Happy birthday, Lincoln!

That started Lincoln's second Fourth of July birthday celebration, and it continued - as it did a year ago and possibly will in years to come - at Taste of Chicago in Grant Park when the festival opened for the day later in the morning.

Mom and the kids ate mostly sweets, including Lincoln's birthday cheesecake below (he had apple pie last year), while Dad went for such fare as the crawfish boil.


We also ran into this fella roaming the grounds.

After we had our fill of food (expended our tickets, in other words), we walked a little north to Millenium Park for the Grant Park Orchestra's first Fourth of July performance in its 75-year history. We didn't stay for much, though, in part because it started raining hard. Oh, and it was time for the birthday boy's nap. Life is so unfair.

But that snooze freshened him up for a rendition of his acclaimed new song "The ABCs" - a ditty some of you have heard in person. For the rest of you, here it is: