Playgroup!

Today, we had a playgroup outing to Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a small crowd, which was a good thing because it gave me some good catch-up one-on-one time with R. and M. and their kids. I hadn't seen R., and her daughter, A., in quite awhile and as she is a college professor as well as mom to 8-month-old twins (and a 4-y/o girl), she always has good stories to tell. So does M., for that matter, and he delivers them in a wry manner. So it was a good time.

We started out at the zoo in the farm, and went directly into the barn to climb on the tractor (which M.'s son cleverly calls "John," as it is made by John Deere) and look at the bees through plexiglass, and compare our weight to the weight of pigs, goats and cows, and dig in recycled auto tires for plastic vegetables. After all that excitement, we walked over to the adjacent Green City Market to get some lunch. The Boy was not impressed with his jam crepe, although The Girl ate a good portion of her Butterkase and herb crepe. I gobbled my fresh peach crepe, and then polished off most of The Boy's lunch as well. I bought cookies to share, so The Boy basically ate sugar for lunch. Unsurprisingly, he was pretty crabby later. The Girl finished her crepe and then took off to run races against herself across Lincoln Park. It was funny to see her say "Ready? Set. Go!" to herself and take off running. The Baby slept peacefully in his stroller through most of this.

M., E. and A. had to take off after lunch, but R. and A. stuck around. We went back into the farm to see the goats and the cows, then meandered over to see the gorillas and ride the carousel ($2.50 per person, kids under 40" must be accompanied by a [paying] adult). The Girl did not want to ride the carousel, so I rode once with The Baby, The Boy and A. Since I had an extra ticket, The Boy and A. rode again. Then we all had a snack and some water on the benches around the carousel, kissed our friends good-bye, and went home.