Navy Pier and Cocoa's BDay

Cade is our city boy and is always asking when we can go ride the train to the city to do whatever it is on his mind that day. Since dance starts today for Maddi, we actually had a weekend to take a trip to the city. Saturday we went to Navy Pier and then ate at a famous Italian place in Lincoln Park. Sunday Maddi and I went back to the city and went shopping on Michigan Avenue. It was a fun weekend.

This is a shot of Navy Pier right where the bus drops you off. It's so pretty with the lake and boats, ferris wheel, etc. Yes, the kids are wearing sweats. It was a high of 63 Saturday and was quite chilly. It's much warmer now, but I have a feeling fall will get really cool real quick. Ugh...
We went to the Chicago Children's Museum on Navy Pier. The kids love it. This is Cade with the pouty "I don't want to take a picture" face. He loves the big dinosaur, so I wanted a picture for him to remember it when he is an old man. He just doesn't get it! If I didn't want to take a picture, he'd probably want his picture taken and throw a fit until I took it. Don't you love oppositional children?!?
Digging up bones. They have a big room with dinosaur bones and shredded rubber tires as the dirt. The kids use the tools to search for bones and then they start throwing the rubber at each other. Then we move on to the next activity!
There is a huge shoe that the kids love to climb on. I went in the shoe and got this picture. Apparently you're not supposed to climb on the shoe, but you are to go inside it and they have mirrors and things in it. We've always thought it was just there to climb.
A cheesy picture with an anchor at the end of the Pier. There were all kinds of people getting pictures on the anchor and our kids kept getting on it and taking other peoples turns on the anchor. They wanted a picture taken and put on the blog. Who knew an anchor was so exciting. The sign by it says it's from one of the US Naval Ships and it weighs 2 tons and it said some other historical things, but I don't remember them. But anyway, everyone wanted a picture with this thing so I guess it's important!
Cocoa is 2! The kids get excited about anyone and everyone's birthdays, probably so they can have cake. We only had a #5 candle, so we turned it backwards to try and make a two. My neighbor told me about one of my new favorite things called Warm Delights by Betty Crocker. They have brownies, cakes, cookies, etc. You just add water and microwave them for a minute or something. I'm totally addicted to the brownie one and then I add ice cream. You gotta try it. The kids had cinnamon swirl cake for breakfast and Cocoa got to lick the bowl. The poor dog never gets table food, so she didn't even know to lick the bowl. Maddi had to show it to her and then she was pushing the bowl all over the house licking it clean. Happy Birthday you little shit...zu!