We're Back On!!

We had a big, busy week at Our Place!


On Tuesday at HeARTWords, we wrote stories based on the question, "What would I do if I could fly?" Scott and Matt both penned Superman adventures worthy of a Hollywood treatment, and Jenna reminded us that sometimes we're lucky enough to feel like we're flying: she wrote about a particularly romantic scene from the movie Titanic.

On Wednesday we took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to go for a stroll around downtown Evanston. The biggest attention-getters during our window shopping excursion were the Campus Gear store, with its hundred and one ways to proudly wear "Northwestern," and the brand-new Andy's Frozen Custard shop. Jaws dropped and demands for future plans were made. Outside of Market Fresh Books, Derek found a Nicolas Sparks novel on the bargain rack and used the occasion to tell us about how much he liked the author, as well as the movies based on his books.

Thursday, Veteran's Day, the school holiday meant that we had a big group of friends to hang out with all afternoon. To celebrate the occasion, we all marched down the block to neighborhood eatery CJ Arthur's for an afternoon feast, where some of our more cosmopolitan participants ordered caesar salads instead of CJ's renowned hamburgers. Thank goodness for the walk back to Our Place in the fresh air- it may have prevented a serious outbreak of food comas! In order to wake ourselves up, we got busy with bean-bag bowling outside and broke a serious sweat playing Just Dance on the Wii. Keenan caused a sensation when he selected the 1978 disco hit "Rasputin" for us to dance to. And during our "What's New" discussion, true to the spirit of the holiday, Zack furnished us with a patriotic image when he announced plans to climb to the top of the Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore and, once there, to stroke his chin in a moment of silent reflection.

Friday was Week Two of our new basketball program! Frank truly shone on defense and was also the leading scorer for his team- our secret weapon under the net! Josh wowed us with the speed of his cross-court dribbling and the accuracy of his shots from the free-throw line. Travis pulled off some excellent shots and kept our spirits high with his songs and smiles. Matt and Derek were both on fire from the 3-point line and set a good example with their energy and team spirit.
Saturday we spent a chill night together at Our Place, making grilled cheese sandwiches and a giant caesar salad (apparently a group favorite- see above). We did a lot of dancing and played some exciting rounds of Uno and a little Bingo. Sarah,Jenna and Annie improvised an awesome song and dance number to the Journey song "Don't Stop Believing."

Throughout the week, we made group phone calls to our great friend Matt R, who- along with another Our Place star Jesse M  made the exciting move last week to Misericordia.  We can't wait to see you both again soon!

So Hot Outside!!

We did a lot of indoor activities this week because it was so hot outside…


We played kickball in the basement of the church instead of playing a sport outside. After a little bit of review about what each team does at the different positions and which way we run around the bases, we had a very successful game. John L. and Gabe were particularly great at it.
On Wednesday we were supposed to go on the Glencoe Stroll and learn all about Glencoe, but we thought it was way too hot to be outside so instead we changed our plans and went to Northbrook Court. People have been begging to go there with Our Place all summer, so we finally went. First Katie got her make-up done by someone she knew that worked at the mall and she was very happy! Then we went into the Lego store which every single person was very excited about. Keenan bought a Lego building set which he started working on the second we got back to Our Place and he finished it in five minutes! We were all very impressed. Frank and Josh also bought some Legos and Matt bought some cool stickers at a toy store.
On Friday we went swimming at Frank’s house which was great for the hot weather. We had a huge group of people there which was very exciting. John M. spent the whole time spinning around in circles in the deep end. Mike talked about the Hulk a lot and Keenan talked about Disney movies. Derek continuously threw pool toys into the deep end and made Joey go get them, which he thought was hilarious, and Josh and Katie played catch for most of the time. It was an excellent day for the pool.
We only have one more week of the summer program left, but we know it will be a fun one!

More Adventures!

This week we went to the Wilmette Public Library for the first time. We normally go to the library in Winnetka, but we decided to change it up. We got a tour of the children’s floor and we walked around the rest of the library ourselves. It was really big and there were a ton of different rooms! John M. and Derek both checked out movies about firemen, and John M. also checked out a movie about policemen which he was very excited to watch! Jesse C. found a really cool book with the music and lyrics from famous songs in it, and Josh looked at a lot of books about cats. We tried a new snack this week with herbs from the Our Place Garden. We have made pizza bagels a few times, but this time we made margarita pizza on tortillas. We added oregano, Italian parsley, and basil from the garden which added some flavor. Some of us were hesitant at first about adding everything from the garden, but almost everybody liked it! On Friday we went to Hidden Creek Aqua Park for the second time. We went once at the beginning of the summer with a very small group, but this time we had a lot more people. Jesse C. and Josh loved the water slides and went down them over and over again. Everybody else went in the water at the beginning and then just enjoyed being outside. It was a very fun trip! We had a great week!

Come see what we’ve been doing at Our Place…

For our weekly lunch, we went to J.P. McCarthy's in Winnetka, where we got our own special room. We used the privacy to talk about our favorite things about Our Place in the summer. Of course, everyone had great things to say, such as going to the beach, going out to lunch, using the van, and just hanging out with our friends!

We have been working on creating “About Me” Jeopardy for all of the Our Place participants. We all answered questions about ourselves and we formed a game about it. We finally played our first round this week, which was all about Josh, and we learned a lot of cool facts about him! Some highlights were that his favorite food is bagels with cream cheese and his favorite musical group is Steely Dan. Everybody seemed to really like it and we’re excited to find out more about each other as we more rounds about different people.

The beach as always was a hit. John L. and Katie and Abbey enjoyed the water while Josh Nate and Rebecca played frisbee. Laura, Frank and Matt decided to relax in the Sun...Something for Everyone.

We also went to the Winnetka sidewalk sale on Friday. It was really hot outside so it was a fairly short trip, but we all liked it a lot. Katie bought so much stuff that she couldn’t even carry it all, but we all helped out. Derek only bought things related to the Cubs, and Josh spent his time collecting brochures from different businesses in Winnetka. At the end we all got snow cones, which were very good.

That’s what has been happening at Our Place!

Jam Packed Week!

Even though it was a short week because there wasn’t any camp on Monday, we’ve had a very busy week at Our Place. Check out everything that we did!

We had poetry with Barry, which we do every Tuesday afternoon. This past Tuesday, we wrote stories for the first time, which was very exciting. We wrote about what we did on the 4th of July and about what the 4th of July means to us. Then we all shared our stories with each other so we learned what everybody did during the long weekend.

For our lunch outing this week, we went to Little Red Hen, a family-owned restaurant in Glencoe. They had a ton of choices and everybody seemed to really like it. Frank even mentioned that he wanted to go back there with his family. Joey got dessert and he liked it so much that a few more people decided that they had to get some as well, and they were very happy that they did. There were so many of us that we took over a large part of the restaurant and we had a great time!

We also went to Gilson beach, which we hadn’t been to in awhile because we have been trying other beaches in the New Trier Township. We ran into Keenan right when we got there, so we sat next to him and spent some time with him at the beach. Even though it was very hot outside, the water was freezing, which none of us expected. Travis seemed to be unaffected by the cold and was the first one to get himself completely wet. Soon a few more of us joined and many people spent the whole time at the beach playing catch in the water. A few people got snacks at the concession stand, and a seagull tried to eat our nachos! Katie and Frank thought it was hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing.

On Friday, we went to Millenium Park, which was the farthest that we have ever gone in the Our Place Mobile. It was a pretty long car ride, so we played Eye Spy on the way there. At first it was a little difficult, but we got the hang of it and played it all the way until we got to the park. We had a picnic and played cards in the park, and then we played Sharks and Minnows, which was Katie’s suggestion. Of course, we took a picture of us at the bean, and at the end we took off our shoes and played in the fountain for a little while.

We played 20 Questions on the way home, which was Emily’s idea. She started, and it took us almost the whole car ride to figure out that she was thinking of light bulbs. It was a little frustrating but we finally figured it out. Overall, it was a very successful outing!

We seemed to fit a lot into our shortened week at Our Place!

Fun in the Sun!

Here’s everything that’s been going on at Our Place since we last posted!

We have gone on a lot of great field trips. We went to Hidden Creek water park in Highland Park, which was a big success! It was a small group, but everyone had a lot of fun. Josh went down every slide and even did a cannonball off the diving board. John wasn’t in the mood for slides, but he really enjoyed spinning around in circles and Katie loved the concession stand. We decided that it would be fun to try to go again with a bigger group later in the summer since we all had such a great time.

We also went to the Bahai temple. We walked all around the gardens and we especially liked the fountains. We went inside the temple and quietly looked at all of the pretty designs in the building. Josh had the great idea to check out the visitor’s center downstairs, and luckily we decided to take his suggestion. We got to read a lot about the history of the Bahai religion and we even saw a movie that showed all of the Bahai temples around the world. As we left, each of us threw a penny into a fountain and made a wish, but Frank decided that he would rather wait and save his wish for his next birthday!

We have been continuing our search for the best ice cream in the New Trier Township. We went to Hardigan’s in Evanston which got excellent reviews from everyone in the van on the way home. We walked to Bobtail which was only a couple of blocks from Our Place and although some were worried that it was too far away, everyone was happy once they got their ice cream.

Another one of our trips was to the Winnetka Public Library, where we read a lot of interesting science magazines. Josh read an article out loud about Pluto, where we learned that Pluto is no longer considered a planet. Instead, it is called a dwarf planet! We also discovered that there are new space suits that can be used to jump through space and land all the way on earth, which is pretty cool.

Every single day at Our Place is jam packed, but those are some highlights of the exciting things that we’ve been up to!

We've Been Busy!

Here’s what’s been going on at Our Place…

The big discussion of the week… Where should the Our Place Mobile be parked at night? We suggested Avi’s house but he was worried that his trusty dog Burt would bite the van. We thought about having it at Frank’s house but he said there were too many people coming in and out of his driveway. Jesse R. volunteered to have the van stay at his place so he could watch the van every day and make sure it was okay, but Josh decided we should just keep the Our Place Mobile at Our Place. Great idea Josh!

Since our last blog we went swimming at Frank’s house. We’ve had a ton of fun honing our skills at bocce with Chris and Cortney, and we’ve become really artistic painting and stamping with Sally. We tried making some black bean tacos for a healthy snack but after much discussion, we voted not to have them again, but the fruit salad was a hit! At HeART Words with Barry everyone did a fantastic job writing greeting cards. Maybe everyone should team up and get jobs at Hallmark this summer!

We went swimming at Franks and although we usually love having anyone join in the fun at Our Place, we had an over friendly dragonfly that was not welcome.

This week we’ve gotten ice cream at Homer’s, went to the Winnetka Library, went on a Nature Walk and took a stroll around Gilson Park. While we walked around Gilson with Nate and Emily, Stacia went on a parking scavenger hunt. She never found a parking space so after enjoying Lake Michigan and the sun Stacia came back and picked us up.

We also hosted a terrific talent show. Who knew we had such talented people at Our Place?! Frank boogied to the music while Katie and Jesse RM danced up a storm. Avi sang “ Be Prepared” from the Lion King and Josh rocked on to the Beatles “Love Me Do”. Jesse C. got us practically rolling on the floor with his hilarious jokes and Keenan showed off his muscles when he did 9 pushups. Maybe we should get our own reality show… we are quite entertaining.

Well that’s what’s been happening at Our Place. We’ll try and stay in touch more often but there is so much going on at Our Place it’s hard to keep up!

Check back in a few days to find out which beach we’re going to this week…

Our First Post

Here’s what happened today at Our Place...

Rain... Boo! No Our Place Mobile today but we still had fun indoors. First we played Hangman, but Katie tricked us when she added the “3D” part of Toy Story. Luckily though, Josh was on top of the game and wanted to finish off the sentence so he was able to add that to the end. The Backstreet Boys were the most popular musicians of the day when Frank chose them for his Hangman phrase…it’s the first time since the 90’s that the Backstreet Boys have been in their heyday.

Soon after, Devora gave everyone a real workout when we went to the clubhouse to play some freeze tag. Devora had just gotten her hydrologic wheels added to her wheelchair, so she was quick to catch Josh, who immediately started shivering after being tagged until one of us could warm him up again. Then Katie got a turkey plus one on wii bowling (is that a chicken? Or a duck?) but soon the rackets got a little tangled during a fierce game of tennis…everyone can’t stand right in front of the wii at once…hmm

Keenan joined us and wanted to make some pizza bagels, or maybe he wanted to make some cards, but anyway we all were a little hungry so the kitchen was the next destination on our adventure. Unfortunately we couldn’t take the new Our Place mobile so we took the elevator down instead. We sliced open the bagels, added some sauce, cheese, cut up the veggies and even added some zucchini to our specialty pizza… Boy they were tasty. The saying “Gone in 60 Seconds” was an understatement…Yum!

On to our next adventure. We met up with Barry for a little heARTwords fun. “What is your favorite..?” Was the theme for today. Keenan’s favorite room in the house is the hall, Katie loves to rock climb when she’s on vacation, Frank loves to watch Paula Dean - bring on the southern cooking Frank! Oh and we can’t forget to add that Frank’s favorite form of transportation is his mom. Josh’s favorite food is broccoflour... Josh also mentioned that his imaginary person would be a maid cleaner. Is this because he cleans so much? We should get one of these for Our Place.

So that sums it up for what happened at Our Place today.

By the way... where would be a good place to park the Our Place Mobile? Let’s come up with some ideas.