Hat Trick

Notice her fancy bag.  Guess who had to carry it all day...

 A Hat Trick in hockey is when a player makes three goals in a game.  For me, it's when I get to see all of my kids in one day.  Unfortunately rare, but oh so wonderful for this old Mom and Dad.  We started the weekend with our girl.  The Wonderland Express is a display of trains that travel through a romantic and much smaller version of Chicagoland.  Chicagoland is a local term for Chicago and the suburbs surrounding the city.   What we surprised our girl with this time, was a concert at the garden with the Chicago Brass Band, before we saw the trains. 

 A perfectly sunny, crisp and cold winter's day. 

 Grandpa enjoyed being out and about with his two favorite girls.

 Our snow bunny.

 My dearest took a photo of a lovely couple who were having trouble taking a selfie, 

but we didn't remember to ask someone to photograph us.

 This is the entrance to the theater. So beautifully decorated with it's own train.

 We weren't sure of this six year old girl's response to the concert, but she loved it.  We had a sweet snuggle to the music.  It was a variety of music, from Hanukkah to Christmas and at just an hour was just the right amount of musical holiday cheer.

 Then off to another building for the Wonderland Express. The halls are lined with beautiful wreaths and decorations.

 Then into Wonderland!

 This is our third time, so Penny was ready with the sheet of certain places to look for and mark with a sticker. Woo Hoo! This year we found them all.

 The famous "Bean".

 An Engineer handed Penny a train car to pose with.  

Poor Grandpa, I accidentally chopped off this head.

 Chicago is really a beautiful city, in miniature and in actual size.

 The very best part for me is when it snows INSIDE!

 It's magical.

 Such a great day, making more memories for our girl and for us.

 My sweethearts.

 On Sunday we received a visit from Willoughby Drone Works, AKA son Jon. You can find some of his amazing work on his Facebook page.  Penny was very excited to actually see the drone.  We all were fascinated. 

 We all came to the deck to watch a demo.  That little drone can really travel.

 This little one loved watching Uncle Jon fly over the house.

It was up so high it was just a speck in the sky.

  

 Even our beautiful expectant Momma Charlotte came out for the fun.

Kris and Doug came to pick up Penny and bring some of the baby

 things they used for Penny to Jon and Charlotte..

Here Kris is demonstrating how to use a baby carrier using a slightly older than usual baby. 

How quickly time flies, seems like yesterday when Penny was just a tater tot.

So when everyone went home, Mikey dropped by after work.  There was my hat trick.  Everyone went home with meatballs and sauce for lunch today, and a tired but grateful Grandpa and Grandma went to bed happy for seeing all of our wonderful kids on a December Sunday. 

 Thanks for stopping by and for your friendship.

Enjoy this beautiful day.

Love, Penny