Unblogged Fall.

So!  It's full on fall.  I love fall.  Knitting!  And leaves!  And adventure! I love blogging about fall.  And this fall I have so much to blog about and have done none of it.  Things like the first day of school:

LOOK HOW CUTE AND GROWN UP THEY ARE!

Went by without a notice.  Same with the awesome adventures we've taken... like apple picking:

ADORABLE.  So many great pictures of the kids in the apples.  Because it was the first time in... ever?  That I was there without a kid strapped to me in a carrier.  Totally insane.

No one wants us to carry them.  WHAT IS THIS LIFE???

Or the Athens Area Fiber Fair - I went with my daughter and my mom for a Girls Trip:

YAAAAAARRRRNNNN!

It was fun having helpers:

Or the possibly insane road trip Matt and I took for our friend's baby shower:

18 hours in the car for 48 hours with these people?  WORTH. IT.

I'm surprised that one didn't motivate me to blog considering that my knitting matched the trip:

I love it when my knitting matches the trip.

There have been unblogged firsts - like the dude's very first soccer league:

He LOVES it.  And running round outside as a member of a team is SO what this kid needs.  He's the type of kid who will always have to be in lots of activities b/c he cannot handle boredom.

My mom took him to a practice while Matt and I were on the road and she summed it up perfectly "They seem to just be running as fast as they can in circles"

YUP.

And so much unblogged adorable it's hard to handle.  Tiny has grown up.  He's in that fun stage between a toddler and a preschooler.  And while nothing throws a fit like a 2 year old, nothing giggles like one either.

He's into the Toddler Logic phase.  Which is hilarity and insanity and adorable.  I want to remember things like him seeing a Halloween decoration spider on the steps and saying "OH NO MONSTER ACROSS MINE TRACKS!"

But it's all gone unblogged.

SIGH.

Family Concerts at Severance Hall.

So! I am thrilled to be giving away family sets of FOUR tickets to the Cleveland Orchestra!

Wait.  Let me rewind.  The Cleveland Orchestra is one of our city's best assets.  It is literally one of the best orchestras in the country if not the world.  And Severance Hall is in a word STUNNING:

Image from flickr here.

But!  With little kids I thought it was out of reach.  For us to go would mean babysitting which is few and far between.  And toddlers aren't exactly appropriate at the symphony.  So we'd take the kids to Blossom Music Center for a concert every summer and figured that was all we could do.

Blossom way back in 2012.  We've gone every year since!

Turns out?  I was completely wrong.  The Cleveland Orchestra has an entire series of concerts specifically for children!  And they are awesome.  There are two types of concerts (from the Cleveland Orchestra Website):

PNC Musical Rainbows - ideal for children 3 to 6

Which instrument is bigger – violin or viola?  How many strings are on a harp?  What’s a bassoon?  Children will discover the answers to these musical questions and more during our 30-minute Musical Rainbow concerts.  These presentations are a fun, interactive way for our youngest listeners to learn about the instruments of the orchestra, one at a time.  PNC Musical Rainbow concerts are performed by Cleveland Orchestra musicians and guests, are hosted by local actress and singer Maryann Nagel. Children have the chance to sing, clap, and move to the music as they have fun learning all about orchestral instruments.  Musical Rainbows are performed in the 400-seat Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall.

Family Concerts - ideal for children 7 and up

Family Concerts are a great way to get kids excited about classical music!  These narrated, 60-minute concerts performed by The Cleveland Orchestra in historic Severance Hall, are structured around a theme and feature guest artists such as young musicians, mimes, dancers, actors, and more.  Family Concerts offer a unique and fun-filled opportunity for families to spend quality time with their children, enrich their lives through exposure to the musical arts, and share the excitement of live music performed by one of the world’s top orchestras.
All Family Concerts are preceded by free activities, including hands-on Instrument Discovery, throughout the hall that enhance your child’s enjoyment of the performance.

 We took our kids to a Musical Rainbows concert on Saturday and they had a great time:

It was super fun.  The concert was exactly the right length to hold even Tiny's attention and was interactive and fun!  They loved it:

The concert was held in the Reinberger Chamber Hall - a smaller more intimate venue than the main concert hall - but equally beautiful:

Image from here.

Really everywhere in Severance is beautiful.  Such an amazing building and space.  I was proud to share it with my kids for the first time:

ART DECO MAKES ME SWOON.

So I am very happy to be sharing the opportunity to go to one of these great concerts with my readers!  I am giving away 2 sets of 4 tickets for each of their upcoming children's concerts - Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery on Saturday, May 3 and The Vivacious Viola on Saturday, May 9.   Feel free to enter both contests!!!!  


Cleveland Orchestra

PNC Musical Rainbows Concert - The Vivacious Viola – May 9


Disclosure:  My family and I received tickets to this event in exchange for this review.  As always all opinions are my own.

Bonus family portrait in MOCA.  We walked there for lunch after the concert.  It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday in Cleveland!

Channelling Chef Lorenzo

So.  You guys.  I'M GOING TO BE ON TV.  Yes.  For real.  I was contacted to see if I wanted to be on the recipe segment of Fox 8 Cleveland's morning show. UM HOW ABOUT YES.  So I will be cooking a delicious and Sassy Chicken Salad and chatting with them about ... well... Life in Cleveland.

Conversation topics I'm sure I will cover - my kids, Cleveland, and Destination Yarn.  Because there's only so long I can go without talking about yarn and the segment's 5 minutes so....

And!  As exciting as this is let me just take it up a notch with some backstory.  This is Chef Lorenzo, my great-grandfather:

He was a celebrity chef in the 50's.  Before celebrity chefs were a thing.  He hosted a cooking show that had quite a following in the greater Cleveland area.

His recipes have tv show air dates on them.  AWESOME.

 A poster from one of his events hangs in my kitchen:

I hope I do him proud tomorrow! 

(and also that i don't make a fool out of myself because SERIOUSLY)

The live (gulp) segment will be on Fox 8 tomorrow morning at around 8:30.  Set your dvr's!  And if you're not local I will post the clip after it airs.

Throwback Thursday: Home from the Hospital.

So today Matt's brother and sister-in-law are bringing their second child home from the hospital.  We talked to them for awhile last night about the logistics of all of it.  It brought back a whole slew of memories.  So how about a Throwback Thursday Home from the Hospital style.

Here's Round 1 back in March of 2009:

I remember starting to go down the road of "I can't believe they are letting us take this baby home!" and Matt SHUTTING ME DOWN.  His take on it? "Yeah she's OUR kid.  Of course we are taking her home.  No one can care for her better than we can.  Period."  And that was it.  No more jitters.  Because he was completely right:

Then Round 2.  When I thought our girl would want to ride on my lap with me out of the hospital.  Yeah not so much:

She wanted to help push because she was a BIG GIRL.  That was pretty much her attitude from there on out.

We were also super worried that time about our dog.  She was pretty new to our family and kindof a crazy pooch:

The big introduction.  She was fine with him pretty quickly.

Round 3 was completely different.  We were outnumbered!  And I COULD NOT WAIT to get home.  The hospital stay - being on my own away from the other two and under the care of nurses who had AGENDAS - was awful.  We couldn't get out of their fast enough:

Run! Don't even stop for a picture just GET. ME. HOME.

The Dude did want to ride with me.  He wanted everything with me.  He was not so into being helpful or acknowledging his sibling at all:

The girl helping me give her new brother a bath while the dude sulks in the background.  Pretty perfect summary of the day.

He got over it eventually and now they are best of friends - they are literally racing cars together under my legs as I write this.  The dog introduction was very different this time around as well.  Tiny got dumped in the middle of the kitchen while we were unloading/taking care of the other two.  And then we were like oh, right.  Someone should have told the dog:

I think she sniffed him once and moved on with her life.  Babies aren't that interesting to dogs until they get in a high chair.  My biggest memory from that time, though was that sometime while I was in the hospital the girl took a huge chunk out of her hair.  It was BAD.  So I left my Tiny, hoped he wouldn't need to nurse in the hour I was gone, and took my daughter for her first haircut.  MILESTONES:

It was a good introduction into the world of trying to manage THREE.  So yeah.  Those first few days home - especially with other kids in the mix - are INTENSE.  Intense and kindof magical. 

We wish them well!

A Brite Cleveland Weekend.

So this weekend was an all star Cleveland Winter Weekend.  Funtimes all around despite the craziness of this weather. And I'm so thankful because by Friday things were getting a bit... well...

THERE WERE TWO MORE SNOWDAYS AFTER THIS PICTURE OMG.

But!  The weather finally broke!  As of today school is FINALLY back in session!

Anyways Friday was the first fish fry of the season and since we were all a bit stir crazy I bundled up the kids and headed out to the Slovenian Home for some polka and pierogies - the girl's favorite food:

The dude preferred to hang out at the bar.  And got everyone at our table a round so that we would sing him the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Song (seriously.  that happened.)

Tiny just loved the food and bopping to the music:

 It was funtimes for all.  We'll probably be back this week!

Then on Saturday my parents took ALL 3 KIDS OMG overnight so that we could go to Brite Winter. 

Our friends from New York were in town along with a whole crew of their NYC friends plus a whole bunch of Cleveland natives.  It was awesome. 

 I was worried about the whole outdoors in winter aspect of the festival but it was quite fun, actually.  I forgot how awful summer festivals can be with the hot and the sweating and the drinking too much because it's hot. Blah.  Winter festivals are where it's at.  Handknits everywhere!  Alpaca as fashion accessory of choice!  My kindof situation.  You know what else keeps you warm?  Flasks:

My brother and Matt both brought flasks.  When the picture came out blurry they refused to let me retake it.  So Dan and I took a selfie instead.  Notice the squished bangs.  Blergh.

At one point we headed to the Cleveland Hostel - where the NYC crew was staying - to warm up (and use a clean restroom).  I'd never been in there before but it was quite nice.  Such a cool thing to have in Cleveland.

Also cool?  Tower City Lights.  I'm not sure how the conversation got started but at one point someone was all "no seriously.  Jeanne.  Please ask the Terminal Tower to change colors for us."  And I was all... Wait, what?  Ok.  So I tweeted @towercitylights and asked.  And they did!

The lights stayed the same all evening except for the show they put on just for us - it was insane.  We were literally dancing in the street to their light show:

Terminal Tower is in the background - we tweeted this picture back as a thank you.

Most of the crew went home when the bars closed... but Matt and I were all pro.  We were determined to end the night with Edison's pizza.  So we moved the carseats out of the way, loaded up our minivan with whoever was still vertical, and headed to tremont for some of the best pizza in Cleveland.  I think it was 3:30 before we found our way home.  Funtimes, indeed. 

And I'll end with my favorite line of the night.... the NYC people were talking about how you have to move to the suburbs if you want to have kids.  And how un fun that will be.  And how it wouldn't be possible to have kids in the city.  My response?

"You can absolutely raise kids in the city.  You don't have to move to the suburbs.  You just have to move to Cleveland."

YUP.

Florida 2015 Recap.

So!  Last weekend we took a quick trip to Florida to visit my grandparents and escape this miserable, horrible, awful, cold.  And gray.  Last year was the whole Disney Family Road Trip thing so this was my first time flying with THREE KIDS OMG:

Don't worry, mom.  We got this.

They did great but I will be forever thankful that Cleveland has a direct flight to Tampa.

My kids at the airport.  They walked to the gates themselves (as opposed to in strollers which is surprisingly common for surprisingly large children) and carried their own backpacks with their blankies, stuff to do on the plane, and sweatshirts.  I was super proud of them!

It was a pretty relaxed trip.  When it was too cold for the pool we went to the park:

There's a great park right down the street from my grandparents' place that has a lake and a boardwalk through the swamp.  Perfect for searching for alligators.  It's too cold for them this time of year - but don't tell my 3yo that.

When it was warm enough in the afternoons we went to the condo pool:

Love the puddle jumpers.

And as our big adventure we had lunch in Tarpon Springs.

But mainly?  The trip was about this:

Playing UNO with the champ.

And this:

Noone gives one on one attention like Nonni does.  She even listens to the Dude ramble on, and on, and on, and on, and on...

And most importantly .... this:

Learning to knit the same way I did.

It was a nice trip but we were happy to come home.

Superman display at the Cleveland Airport.  According to the dude "I like other cities but Cleveland is my favorite."

And our dog was happy to see us, too:

Maybe.  The kids were certainly happy to see her, though!

Yay Florida and warm adventures!