First Time at the Taste!

I try to schedule some time for just me and Gretchen every summer.  Usually we hit Great America or the Children's Museum but this year we did something different...  I took her to the Taste of Chicago.  We parked in Skokie and took the train (CTA not Metra) into the city.  She was very excited... We got to the city too early for the taste so we hit Harold Washington's library.  Gretchen's eyes popped open at the size of it.  The children's wing/section was larger than the library in our town.  I think we could have spent more time there but she was hungry.  I didn't push her too hard on being adventurous but she did pretty good for a five year old.  She had Italian ice (duh...), egg rolls, pizza, pad thai, chocolate covered banana, cheesecake and ribs.  Steve was close by at a training so he joined us for lunch.  Between the three of us we had a good variety of food.  After that we headed over to the place I promised months ago we could revisit:  the water fountain/glass block sculptures on Michigan Ave by the Art Institute. 
I had to beg Gretchen not to get all wet but she still kind of did... Her and at least a dozen other kids....  She wanted to come back the next day but I had to say no....







Hee!

The end of Five

June has been a big month for Gretchen already and it's only the 6th day!  She graduated from Kindergarten last week with her friends at LECC.  I have posted many pictures of the big event.  This past weekend was her big dance show.  Even though she pouted and threw fits about how boring dance is (it's the same dance every week!!!), she looks fairly happy in the makeup and costumes.  She told me quite firmly on the way home she needed a break from dance.  To reward her hard work we let her be the first one to take the polar bear plunge in our unheated swimming pool.  She didn't seem to mind at all so joke's on us!  Tonight was her end of year scout ceremony.  She is still a Daisy with her friend Phoebe but she was proud to wear her uniform and proceed to ask the scout leader during the actual bridging if they were the only two Daisies left in her troop (there are as of now).  This weekend, at her request, she is starting karate.  Should be interesting.......