It has been weeks maybe MONTHS since everyone in our house was healthy. It’s one cold after flu after pink eye after bronchitis after the other. It seems ALL we’ve been eating is soup. Which is ok with me because I LOVE SOUP.

Like, I think about it and I think, I love soup! Could it be the perfect food?

When I’m up for it, I love to make a huge pot of copycat Olive Garden minestrone. I make this all the time. And mine is better than Olive Garden’s. But I haven’t really felt like chopping up all those veggies and stuff lately so we’ve been eating mostly canned.

My current favorite (and by favorite I mean I am kind of addicted): Amy’s Fire Roasted Southwestern Vegetable soup. It feels SO good on my throat. And is really so flavorful for a canned soup.

Last night I went out with some friends to Pikk’s Tavern, downtown Valpo and I couldn’t wait to find out what their soup of the day was.

I was seriously bummed when all they had was broccoli cheddar, gumbo, or seafood chowder. But I just couldn’t NOT get soup, so I figured I’d try the broccoli cheddar (their soup of the day.) It was WAY different than I expected. It was amazing. Pureed and spicy. And oh my gosh I need some right now.

So, back to the cans, I am worried I’m going to get burned out on my Amy’s Fire Roasted soup. Please let me know what your favorites are. I need to update my cupboards!

Do you like soup? What is your favorite you can buy at the store? Do you have a favorite recipe?

PLEASE SHARE. I eat soup for breakfast. Really.

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .

I try to limit the kids’ TV-viewing as much as possible, but have to admit I often watch along and get crafty ideas watching Sprout with Gray. (Plus I LOVE Kipper the Dog’s accent.)

Gray’s pretty crazy about the Sunny Side Up Show and Chica. His favorite thing is to play Dress Up Chica at Sprout Online.

He even had his big brother write Chica a letter:

(I found that note in their craft pile and it prompted this whole post, actually!)

Starting Monday November 23, Sprout will be running an on-screen crawl of what Sproutlet viewers say they’re thankful for. Be sure to upload your message at Sprout’s Thanks For Giving site now!

AND on Thanksgiving Day, Sproutlets can speak live (ON AIR!) with the Sunny Side Up Show host and share why they are thankful. I just happen to have some connections over at Sprout and they gave me the special call-in number a little early: 877-91CHICA !!

(The number will not be active until 8:45am ET on Thanksgiving morning.) Gray will for sure be calling in! Will you?

In the meantime, there are lots of fun Holiday crafts and coloring pages to get the little ones involved with your Thanksgiving decorations. And what a good reminder as they create to think about all that we are thankful for.

Also, enter the “What Have You Learned” contest now through November 22. Submit your child’s artwork showing what he or she has learned - could be counting, ABC’s, sharing, etc.

Artwork will be shown on air and one winner per day will be chosen the week of Dec. 7th. Prize includes a Sprout Gift Package which includes a Leap Frog Tag Junior. Good luck!

PS I was not paid by Sprout to write any of this. I am just a Mom to a little boy that REALLY likes his Sprout. And I happen to like Sprout, too.

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .

I’ve never been a big fan of ice cream. I don’t know why. Cake with ice cream? I’ll just take the cake. Honestly I’ll pass up ice cream way more often than I’ll agree to eat it.

Probably because there is really only one flavor that I truly love and all others just leave me thinking why waste the calories? I’d rather eat something else.

Growing up my favorite ice cream ever was Baskin Robbins peanut butter n chocolate ice cream. It doesn’t get much better than that, in my opinion. Whenever we go out for ice cream anywhere, if they have peanut butter & chocolate, I have to have it. I’m always trying to find who has the best. I never, ever try another flavor if peanut butter and chocolate is an option.

I’ve come to find that Oberweis chocolate with peanut butter comes quite close to being just as good as BR, but it’s just a bit too creamy and could use more peanut butter (when do you ever have ENOUGH peanut butter?), and is best eaten in a waffle cone.

I’ve been to Oink’s in New Buffalo a couple times (and this will prove to you how much I can take or leave ice cream) - the first time we went I didn’t order anything at all. Last time, I’m certain I got chocolate/peanut butter. But I don’t really remember it so it must not have been that awesome.

I have had the peanut butter & chocolate from Pat’s Parlor and think it comes very close to Baskin Robbins, but not exactly. I also don’t think I’ve ever had it from Valpo Velvet, if they even have it. I need to make a point to stop in there just to see and give it a taste test.

I sometimes like Coldstone (we have an on-again, off-again relationship) - you have to choose chocolate ice cream and get peanut butter as a “mix-in”. It’s good, but kind of too rich and creamy. I have been known to get the rocky road at Coldstone and have them mix peanut butter into that and THAT is pretty darn good.

I don’t buy ice cream to be eaten at home, hardly ever. But I did recently try Starbucks Hot Chocolate ice cream… it was pretty delish. And maybe I tried adding a bit of my own peanut butter in there.

But still no Baskin Robbins peanut butter and chocolate on a sugar cone. It reminds me of being a kid, of tiny pink spoons, of the water fountain, and it’s just what ice cream means to me.

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .

Do you say route like ROOT or ROWT (rhymes with stout)? I say ROWT. I think. I think that’s how most midwesterners say it…?

Anyway. I have found that I am always coming and going more than I am able to be “doing. I’d like for us to take more walks on the trails or picnics in the park, but it’s either chilly or rainy or on the nice days one of the kids is sick and so I’m taking it all in by driving the scenic route wherever we go.

We live right by the highway, but if there is a back road we take it (and there almost always is, because what did people take before there were highways?) The colors this time of year will take your breath away. You don’t even have to drive far- you’ll find beauty in any old neighborhood that has lots of trees (unlike ours, still too new.)

My favorite is always the red trees. If I spot a bright red one, some place in my soul does a happy dance. Today there were so many lemony yellows and for a minute I changed yellow to be my favorite, until I saw another red…

We had to take the expressway for a while and I just hope that travelers driving through here veer off on the scenic route. There is so much to see here in Indiana, but if you take the highways or the toll road all you see is truck stops and strip clubs. We have so much more than that to offer.

Is it weird that I started to think of it in Internet terms? The Internet can be a yucky, obscene, and fast driven space. But there is also so many pretty things to see if you get off the main road, off the Twitter and the Facebook, and maybe, just maybe, off the Internet altogether… just for a little bit every now and again.

It’s something I was thinking about as I took the scenic route today.

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .

Yesterday I spent all day making minestrone from scratch for a friend and getting everything in order so that I could visit that friend today and take it easy and good things and stuff.

I packed up the car this morning, didn’t forget a thing!, and made our way for the visit. As soon as I got out of my car in her driveway, I heard hissing coming from my back tire. A big ol’ nail or something big and metally was sticking out GOSH DARN IT.

I ran the food and the kids in and called and left a message for my hubby who was at a meeting nearby. Then called our tire place to see what we should do next. Thankfully they had a location nearby and I scooped up the kids, put their jackets and shoes back on, fished the DOGGY KIBBLE out of Ivy’s mouth, and was rushing back out Donya’s door to get the car over there before the tire went flat.

Hubby met me there and we decided we might as well go get lunch somewhere while we wait.

Gray struck up a conversation with a nice couple and they suggested we go to Sophia’s Pancake House down the street, and so we did.

It reminded me of the places we used to go after church when I was a kid. Of course they had lemon rice soup, too. And paper placemats with advertisements from local businesses. And little creamers for Gray to stack. Their food was awesome.

My car wasn’t ready by the time we got back. They hadn’t even started. And then they weren’t even able to fix it after all. So I left with the spare and have parts on order. And never did get to visit with my friend and her new baby.

At least I was able to drop off the soup and homemade okay fine break apart and bake sugar cookies (I at least decorated with Halloween sprinkles for extra credit.)

At least Ivy didn’t eat the dog food. (I think).

At least we had a little “just the four of us” lunch at the pancake house.

At least the tire place didn’t charge me for all the work they did or tried to do and for putting on the spare.

At least everyone was ok. Thank goodness I wasn’t zooming down 80/94 with that huge chunk of metal in my tire. It could have been much worse.

There is a pancake house in every crappy day. You just have to find it, and be thankful for it.

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .

Ok, this is about the only time you’ll hear me talking about football. It’s for a good cause.

The Wendy’s High School Heisman recognizes the nation’s most esteemed high school seniors (guys and girls) for excellence in academics, athletics, and community & school leadership.

Applications are now being accepted- If you know a high school senior who has a 3.0 average or higher, participates in a school-sponsored sport and contributes to their community, have them apply at www.WendysHeisman.com, or a high school educator, guidance counselor, or coach can nominate them.

Yum! The first 41,100 applicants will receive a free Wendy’s gift card in amounts ranging from $5 to $50. One male and one female from each high school will win the award and continue on in competition for state and national awards. Twelve national finalists will participate in Heisman Weekend festivities during an all-expenses-paid trip Dec. 11-13 to New York City. ESPN2 will feature all 12 national finalists during the Wendy’s High School Heisman Awards Ceremony, which airs Dec. 13. The Wendy’s High School Heisman website will display the names of all applicants and individual school winners on October 22, 2009. That’s some trophy for some very deserving person.

Win! And since I’m talking Wendy’s and you’re totally craving fries and a frosty now, leave a comment below if you’d like to enter to win a $20 Wendy’s gift card!

I’ll choose one comment at random after 11:59 PM Thursday October 1. Must be a US resident and one entry per person, please!

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .

This post was made possible by Mom Central. I was also given a $20 gift card to Wendy’s and I plan to use it for lots of Frostys and fries.

So, we were on a roll it seems- we hit the Field Museum and even Lincoln Park Zoo last week and the weather was awesome. But, now the weather has turned and I am fighting a cold.

With the cooler weather, the zoo is definitely a great place to go. Not only is it not very crowded, but the animals also tend to hang outside more. We always park a little further down from the main entrance and go in through the “school” entrance near the new ape exhibit. The route we’ll usually take is go through the Regenstein Center for African Apes and then make our way over to the other end of the zoo for the Regenstein African Journey which brings you out right by the polar bears (which were off exhibit last week), then back down to the penguins, sea lions, play at the Pritzker Family Children’s zoo and then head to lunch (we love the food court at Park Place Cafe- seriously the best panini).

After a break we’ll either to the Farm if we have time or back to the apes again on our way to the car.

I had wanted to head to the Shedd yesterday or today for the free admission but I’d rather be napping this cold off. So, we’ll try for next week maybe for Gray’s birthday on the 7th. I don’t think it’s a free day, though, so I better come up with something a little cheaper.

My friend Sarah is playing music on Oct 3 & 4 at the County Line Orchard so I am hoping for a nice day to maybe go out and see her and get cinnamon donuts. Not sure if I will even take the kids for that one! Ah, I probably will.

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .

So… this Friday I will knock off the FIRST thing on the Bucket List. Oh yes I will.

Although, technically it’s not a free day for everyone, but it’s free for us.

Visitors of Chicago’s Field Museum this Friday, September 18, will get a rare treat as a paleontologist will conduct a thorough cleaning of Sue, the 67-million-year-old T. rex. This big clean up with take place in the main hall starting at 9 am. I hear that it will all be by feather duster- as her old bones require meticulous care.

And on Friday, September 25- which, how fun is also Elephant Appreciation Day!- the Museum’s two huge, fighting African elephants will be vacuumed from head-to-toe. The elephants have been on display since 1909. They were collected and mounted by Carl E. Akeley, who also revolutionized the art of taxidermy.

Grayson and I are most excited to head up there Friday morning for the event!

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .

I don’t cuss but I am about to curse out that dang bucket list. You’d think I could scratch off SOMETHING by now. Or maybe I should have added simple things like going to a friend’s house? Check. Order a replacement cabinet door at Menards with all four kids all by myself? Check. Make it through the day? Check.

Today my ONE AND ONLY GOAL?

Get to the post office to mail a few embarrassingly long-overdue letters. Why does this seem so impossible and daunting?

I’ll keep you posted.

*Update! The letters have been mailed. I even did a bunch of other things, too! Woo hoo!

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .

Kids ages 6-12 can enter Red Robin’s Kids’ Cook Off, a quest to create the next gourmet burger. Enter by September 13.

I asked my kids what their top secret ingredients would be. They are SO ORIGINAL and would use KETCHUP but not that much. And that’s all. Ho-hum. So, ’spose your kids have really good chances, then.

*This post is not sponsored in any way by Red Robin and actually our past two visits at the Valparaiso location have been LESS than stellar and maybe they could benefit having some kids in the kitchen but I love those fries and I’ll probably keep going back. Sigh.

Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .