day of the dead Dia de Los Muertes

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Three is a super fun age. This year we were able to take advantage of the city's many free activities aligning with the holiday dejour. Pilsen, Chicago's most noted Hispanic neighborhood houses the National Mexican Heritage Museum that puts on an annual Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead) celebration that we decided to check out. Like many of the other free Chicago events, it was packed, almost to an un-enjoyable degree. The line to get in the museum for some of the fun stuff was an hour... skip it. The face painting line looked less daunting and Brock was psyched for a happy skeleton face so we pony'ed up to what turned out to be a very long wait. One of us kept place while the other took Brock around to sample the festive sprinkle bread and play in the playground. 

As Matt tells the story, Brock wanted to go on this equipment but said daddy was too big for the other side. Matt told him he would have to ask someone to join him. Brock apparently sat silently brooding on the teeter-bouncy for quite a while. Then, the sweetness of the world poured down on him and brought this adorable little lady who asked Brock if she could go on the other side. Pure delight was had by all. 

I sent the "I'm looking in the building it can't be long now" text, and were beckoned to a table.

Brock is very amicable when it comes to a good face-painting.




Brock kept asking the gal for more and more colors, saying "just some orange please" (then green, and red, and yellow) - luckily his charm scored him a full facial rainbow.




We also checked out the alters and Brock made note of all the ones that had sugar skulls on them. Finally, going to Pilsen is never complete without visiting a restaurant that is out of our regular neighborhood circuit. I remembered a place I wanted to check out called Dusek's... it was awesome. I had duck! It was real good. Matt told me it was the best duck he had had and that it didn't always taste like that. Thanks Pilsen! Thanks Day of the Dead! But now we have to skull-y away. (bla). 



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