This year we celebrated Birthday Week '08 in the suburbs of Chicago. If you recall from our last post, 'Happy To See March', Gabe's Show Choir group from Central was scheduled to participate at Mundelein HS in the northern burbs, but more importantly about 15 minutes from the Libertyville estate of my cousins, Rich and Germaine. What a weekend it was!!!
With Central extending it's stay at the boys basketball State Tournament in Des Moines (congrats Devils....runners-up!!!) school let out at 11am on Friday for Gabe, so we took the girls out and headed for Chicago in the afternoon. Germaine cooked a wonderful dish of spaghetti and meatballs and Rich kept uncorking my one of our favorites....red wine! We ate and talked about American Idol, the kids played ping pong before getting an early bed time. Saturday would be busy.
Gabe needed to be at the competition at 10am, Rich and Germaine made a breakfast of rolls, eggs and bacon. Gabe performed at 1pm, we all attended. I tried to describe what show choir is all about to Rich and Germaine, but you have to see it to believe it. I think they were blown away after the performance, it was the best I had seen the Blue Vibes all season, although the judges didn't agree.
We headed back to the house, I was preparing to go with Rich and Germaine to a 50th birthday party for another cousin of ours, Celeste, a surprise party. Tiff stayed behind to take care of our birthday girl Abbi (9 years....I can't believe it!!!) and Elli, and to wait for a pick up call from the Gaber. After the call she took the kids to a Mexican restaurant for a birthday feast.
The party I attended had some other cousins of mine, like Walter, Char and Frank, Suzanne and Adam, Anthony and Maria. The food spread was very impressive and the bar was open. Yep....open. Suzanne sat next to me, 'to pick my brain', as she called it. I discovered a large contingent of people were headed to San Diego in the middle of August for aunt Rachel's wedding. Celeste was quite surprised to see me, she is one of the nicest people I know.
After the party we headed back to the house, my cousins David and Kris (Rich's kids) stayed the night. David works downtown at the Ritz Carlton, and Kris flew in from Miami for the party. We stayed up late and drank a little more, Elli had on some colorful stripped sleeping pants, much to Germaine's delight, she had a very similar pair she put on. It was a riot.
Sunday we woke, it was a big day for the girls, they knew we were heading to visit the American Girl Store downtown Chicago. But Rich and Germaine bought a birthday cake for the kids (including Davey who turned 25 last week) and we ate birthday cake for breakfast! The cake was as good as it looked. Roll the Video, Please:
After the cake we packed up (except for the overnight bathroom case I left behind) and headed to Michigan Aveune......shopping.....rich people style.
We found the store and parked in a garage nearby, I noticed around the corner was a Giordano's...Chicago's world famous stuffed pizza. More on that later.
We headed for the American Girl Store, even before noon on a cold and windy day in Chicago it was bristling with shoppers of all ages, young girls with dolls in hand, excited moms reliving a past once forgotten and astonished dads (and brothers) trying to figure the whole scene out. The first floor wasn't much, we headed for the second floor. Around a few corners, weaving amongst the shoppers was all the outfits, accessories and of course...the dolls themselves. The girls quickly picked out what they wanted, it didn't take long. We then headed down to the basement where some of the more famous dolls had their own display case with the doll in different outfits depicting the era the doll was born. It was like a museum, kinda neat.
After a couple of hours it was time to check out, needless to say we spent a lot......I mean a lot! Like ....think of a number and multiply it by 3! We'd been saving....it was their Birthdays! Then we took a walk to the Water Tower Place, a seven story mall around the corner of the American Girl Store. We spent a couple hours walking around, Gabe got some clothes from the Hollister store on the sixth floor and we bought some stuff at the Cubs store on the seventh floor. It was after 3 in the afternoon the only thing we had eaten was the cake for breakfast. We were hungry........where do you go for good food in Chicago? Ummmmm...........
So we got some Chicago style pizza at a true Chicago landmark, Giordano's. We ordered a large cheese and pepperoni, I pushed for some mushrooms, sausage, peppers but we thought that might be a bit too much for the kids. After about 40 minutes our pie came out, the server cut each of us a cheesy gooey piece and we ate. Tiff and Gabe had seconds! It was funny because Tiff earlier in the week had stated she was in the mood for a little Chicago style pizza, she got her wish.
Our bellies full, we loaded in the van. Gabe and Abbi fell asleep before we left town, Tiff also caught a little shut eye. Elli stayed awake the whole trip home. We unpacked and went to bed.
Monday was Elli's 7th birthday, we made cupcakes for her class. I took the day off and cleaned my car out. Gabe's show choir season completed as all 3 Davenport Community Schools held a 'Show Off' for the community to see their talents at the Adler Theater. It was interesting to see all 6 groups perform, one right after the next. Today Gabe had his first soccer practice and Abbi went swimming at the Y with a friend.
One more birthday to go...Gabe on Friday, he'll be 15. It'll be hard to top Birthday Week '08.
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