Boo!

Halloween 2018:  The "Underworld Family"  takes on Cedar-Lee, Spooky Pooch, the Boo-levard Spooktacular, and a cold and rainy Halloween night...

First event of the season-- as quick trip down Lee road where our little demons gathered plenty of candy and we ran into plenty of friends.

I love our little community!

Not a Halloween event but an excuse for a different kind of dressing up-- a visit to the MOCA fall art opening for the grown ups.

As usual, we spent most of our "adult time" doing crafts.  Really, they are the best part of the art openings.

Second of course to being with this guy.

That same weekend we had what would be our only full-family costume event-- the Spooky Pooch parade.  A cold, drizzly day but the weather cleared for hour of the actual parade, and we had a blast looking at all of the other doggies, and showing our our little "Cerberus," who was quite the hit.

For one part of the parade, there were people sitting along a curb on Detroit.  Winter took it upon herself to go up and give each and every one of them a personalized, wiggly lick.  She played to the crowd very well, I think, even if our family costume did not win any awards.  Next year, a float. That's the way to victory.

Ivy and Win and I hung out for a but at Gram's to warm up and dry out from a rainy walk home, while Nat and Jack went off to one of the last games of Jack's season...

He's had a fun fall with the Kickers, even if they did not win very often.  I think he's happy he joined.

Fast forward a week (because that's just how this October has felt) to the next Halloween event:  The first annual Boo-levard Spooktacular.  The PTA this year decided to abandon the traditional movie night for a more interactive event, and it went off pretty well.

We had a adorable costume contest, games and crafts, and the book fair going on.  This little demon spent much of her night helping me sell concessions-- she can make change like a boss.

Sunday-- pumpkin carving!  Perfect timing with Becca in town for a visit.  She even spent the night-- in Ivy's room-- which pretty much made Ivy's year.

Halloween itself was on a rainy Wednesday this year.  Our crew braved the drizzle boldly and garnered a good haul, coming home with soaked feet as well as pounds of candy.

Winter was a hit in her costume, but did not like the rain. She kept trying to walk right in to each house, and began refusing, straight-legged and pouting, to leave the covered porches.  She and Nat headed home early while I carried on.  Turns out my vintage black wool coat is impervious to weather and I would have happily chaperoned trick-or-treating all the way til 8.  I just love the sidewalks full of happy people, the adorable costumed little ones, the sense of excitement. 
Ivy was the one who demanded to head home around 7.   :)

This year's candy trading was very well organized-- each child would place their agreed upon item at the "belt line" and then on the count of three, push them across to the other side.  It was hilarious.

And just like that, October was over!  Happy Halloween!  Now on to the next thing...

Early October

October has been a busy blur of homework and sports and schoolwork and cleaning, with some Halloween prep thrown in for good measure...I have felt a lot of the time this year that we are just barely keeping our heads above water around here.   In the midst of my piles of laundry, it's nice to look back for a moment and see that we had a few moments of leisure mixed in. 

Here's a blast from the past:  Early October, back when we thought the warm days would last forever.  A hot day of soccer in Avon and then a brewery and dinner with our cousins.  

 Winter's first brewery!  She was a big fan of the peanuts on the ground.

 Ohio Mart at Stan Hywet. Another hot one.  We took our craft-loving girl and had a lovely time in one of our favorite places.

 Happy 5K .... a crazy-foggy morning.  Ivy and I had commitments at church so just the boys went to the run.  Not Jack's best 5k every but he did it, with really no training to speak of besides his generally awesome fitness.

 Here's Ivy helping collect donations at church.  She loves this stuff...

 A sunset at the lake... finally!    We've been so busy this month, and invariably the busiest of evenings fell on the sunny days and it was kind of physically painful to not go to our lake on any of them.  Sigh.  Finally caught this stunner of an evening...Something to hold on to as the days get shorter...

Ingenuity

(late post, actual event was in, you know, September....)

Ingenuity Fest!  It has regained its place in our hearts after a few not-so-great years down at the Port Authority.  The new space, in a rambling complex of warehouses on the near East Side of Cleveland, is nothing short of magical.   A run-down, ramshackle urban landscape by day...

...that transforms into a land of light and sound and wonder by night, in the hands of local artists and musicians and creative-makers of all types.

The pictures don't do it justice-- you had to be there in the low light, wandering room to room, peeking into corners and cubbies to see what weirdness you might find inside.

The big central room was a favorite of our little troupe.  This swing!  I have no idea how there were no major injuries from it.  But it was in constant motion with an ever-changing group of excited children jumping on and off mid-swing...

We decided to play dress-up a little for the "Future Past" theme.

Our girls loved this room with a changing interactive screen...

...controlled by this giant air-filled "button"...

Probably the most magical thing of all-- these fire tents outside.  Flames from below, flames shooting up in time to music from the top.

Not pictured but also memorable:  Pole dancers, the North Pole room, shadow boxes and shifting lights, and the amazing Tesla generators dancing to techno music above a wall of screens...

Have I ever mentioned that I love where I live?