Time is marching on, the packers are coming and we really are leaving. We have loved our time here in Cleveland. For a place that I really didn't want to move to four years ago, I am having a very hard time leaving it. We came here with two children and are leaving with five. We've been so incredibly blessed to find lifelong friends during our stay. Although Marc was worked disgusting numbers of hours he has been happy in his work. It's crazy that residency, which is so demanding, has been so good to our family. To our friends and neighbors- thank you a thousand times for your love and support. We will miss you terribly. To my family- I am so grateful for this season of being close to you. Thank you for letting me lean on you during this joyous but difficult phase of life. To our award-winning library and especially our most kind and patient librarian: I am just planning on relocating the entire building to North Dakota. I'm not sure if I'm up to breaking in a new story-time person with my five boys and the libraries out there only allow ten items per card. Since we struggle not to max out our limit of fifty items here in Ohio, I will need you to come straighten them out up north. There are so many things about Cleveland that we will miss- the amazing food, the beautiful parks, the access to culture, normal amounts of retail, etc. Of course, there are some things we will not miss as well but I thought it would be fun to say goodbye to them all in the poetic style of "Goodnight Moon."
"Goodbye Cleveland"
Goodbye Cleveland Town
Goodbye Browns
Goodbye sirens and city sounds
Goodbye Clinic
And goodbye PICU rounds
Goodbye LeBron
(Wait! You're already gone!)
Goodbye Lake Erie
Goodbye weather dreary
Goodbye Costco
And goodbye Rock Hall
Goodbye Indians
And goodbye friends
Goodbye orange barrels
And goodbye ethnic grub
Goodbye traffic
Goodbye parking stubs
Goodbye Dave
And his cosmic subs
Goodbye museums
Goodbye zoo
Goodbye, Cleveland. We'll miss you.
P.S. Since we are moving, I can't very well continue a blog entitled "The Cleveland Chronicles" so I've registered a new domain. You can follow our continuing adventures at fivebelowblog.blogspot.com
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
The Art of Awesome
Oh, Cleveland. You never cease to amaze. We made time in our crazy June schedule to visit the new Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art and I am so glad we did. This place was incredible! For those of you in the Cleveland area who haven't gone yet, go! It's free! It's fabulous!
There is a whole children's room with hands on activities that familiarize kids with pieces of art. That way, when you tour the galleries as a family it becomes a treasure hunt. The kids recognize the pieces from the games they played and get excited about the familiarity. The boys were actually asking for more information about the pieces that they identified. It was just lovely. We were there for hours and I wish we would have scheduled more time. So, here comes a whole boatload of pictures just in case you aren't convinced of the awesomeness of Gallery One yet.
The first thing our boys were attracted to was the giant touchscreen. I'm not sure who came up with this idea, but it is super cool. The boys could draw a shape and then the program would search through the museum's catalog and find a piece of art with a similar shape or profile. The boys figured out that certain shapes were more likely to get them something manly like a suit of armor so it became a game to see who could get the most awesome looking artwork to appear on the screen.
All of the boys spent long amounts of time with the sculptural materials available. Here are Elijah and Benjamin with their metal mobile sculptures a la Alexander Calder.
The magnetic blocks were a big favorite for Gabe. He loves to build with blocks at home, but it was even more fun to build with blocks that didn't slide around or fall over.
David John was very serious about his string art..
All the boys made a project of putting together mosaics all over the carpeted area of the kids room.
This was another popular activity. More touchscreens had games involving works of art. Several pieces from the catalog would appear on screen as well as a key word such as "star". The boys then had to select all the works of art that had stars in them. Some of the matches were tricky. Sometimes you had to find a minute detail in a painting or identify a very stylized sculpture. As you can see, they were mesmerized and I confess to playing this game quite a few times myself.
This wall was made of magnetic color blocks and had magnets featuring pieces from the museum's collection. The idea was to play curator and organize the pieces into the "rooms" however you wanted. Some of our boys sorted by type i.e. furniture, statue, painting, etc. Others sorted by style or by the color of the magnet's border. I loved seeing their different ideas about what belonged together.
Outside of the children's area was an activity in which a statue appeared on screen and you had to try and match the body positioning of the statue. Marc was a master at this, and always got scores between 90 and 100 percent matching. I, on the other hand, stank. I was just really bad. I would get between 50 and 70 percent every time. Oh well. The boys were too small for the camera to register so Marc took them one at a time to try it out. Here are the results:
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This fabulous touchscreen wall allows you to browse through the museum's catalog by theme, by year, by geographical location, pretty much in any way you would like. You can also use an ipad or smart phone to download thematic tours of the museum. Just incredible.
Aside from the technology, the architecture of the museum is beautiful. The atrium was just lovely and gave the boys a little space to run without fear of bumping into something priceless.
*Sigh. Why is it that you can only truly appreciate something when your about to leave it? Anyway, we truly had a priceless experience and the Ricks boys give Gallery One a ten.
There is a whole children's room with hands on activities that familiarize kids with pieces of art. That way, when you tour the galleries as a family it becomes a treasure hunt. The kids recognize the pieces from the games they played and get excited about the familiarity. The boys were actually asking for more information about the pieces that they identified. It was just lovely. We were there for hours and I wish we would have scheduled more time. So, here comes a whole boatload of pictures just in case you aren't convinced of the awesomeness of Gallery One yet.
The first thing our boys were attracted to was the giant touchscreen. I'm not sure who came up with this idea, but it is super cool. The boys could draw a shape and then the program would search through the museum's catalog and find a piece of art with a similar shape or profile. The boys figured out that certain shapes were more likely to get them something manly like a suit of armor so it became a game to see who could get the most awesome looking artwork to appear on the screen.
All of the boys spent long amounts of time with the sculptural materials available. Here are Elijah and Benjamin with their metal mobile sculptures a la Alexander Calder.
The magnetic blocks were a big favorite for Gabe. He loves to build with blocks at home, but it was even more fun to build with blocks that didn't slide around or fall over.
David John was very serious about his string art..
All the boys made a project of putting together mosaics all over the carpeted area of the kids room.
This was another popular activity. More touchscreens had games involving works of art. Several pieces from the catalog would appear on screen as well as a key word such as "star". The boys then had to select all the works of art that had stars in them. Some of the matches were tricky. Sometimes you had to find a minute detail in a painting or identify a very stylized sculpture. As you can see, they were mesmerized and I confess to playing this game quite a few times myself.
This wall was made of magnetic color blocks and had magnets featuring pieces from the museum's collection. The idea was to play curator and organize the pieces into the "rooms" however you wanted. Some of our boys sorted by type i.e. furniture, statue, painting, etc. Others sorted by style or by the color of the magnet's border. I loved seeing their different ideas about what belonged together.
Outside of the children's area was an activity in which a statue appeared on screen and you had to try and match the body positioning of the statue. Marc was a master at this, and always got scores between 90 and 100 percent matching. I, on the other hand, stank. I was just really bad. I would get between 50 and 70 percent every time. Oh well. The boys were too small for the camera to register so Marc took them one at a time to try it out. Here are the results:
.jpg)
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This fabulous touchscreen wall allows you to browse through the museum's catalog by theme, by year, by geographical location, pretty much in any way you would like. You can also use an ipad or smart phone to download thematic tours of the museum. Just incredible.
Aside from the technology, the architecture of the museum is beautiful. The atrium was just lovely and gave the boys a little space to run without fear of bumping into something priceless.
*Sigh. Why is it that you can only truly appreciate something when your about to leave it? Anyway, we truly had a priceless experience and the Ricks boys give Gallery One a ten.
Friday, June 7, 2013
The Big 30
There is a whole list of things that have happened in my life that I thought would never happen. I.E. I thought that I would never be the victim of a burglary, I never imagined that my husband would be arrested for kidnapping me, I certainly didn't picture myself getting married at 18 or ever living in Cleveland and there was a long period of time in which I really believed that I would never have children. More than all of these, however, I think I truly never expected to actually turn 30.
Somehow, it happened anyway. I'm not sure why, or how exactly. Being young has kind of always been my "thing". I had a June birthday so I was always one of the youngest in my class. I got married young, graduated college after 3 years and became a young teacher and I have been told repeatedly that I am far too young to have this many kids. Turning 30 means I will have to get an entirely new identity. If I am not the young student, the young wife, the young teacher or the young mother, then who am I?
It could have been a somewhat depressing day when I woke up to find that I was no longer a twenty-something. It could have been the kind of day which would force me to take in 30 stray cats in honor of my birthday and adopt a the persona of crazy cat lady. Every neighborhood needs one. It could have been that kind of day, but it wasn't. In fact, it was a great day.
I received kind gifts of chocolate, rainbow pens and post-it notes and beautiful sunflowers.
Marc babysat no less than nine little boys so that I could go have a delicious and girly birthday lunch with my friends. I am really going to miss these ladies.
We had awesome Vietnamese food at #1 Pho. So good!
To top it all off, Molly brought some amazing lemon cupcakes with raspberry cream icing.
Thank you to all of my friends for making my birthday so fun and reminding me that thirty-somethings can be just as cool as twenty-somethings maybe even more so. I love you guys!
Somehow, it happened anyway. I'm not sure why, or how exactly. Being young has kind of always been my "thing". I had a June birthday so I was always one of the youngest in my class. I got married young, graduated college after 3 years and became a young teacher and I have been told repeatedly that I am far too young to have this many kids. Turning 30 means I will have to get an entirely new identity. If I am not the young student, the young wife, the young teacher or the young mother, then who am I?
It could have been a somewhat depressing day when I woke up to find that I was no longer a twenty-something. It could have been the kind of day which would force me to take in 30 stray cats in honor of my birthday and adopt a the persona of crazy cat lady. Every neighborhood needs one. It could have been that kind of day, but it wasn't. In fact, it was a great day.
I received kind gifts of chocolate, rainbow pens and post-it notes and beautiful sunflowers.
Marc babysat no less than nine little boys so that I could go have a delicious and girly birthday lunch with my friends. I am really going to miss these ladies.
We had awesome Vietnamese food at #1 Pho. So good!
To top it all off, Molly brought some amazing lemon cupcakes with raspberry cream icing.
Thank you to all of my friends for making my birthday so fun and reminding me that thirty-somethings can be just as cool as twenty-somethings maybe even more so. I love you guys!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
May Wrap Up
This is our last May in Cleveland. I am going to miss it. Here are just a few pictures from our Memorial Day weekend fun.
The annual Chagrin Falls balloon glow was rained out on its scheduled night, but it was fabulous when it finally did happen. It was amazing to be so close to these giant balloons and to see them lit up against the night sky.
Memorial Day breakfast of patriotic pancakes and blueberries. I love that you can see the parade candy detritus surrounding the plate. What our little South Euclid parade lacks in flashy floats it makes up with huge quantities of treats.
Tobias shows off his parade swag.
Talk about shark-infested waters. Is anyone else hearing Jaws music while looking at this picture? I sure love all these little sharkies.
The annual Chagrin Falls balloon glow was rained out on its scheduled night, but it was fabulous when it finally did happen. It was amazing to be so close to these giant balloons and to see them lit up against the night sky.
Memorial Day breakfast of patriotic pancakes and blueberries. I love that you can see the parade candy detritus surrounding the plate. What our little South Euclid parade lacks in flashy floats it makes up with huge quantities of treats.
Tobias shows off his parade swag.
Talk about shark-infested waters. Is anyone else hearing Jaws music while looking at this picture? I sure love all these little sharkies.
No Doubting, It's Thomas
Saturday was our 11 year anniversary, so we decided to spend the day with our kids... and Thomas the tank engine. Can you imagine anything more romantic? I wish I could use a terrible pun and say it was "hot and steamy" but alas the day was actually a little brisk.
Anyway, there were hundreds of little kids there to see Thomas and ride on the train as well as participate in a scavenger hunt, play in bouncy castles, climb inside emergency and construction vehicles and watch magic shows. Our boys loved the whole experience. Benjamin was mesmerized by "Choo-Choo Tain!"
We got to watch Thomas coming down the tracks before boarding the train.
The boys loved watching the scenery and were pretty convinced that we had been magically transported to the island of Sodor because they readily identified several landmarks.
Even more exciting than the scenery, were the luggage racks. All four boys independently asked me why the train had monkey bars. Despite telling them the true purpose of those metal bars, we had to pull multiple children down off of them.
Yes, Benjamin, there really is a Mr. Conductor. All the boys liked getting their ticket stamped.
After the ride, we had a photo "opportunity" with Thomas. Opportunity means people took our picture and wanted to charge us a lot of money for them. We took our own opportunity to take some free pictures. You can't see Thomas's face, but there is no mistaking the blue engine with the number 1 on the side.
The railroad association set up some really cool model trains.
It was really too bad the day was chilly because Tobias didn't get to show off his thematic train duds. You can see his cute onesie in this pic, but it wouldn't be Tobias without a little spit-up as well.
I didn't take pictures of most of the other activities. We had our hands full trying to keep track of our five amidst the sea of small people, but the boys were absolutely crazy about the magician. The magic tricks were not fantastic, but he played well to a young audience, pretending not to notice silly things happening in his act. He reminded me of the Washington Post piece by Gene Weingarten about the Great Zucchini. If you've never read it, you can check it out here. Anyway, the most memorable part of the magic show for me, was when the magician's magic wand "accidentally" grew and went right up his nose. The boys howled with laughter and the magician said, "You all may think that's funny, but it's snot." I admit, I laughed.
Here is the last picture of the day. As I mentioned, there were emergency and construction vehicles that the kids could sit in. Most kids went in one at a time, but if one of our boys was going in, they decided they were all going in. That poor backhoe never knew what hit it. They thoroughly explored the inside and outside before we were able to round them all back up and pry their hands off of the shiny piece of manly machinery. My apologies to the kids who were waiting for their turn. We did our best.
An odd way to spend an anniversary? Maybe, but it wasn't entirely inappropriate. After all, there was magic.
Anyway, there were hundreds of little kids there to see Thomas and ride on the train as well as participate in a scavenger hunt, play in bouncy castles, climb inside emergency and construction vehicles and watch magic shows. Our boys loved the whole experience. Benjamin was mesmerized by "Choo-Choo Tain!"
We got to watch Thomas coming down the tracks before boarding the train.
The boys loved watching the scenery and were pretty convinced that we had been magically transported to the island of Sodor because they readily identified several landmarks.
Even more exciting than the scenery, were the luggage racks. All four boys independently asked me why the train had monkey bars. Despite telling them the true purpose of those metal bars, we had to pull multiple children down off of them.
Yes, Benjamin, there really is a Mr. Conductor. All the boys liked getting their ticket stamped.
After the ride, we had a photo "opportunity" with Thomas. Opportunity means people took our picture and wanted to charge us a lot of money for them. We took our own opportunity to take some free pictures. You can't see Thomas's face, but there is no mistaking the blue engine with the number 1 on the side.
The railroad association set up some really cool model trains.
It was really too bad the day was chilly because Tobias didn't get to show off his thematic train duds. You can see his cute onesie in this pic, but it wouldn't be Tobias without a little spit-up as well.
I didn't take pictures of most of the other activities. We had our hands full trying to keep track of our five amidst the sea of small people, but the boys were absolutely crazy about the magician. The magic tricks were not fantastic, but he played well to a young audience, pretending not to notice silly things happening in his act. He reminded me of the Washington Post piece by Gene Weingarten about the Great Zucchini. If you've never read it, you can check it out here. Anyway, the most memorable part of the magic show for me, was when the magician's magic wand "accidentally" grew and went right up his nose. The boys howled with laughter and the magician said, "You all may think that's funny, but it's snot." I admit, I laughed.
Here is the last picture of the day. As I mentioned, there were emergency and construction vehicles that the kids could sit in. Most kids went in one at a time, but if one of our boys was going in, they decided they were all going in. That poor backhoe never knew what hit it. They thoroughly explored the inside and outside before we were able to round them all back up and pry their hands off of the shiny piece of manly machinery. My apologies to the kids who were waiting for their turn. We did our best.
An odd way to spend an anniversary? Maybe, but it wasn't entirely inappropriate. After all, there was magic.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Christmas in May
We were so happy that our friends and fellow movie fanatics the Adduru family could join us on our adventure. Before we went to the house, we had some cheap Chinese for the complete "A Christmas Story" experience. (Fun fact, the actual Chinese restaurant from the film is in Toronto and is now a French Bistro.) While we enjoyed stepping back in time and acting out scenes from the movie, the trip was not without some stress and embarrassment. David John was in one of his stubborn moods, so we didn't get a single picture of him in which he is looking at the camera. We also had some boys fighting during the historical spiel about the house. Thankfully, the formal tour didn't last very long and no one said anything about our boys wrestling on the floor. Perhaps other patrons thought our boys were there to reenact the fight scene with the bully. We were grateful to make it out of the house without any of our children breaking any antiques not to mention "fragile" leg lamp replicas. :)
The Ricks and Adduru families (minus David John of course)
"Do you want to know what my son just said?"
Loved this detail from Ralphie's room.
Elijah is dreaming of a Red Ryder B-B Gun for Christmas.
David John listens intently to the secret message from Little Orphan Annie.
Benjamin helps decode the message with the Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring. Unfortunately, we don't have any Ovaltine.
While this soap may not actually cause blindness (from soap poisoning) our tour guide did warn us that other visitors have put the bar of soap in their mouths, so taste at your own risk. Frankly, I'm surprised none of our boys tried it.
Gabriel poses with the "major award". The gift shop adjacent to the house sells leg lamps in a variety of sizes. Gabriel really really wanted us to buy one. I bought a postcard instead.
Here is our whole family in replica hats from the movie. David John is in the picture, but refused to wear a hat that didn't cover his face. He is one scary little elf.
Just for your reference, here are a few stills from the movie:
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| The scary elves from "A Christmas Story" trailer. http://www.sodahead.com/entertainment/whats-your-favorite-christmas-movie/question-3412449/?page=5 |
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| Ralphie, Flick and Schwartz prepare to run away from the bully. |
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| Ralphie gets his mouth washed out with soap after saying "Oh FUDGE" http://yomamamorris.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/ralphie.jpg |
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