We are now at the end of the first quarter for school which means… concerts! During this season of concerts and rehearsals Rick is home for about 10 hours a day… enough to sleep, shower and grade papers or work on our own finances. Since we have time crunch issues trying to pick everyone up AND eat dinner but still being to call time ON time we make it a little bit easier on ourselves by not going all the way home for dinner. When I put the two youngest down for quiet time yesterday afternoon I whipped up some fresh bread for a giant sandwich, some magic cookie bars and filled the cooler with milk, water, carrots, homegrown jarred dill pickles and applesauce. I grabbed cups and paper towels and stashed everything in the car for the outing along with the stroller and extra diapers and wipes. It was a beautiful autumn evening. I picked Lindsay and Tristan up at Fairview and then made my way to Over-the-Rhine to pick up Haley and Rick. Since this neighborhood is near the top of the FBI’s list of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the nation (last year it was #1 over any neighborhood you can think of including in NYC, LA, Chicago or Detroit) I dropped Rick off at the parking garage several blocks away and followed him back to the parking lot on the school grounds so we wouldn’t all have to walk in that neighborhood after dark. Then we made our way through the streets of the city up to Eden Park which sits overlooking the Ohio River just to the east of downtown.
Pic on left shows an Eastern view of the Ohio. On the right the view is to the west overlooking the Ohio and shows several bridges linking Northern Kentucky to its counterpart. Looking at the sky reminds me that the air quality is moderate on this day as most days this season with less humidity. Sometimes the kids miss recess outdoors due to poor air quality in warmer more humid weather.
We had an hour to enjoy in the park. We unpacked our picnic dinner. Everyone enjoyed the pleasant breeze.
The geese decided to join us.
Nathan was curious. The goose… HUNGRY! A second later he grabbed the bread right out of Nathan’s hand. We had to keep on our toes to show those birds who was boss.
Tristan helped by chasing the geese again and again.
Here are my 5 sitting on the edge of the stone overlook.
There was a playground nearby as well so the kids got some free time to play in their day. Kaitlyn is obviously sporting Lindsay’s old clothes here. The horses on the shirt are the give-away here. At first Kaitlyn thought I went on a grand shopping spree for her but now everyday Kaitlyn has to hear “I remember when I used to wear that”! She doesn’t seem to mind too much, though.
Nathan thought that sliding was so much fun that he went back again and again.
We weren’t sure why this slide had a dead end at the top so the kids climbed up the slide in order to slide down.
Time to leave by 5:45 we made sure to walk past the duck pond on the way over to the car. As mentioned before hand about danger… there was a stabbing at 6 p.m. that killed a man a few blocks away from the school. THAT is why we parked in the school’s lot.
We visited Dad’s brand new classroom in this brand new school building. They couldn’t have picked a better color to paint his room if they’d asked him. But it would have been nice to have a window… for light anyway. They cut windows from their plans on the lower level as they saved money by not installing any clocks or pencil sharpeners in the whole school as well! Rick will spend the remainder of his career trying to sneak upstairs once a day to find natural light at lunch time.
Above, Kaitlyn climbs to sit on the stool on her Dad’s podium at the front of the class.
Lindsay tries out the brand new shiny piano that is her Dad’s. He is thrilled with this instrument. And above right Nathan thinks climbing upward is great no matter what these days.
The artistic director slipped Rick our needed tickets and we found our way to the balcony seating in the auditorium. Haley plays first violin and is first chair this year in Orchestra 3-A! We are very proud of her hard work. She gets up and practices 5-6 times a week for 45 minutes at 7 a.m. and has a half scholarship for her private lessons which she takes once a week. She earns the other half of her money by babysitting. The violin is very important to her.
Her group, the top performing group on this concert, played Concerto in e minor, A Knights Quest and Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. While enjoying the music I played referee between the 3 year old and one year old while helping the 2nd grader with math homework. Good thing we were in the balcony!
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