A whole l-otter love in the CLE

We've been enjoying our city this week! 

Wednesday we decided to enjoy the warm weather by visiting the new wildlife garden at the Natural History museum.  It was so cool.  A really beautiful, visually interesting space, great access to the animals... and the otters!  We couldn't get enough of the otters.

 Mainly this one, Lucy.  She was amazing, all zippy and happy and diving everywhere along the glass.  I think she was genuinely playing with the kids, following them as much as they were following her.  When they walked away, she slowed her swimming and popped her head up and actually looked around for them.

 Oh and did I mention we had the whole place to ourselves??  Wednesday night is THE time to experience this place...

We are trying to get used to this new, salmon-colored version of Steggie. Incidentally, Ivy can now climb all the way up and over his back on her own.  She's crazy-big.

The new  "Food" exhibit was pretty cool..  here is Ivy playing in the little play kitchen at the end, with a passion she never shows in her own play kitchen at home..

Thursday evening... a quiet at-home sort of night with two tired kids ( I think things are starting to get real at school and the hard work takes its toll by the tail end of the week...).  We did take a nice walk to the park where the kids contentedly played on swings and chatted and pretended to catch Pokemon (aka a rabbit, a squirrel and several glacial erratics).  In all of our busyness its easy to forget the joys of a simple evening together at home..

 Friday:  Never mind the simple joys of staying home... THIS night called for a trip to the lake.
We mobilized and by 5:30 kids had practiced piano, we had obtained Mama Santa's pizza, and we were on our way to our happy place.

It was the perfect choice.

Off-season beaches are my favorite.

(they are Ivy's favorite too...)

This is my " I win at life because I am on the beach at sunset on September 9th" face.

 We swam, did long-jumps, and played in the surf until the sun was down.  To add to the experience, it was the first night of Neocycle, so we did all of these things to the soundtrack of a live spinning class  followed by a couple of local bands.  
The water was warm, the sand was cool, the beach was populated by a scatter of contented families.
Just right.

Here are my children jumping on to my lap as the waves pushed us towards shore.  Not pictured:  the sunset light reflected on their faced and their twinkling, laughing eyes as we giggled together.  They are magical creatures, my children.  And the beach is a magical place.  We are all so happy there, every time...

 Today:  The start of fall soccer!  This is the year the soccer is clicking for Ivy.  She is fully invested in the game and starting to figure it out.  Even Jack was pleasantly surprise, telling her "Ivy, you are so good at everything!"  He got to be the assistant coach alongside Nat, for part of the game.  He also got tapped to be a goalie for a team of little girls that was short a player.  He was loving his "older wiser soccer player" role today. Sadly during his games he managed to overheat himself and have a few emotional moments.  But, played his heart out and played well as always... (here's hoping for some cooler weather for the rest of the season!)

 Today was also the day of Becca's engagement party! (Which we had the honor of hosting..) So, things were  a little busy around our house.

Everything came off swimmingly.  Becca (ably assisted by her friend Molly, and Joe of course!) did a great job coordinating decorations and food and our messy, storm damaged yard managed to look pretty nice for the afternoon,

I had a great time getting to know some of Becca's friends and "future-family," and catching up on some of our family friends who I haven't seen in far too long.  The chickens and the treehouse were a hit, and 30 people were well fed and happy in our yard.  Parties... so much work, so worth it.

A few moments from the "after-party"-- a foretaste of events to come in June 2018!

Lots of love from our little corner of the world, to yours.