Sept. 22 Dutch Festival Offers Fun for All Ages ! | Elim Christian Services

This is the main yearly fundraiser of the wonderful school my children attend.  Admission is free and once inside, the food prices are very reasonable.  There are many baked goods for sale, Dutch blue china items and unique Christmas decorations.  There's a farmer's market, rides and games for the kids, and live music and Dutch dancers.

Sept. 22 Dutch Festival Offers Fun for All Ages ! | Elim Christian Services

Return to Deja Brew

Some of my friends were surprised I wanted to celebrate my birthday here because of its “young” reputation.  The crowd on the outdoor patio is always older.  We ordered the nachos and Southwestern egg rolls.  The Southwestern rolls are spicy, not too much – just enough to wake up your tastebuds and make your nose run a little bit, but nothing to set your mouth on fire.  I love the nachos here, even though the cheese is fake, gooey cheese – think Taco Bell.  The guacamole is fresh, chunky, just the right balance of everything – heat, lime, hint of onion, sweet avocado.  Our friends ordered the fried dill pickles (one of my favorite pub grub foods).  In the past when I have had fried pickles, the pickle slices were discs, kind of like how you get fried zucchini.  The Deja Brew fried pickles are pickle spears.  More pickle that way.  They come with a ranch dipping sauce.  Personally, I prefer remoulade sauce with fried pickles, but that’s me.  Our friends also had a club sandwich that they shared.  My husband had a chicken panini that he scarfed down – always a sign he really likes something.  Me, if I really like a dish, I savor each bite and take my time to make the yumminess last.  This was a perfect night to sit outside and something to savor, because before we know it, it will be cold in Chicago!

 

Deja Brew Bar & Grill is located at 5219 West 95th Street in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

 

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Some Disney Notes

I was going over my notes from our Disney trip - in a nutshell, these are the things I didn't devote a post to, but are worth mentioning:

Contemporary Resort - watching fireworks from the 4th floor deck. Get there early for seating, although standing isn't too bad. The fireworks don't last long enough for your feet to start hurting. Well, at least my 46-year-old feet.

Contempo Cafe at Contemporary Resort - cafeteria-style food, affordable by Disney price standards. My son went crazy for the Mickey waffles.

Road trip to Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach - admission price to the Kennedy Space Center isn't cheap, so make sure your kids are old enough to appreciate it. Cocoa Beach itself was worth the drive - my kids love the beach. It wasn't too crowded for July, either.

Usually when traveling, I try to eat local as much as possible, but there is nothing wrong with going to a chain restaurant when you have cranky kids and know said chain restaurant will have something they will eat, i.e., IHOP, Denny's, we hit both.

The "outlet" gift shops in tourist areas can be misleading. They usually advertise $1 towels or t-shirts - the $1 towels and t-shirts are from an event several years ago or contain rude sayings.

 The good stuff is still more expensive, although not as bad as the hotels. I recommend Publix, Target, WalMart - they have all the souvenirs at much cheaper prices.

Two events that will receive their own blog posts - Sean's tantrum at the water slide and our trip to Our Lady of the Universe Basilica, a National Shrine.

Why i write this

I was browsing the Internet this afternoon and I came across a Groupon for Vegas hotels.  I thought about how my boys would enjoy the bright lights and colors and general circus atmosphere of Vegas.  They would also enjoy the swimming pools and just walking through the hotels. 

I know some casinos in other states (Ho Chunk in Wisconsin) offer child care.  My first impression when I heard this was that it was sleazy – parents just dumping their kids so they can go gamble, drink and do who knows what else. 

Once on our way home from the Dells, the weather was awful.  We were near the Ho Chunk, so we decided to stop there to wait out the storm.  We walked past the child care center.  It was actually very clean, the people in charge were proper day care workers, there were plenty of things for the kids to do.  It was $6 an hour.  The kids took one look at all the fun stuff and didn’t even say goodbye to us.  We went to the casino for about an hour and a half, came and got the kids, who didn’t want to leave.  (Although my teenage stepdaughter told her mother we abandoned her with the children all day so we could gamble, but that's a whole other therapy session.) By this time, the storm was letting up, so we got something to eat and then headed home.

Remembering this, I wondered if any Vegas hotels had anything similar.  Several do.  I then did a search to see if there was day care available for special needs.  Nothing. 

 My kids really love the beach.  Maybe we could go to a beach resort.  I looked for any resorts that offer special needs day care.  The Beaches chain was the only one that came up.  I know there are nanny services where you can hire a nanny to go on vacation with you, but if that costs almost as much as your hotel or flights, what’s the point?

 I prefer doing things with my kids on vacation, but it’s nice for my husband and I to have some grownup time, too, whether it’s wandering around for an hour, a quiet dinner or just a soak in the hot tub.  This is a benefit of traveling with extended family, by the way – there’s usually someone willing and able to watch the kids for an hour or two or take one of them somewhere.  I hope the tone of this post doesn’t come off like I just want to go gamble on vacation.  This is about how an ideal vacation has a balance of things to make each family member happy, together and individually, whether it’s in a big city, a beach resort, another country, wherever.

 I read about a special needs theme park just outside of San Antonio, Texas (Morgan’s Wonderland).  I was so excited – booked flights and a hotel.  My husband cannot pick his vacation dates, his company does for him, so we had to go in February.  Morgan’s Wonderland didn’t open until March.  We had a decent time, anyway, kids actually got into our trip to the Alamo and I had the best Mexican food ever. I’ll save that trip for another blog post.

 The lack of information on the internet reminded me of why I started writing this blog.  When I officially became a special needs mom, I looked high and low online to find resources for special needs friendly resorts, theme parks, restaurants, activities, anything. The lack of information just increased the feeling of isolation.  I gave up searching and decided to figure it out myself and write about it for others like me. 

Oak Lawn Children's Museum

I love this place.  The price is right ($6 kids and adults).  We rented one of the party rooms for my son’s birthday earlier this year.  You bring your own food (some local restaurants will offer a discount for those having parties at the museum), drinks and decorations.  There is a fridge and a sink in each party room.  We booked the party room for two hours, but all our guests were allowed to play at the museum for the rest of the day until closing time.  Similar venues have a cut-off time for how long the kids can play.  I loved it.  The kids ate pizza in the party room, went to play in the museum, came back in the party room for cake and sweets, then ran around the museum to work off all that sugar and hopefully went to sleep early for their parents that night.

My 7-year-old Sean is obsessed with trains.  (Sean has PDD-NOS.)  They have a ton of trains here.  With some coaxing, I can usually get him to try something else for the sake of variety.  He loves the slides, reading the many books throughout the museum and building with Legos.  On the first floor, there is a water play area, a sand play area (Sean loved this and playing with the sand was therapeutic for me as well), tubes and “whirlpools” with golf balls to drop in and see where they end up.

 There are many fun areas to stimulate the imagination.  There is a mock grocery store with little carts, aisles with plastic groceries and a check-out counter that beeps as the items are checked out.  There is a woodworking shop where the kids can make wood crafts, supervised, of course.  There is an artwork area for painting and drawing.  There’s an ice cream parlor where the kids can either be customers or behind the counter making plastic cones and sundaes.  There’s an ambulance, fire truck, police car, all with coordinating uniforms.  There is a puppet theatre with a stage, puppets, costumes and props.  There is a house, a veterinarian’s office, an operating room and a milking cow.  Each section has shelves of books that coordinate with the theme of the respective play area.

 My 6-year-old autistic son Todd usually has a hard time “playing well with others.”  This can be extra challenging with non-spectrum kids, who he will just push out of his way, grab a toy from, bite if they take a toy from him, etc.  Todd caused a minor commotion last time in the little grocery store where he was grabbing everything out of the other kids’ carts and putting the things back on the shelves.  He is also happy by the Legos.  He likes to line them up according to shape, color and size.

 Todd usually lines up books and is very happy to spend hours doing so.  After he lines them up, he looks at them from different angles, walks back and forth along different angles, looks at them with just his left eye, then his right eye.  It reminds me of the movie “Temple Grandin,” where she views various things from a geometric perspective and that eventually leads to all her great agricultural science achievements.  When I see Todd obsessing over lines and angles, I fantasize that maybe he’s really a geometry genius.

 This is an affordable place for kids to make a mess, be creative and have a great time.  Great destination for a rainy, cold or hot day.  What a wonderful thing to have in our community!

 

The Oak Lawn Children's Museum is located on Museum Drive in Oak Lawn - just east of 52nd Avenue on 95th Street - Musuem Drive is the first block east of the Metra train tracks.

Deja Brew Bar & Grill

To be honest, I generally avoid this place because of the louder, younger crowd (sorry, not my thing anymore), but I went here to celebrate a friend’s birthday last week and was pleasantly surprised at how different it is if you sit outside.  I liked it enough that we’re going there for my birthday next week.

The food here is consistently good.  I have read many negative reviews on yelp.com, but that hasn't been my personal experience.  The chicken tortilla soup is delicious.  The southwestern egg rolls were spicy, but not too much, very tasty.  I would recommend these for people who like some heat, but not a lot. (I like a lot.) The nachos are huge and really good, as are the mini burgers (refuse to call small burgers “sliders,” as I remember why we originally called White Castle burgers “sliders”).  Fairly decent wine and beer menu, lots of martini options.  The chocolate martini is dangerously deceptive, tastes like dessert, not a cocktail.

 I wouldn’t recommend this place for kids.  This is more of a bar.  That said, the food is better than your typical bar food.  The indoor area attracts a 20-something crowd and can get really loud.   The outdoor patio is better for people like me who prefer a quieter area where you can enjoy conversation. 

 Deja Brew Bar & Grill is located at 5219 West 95^th Street in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

Urban Spoon reviews:

The Grand Ballroom at Joliet Union Station

We went to a wedding reception here this past weekend.  I didn’t know this was a wedding reception destination. 

 The ballroom is absolutely beautiful – big white pillars, shiny marble walls and floor.  The style and architecture is similar to that of the Grand Hall at Union Station in downtown Chicago (think the baby carriage going down the stairs scene in “The Untouchables) minus the benches and plus big chandeliers.  The room is echo-y, but the sound bouncing is tolerable.  The noise was not overwhelming once the DJ started playing.

There is an outdoor terrace that is also beautiful.  There were a few tables set up out there.  The terrace overlooks a cute area of Joliet with many old buildings.  This area looks like a charming small town from the 1800s.

We were served hor d’oeuvres while waiting in the receiving line.  These consisted of crab tartlets, spicy stuffed mushrooms and rumaki (bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, one of my faves).

 The tables were set with thick damask ivory tablecloths and napkins and good quality plates and silver (for a banquet facility). 

 Our salad came with strawberries and walnuts and was pre-dressed with a fruity vinaigrette.  Dinner was served family-style:  Roast beef, chicken Marsala (awesome sauce), broccoli, boiled potatoes and pasta with a creamy red sauce (so pink, I guess).  Basic banquet fare, but done well.

 Dessert was wedding cake, as well as a lovely sweets table set up near the entrance, complete with chocolate fountain.

 I loved the quirkiness that here we were at this elegant event and through the glass you could see people coming and going from their Metra trains. 

 The Grand Ballroom at Joliet Union Station is located at 50 East Jefferson Street in Joliet.