Day 166: First Day and Labor Day

 This week has flown by, and with it my first 5 day week teaching, the kids' first three days of virtual school, and our first three-day-weekend of the school year.  We are under way! 

Pictured here:  Annual "night before the first day of school" portrait photo shoot.  The dog and cat are not starting school but still managed to get in on the action.  I love that picture of Winter keeping the cat under wraps.  With her face all like "What?  Nothing to see here!"

Here's my new eighth grader, along with alllll his hair....

And the new 5th grader!

And Nat, and Opus.

The kids' year started on September 2nd.  We went outside for photos but no backpacks needed this year...

Jack could not believe he had to hold this sign.

Here he is at his basement work station, which lasted about 20 minutes before we realized not much could be done to make our basement NOT look like a dungeon in the background of a Google Meet.  He moved upstairs, to his swanky room with the lights and gaming chair,  with the caveat that the Xbox controller stay on a different floor during school hours...  Jack's school day is a doozy, with two electives and 4 core classes, 40 minutes online apiece, all before lunch, then enrichment and mindfulness after.   I do think its a good plan to keep middle schoolers busy and structured, though, and so far he's not complained.  He did note that he's had good training at being on a screen for many consecutive hours. True that. 

Little one started one hour later.  Her school day is paced well with breaks and chances for independen work, while her teacher works with the 4th graders in her 4/5 split.  Ivy had been anxious about the new 4th grade students joining her class-- turns out in virtual-school she hardly sees them.  And out of our two kiddos Ivy is the one who can better pace herself and manage unstructured work time, so her schedule is going to work out well, I think.

She's learning in her room too, so while I taught from home on Wednesday in my office on the first floor, it was almost like the kids weren't in the house.  Super quiet, and super engaged, and except for a couple of log-in and volume hiccups, they didn't need my help at all.  Wild.  And OK.  If the first week of online school is any indication, it is going to be...OK.  I'll take it. 

When we've not been busy on Zooms and Meets this week, we've been at the lake. 

Thursday night sunset -date with my honey and my doggo.  Edgewater dog beach never disappoints. 

We've had fresh produce ripening in our gardens and lovely weather most of the week for eating outdoors.  Homegrown heirloom tomato and basil salad on my patio?  Don't mind if I do. 

Friday night sunset beach with my mom and the dogs at Rocky River.

We thought and thought about running off to Farley's for Labor day but in the end decided that it felt like a bit too much after this first week of school.  So we found sunshine and celebration closer to home. 

Saturday brought a trip to Holden Arboretum to visit the new Stickworks art installation.  And of course our favorite climbing tree. 

She had more fun on the canopy walk than this photo would indicate, though it was strange to have to wait in line for things at Holden!  Even with reservations and limited numbers of guests it was packed.  Pandemic-world means more people out enjoying parks, and while this is a good thing in the abstract-- really, people SHOULD be enjoying nature and all the magic our area has to offer-- its still frustrating to have our favorite "secret" spots get so crowded...

The stickwork was magical and we are looking forward to repeat visits as it weathers through the year...

Sunday Zoom church on my mom's deck is becoming a tradition.  This time, with spaniels!  These two are so sweet together. 

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Labor Day with Steve's family at Euclid Beach. We haven't seen them for most of the summer between all of our travels, so it really felt like a mini-family reunion. And a little bit like camping together too, sitting around the grill, playing guitar and frisbee, eating summertime foods.  The weather was not ideal for swimming, cool and cloudy with a few sprinkles, but it was nice to be by the lake even if we weren't in it, and we stuffed ourselves on burgers and IPA's and homemade guac and it was terrific.  Lucky to have this great family of mine! 

 

 

Day 163: All's Fair

 We had some wonderful, silly fun last weekend.  Because we ALWAYS go to the county fair with Melinda and Will (we think the girls have gone together every year of their lives!) and there is no county fair this year... we took matters into our own hands.  Over a month in the making, the first annual Superior Fair went off without a hitch and may have to continue even if/when the County Fair comes back...

We had fair food!  Corndogs, italian sausages, Cotton candy, and even funnel cake (go Melinda! It was totally perfect!)

We won more prizes on the midway than we could carry!

There was even a demolition derby!

We exhibited out treasures and art in the Arts and Crafts pergola, and many ribbons were won!

We had an animal barn!  Sadly we only had chickens and a rocking horse in it because we couldn't corral our rabbit to bring him outside and I wasn't able to get anyone to bring goats over to our yard (though I tried and actually came pretty close! Darn Covid...).  Next year!!

We had guests! (friend Zoe and Gram Gram too!) It was nice to not being doing ALLLLL the setup JUST for ourselves.  I mean, it was *mostly* for ourselves.  We were inordinately pleased and shockingly excited to do all the work.  But it is also gratifying to have at least a few visitors to show it off to.  I wish we could have invited the whole community to our fair, because it was really that awesom.

But the line at the food table might have gotten out of hand.

And we might have been a little short on space in the Arts and Crafts Pergola during voting time.

Which everyone took VERY seriously.  Bless their hearts.  I love these people so much for indulging my silly ideas.

The midway kept on rocking all afternoon.  Eventually we moved to the honor system for winning tickets and buying prizes and can I tell you about these sweet girls and how earnest they were.  "I got the ball in the bucket three times and on the edge 4 times so that's 19 tickets, ok?"  "Ok, go take 19 blue tickets!"  A few minutes later, 12 blue tickets are pressed into my hand in exchange for two stuffed animals that came out of the giveaway bin in my basement. All while I sat and relaxed on the patio with a Budwiser (because its the fair so we couldn't have good beer, of course!)

We lingered and played and ate and drank and celebrated winning ribbons for a good 4 hours, and no one even got hurt during the demolition derby.  So a win for sure.  

A little more photo-documentation: the culmination of weeks of sign painting, art gathering and general preparation...