Holding on to summer...

With sunshine and blue skies and temperatures in the seventies all weekend, it was easy to overlook the changing leaves and pretend that summer never left.  Add to that the 5 festive events we attended as a family this weekend, and a delightful field trip to Hale Farm with my class on Friday (right after that grand day off at the zoo) and this week has felt a lot like vacation.

I really don't want to go to work tomorrow.

Also, I am exhausted.

A quick recap, because this September festival season has been so jam-packed that we really can't remember everything we do each weekend...)

 Friday night:  Art Opening at MOCA.

Ivy was our "only" for the evening as Jack was out at the movies with a friend.  All of us were nonplussed about the actual art exhibit, though only Ivy voiced her opinion, with a polite, whispered, "Mommy, I really don't think this is very amazing."  But we did enjoy crafting with clay and running into three families we knew (love the "small town" of Cleveland!).  And of course, ice cream after!   

Ivy is such a trip.  She kept us laughing all evening as she enthusiastically greeted the world in her "cowboots" and jewelry, leading us along the streets with skipping and jumping.  She is so tall and so lovely and so much fun to be with, this one.  Love her. 

Saturday:  Started the day with a breakfast fundraiser at St. Paul's-- cereal and music and crafts int he church basement and like everything about St. Paul's it was just too cute for words.  Too cute for pictures, too, as both Nat and I managed to forget our phones (Hey, getting everyone out of the house by 9 on a Saturday is no small feat!).  A couple moments I want to remember:  Ivy and Nora carefully tracing and coloring in their handprints on the tablecloths.  The 'big boys" flying paper airplanes and drawing in more and more friends over on the side of the room.  The children screaming with excitement, rock-concert style, when the guitarist announced he would be playing the ABC song...

 Then, off with Ivy to the Curesearch walk.  As I posted to Facebook, it was a beautiful day to wear purple.   I didn't know too many people at the walk this year.  A few of the other Mama Speakeasy regulars, and enough of their little ones running about that Ivy was soon off and playing as we waited for things to begin.  My friend Kate noted that it felt wrong to have our children here, running and playing and glowing in the sunshine and being so.... alive.  And it did.  Of course it felt wrong because nothing about childhood cancer or Rebecca's story could be anything but wrong.  

And yet.  A part of me can't help but think that having our children dance and glow in the sunshine is the only way to make anything right again.  If Rebecca could have been there, she would have been running and dancing and glowing too.  I soaked up the joy of our living children in her honor, and appreciated it in the marrow of my bones.

But it was still hard to clap for the survivors.

 Silver lining of the morning:  Meeting this lovely young lady, Sophie, and her mother, and another neighbor of theirs.  Wonderful people, who have been wandering in the same circles as us all this time and yet our paths had not yet crossed. We all walked together, with Sophie taking charge of Corydon.  She had so much love and enthusiasm for my dog, and such a contagious joy about her; a delightful child.  I am hopeful I'll get to cross paths again soon with these new friends, and I am grateful to Rebecca whose spirit is still working among those of us who love her.

Nat and Jack picked us up at Wade Oval because one cannot waste a moment of this intoxicating weather when there are so many festivals to attend...  We headed to Edgewater to check out the Neocycle event-- and we fell in love.  We were there for the Cyclecross race, which was fun to watch if a bit disorienting, as cyclists wove this way and that around the beach and throughout the festivial itself.  We enjoyed a decent band and some pretty good swag and the overall laid back vibe of "The Hub", but even more we just enjoyed being at Edgewater on this gift of a day.  Our children jumped in the surf and and the dog swam and rolled and basked and I wanted to freeze time with my feet in the sand and the lake breeze on my face and the treetops just barely tinged with red and gold.   Magic.

Today:  After spending the morning cleaning Jack's room (all I can say is, about time we did that.  Phew.)  we headed back to the lake to visit the Ingenuity festival (disappointing and disorganized this year, in my opinion) and a redux of Neocycle (just about a perfect event, in my opinion, but maybe that's the "frisbee on the beach" talking...).

Assembling robots that were cut out of wood on a laser printer.

Making stickers (Jack's favorite part)

Not nearly enough of these large scale art-y exhibits this year...

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Ivy had a great time finding these banners and posing for "selfies" to earn herself some fingerless gloves from the swag table.

  Apparently there were several other fall-ish festivals in the area this weekend and we could have been out in the country celebrating the harvest.  But I can't imagine a better place to spend this last blast of summer than in the heart of our city, next to our great lake.  There'll be time for fall next weekend. ...