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.

Halloween 2014!

So are you sick of adorable pictures of children in costumes yet?  Because NEVER.

The boys were Jake and Cubby from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  I made their costumes this week.  Quick and easy.  Much glue gun involved:

The vests are the Dana Made It Pirate vests that I altered a bit.  For Jake's I added a collar.  For Cubby I made the whole thing a bit smaller:

This is my new fav photo ever.

The shirts are a package of toddler undershirts with some felt glued to them.  Bonus that they could both wear the same size!  Jake's I cut up a bit, Cubby's I left alone:

I bought the bandanas at JoAnne's b/c easy.  The pants they already owned - although Jake's were about 3 sizes to small.  Meh.  Cubby's were just a pair of grey sweatpants - I threw them in a dyepot with some red and BAM.  Cubby pants.

Of course if you're familiar with Jake and the Neverland Pirates you realize that someone is missing.  They are a pirate crew of 3.  Just like my kids!

 Except our girl wanted NOTHING to do with this nonsense.  So someone else had to step up:

Noone can ever say I'm not a good sport.

We rocked our costumes at the preschool party:

two jakes, a cubby, and a bee.  Btw of the 18 kids in his class at least 5 were Elsa.

Where Tiny continued to think that he's a big kid:

What.  I totally belong here.

Before we headed down to costume parade at the girl's school.

Her school requires that the kids dress up like characters from books.  I LOVE IT!  Obviously her choice was easy:

FANCY NANCY!!!!

Her skirt was one that I made for-ev-er ago when she was a toddler who loved tulle.  But she then rejected it b/c it was too scratchy.  I saved it and it found new life here.  The rest of it is thrown together out of clothes she already owned and a tiara we embellished with some pipe cleaners.  I think the red hair is the perfect detail!

But she didn't want to be Fancy Nancy for "real" Halloween.  She wanted to be "ponies turn into people" aka the My Little Pony Equestria Girls ridiculous.  I said ok, though since she was so determined and the costume was easy to put together. 

My friend made here the awesome mask which has been a dress up box staple for awhile.  I made the skirt out of fabric she picked out.  I threw together the "boots" aka leg warmer things the night before.  Her shirt is a school shirt.  She wore the ears and leggings from last year's costume.

Our pirate crew had a ball trick-or-treating.  And pillaging their pirate booty:

 Afterwards we headed out to our own Halloween party - the same one we go to every year:


I did not change costumes.  Which means all night I had to explain.. yeah it's from a kid's show.  It was still funtimes.

My brother had no problem with people not recognizing him.

A demon and a grinch.... evil theme?

Halloween around here was INTENSE.  3 parties and trick or treat all in one day!  I... yeah.  We spent all day Saturday in a sugar coma of lazy.  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Oh yeah and we carved pumpkins, too.

Thanks to my dad and my sister in law for the pictures!

Cincinnati for 10.

So last weekend we went to Cincinnati for our 10 year college reunion.

And the group shot:

Thanks to Brian for the group shot.

We all look pretty good!  And we all seem to be doing well, too.  I mean I guess you don't go to a reunion if you aren't happy with your life but it was good to see so many of us surviving this architecture thing (or getting out and finding happiness elsewhere).  Anyways there was cake!

And everyone got to watch my toddler eat an ear of corn:

Shouldn't you guys put me at a table or something?  I mean I'm just on the ground here.

Before we headed to the riverfront for the Homecoming parade:

 And some tailgating:

The kids had a ball:

Even if it was a bit insane to take them tailgating.

We spent the evening hanging out with some old friends and their new puppy.  I hope we didn't overwhelm them with our crew!

The next day we all met at Washington Park in Over the Rhine.  I KNOW, RIGHT?  As Matt put it "If someone told me I'd be hanging out in Over the Rhine in my 30's I'd think that I had made some BAD life choices."  That's literally where the riots were in 2001.  But I trusted and went with the group's plan.  It turns out they completely renovated the park and it's actually really, really nice now:

Music Hall

Even has a playground that is beyond awesome.  It has swings!  And musical things!  It's fenced in and is well designed so you can see the whole thing no matter where you are!  But has many interesting paths for the kids to discover!

And... this thing:

The kids hang on and you spin it around.  Flawless plan.  I'm actually in favor of more diverse and interesting play equipment.  Literally every playground I go to in any city I go to is the same exact stuff.  I think kids need to take (measured) risks to conquer fear and build self-confidence. Playgrounds are a perfect and relatively safe place for that to happen.  Experts agree with me.  So I highly recommend this awesome park if you're ever in the Cincy area.

The park even has a water play area that we did not explore b/c wet kids w/o bathing suits = NOOOOOOPE.

From there we walked to brunch at Motr which was perfect.  We had the whole patio to ourselves!

It was so fun to spend some time with everyone.  Brought back so many memories.  Speaking of memories on our way back to the car we helped our daughter take pictures of numbers for her "Number Walk" school project.  Because apparently even 10 years later we are incapable of being in Over the Rhine without doing some sort of school project.

Honestly her craft is pretty on par with the stuff I produced in the 5th year Over the Rhine/Kroger studio.

From there we drove up to campus.  The last time we were there DAAP was grey.  I wanted to see it with the new metal paneling:

It is awesome.  I was quite impressed. SO SO much better than EIFS. We even got the kids out of the car and walked through the building.  Turns out the DAAP staircase is crazy fun to explore when you're a little kid:

My kids on the DAAP staircase WORLDS ARE COLLIDING.

I forgot so much about that building.  All of the bridges.  All of the nooks and crannies that serve no purpose:

It certainly is... something.  Fun to spend 15 min walking through.  Not as much to live in for 6 years.  ANYWAYS!  We even took the kids past some of the studios:

Peeking in the window of our freshman studio.  aka where Matt and I sat next to each other.  Aka WHERE IT ALL BEGAN.

A little APX pride.  Both Matt and I were charter members of the UC chapter!

And then tried to get snacks from the vending machines which were broken.  SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE.  They did put some shading up on some of this glass, though.  Maybe those stairwells aren't horrifically hot anymore.

Campus looks great.  Very different but pretty awesome.  The Main Street plan has really come to fruition:

Driving around campus was... shocking.  EVERYTHING is different.  Very sanitized.  "Look Parents!  Your kids will be safe here because all of the same chains you eat at are on campus now!"

UUUUUUGH.  But maybe I'm just bitter b/c this is what my favorite bar, Christies, looks like now:

Empty lot OF SADNESS AND WOE. They tore down happiness.

Anyways I'm so glad we went.  It was super fun to revisit that time in our lives.  And in case you want to know what being in architecture school was like here's a crazy appropriate buzz feed List:

38 Things All Architecture Students Know All Too Well.
 
Heh.

GO BEARCATS!