Parade the Circle, no less.
Thankfully, there was no candy. Just buckets of creativity wandering around the cultural heart of Cleveland. Just a marvelous cross-section of our city's population gathered together in one festive, friendly mass of blankets and coolers and foldable chairs. Just a wealth of food tents and craft tents and booths of information and booths of merchandise framing a green green lawn dotted with tables and children chasing balls and balloons and frisbees. Just sunshine and steel drums and beauty.
I love this city in the summertime.
Reality check-- it was a HOT day. HOT. And the parade started about 45 minutes late. And our lovely shaded spot gradually lost its shade as the afternoon progressed and we compressed our sweaty little group full of melting little children (and one very very large bag of kettle corn) onto fewer and fewer blankets...
And it was still wonderful.
This was our first year with two children who actively participated in the craft booths. We had fun making masks and crowns and beaded bracelets, and managed to bring home both of our balloons (which are still tied to the wagon in the back of the van, giving it a very party vibe when we do errands...).
The parade itself--they were entralled. Jack stationed himself down by the curb with a 5 year old boy he'd met, and didn't move for the better part of 40 minutes. High noon on a 90 degree day-- we ferried water up to him on a regular basis before retreating back to the blanket. He was impervious. He tells us his favorite part was "the lizard with the long legs and I liked it when he jumped around". Ivy was a little scared of the more dramatic floats, saying "No get me!!" and "Dat one scary!" even as she craned her neck to see what was next. She loved the drums, though, unequivocally.
A close second: wandering the green and being spun around by daddy out in the sunshiney open of it all. Standing in the middle of Wade Oval, it was summertime incarnate.
A delicious day, all told.
For mommy, the day had just begun: I headed straight from the van to my car to join my sister at her friend Molly's wedding reception. A lovely, cultured affair, it was held in the expansive lakefront backyard of an exquisite Lakewood mansion. Which, I might add, I was able to tour. That plus a gin and tonic and a pig roast made for a pretty rockin' afternoon. Plus our friend and realtor was there, and she gave me a showing of a wonderful Lakewood Bungalow-- oh, the overhanging eaves on that place! Bonus.
But it didn't end there. Today we went to the park to meet up with some former Parent Center regulars in town for a visit, and lingered for two hours as our children got to know some new friends, covered themselves in sand, and ran themselves ragged. And on the way home we picked raspberries.
Cap that off with grilled steak and corn and bubbles and baseball in the driveway at Gram's tonight, and I think (if we had to) we could cross summer off the list. Two days in and we've done it already.
What a breathtaking thought that this is only the beginning.
(*the above inside joke may be familiar to followers from Winnipeg, where the statement "Summer came on a weekend. We had a picnic" is used to emphasize the length of a Manitoba winter...)
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