Vacation in the City

Finally getting back to updates from last week (while I wait for my eggs to hard-boil, and according to the website I googled to figure out how to do this, I think I have about 12 minutes to spare) - Lucy is still dreaming and talking about her big adventure in the city with Abigail and Caitlin. The girls came down last week with their driver, Beth, and it was Spring Break 2012!! We headed downtown to Navy Pier to have some lunch and visit the Children's Museum.  The girls ran around, drove a CTA bus, grocery shopped, climbed tree houses, and all the fun things there is to do there.  After coming back for dinner (thanks to Beth and Rob!), and a visit from Aunt Kate and "Uncle" Vern, it was a quiet house and Beth and I did what we do best - we drank a bottle of wine and talked about life.  I threw that in there for Joe because he always asks what I talked about with friends after a night out and and my response is always "life."

On Wednesday we went to the Shedd Aquarium and the girls had a blast! Lucy is a little too comfortable there - not too worried about running away from me into field trip groups, exhibits, etc.  But, she always has a good time there.  Abigail and Caitlin loved the jellyfish and penguins - and all three came home with some fancy souvenirs.  I was skeptical about the "otter in a purse" that Lucy chose (only because I dangled it in front of her to keep her from wanting the giant stuffed octopus) but the otter has been a hit.  Otto the Otter went to the gym today and has already been through the wash due to his busy life.

The three beans

The cutest mailgal of all

Breakfast - Lucy still reminds me where Abby and Cate sat

The chaos that we love!

Weeee!  This slide is tiny but looks pretty big when these two are on it

In other exciting news, Lucy tried out a gymnastics class today that she really liked! Beth suggested I try it because Lucy definitely is a busy-body, and she had a lot of fun trying the balance beam, doing summersaults down the wedge and jumping on the trampoline.  The class was small so we are going to drop-ins through the spring when we can.  I enjoyed being back at a gymnastics gym and I was pretty impressed because a famous Soviet gymnast (Natalia Yurchenko (sp?)) is the head coach for girls there.  But, that is way ahead of us. For now, the mom/tot class is wonderful for her!

We have a busy weekend of Easter-filled activities and if I correctly cook these eggs, we may have some egg decorating pics soon.

A very hesitant interaction with the Easter Bunny. This is what you get when you visit the French Market (at the train station) for an Easter Bunny visit.