A Day in Chicago

For Isabel's and Leo's birthday we went to Circus de Shanghai at Navy Pier, and then we stayed the afternoon to watch the 4th of July fireworks on July 3rd. Taking the train instead of driving was very nice.

See how happy we all were? Isabel especially.

The show was fabulous!!! Leo and Ana loved it. Isabel was more into the string cheese, and Elena was only half watching.

Definitely something I would do again, given the chance. Then we went to American Girl store to pass the time, Leo about died after seeing the hair salon and hospital for the dolls. Also we went in the Disney Store but it was jam-packed and crazy because Michael Musso (sp?)--some Disney Channel actor--was there signing CD's. Elena was in heaven though. She loves princess stuff.

Then we watched the fireworks. There were smiley face ones. It was kind of odd. But cool. We sat really far away, because we didn't want to fight the crowd to get closer. This was the crowd. 800,000 people. It was more impressive than the fireworks. Police were everywhere doing crowd control. All the streets were shut down for blocks and blocks and there were people as far as the eye could see. Leo thought is looked like a scene from Independence Day or other apocalyptic movie. I don't think I'll every do something like that again, but it was neat for the one time. Plus, the kids were really well behaved the entire day, so all in all it was good.