Friends, (Farms) and Festivals, redux

Another stunning weekend here in the CLE, full to the brim with festivals and celebration.  It's kind of hard to handle, y'all. Not that I am complaining!!  No.  Just a tiny little bit tired, that's all... and wishing this weekend could last longer than 2 days.

The fun this week started on our "bonus day":  a day off school for the Yom Kippur holiday.  I personally have a soft spot for somber holidays and the day of atonement appeals to me in an abstract way.  But I am also happy that our lack of religious practice allowed us to spend the day at the farm.

 We borrowed some friends for the day.  Here are these two big boys, being too cool to milk a cow.  I can't handle it.

 Let the Fall Festivity begin!!

 We spent an inordinate amount of time in the grain barn.  This lovely, calm woman had our troupe entranced as she guided us through the history of milled grain.

 Jack would have spent all day communing with this horse.  He's such an animal lover.

 Corn maze.  When did they get so big, these brave ones?  They kept disappearing around corners. We tried to hold back and let them be free to have an adventure that was all their own.  We are greedy, we parents.  We want to have the adventures, too, right along with them, to claim some of each new experience for ourselves, slipping back in time, along for the ride.  It is one of the hardest parts, this letting them be on their own...

 Luckily, sometimes they still want to hold our hands.

Wednesday evening we were going to try to top the day off with a visit to the lake, but we were foiled by traffic.  So, a bike ride in our local park had to suffice.  Not a bad second choice!  Look at this big boy on his giant bike...

 Friday-- Mama's night out-- quite literally this week as we visited the Night Market in Old Chinatown.  What  an amazing sensory experience, with food of all sorts being prepared in the tents, incense burning, soft late-summer air on our skin,  An incredibly, beautifully diverse crowd of people filled the streets, to the point that you were simply pulled along with the mass of bodies if you tried to walk down the middle path.  It was pretty amazing.

Also really nice to spend some time in the company of these lovely ladies, whom I had missed all summer.  Here we are, cooing over Alex's new little girl.  What I rock star she is, out on the town with her 2 week old baby...

 Saturday-- a glorious day out, surprisingly warm.  Poor Jack practically gave himself heat stroke playing soccer.  He's so very serious about his games, and did NOT want to step off the field for drinks.  He was a red-faced puddle by the time we went home.  Gave both kids a cool bath and some screen time before we headed back out to enjoy the day some more.

We drove out to Lorain to check out the first annual Firefish festival.  A neat idea by the makers of the Ingenuity Festival, it purported to showcase art and ideas in abandoned spaces.  Of which, it turns out, there are plenty in Lorain.  The prevalence of empty storefronts, all duly bedecked with fish themed art, gave the festival a sorrowful air.  That and the sorry selection of street food.  But the kids managed to have fun and it was a memorable new adventure...even if it is not going on our annual list.

 Here's my old dog, looking noble on Sunday morning...

Thinking of things that are on our annual list--   Sunday was also Apple Day!  I think the pictures speak for themselves pretty well.  The sun always shines on Apple Day, and it's always a little bit of laid back heaven out at Eddy's Fruit Farm...  Also-- when did these four babies get so big??  Wasn't it just yesterday that I was walking the orchard aisles with Ivy in a carrier?  That Jack was being thrown miles into the air, and biting into his own apple for the very first time??

Traditions.  Marvelous things except for the way they shine a spotlight on the sheer speed of life...

For two hours on Sunday, we slowed it down a little bit...

annual coffee-and-donut picnic...

Building nests in the trees....

Can't get enough of these intoxicating September days... so we headed West for the evening to slow life down by our lake...

 I do love an off-season beach.  All the space you need, nothing but laid back people who are as beach-loving as we are.  Our children never play so cooperatively and independently as they do at the beach.

 We lingered as long as we could... no rush to get home as we let the kids stay up late for this...

(these, in case you can't tell, are terrible quality photos of the total lunar eclipse, as viewed from the parking lot at Woodmere. It was totally cool.  The eclipse, not the parking lot. Worth a late bedtime for sure...)

Now-- back to the real world for my first 5-day work week in almost a month. Already wanting my weekend back...

Friends and Festivals

It's been another wonderful week here in Cleveland.  This September just won't stop with the incredible weather.  It's been a shame to be indoors at work all week.  I really think summer vacation needs to extend all the way to the end of summer, so we can soak up the perfection of this season...

This week's recap starts with Wednesday, when we made the middle of the week a lot more interesting by visiting a brand new baby.

Here is Ivy holding the newest member of our family-of-friends, two-day-old Sally Ruth.

Isn't she perfection??  So soft. So tiny.  Ivy was over the moon to be invited to the hospital to meet and hold her new friend.  She can't wait to babysit.

Rainbow Babies Hospital has a pretty rockin' playground, too, which is where the boys spent their time during our visit.  Jack said "Hi" to Sally in a very polite voice, but that was about where his interest ended.  Thank goodness big brothers Max and Sam were ready for a break from baby, too...

  The kiddos were off school on Friday.  Sadly I was not, so I missed taking part in the day pictured below.  Luckily I have the Art Museum and Gardens sealed in my heart and I can imagine the hours my family spent there, as if I were there with them.  Nat and I have been looking back at old photo books this week and we are struck by the way we are always going to the same places, at about the same time of year, year after year... but can you blame us when the places are like this?

We hosted the big brothers again on Friday for a few hours.  A nice playdate which resulted in front-yard swordfights...

 ... and enough leisure time for me to sneak out for a solo (plus dog) amble around our neighborhood.  It fairly glowed in the September evening light, this little block of ours; a reassuring reminder, in this season of life where it seems everyone is moving away, that I really do love where I live.

This weekend has been a welcome respite from what turned out to be a hectic week at work. Saturday dawned grey and rainy and so instead of trying to fit in the City Hop we stuck close to home, shopping and cleaning for the morning.  Jack got his soccer game in before the downpour, and then we headed to the Perry's for an (indoor) end of summer picnic.

 I am sad that we did not get our annual trolley trip around our vibrant downtown-- but spending time with these kiddos all together was a pretty good consolation prize.

Here's what an indoor picnic looks like, Hiram-alum style....

And here is what a Polish Bantam hen looks like when Ivy holds her.

Everyone loves random chicken pictures.  So here's another.  The girls do love the back porch.

Speaking of pets.  The bunny and dog continue to improve relations.  Here they are working on training side-by-side.  Both of them are eagerly performing for carrot-flavored yogurt treats.

Also the bunny seems to like snuggling in to my hair. 

Today-- now today was a DAY. We did it up right.

Mario Kart and pancakes to start the morning.

Then-- Lake time.

Flying a kite on a blustery beach...

 In this photo we are watching the waves break over the pier.  It was pretty awesome.

Front row seats for nature's show.

 After a stop in Lakewood to help Gram organize her garage, we took the highway out east to participate in one of my favorite events of the year, Woofstock.  So many dogs!  All so well-behaved!  Such a perfect day!  We wandered around and petted puppies and picked up swag with big grins plastered on our faces.  Corydon did the agility course and made many friends.

So did Ivy.

 Because one festival a day is never enough... we stopped at the Chalk Festival on the way home.

So did the rest of the city of Cleveland.  It was splendid there.  Colorful in every way.  Art covering the ground, brilliant blue above, and a magnificent cross-section of the population of our city wandering and drawing and running and splashing and generally reveling to the reggae music streaming from the terrace.

Yes.

 We spent time with three different sets of friends and neighbors, made plenty of new friends thanks to our dog, and recharged our love for this city all over again...

May this week bring joy and color to your lives, friends...