Early St. Patrick's Day

On Saturday we went downtown with friends to see Chicago's St. Patrick's Day festivities. It had been five years since Ben and I went down (pre-Eli) to see the river turn neon green, and our kids are at decent ages now to attempt the crowds with them. We decked them out in green and tagged along with John and Krista and their kids. John's brother lives near Millenium Park with a great view of the river and Lake Michigan, so we were lucky enough to go hang out at his place for the first little while. 

Seriously, watching the river turn green, 30 floors high in the sky in a warm, comfortable place beats standing at the freezing, windy bridge any day. Our kids were spoiled and loved looking out the floor-length windows with their friends.

The river starting to turn...

That was interesting for little bits of time, so the boys entertained themselves with other things around Bobby's place. They loved these glass miniature chess pieces and board.

Charlie loves the LeBarons, if you can't tell... :)

Eli was having time with Ben...

After a while, we ventured outside and braved the bitter wind and cold to see some of the parade. Our kids were happy for about 15 minutes maybe??

Maybe not even that long. Here's Eli's grumpy face :)

Back to happy.

Eli got upset when his green hat kept flying off. We chased it a few times and he finally resorted to just holding it because the wind was too fierce.

Now this guy. What even to say about him?? Other than that he called himself St. Patrick and was HILARIOUS. And friendly. 

Those last pictures of the river are courtesy of Krista. My kids were melting fast and we had to get out of there before they totally fell apart, so I didn't get close-up shots of the river, but I loved these that she took. It was a fun morning with lots of great people watching. The masses of people who are already drinking by 10 a.m. is pretty crazy. And the outfits, the green hair, the accessories... always over the top but lots of fun. It was a great morning. But SPRING - where the heck are you??? We're cold over here. The highlight of this upcoming week's forecast is it's supposed to hit 60 on Thursday. Whoo hoo!