Levynn played in her first "game" tonight and needed just one swing of the (big!) stick in her one at-bat to put the ball in play.
What a hitter!
Then, after we were back home, she rode her bike in the park and Mom let go of her, over and over again. Here's one instance.
What a bike rider!
The kids only got one at-bat each tonight, and Levynn didn't get any action in left field - where she probably was wishing she was closer to her buddy here, who was assigned to right field.
Let's take off the training wheels and ride the bike!
Levynn also hopped on the scooter today and showed more improvement.
Being six is just so cool!
Seriously, it is. Or at least, from the parent's point of view, having one is.
Oh, and Dad caught another concert today. He should have brought Levynn again, as you'll see on stage, but he didn't know it would be so kid-friendly. This is Michael Franti and Spearhead, playing a free show outside the Hancock Center.
Well, the next photo should give you a hint about what they are...
... miniatures. That's Levynn, peering into one of the 68 rooms in The Art Institute's Thorne Miniature Rooms exhibit.
We hadn't seen this section of the museum in any of our previous visits. Only recently did we learn that it's very popular, and Dad and Levynn have been reading a new novel called "The Sixty-Eight Rooms" about two kids who take a magical adventure into the exhibit and that has stirred Levynn's intense interest in it.
So Dad and Levynn got a first look today. We'll be more prepared next time, with notes about each of the rooms the kids enter in the story.
We also saw a short concert - Mazes - across the street at Millenium Park and bought our advance tickets for Taste of Chicago, which starts tomorrow.
Dad, Levynn and Lincoln returned to the gym for baseball tonight, braving a storm we will not detail here, and Dad was able to get more video.
There also is the game schedule to share: Levynn's team will play on Mondays through July 26 (but not July 5, the observed holiday; sorry, Gram!). So Mom will be able to see them all and Dad can coach if need be. Yay!
Levynn started the Chicago Park District Cubs Care baseball program tonight, and she made us proud (not that she wouldn't have anyway) in the mayhem that we're learning is typical of the CPD experience.
After the coach's long-winded oratory about the realities of the program (in short, there are so many kids that, as of next week, we'll only get one day per rather than the two we signed up for), Levynn went to work - er, play.
The kids warmed up first, including this run back and forth across the gym (the field was a mud pie).
Then they went to stations: hitting (off a tee), running bases, catching (big soft) ground balls (with bare hands), and throwing (wiffle balls). Levynn looked like a veteran at each one.
Check out the positioning and footwork here!
And this form!
Levynn didn't get any of that from the coach, who wandered from station to station giving encouragement most of the time. And Dad didn't have to tell her or show her much, either, to be honest. She just did it!
There will be another "instructional" night Wednesday, at which time we'll be told whether to come Mondays or Wednesdays in future weeks. The kids will be divided into four teams, and two teams will be assigned to each night and will play against each other over and over again.
If tonight was any indication, Levynn will make the best of it.
And, like the day Levynn was born, it came to be on Father's Day, making it a special day indeed. (It won't happen again until 2021!)
The big emphases of the day were this scooter, which she rode much of the time she was outside, and movies.
She rode the scooter to the restaurant where we had brunch, she rode it from there to the park and back home, and she rode it again later in the afternoon. She made a lot of progress, as you can see below.
After brunch, Dad and Levynn went to the movie theater to see "Toy Story 3" - without the 3D - and it's terrific, if you're wondering. That's one of two movies the two of them had been planning to see with great anticipation today.
As soon as they got home from the theater, Levynn blew out the candles on her second birthday cake (again from Bleeding Heart bakery) before Mom had to hurry to work.
To finish the day, Dad and Levynn watched "E.T." - it was her first time! - late into the night.
This was an exciting day in our household. We celebrated Levynn's sixth birthday with her first kids party!
We hosted seven other girls for a "pixie party" around lunchtime. It was a success, and Dad says Mom knocked it out of the park.
While the girls gathered in the lobby of our building (outfitted with homemade crowns Levynn models below), Dad hid pixie treasures in a group of trees in the park across the street. After that hunt, we all came back to the building and went to the community room.
The girls went on another hunt, this time in the room, for fairy charms. Then they used the treasures, charms and assorted paper and stickers to decorate birdhouses-turned-pixie homes that Mom and Dad had put together earlier in the week.
After the girls got cleaned up - lots of glue! - they ran around the room while waiting for the pizza to arrive. And the pizza, homemade vanilla ice cream with cherries jubilee, and organic vanilla-vanilla cake from Bleeding Heart Bakery took us right to the end.
But the fun's not done yet. Tomorrow's the real big day - and on Father's Day, just like the day she was born!
In the first 24 hours or so after Levynn left school yesterday afternoon, she went to a playground; ate dinner on Millenium Park's grass while listening to Grant Park Orchestra's season-opening concert; played around the park's attractions, like Crown Fountain and Cloud Gate (The Bean); slept late; ate breakfast in our building's community room; played at Oak Street Beach; stood next to the Stanley Cup; and registered for Chicago Public Library's summer reading program, "Reading is Art-rageous."
And you know we've got busy days ahead, too.
For those of you who are curious about the Stanley Cup moment:
Mom received a tip that it would be not just in Tribune Tower but on the stage next to her desk, for only a half hour this afternoon, and we decided that she had to get Levynn in there. Here's a little peak at the scene.
Levynn's got her priorities straight!
Mom and Levynn also visited strolled along the Riverwalk and met this fella.
Mom and Levynn visited Shedd Aquarium on a class fieldtrip earlier in the school year, and they saw the new (and overblown) dolphin (et al.) show. Since Lincoln still gets in there free and this is a discount week, Dad decided the boys should check it out.
Here are two snippets from the show:
But the really cool new addition to the aquarium is a section of the kids play zone that looks like it's deep in the ocean:
And this being a big city, you can see something new every day. And this was new to us, as we walked from museum campus to Michigan Ave. Headless, armless bodies?
That's not to say there were no tears this afternoon - the start of a very exciting week for Levynn - when Mom, Dad, Lincoln and other students' families crowded into her classroom for a "kindergarten celebration" to mark the end of a special school year.
The kids sang songs, received "diplomas," ate treats and mingled. There still are two more full days of school left - and a strange one-hour session Friday, after an off day Thursday - but, sniff sniff, they're ready to move on!
Blurry, daggonit! Each kid mentioned something learned during this school year, and Levynn said, "In kindergarten, I learned how to tie my shoes." She also was the only kid to give the teacher a hug!
Still to come: a class party for summer birthdays tomorrow; final goodbyes for Miss Brandt and the kids Friday; Levynn's birthday party with friends Saturday; her actual birthday on Father's Day; and her first baseball practice Monday night.
Dad and Lincoln went right back to Family Fun Festival and Lit Fest today - so Levynn could experience both with us. This was the last day for the nature theme at the former, and Justin Roberts and his Not Ready for Naptime Players were performing at the latter.
Chicago Wilderness and Lurie Garden both brought "A" games to the family fest, providing better activities by far than we had seen over the previous two summers. The live repiles Dad and Lincoln saw Saturday were gone today, and in their place was a picnic table full of interesting skins and furs the kids could touch.
Lincoln particularly liked the skunk!
There also were little tanks with critters like crayfish that kids could catch and examine under a magnifying glass.
Lurie Garden had old brochures for kids to make into notebooks - you can bet Levynn was all over that - and helped kids pot herb plants to bring home. So now we've got a hyssop!
Justin Roberts was entertaining, at least while he lasted. Rain threatened several times before it finally started coming down hard and forced the band off the stage. But he did provide us with a new anthem we can't stop repeating: "There's room enough to share UP IN HENRIETTA'S HAIR!"
While the girls were enjoying themselves elsewhere, it just so happened to be a great day - rain showers notwithstanding - for the boys to do the same.
We had yet to go to Millenium Park's Family Fun Festival (which started Wednesday and continues daily into September); the Chicago Blues Festival was in its second day in Grant Park; and the Chicago Tribune's Printers Row Lit Fest had just started in the South Loop.
Dad and Lincoln tackled the first and last - and Dad got a special taste of the other in between.
As always, we started the family festival with the Wiggleworms program.
But not at all like always, there were live animals to touch! And Lincoln had no qualms about petting the giant pythons, the little turtles, and the lizard. It was Wild in the City week, with activities provided by Chicago Wilderness and Millenium Park's own Lurie Garden.
Watch this comical encounter between Lincoln and a turtle. They stare each other down!
We stopped to hear a little of Sarah and the Tall Boys playing on the Pritzker Pavilion stage before strolling to Lit Fest, where we just wanted to see Peter "Paul and Mary" Yarrow - who wrote "Puff the Magic Dragon" - perform kids songs.
We passed the front of the Art Institute and got our first look at how the lions had been decorated recently. The Chicago Blackhawks just won the Stanley Cup, in case you hadn't heard.
Lincoln fell asleep soon after and thus did not get to meet Otis Taylor, the blues musician that Dad saw perform Thursday. Taylor and another man were walking toward us, heading in the direction of the blues festival. Dad stopped him and shook hands. He's a nice guy!
Then, when we got to Lit Fest, the cast of the Tony-nominated musical "Million Dollar Quartet" was rocking the stage. They weren't even on the schedule Dad had in hand! They stuck around to see Peter Yarrow perform.
And here he is. Thank goodness Lincoln was awake for it!
Levynn's best friend celebrated her birthday today - at McDonald's and a kids salon (yes, there is such a thing!) - and most of the girls in their class were there.
Lots of pink, purple and glitter. Lots of happy little girls.
Mom was there, too, and is glad she got a peek as a preview for Levynn's own birthday party - her first with friends - next weekend. And she's glad Dad didn’t because he might be running for the hills!
Dad plans to take better advantage of Millenium Park's free musical offerings this summer, in case you haven't noticed yet, and made a solo visit today for blues rebel Otis Taylor's short set at Pritzker Pavilion - a day before his headlining act at the Chicago Blues Festival at Grant Park. He's terrific.
This is "Ten Million Slaves," a key song in the film "Public Enemies."
To think Dad secretly wished that Mom had been off tonight, as she will be every Monday starting next week, or that he had hired our new babysitter for a few hours. Tonight just wouldn't have been the same!
With dinner, a picnic blanket, books and toys packed in the stroller, Dad, Levynn and Lincoln walked to Millenium Park to meet friends John and Carolina for a free She & Him concert in Pritzker Pavilion. Dad expected to spend at least some of the time in the lawn, where the kids like to stretch their legs, but it already was overflowing when we arrived a full 45 minutes before the opening act was scheduled to start.
The seating area in front, however, was wide open (the lawn always fills faster, even though you can't see from there), and that's where we had to sit for the duration - or go home early. And Dad oh so didn't want to go home early on this night.
But the kids were great! For three hours of waiting and music and more waiting and more music, they ate, played, danced and thoroughly enjoyed the company of Dad's friends, all while confined to our seating area amidst a massive crowd that far exceeded the venue's 11,000 capacity. It was remarkable, absolutely remarkable.
This wasn't the park's first concert of the season, but it was our first there. We owed ourselves a picnic this week and figured we couldn't do better than music at Millenium Park on Mom's off night!
We heard The Very Best, which features a Malawian singer using four languages and two British DJs backing him. The kids did some dancing!
The kids only got one at-bat each tonight, and Levynn didn't get any action in left field - where she probably was wishing she was closer to her buddy here, who was assigned to right field.
Where could we have seen them?
... miniatures. That's Levynn, peering into one of the 68 rooms in The Art Institute's Thorne Miniature Rooms exhibit. 
We also saw a short concert - Mazes - across the street at Millenium Park and bought our advance tickets for Taste of Chicago, which starts tomorrow.
Levynn didn't get any of that from the coach, who wandered from station to station giving encouragement most of the time. And Dad didn't have to tell her or show her much, either, to be honest. She just did it!
The big emphases of the day were this scooter, which she rode much of the time she was outside, and movies.
She rode the scooter to the restaurant where we had brunch, she rode it from there to the park and back home, and she rode it again later in the afternoon. She made a lot of progress, as you can see below.
After brunch, Dad and Levynn went to the movie theater to see "Toy Story 3" - without the 3D - and it's terrific, if you're wondering. That's one of two movies the two of them had been planning to see with great anticipation today.
For those of you who are curious about the Stanley Cup moment: 
Mom and Levynn also visited strolled along the Riverwalk and met this fella.
And this being a big city, you can see something new every day. And this was new to us, as we walked from museum campus to Michigan Ave. Headless, armless bodies?
Still to come: a class party for summer birthdays tomorrow; final goodbyes for Miss Brandt and the kids Friday; Levynn's birthday party with friends Saturday; her actual birthday on Father's Day; and her first baseball practice Monday night. 
Chicago Wilderness and Lurie Garden both brought "A" games to the family fest, providing better activities by far than we had seen over the previous two summers. The live repiles Dad and Lincoln saw Saturday were gone today, and in their place was a picnic table full of interesting skins and furs the kids could touch. 
Lincoln particularly liked the skunk!
There also were little tanks with critters like crayfish that kids could catch and examine under a magnifying glass.
Lurie Garden had old brochures for kids to make into notebooks - you can bet Levynn was all over that - and helped kids pot herb plants to bring home. So now we've got a hyssop! 
We stopped to hear a little of Sarah and the Tall Boys playing on the Pritzker Pavilion stage before strolling to Lit Fest, where we just wanted to see Peter "Paul and Mary" Yarrow - who wrote "Puff the Magic Dragon" - perform kids songs.
We passed the front of the Art Institute and got our first look at how the lions had been decorated recently. The Chicago Blackhawks just won the Stanley Cup, in case you hadn't heard. 
Lincoln fell asleep soon after and thus did not get to meet Otis Taylor, the blues musician that Dad saw perform Thursday. Taylor and another man were walking toward us, heading in the direction of the blues festival. Dad stopped him and shook hands. He's a nice guy!
Then, when we got to Lit Fest, the cast of the Tony-nominated musical "Million Dollar Quartet" was rocking the stage. They weren't even on the schedule Dad had in hand! They stuck around to see Peter Yarrow perform.
Mom was there, too, and is glad she got a peek as a preview for Levynn's own birthday party - her first with friends - next weekend. And she's glad Dad didn’t because he might be running for the hills!
We heard The Very Best, which features a Malawian singer using four languages and two British DJs backing him. The kids did some dancing!
