Summer in the City

We are lucky enough to live in an area where just about anything is accessible within a ten-minute drive, including downtown, where we spent quite a bit of time this week. Monday night was spent on Fountain Square. We ate ice cream (using up some of my Graeter's gift cards that I got at the end of the school year), danced to the live music (they have live music every night), and generally enjoyed ourselves. B loved the fountain.

C loved finding one of the Taft Museum's Art for All pieces. The Art for All campaign is an effort to lure people into the Taft Museum of Art, where they can see the originals plus a ton of other artwork. Replicas of various pieces housed at The Taft are "hidden" all over the city. I also saw one on the bike trail with a friend a few weeks ago. It's kind of cool to see where all of the pieces are popping up.

On Tuesday, One Ordinary Dad and I celebrated 8 years of wedded bliss.  We are blessed! Technically, we celebrated on Saturday night when we went out to dinner and C slept over at her Grandma's house, but we had to celebrate the actual day a little too. We went to the Museum Center and B went crazy for the train display. The little guy hasn't been there since he could walk and he walked all over that museum. "Choo-Choo" is one of his favorite words. He also had a blast in the ball pit seeing as how if it doesn't have wheels, it better be a ball to capture his attention.

As part of an anniversary present to One Ordinary Dad, I got him a one-day flex pass to the World Choir Games, which are in town until tomorrow. My husband is a music geek. I have to say I was quite proud of myself that when I picked the day for him, I did pretty well. After I'd already purchased his ticket, the local paper did a full spread about the Games and said that if you only had one day to spend downtown at the Games, to do it on the 12th. So yesterday morning, the kids and I dropped Daddy off downtown for a day of show choirs, quartets, sacred music, and more. We headed to one of our favorite parks after we dropped him off (I figured he would enjoy himself more without the kids tagging along).

 B drove every steering wheel at the park.

This park is situated under a freeway bridge, so it's always shady. C climbed on everything. I think we may need to take her to the climbing wall soon.

Don't you love C's Harry Potter wound on her forehead?

I have no idea what face he is making here.

We picked a tired Daddy up after dinner and headed home. Tomorrow is the City Flea in Washington Park, so we'll be down there for that-- the kids and Daddy to play and Mommy to help a friend out at her booth. Stop by and see us from 2-4. :-)

We love our city and the song really is true, "things will be great when you're downtown."

~One Ordinary Mom
P.S. Speaking of music, One Ordinary Dad and I treated ourselves to both Joshua Radin tickets and Mumford and Sons tickets as sort of anniversary presents to ourselves. Looks like we'll be hearing more great music in the coming weeks.