Happy 4th of July and Weekend!

Yesterday was the fourth of July and sadly we had no friends having cook outs or anything going on.  Poor Nick has been painting the house every day he's had off of work, the children have been slaving away around the house with school, and quite frankly we all just needed a break! 

So we headed out to Chicago which is only about an hour and a half from our house for the day.  We were very thrilled to just get out of the area for a little while.  Emma had a gift card to American Girl to spend which is conveniently located right next to the Lego store.  Our two favorite stores were checked off the list and then Mommy's fave store, H&M was visited as it is right across the street.  

After the shopping we went up to Lincoln Park to visit the zoo.  We had a picnic and then headed in.  

 Mr. Laid Back and Miss Sassy Pants.  Yep, those are our two kids.

 The children rode the Endangered Animals Carousel which they seemed thrilled with.  Emma had a big, glamorous bow that matched her dress but she didn't want to wear it.  I'm trying really hard to not let OCD get to me and just to let her be.   What a sweet girl she is!  She kept telling Nick thank you over and over for the day.  
 Here was Cal going around and then...

 Before long this whirled around.  Apparently as Cal reported to us, his name is Frank and he REALLY, REALLY wanted something on his head.  What a silly boy!

  I think our family favorite part of the day was seeing the Polar Bear.  Emma and I studied them last year and she remembered so much about them!  I was pretty impressed, actually!

 After grabbing some Garrett's popcorn we headed down to Chinatown for some shopping and strolling.  Cal found some ninja swords he just had to have and Emma got a stuffed animal.  What is up with girls and stuffed animals?  Anyone else's daughter just seem to not be able to get enough of them?

Calvin was very over sensitized by this point so as much as I wanted to stay and eat we headed home. Which was fine because he got progressively worse the closer we got to home.  So glad I didn't have to wrangle that in a sit down restaurant!

When we got home we let the dog out, had dinner, and then headed out for local fireworks.  It was a fast paced day and it was choked full of so much fun!  Hope your's was too, sweet friend!  And hopefully you're just having a super duper long weekend of celebrating!