Festivities

September is the month of ALL THE THINGS.  Seriously, this city is making sure that the summer festival season goes out with a bang.  We've got at least two festivals on the calendar each weekend all month, most of them long-standing favorites that we don't want to miss...
This weekend was certainly no exception, with no less than three festivals, celebrating everything from chalk to old-time craftmanship to cultural diversity.  Add to that a 5K race yesterday and an overnight for the kids at Grandma's last night, and we are all wishing we had another day this weekend-- to rest up!

Here is an exhausting number of pictures for you.

Wednesday-- a mom-and-kids trip to the Museum.  We had the place to ourselves, which was pretty magical.  This neat exhibit is full of hideaways and secret nooks and the sounds of a marsh.

Friday night-- pizza, video games and lots of dolls with some new friends and their four little girls.
It was neat to see Ivy's room in full, girly use.  And she and Evelyn had quite the drama going with all of the Polly Pocket dolls-- thus excusing the unholy mess they made of the playroom.

 Saturday-- a cloudy day turned glorious.  A morning run with friend Chaya, who was running her first -ever 5K.  It was rewarding to run with her and help her pace her way to a time 4 minutes below her goal.

Then, off with the family to the Chalk Festival.  It was a lot like the Kite festival, only with chalk.  Laid back, scenic as can be, and no one trying to sell us anything. A perfect way to enjoy the warming weather for a few hours.

We bought  square to decorate as a family, for the first time. It was fun to participate in the festivities as more than just an onlooker.

 Saturday night-- out with the girls!  I've been having a great time getting to know this tremendous set of fellow mamas, who all work hard to get together as a group, and commit to trying new things and making events happen.  This time, we tried our hand at glass blowing.  Not my thing, it turns out, but I'm glad I gave it a shot.  And those nerve wracking moments holding thousand-degree metal objects were all worth it for the feast we had at Siam Cafe afterwards.

Sunday-- Village Peddler Festival at Lake Farmpark.  Man, people really love them some crafts.   You wouldn't believe the line to park at this thing...
We did look at a number of booths and even purchased a few handcrafted items-- but the highlights for our group were the things that had nothing to do with this particular festival: piglets and the corn maze.

On the way home-- once more with feeling!  We stopped at the Cultural Gardens to check out the One World Festival.  Which was huge and full of booths of ethnic food that smelled incredible. It was both convenient and tragic that we'd already spent all of  our cash.  Best part of this one?  Kids scooting in the street, and the sunny-perfect day filtering down the hill.  And the gobs of people who really did look all multi-cultural, ethnic garb and all, wandering the usually deserted garden paths.

Currently slogging through another week and looking forward to another chock-full weekend to come.  Until then...

Shining Days

It has been a most glorious weekend here in the CLE.  The kind of weekend I want to bottle up and keep forever.  The kind of weekend I cling to desperately, wishing it did not have to end.   The kind of weekend I am immensely grateful for.  So full of gifts.

And, swag.  Lots of swag.

We visited not one but two Expos at the new Convention Center Saturday-- the Pet Expo and some sort of general health expo.  Expo, as it turns out, is a fancy word for "booths full of people handing out free crap with their company logo on it."

We totally love free crap.  We had a great time.

Our children are crazy about spinner games.  They don't even care what they win.

The Pet Expo was a bit overwhelming thanks to poor acoustics in the concrete-clad room-- so much so that it was difficult to enjoy the plethora of beautiful dogs in attendance.  We had better luck meeting new canine friends out in the carpeted hallways.  Corydon was good as gold at her first Expo, and got to experience her first escalator, and her first trip into a public restroom.  

We had thought about taking the train to Peninsula as our Saturday event, but the early part of the day was grey and uninspiring.  Hence the excuse to hang out inside the Convention Center for two hours. 

We were surprised to emerge into a picture-perfect afternoon, and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk back to the car.  Downtown is looking so great these days...

The day was feeling so fine, and we were so close, that we decided we had to take a trip to the lake.

As we approached we noticed there were a lot of kites up.  More than one would expect on a random Saturday.

 Turns out, we'd arrived in time for the tail end of the Cleveland International Kite Festival.  I know, right?  Who knew we had an International Kite Festival?

It was pretty neat.

While the kids worked on flying their kite (which we just happened to have in the van), Corydon and I snuck off to the beach for some quality dog-and dog-mom time together.

 I really love my dog.  And the lake.  And the sounds of the waves on a windy day.

The beach, closed for the season but still groomed, was a calm oasis.  I found myself loving everything about it, from the exuberant German Shepherd leaping the waves to our left, to the Muslim family gathering stones, to the quiet couple snuggled together on the breakwall.

Everyone I saw, in fact, seemed to be intensely... happy.  Lake Effect happiness?  Or, perhaps, it was the kites.

We decided we had to go back today to find out for sure.

We brought reinforcements.

I do love me a full van.

And the weather brought these skies.  Fluffy clouds and all.  Calm and mild, seventy-four degrees of sunny September bliss. 

Why not go fly a kite?

So these were amazing.  They swooped and dived like synchronized swimmers in time to music, each kite controlled by at least 6 strings. 

The happiness?  Definitely due to  the kites.  Or maybe the giant bubbles.  Or perhaps all of the well-mannered dogs out enjoying the festival right with their humans. (There were so many dogs we decided perhaps the name of the event ought to be changed to "Things on Strings" in order to be more inclusive)  Or maybe it was the sheer quantity of joyful children, faces turned, glowing, up to the skies in wide-eyed wonder.

Again today, everyone we saw was just... happy.  I think it would be impossible to grumble for very long on a day like this, in a field like this, with colors streaming all around.

It was a nearly perfect festival.  Simple but vibrant.  In stark contrast to Saturday's events, no one was trying to sell us anything.  There was music,  there were performances, there was always something new to notice.  The whole thing was one giant children's game.  There were ever-plenty of happy, friendly people milling about, but no crowds whatsoever.

I think the Kite Festival may be one of Cleveland's best kept secrets.

The kids were excited to participate in a craft (making kites, of course) that actually yielded a pretty terrific product.

These kites literally flew themselves.  Jack and Ivy were so very proud to see their creations up there alongside the colorful giants and stunt kites.

They were also really happy to have ice cream.

We finished off the afternoon with a visit to the pier, where the girls performed ballet and the dog charmed everyone she met and the lake glittered to perfection.




Shining days indeed.

First Days

Your official "back to school" post for our two kiddos, now that both have actually, officially started.




Jack, Age 7, First Day of 2nd grade

Favorite Color:  Blue
What I want to be when I grow up: Pet Shop Owner
Favorite Toy:  Star Wars Ship, Kindle Fire, Nerf Gun, Money
What I like to do:  I don't know, just PLAY!
Favorite food: Candy and Pizza
What I am looking forward to about school: Boulevard Blast  and the Award Ceremony
Now that I am 7, I:  just feel like I am bigger!



Ivy, Age 4 1/3, First Day of Pre-K

Favorite Color:  Pink and Purple
What I want to be when I grow up:  A mom
What does Mommy do:  teaches
What does Daddy do:  Plays with children while mommy is at school
Favorite Toy:  Big doll that is not squishy, it's hard
What I like to do:  Play with toys
Favorite Food:  Pepperoni
What I am looking forward to about school:  Playing!

Endings and beginnings

Labor Day weekend:  A glorious three-day respite, and a line of demarcation.  We are on the edge of summer's end, getting a last weekend of wear out of our white skirts before packing them away.  Block parties and pool parties and festivity abound.  The Air Show is in town and people are flocking to the edge of the shoreway and the beaches and anywhere else they can turn their faces to the sky.  The weather has obliged with warmth and sun and humidity; its been more summerlike these past two days than it has been most of the summer.  I am trying to soak it all up before it ends.

But it is also just beginning-- this next season in our lives, the transition and newness and potential that is fall.  A new school year underway, with all the change and possibility in it yet to unfold.  I am trying to keep myself grounded in that this year-- the newness and potential-- and not write the script on this one, not yet, as tempting as it may be.  Here at the edge of my new year at work, I am seeing plenty of frustration ahead and it is hard, in the midst of all the intensity of beginning, to look at anything else.

There will be so much this year-- so much to work towards and so much yet unknown-- and as I say goodbye to summer I am going to greet the beginnings with happy anticipation.  As much as I can.

It's easier to do that with these two around.

This one started second grade on Tuesday.  SECOND GRADE!  Unbelievable.  He is off to a fine start, excited to go to school and be with friends again.  His teacher is organized and creative and seems to be a great fit.  Nat and Ivy have gotten a sneak peek into his classroom already thanks to taking in cupcakes for his birthday on Thursday.  A benefit of starting things a bit early this year.

A quiet family celebration for our seven year old on Thursday...  He's grown 3 and a half inches this year.

This girl is SO ready to start school herself.  She starts the slow St Paul's phase in this week and will be up to her full schedule by sometime next week...  She's been whiling away her lonely hours without her brother by taking trips to Wade Oval with daddy...

Corydon wasn't so sure she wanted to sit on an egg in the nest.

... and to the vacant houses across the street.  Fitting into the theme of endings, the two properties across from us, foreclosed and vacant for a good two years now, are about to be torn down.  After confirming this fact, and learning that the front doors are now unlocked, we've been shamelessly... salvaging for a week now. The homes are architectural treasures that have fallen to pieces, tragic and beautiful.  We are collecting pieces of them, so we can remember them always.  So far we have:  12 glass doorknobs, 6 divided-light windows, and amazing birds-eye maple picture frame, some ornate keyhole plates, a lot of flagstone, and a non-working piano.  It's been fun.  I'm going to miss "our" houses.  Though having woods across the street is going to be  lot better than having two disintegrating properties there.  As long as we can still park over there, that is.

A few highlights of this lovely weekend:

A trip to Whiskey Island on a cloudy, soft morning.  Social geese, crowds of people settling in for a day of recreating, driftwood and iron ore slag and a few peeks at the Air Show... 

Not one but two trips to the JCC pool -- our first and last times there this summer.  Our two little fish are going to miss their pool time...

Joining in on lemonade stand fun.  Our wonderful new neighbors set up the stand-- we stopped by for a drink and stayed for an hour, while Jack and Ivy enthusiastically helped to advertise, stir, and pour, and I got to chat with the stream of neighbors who came out to support the kids.  It's been a great weekend for loving where we live.

 And today-- a lovely Labor Day party with our Hiram crew.  We celebrated the end of summer and the beginning of dinner swap season at the Perry's new house, where our troupe of children ran and played and used leaves as swords.  They are shockingly big, our babies.  And surprisingly independent, entertaining each other with ease as the adults ate and talked.   They are the most gorgeous collection of creatures, and they all get along so well together, little matched sets of 7, 4, and 3 year olds breaking off to play together, or all 10 of them teaming up to play hide and seek, running and shrieking with their lovely limbs and hair and faces glowing in the sun.

We are so lucky.

Days like this-- I know I'm going to look back in twenty years and say, "Those were some GOOD times."
Golden.
The best.

The end of summer.   The end of an era, perhaps, as more and more of our friends move out to the suburbs and our babies grow up too fast.  The beginning of a year of busy days and early mornings and more than likely a lot of new grey hairs.

But surely, also, the beginning of so much more joy to come.