birthday delay

Since Mike had to work on his birthday, we decided to postpone the celebration until today. So this morning we got everybody up and around and took the boys to Lincoln Park Zoo. The last time we were here, Liam and Max were little (SO LITTLE!), and Henry wasn't even in the planning stages. Since we don't live in the city anymore, it's just so much more convenient to go to Brookfield Zoo since it's much closer when we visit family. In the intervening years, I almost forgot how much I love this place. It was a beautiful day, and we managed to see just about everything, including a black bear that was sleeping just on the other side of the glass from the boys. We ventured to get our picture taken on the bridge with the skyline in the background, and we checked out the farm too. It cracked me up that Henry was so excited to see the goat, considering the amount of time all the boys spend inside the pen playing with Tater (my dad's goat).

To top off our lovely morning -- and this is the part where the birthday comes in -- we went north to our old favorite pizza place, Tedino's. Mike got his favorite, pepperoni with mushrooms and fresh garlic, and the boys got a pizza too. We got calamari, which Max was nice enough to share with the rest of us (that kid LOVES calamari), and by the time we got back in the car to head home, we were all totally stuffed. As an added bonus, Mike had leftovers the next day!