Spring Break!

Nat has been (not so) fondly referred to this week as "the spring break of my discontent."  After many years of either trekking across the country with the kids, or getting time off alone while the kids are still in school, I had a tough time coming to terms with doing neither of those things this year.   Having a sick kiddo to kick off the week didn't help, but I've also been sad that we're not doing anything  novel and memorable as a family to mark this space of time. 

Then again, spending a week primarily centered around our house, working on projects and sleeping in?  That's pretty novel for our family, actually.  And (now that I've spend most of the week adjusting-- wonder where Jack gets that trait??) it's not really that bad of a plan.

Spring Break 2017 so far:

Snuggling in at home for  a few days:

Making salt dough decorations...

 Working on painting projects (updated color and freshened trim in the kitchen, and refreshing the bathroom paint after removing that ugly white cabinet...)

 A "snack-nic" (patent pending) at the Lagoon...

...complete with finding pennies in the bottom of the empty fountain, and rock-hiding of course!!

Easter crafting extravaganza!

A few of my favorite finished salt dough creations..

 ... and the final result-- our new spring window mural.

Big Spring with our friends!

These big girls are showing off newly missing teeth!  (and no, Ivy is not that much taller than her friends.  She just made the executive decision to wear her high heels.  Of course.)

 Butterfly magic!

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 We even got to watch one of them hatch!  Amazing.

This boy.  My heart.                                                                                                                    

I like this picture because it shows their current mode of interacting with each other.  Snarky, with a little bit of affection underneath.  And generally, forcibly separated from each other to keep the squabbling at bay...

 A gorgeous day on Wednesday found us in the Bedford Reservation.  We've not been on a hike down to our favorite stream in years.  I believe the last time we may have still used the carrier for Ivy??

Not this year. Big kids took the trail easily, and Nat and Jack even forged their own path up the steep slope and through the woods on the return trip.

 Had to give this old dog some aspirin the next day, but she tells me it was totally worth it.

 We visited Bridal Veil Falls on the way home.  Waterfall Summer lives on!

 This picture is just so very... Ivy.

 My girl and I had a great hike up the trail together, pretending to be lost in the Fairy Realm, saving the wood fairies from a dark magic cloud using clues written on dried leaves.  I taught her the basics of the magic game I played as a child, and she took it and ran...

A not-so-gorgeous day on Thursday took us to the bowling alley...

This boy is developing some nice bowling form...

 Ivy brought a friend and she was in her "over-helping" glory.

 Jack, in turn, looked out for his sister..

 We have cute kids.

 Rounded out our Thursday with a swim and dinner out with friends.  We ate at the Legacy Village Chipotle and it felt like a walk down memory lane to be there.  We had quite a bit of fun poking around in the new Z-Gallerie, where the clerks were terrifically patient and Ivy and I fell in love with this $160 throw blanket.

 If all goes well, tonight Nat and I will be in Buffalo, enjoying a night out exploring a new place, then a day of architecture tours tomorrow.  Our big spring break escape! Because nothing says "Spring Break party time!" quite like Buffalo.

So, no big family adventures this year.  But, as Toasted Marshmallow will attest, hanging out at home really isn't all that bad.

Resting up

We are on spring break!  As is the case every year, spring break arrived not a moment too soon.  After an exhausting week at work, it feels good to stay close to home and rest up.  This works well, as thanks to a little girl with a sad tummy, we are having some enforced quarantine as a family.  Plenty of TV time for kids, and a chance to start a few painting projects around the house as we wait to see who else falls to the bug...

Also a chance to catch up on the blog with some of things we were up to, back when we could leave the house.

Jack has been enthusiastically learning to play the ukulele.  If he were just a tiny bit more passionate about music... he picks things up so quickly.

Ivy girl had her ballet observation night.   Since she missed a week due to illness (March has not been her best month), this one seemed to come around really fast.  Such an amazingly cute group of girls in this class, having so much fun together!  But, WHEN did they get so tall???

Candyland STEM night at Boulevard.  A really fun family/community event at our school.  Hands on activities for the kids, many run by their teachers, plus a delicious chicken dinner and a chance to catch up with our parent friends.  With the sunlight streaming in through the high windows, the old gym even looked pretty good.

Ivy enjoyed working with Mrs. Reynolds, her old Kindergarten teacher.

 Friday-- Sunny and seventy out, so we went to the lake!  A picture perfect start to vacation.

Ivy was so excited to fly this kite she won from the treasure box at school.  Sadly, there was a bit too much wind for it to handle...

My happy old girl....

Setting up for long jumps, of course.  Our tradition, apparently.

The air was soft and summery and this boy was overflowing with enthusiasm for the weather.   He is such a delight when he is so happy.

Note the bow in Corydon's ear.  Yes, we did take her swimming *directly* from the groomers. Clean dog, schmlean dog.   She deserved some joy after the self-inflicted trauma of a grooming session.  Poor neurotic dog.

 Saturday, pre-illness:  The kids went to their second week of "Science Academy" at Tri-C (which Jack has dubbed "weekend school"- yet does not seem to mind much).  Nat and I spent the morning tooling around the city together:  Shopping at the West Side Market, walking around on West 25th, discovering a cute coffee shop on the first floor of the Cleveland Hostel (which I did not know existed til today and which has a terrific rooftop patio), lunch at the Market Garden Brewery, driving and inspecting derelict properties and photographing the underside of bridges down near the River, cruising past the newly renovated Flats... what an amazing, interesting city we live in.

View from the roof at the hostel.

My favorite of the empty public buildings we checked out.  This one is just begging to be a house, I think...

Likeable

This evening we spent some quality family time at the outlet mall.  Jack was off a playdate so Nat and I took the one child in our charge to enjoy some rampant consumerism and shoe shopping.

Two observations:

1.  Parenting one child at a time is SO much easier than parenting the two of them together, these days.  Remove the constant squabbling, and life is a breeze.

2.  My daughter is a really fun shopping companion.

Seriously.  She was a hoot.  We had the best time at the Ann Taylor Outlet, browsing the clearance racks together.  Never too young to learn the skill of bargain hunting!  Ivy enjoyed pulling out her favorite tops for me to try on, and decrying the pieces she did not approve of.  "What did they THINK they were MAKING????" she exclaimed, holding out a lavender, half-sheer blouse.  "It buttons up here on the neck and its light AND dark??"  She is not afraid to express herself, my girl.
In the dressing room, she was the perfect combination of supportive and honest, and eagerly helped with both hangers and decision making. We laughed and commiserated and enjoyed each other's company along with the clothing.

I've loved my children from the first-- but what fun to turn around and realize how much I *like* the people they are becoming, too.

In like a (tired) lion (or, alternately, March Rocks...)

It's that time of year in Cleveland.  Having been teased by the promise of spring, we are now dismally resigned to the return of winter.  Resigned to our routine and the cold, we trudge on, holding fast to the little bits of extra light at the end of each day....

Ok, so its not really so bad as all that.  But our 75 degree wonderland is most certainly gone and the pace of daily life is most certainly not vacation-like, and I am most certainly rather tired just now.
I am also really hoping that last week's line of severe storms, Friday's small blizzard, and the plethora of meetings I've had to attend both before and after school qualifies as "in like a lion," and maybe the worst of March is already behind us.

Here's what we've been up to with our bits of extra light:

Enjoying Forest Hills Park in the spring...

My little family!  My heart!

 A fun President's Day at  Lake FarmPark...

I've been singing with a little church choir near us and Ivy has fallen in with a group of same aged kids at the church.  She also notes that she thinks the Bible stories they learn about in nursery/Sunday school are "kind of nice".  Well... her mother WAS a Bible Bowl champion so this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise...

 Here she is enjoying the Fat Tuesday-on-a-Sunday pancake breakfast.  Best thing about a church, right?  Communal food!

 More singing, another church...  a sublime winter concert at St. Stephen's with West Shore on the 26th.  Some of my favorite repertoire (Schubert's Mass, and lots of favorites from the Hymns. Folksongs and Spirituals collection) and such a wonderful, resonant, reverant space to sing it in!  I have most of the pieces memorized at this point so the whole experience just felt great-- I was in my best voice and able to really sink into and enjoy the music.  Days like this make all the Tuesday night drives so very worth it...

 In the midst of our "return to winter," there have been a few lovely days, too!  A couple of lake walks to add to my bank...

Celebrating Gram's birthday.  She doesn't like birthdays but we won't let her get off that easy.  :)

Rocks!  That's what else we've been up to.  Painting em, sealing em, getting friends together to paint them, and today, having a blast hiding them at Wade Oval.    We haven't found any more since our introductory rocks back at Brandywine falls, but no matter.  We've been having a great time.  Hoping to singlehandedly (single- family-ly??) get rock hunting to catch on in our area...

A few of our early works, in their local hiding spots last week....

Last night-- an impromptu girls night rock painting party....Nat was out of town and Jack at a sleepover... single parenting one child is a very *quiet* endeavor.  We needed company!  And had SO much fun creating with our friends....

Kids and I headed to Severance with Gram this afternoon for a wonderful performance of "The Firebird," complete with puppets, masked dancers, and some sublime instrumentation.  By the time the show ended, spring had returned to Cleveland, and so we went to enjoy it with everyone else over at the lagoon.

Jack, overtired from a sleepover last night, alternated between enjoying life and sitting and reading in various locations.  Just can't stop this kid from reading.   (I am OK with that.)

 What a great place, and a great day, for rock hiding!

 We had the joy of seeing one of our rocks get found!  This young lady had been checking out a rock on our first pass... and here she is just as we walked out of the lagoon-- running off with her find!  About half of the rocks we put out, were gone before we left the park. Hoping they brought some smiles (and that at least one of them will get posted!!)

Finally:  my funny little mammals.  What would we do without our pets?  They bring me so much joy.