The Hazard Chronicles

We have had a wonderful week- except that Rachel got pooped on at church!

If you read the post last week then you know that I have decided to give parades a second chance. Well, this week we thought we’d really test my new enthusiasm by attending yet another of these events. The parade took place at University Circle which is just minutes from our house. The occasion? Who needs an occasion to have a parade? They just do this thing once a year for the fun of it. I think that it’s the anniversary of the neighborhood or something.

The verdict? University Circle harbors some really deranged folk who can put on a fantastically trippy parade. There was not one marching band (at least not in the traditional sense), classic car, or politician to be found in the entire procession. Instead it was like Tim Burton meets Jim Henson- a march of surrealism taken straight from your worst nightmares-or a Salvador Dali painting. Evelyn kept nuzzling deeper and deeper into my lap as she repeated over and over “scary…scary…scary.” Rachel and I were both so enthralled with it though that I just hugged her tighter and kept watching. It really was very cool.

To make up for the scary parade, however, Evelyn had some good news this week. She got a package! True, this is not the first package she has received. But the contents of this one were extraordinary. My mom had sewn a quilt made up of squares which she had been saving for basically her whole life. There were some from her own baby blanket, and several from favorite dresses she had as a child. Others were of clothes that we wore when we were kids, or of things my mom had made for us. It was clear that it was put together with a lot of love. Additionally, there was a little book that had sample squares in it with little stories about the material. Evelyn could also use the book as an “I spy” sort of game, matching the squares in the book with those on the blanket. We were very impressed with the whole thing. Thank you Grandma!

Our project for the week has been the organization of our spices. We love to cook and have accumulated somewhere around 50 little bottles of spices. It became ridiculous trying to find specific spices because we would basically have to take everything off the spice shelf to find that one thing. Well, Rachel had the great idea of using baby food jars and we now have everything labeled in an easy-to-find way.

Rachel and Evelyn now have their own little garden. Rachel took Ev to the library and brought home all kinds of picture books about gardening, then Rachel braved Wal-mart alone with all three kids to pick up the plants. Evelyn tilled the ground, weeded, and planted the starts. We will soon have sweet peas, watermelon, green peppers, and of course tomatoes.

The race is on! Adalie is perfecting her crawling skills and Jack is gaining quickly. Jack is perfecting the army crawl (on his forearms and legs). Addy gets kudos for her form, but Jack can beat her in any race.

So that’s pretty much it for this week. Summer time is officially here in Cleveland and we are loving the long days because it allows us time for an evening walk or bike ride before putting the kids to bed. School is going well for me and things have never been better.

Truly, we live charmed lives.

Before

After

Evelyn loves her new blanket. She insists on bringing it everywhere!

Here's Addy at the parade. All of the following pictures are of the parade. None of them actually have us in them, but we thought we'd share this bazaar experience with you.