Surprise!

I love a good surprise. And this weekend we gave the girls the grand-daddy of surprises. I'm talking over the top, supreme acts of kindness, we'll proudly accept the parent-of-the-year award kind of surprise!

I picked the girls up from school on Friday and told them we had to hurry because I had an appointment. About 30 minutes into the car ride, my biggest pea asked why I had packed giraffey and heavy baby in a bag in the back. And, oh by the way, why is there a big suitcase back there? And that is when I revealed it. We were undertaking the great American pilgrimage to the tourist mecca of rampant consumerism. That's right, we were on our way to Chicago and the American Girl Store!

SP met us at the airport and took us to his hotel room. (He was there on business - the genesis of this trip.) The next day we woke up and walked the great city to our friend Julia's house where our Aunty was staying. The biggest Pea thought it was so exciting to be in a big city with such tall buildings. Our littlest Pea felt it was too crowded and wanted to have more open space. The dolls were all smiles.

The American Girl Store did not disappoint our girls, and our girls did not disappoint us. They had some pocket $ and some birthday $ and they were satisfied with what it would buy. That's not to say there weren't wistful eyes and longing gazes. But they embraced everything that was good about the store and demonstrated they'd learned to resist the call to consumerism. Not all pilgrims fared so well. The lure to purchase, to have it all, to buy their way to happiness proved too strong. Red bags the size of small homes were lugged around by parents with crazed eyes. Other, smaller pilgrims, were reduced to wailing and gnashing of teeth. Falling to the floor, they could not get up even when told, "You need to get up. There are germs on the floor." This did not discourage our small party. We moved on to the show, then up to tea.


We left the mayhem behind and found that Michigan Avenue was like the American Girl store, only for adults. And the girls patiently primped and dressed their dolls while we resisted the urge to own, to purchase, to wear audacious labels.

We finished the fabulous day with an after party with our Auntys. As you can see, a good time was had by all.


Our weekend held one last celebration on Sunday. We were joined by the new Doctor (Aunty Julia) and visiting Aunty Jen at Mother's Day breakfast where the color of the pancakes perfectly matched the shade of the littlest pea's nail polish.


Chicago. My kind of town.