce and PingPong and Ladders, a climbing wall, drum lessons, karate, hula hooping, and way more! There is so much going on here, you won't want to miss it! Check out the schedule of events to find out what is happening when.

A Touch-A-Truck event will take place at at the commuter parking lot located at Lake Street and Barrington Road in Hanover Park, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Kids will be able to see and climb in police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, municipal vehicles, and lots of other trucks! They will also be collecting supplies to send to the troops. Check the website for a list of supplies needed.

The Elmhurst Family Bike-a-Thon will take place at Safety Town, 511 S. York Road in Elmhurst (on the Prairie Path), from 10 am to 12 pm. Have your bicycle or tricycle checked for safety, decorate it for the Memorial Day parade, and go through a safety course! (Kids with tricycles will ride through Safety Town, and there will be an obstacle course set up for older kids and adults as well!)

Another Touch-A-Truck event will take place at Knolls Community Park, 1502 S. Meyers Rd., Lombard, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Kids will be able to see and climb in police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, municipal vehicles, and lots of other trucks!

Storytime at the Oak Brook Barnes and Noble at 11:00 am.

Story time at the Oak Brook Borders at 2:00 pm.

SUNDAY
A JustPlay event will take place at the Carol Stream Town Center, on Gary Ave and Lies Rd from 10am-5pm, both Saturday and Sunday. Kids and families can try their hands at golf, lacrosse, flag football, volley ball, bad minton, Baggo, soccer and more! There will also be other events such as fishing demos, arts and crafts, kite flying, dog training and agility, backyard games like Bocce and PingPong and Ladders, a climbing wall, drum lessons, karate, hula hooping, and way more! There is so much going on here, you won't want to miss it! Check out the schedule of events to find out what is happening when.



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Have a great week, everyone!

Discovery Toys

Hi everyone! I just joined Discovery Toys! I'm supposed to have a launching party to let people check out my new samples and to share info about Discovery Toys. Since I don't have a house, I thought I'd just have it at the park! Its going to be at the picnic shelter by the basketball court at Madison Meadows in Lombard, at 10:00 am on May 24.


I'll bring some snacks, and all of the toys will be set up for the kids to play with for a while. If they get bored of that, there's also a very cool playground!

Here is the invitation. I hope you'll come!

- Nicki

Lil Monkey Bizness In Western Springs

Place: Lil Monkey Bizness

Location: 4700 Gilbert Ave, Western Springs, IL (in the Garden Market Shopping Center)

Type of Place: Indoor inflatable playground
Secret: Wait until about 11 am to go. Thats when many people leave for naptime,  lunch, picking up/dropping off preschoolers and kindergarteners at school, etc.
Appropriate ages: I'd say 6 and under.
Cost: $7.50 for kids over 1, $5.00 for kids under 1, and all adults are free.

The other day Pufferfish and I ventured out to Western Springs to visit Lil Monkey Bizness. I've been hearing about this place for years, but always imagined it to be too far away. (Now that we live in Lombard, we're a good 20 minutes closer than before, so that makes a difference!) 
I kind of expected it to be similar to Monkey Joe's, but it was entirely different. Monkey Joe's is a huge place full of inflatable jumpy things. Lil Monkey Bizness does have one inflatable thing, but the rest of the stuff is more like regular indoor playground equipment.

We arrived there at around ten in the morning. It was really crowded and noisy, and Pufferfish was having a hard time. She wouldn't play, kept hiding behind me, and even asked to go home. I was baffled, because Monkey Joe's was pretty crowded when we were there, and Pufferfish had had no problems there.

Then I figured it out... Lil Monkey Bizness is a lot smaller, and the equipment is closer together. When its crowded, it is hard to move around without coming close to bumping into other people. Its also very loud. I guess the accoustics are different from Monkey Joe's, maybe because of the size. With kids running around everywhere and shouting, Pufferfish was overwhelmed! If your kids have any sensory issues or get anxious in crowded places, you probably want to avoid this place during peak hours.

We went into the art room for a while to avoid the crowds. Sometimes they have organized art projects going on, but today they just had open art, with paints, rubber stamps, and stencils set out for kids to work with on their own.

Then we sat down and had a snacke. They have a coffee shop there where you can order lots of different coffee drinks, as well as smoothies, Italian sodas, hot cocoa, and other drinks. They also have some kid-friendly snacks like yogurt, cookies and crackers. Pufferfish ordered a hot cocoa and a package of goldfish crackers. I tasted her hot cocoa... It was delicious! Next time I'm definitely going to order one for myself! (I don't drink coffee, so I just had a boring Coke.)

By that time, it was around 11:15, and the place was much less crowded. We decided to try playing again. And this time, Pufferfish really got into it! She played happily until it was time to go get the older kids.

She always loves going down slides....

... and, like a true monkey, she had lots of fun climbing around on the climbing equipment.

The swings were also very cool!
The only thing I wish was that maybe they would have had an employee around the swings to help monitor the kids. The swings were one of the most popular things there, and there was usually a line of kids waiting. It is frustrating to wait in line for ten minutes with your little one for a ride on the swing, and then have some other kid push in front of you and take your kid's turn. I know they're just little kids and its not a big deal, except it is hard to try to teach Pufferfish, "We need to wait patiently in line for our turn," and then have her ask "Why don't those kids have to wait in line?" It happened about ten times in the first ten minutes I waited in line for the swings... and when I or other adults tried gently telling the kids, "You have to wait in line!" they would just stare at us like we were crazy and go on swinging. The kids in question were old enough to know better. Manners, kids, manners!
But I guess the swings were worth the long wait for Pufferfish!

Overall, we had a great time. I can easily imagine coming here once or twice a month! If you visit Lil Monkey Bizness, be sure to let me know what you think!