Family Day at the International Children's Festival

So, Douglas leaves tomorrow for a week in Nicaragua. It's been busy (when is life with little ones not busy?) and so most days off for Doug have consisted of one-on-one time with one of the boys, or sometimes taking over watching both of them so I can get something done and of course those Spring outdoor chores that have been keeping him on his toes. Today we made great effort to actually just have a fun day together. And it was great!

Every year Pittsburgh hosts an International Children's Festival in Oakland. It's fantastic. There are multiple theatrical events offered. We've never done one of these before, but this year "Knuffle Bunny" was being performed in the form of a musical, so we took advantage of it and brought the boys for a fun theatrical display of a favorite of Koen's books.
The performance was actually about an hour long. Tavin lasted about three-quarters of it which was impressive to me. Koen, on the other hand, loved, loved, loved every minute of it!

After the musical, we headed out to the lawn beside Heinz Chapel where there were a bunch of tents with different activities for the kids. Northway Oakland had a great tent for making paper-bag puppets. Such a cute idea and it was super packed there, so that was fun to see. Great job Megan on the craft and your festive looking tent! Koen enjoyed making a personalized puppet, but wasn't really in the mood to do a puppet show.Next we headed to a little tennis activity. It was super lame though (we were so annoyed at the lady there!). Koen was excited to do the tennis thing and then the lady wouldn't let them hold the racket themselves and each kid only got to hit 2 balls. Anyways, it was so, so lame. Poor Koen totally burst into tears and honestly, I didn't blame him. We had a good chat about it (although I had to really think about how to explain the situation to him without absolutely bashing the lady that totally made this a frustrating experience!) and moved on.

We stopped quickly to play with sidewalk chalk (there was this great artist from the zoo doing a beautiful picture of painted dogs). Tav was happy to have something he could sort of take part in!Koen enjoyed interviewing with a local PBS radio station. Apparently his interview will eventually be available online. Fun! Grampa, you'll be proud, he totally mentioned you to the people at the booth.
Tavin was getting pretty restless from the heat, lots of time in the stroller and his weird cough/sickness, so we headed over to the big tent at Schenley plaza to watch a high school band perform some fun, upbeat songs (including Louie, Louie, which Tav loved!).Doug and Koen met back up with us and we got in line for the carousel (free rides during the festival!). It was Tavin's first ride and big brother was super excited since it had been awhile since he had been on a carousel as well. Tavin got to ride the giraffe (it's a favorite animal right now because it's displayed in his room and Doug taught him the name and he's really proud that he can sort of say it). Koen was on a super large bunny that went up and down right next to Tavin. Tavin was just in awe and wonder the whole time. So cute!
From there we headed to get some lunch and found a new great place on Craig St., "Eat Unique." Yummy, healthy food. Perfect! Plus, it's across the street from "Razzy Fresh" so we had a delicious frozen yogurt treat after lunch too. Super special day!

The boys were pretty tired when we got home, so I took Tavin to a quick, cooling bath and then to nap. Koen played with Doug for a bit and then also hit the hay. The boys ended up sleeping great. Ahhhh.... I got a bunch of work done and Doug packed for Nicaragua.

After naps, Tavin went out for errands with Doug and I got to spend some one-on-one time with Koen. I forget what that's like sometimes. I need to do that more. Koen loved it. We played cars, then we made dinner for he and Tav (whole wheat English muffin pizzas) and he was so sweet helping with it all). After dinner actually, Tavin and Doug played upstairs and Koen asked me if we could do some cleaning projects. Of course I said, "yes!" I think he knows that I love to clean! He was actually super helpful as we got dinner cleaned up and then he wanted to do some bigger projects too. I just loved his conversational, helpful attitude tonight. So sweet. Just my little pal. A refreshing break from some tough days in the recent weeks. I love my boys so much!

It was a great day. After we put the little bugs to bed, Doug made pizza and I did a few more tasks around the house. We finally stopped our productivity and got to chill and have a meal and relax. Seriously, a great day. Douglas, you will be missed! I hope this week goes super fast. The boys and I are going to miss you so, so much!