A Good Day

There's this Kevin Henkes book we love called A Good Day. Today was kind of like that, except without all the sad stuff happening at the beginning.
We woke up and decided it was a perfect Sunday for a breakfast picnic. Here we are about to head out the door and get in the wagon. I purposefully did not take my camera along because I wanted to first focus on my family and second focus on my studying while Pete played with the kids. For today's picnic we packed hard-boiled eggs and fruit salad and stopped at Starbucks for coffee, chocolate milk and a couple of scones. Delightful!
Bonus! It was Art in the Park and some of the booths opened early. We bought this beauty for $35! Love it.
After laundry/lunch/grocery shopping/naps we took off for Ravinia. They were performing all Tchaikovsky tonight and had activities set up for kids beforehand. Here's Henry playing giant bowling. He got a strike on his first kick. He was delighted with himself!
Then he told the balloon lady he'd really like a skunk. She hadn't made a skunk before, but incorporated a white balloon into her usual kitty technique and came up with this little guy for Henry. He named it Charlie and it is now sleeping on the headboard of his bed.
The coolest thing they had set up was the Instrument Petting Zoo. Henry tried out the cello and was told he was a natural.
He also tried the oboe and blew some nice sounds on his first try. They told him he was a natural.
And then we waited a bit to try out the French horn. The guy was duly impressed and said he's definitely a natural brass player.
We were about to head to a place to put out our blanket, but we got sucked in by the story-teller guy. He sang a little song about "cross your legs and put your hands in your lap" and even though he was the only kid sitting down at first, my sweet little guy was absolutely perfect. (Man! I love this kid.)
A couple other kids joined in and Clara toddled over too. The story teller told the story of the Little Red Hen, and sang a participatory song too. Henry soaked it all up.
Then we finally got our blanket spread.
After eating a bit the kids were restless. Pete took Clara for a stroll and when they came back I took Henry for a stroll. We found Bampa and Grandma. Henry sampled some of the desserts from their group.
We had lots of nice family time too.
Towards the end the orchestra was getting going on the 1812 Overture. Bampa stole Henry away to watch the cannons. Henry covered his ears, but was reportedly impressed. On our way out I took some photos of him up close with the cannons. In this shot he's demonstrating how they shot.
And now I'm hoping, once again, to watch Harry Potter.....they didn't have it in at Blockbuster, and the download is going very slowly....