CBA Ballet Day

Josie is taking classes again at the Cincinnati Ballet Academy. Last weekend was one of the two days each year when parents get to observe (and snap photos) of the class. Josie really delights in taking the classes and it is fun to watch her having so much fun (and being a really good listener by the way - even with the distractions of other kids who weren't quite in the mood for listening on this particular occasion).  Here's our little Josie "balleting" it up.

Pre-Ballet Breakfast

Pre-Ballet Stretching (for Josie & her Bunny)

Hop like a Frog

Stomp like an Elephant

Wobble like a Bird

Curtsy to end Class

Balluminaria

Another fun Cincinnati annual event - the Balluminaria at Eden Park.  We ran into lots of friends on what was an unseasonably warm night to enjoy the balloons glow over mirror lake.

Lou does double-daughter-duty:

Look who we found - Lo Sto & Co!

We also met Josie's bff Donna (who runs the childcare program at Josie's school a.k.a. the reason why Josie insists on staying until 3 every day when she could come home at 12). Little Quinny is clearly impressed.  :)

Yea, here's sweet Bea with evidence of why they call it at Balloon GLOW:

Donna & Quinn after dark:

(Man, we are loving us some Cincinnati right now.)

Neltners Farm

One more post to get me almost mostly caught up to November.

Remember how I recently said that Cincinnati has been impressing us lately? Well, its proximity to beauitful places is just one of the reasons for this.

In bucking our annual Hall-zoo-ween tradition, we met our friends Katrina & Stella at Neltner's Farm about half-hour down into Kentucky. After all, it was the weekend before Halloween and we didn't even have pumpkins! The trip to this farm didn't disappoint. Really, is there anything better than (3!) pony rides, pumpkins on the vine, hayrides, corn mazes, warm apple cider, dancing, face painting and (most importantly) lots of Kentucky farmland to run freely?

I'd say these photos really speak for themselves. Enjoy (and add Neltner's to your To Do list for October 2012.)

Yea, So Back in October...

Excuses, Excuses right? Life has been nothing short of chaos lately as we attempt (often unsuccessfully) to find balance between all the stuff we "have to" do and all the stuff (like this blog) that we want to do.  So, I will leave it at that.  I'm quite behind on the blog, but with the flurry of photos just sure to find their way on to my memory card soon (ah, the holidays) I figured it was sort of now or never.

So, here is my attempt to recap the month of October which started with Lou's birthday, ended with Halloween and was filled throughout with one of the best autumns that Cincinnati has every seen.

Lou's Birthday was quite the celebration. (Much different might I add from the birthday celebrations of the past. Remember the 70 or so people at his 30th pirate party in our condo?) We spent this birthday at the Wee Folk Fairy Festival (where Josie was extremely excited about the ponies, belly dancers, and excuse to wear fairy wings in public) and the Zoograss Bluegrass Festival (where we got our first real taste of Fall weather and first hot cocoa of the season). Oh, and there were presents. And cake. In keeping with Schneider family tradition, I let Josie totally chose Lou's present all on her own. She was *sure* that we he really really wanted was a Dragon Pillow Pet that converts to into a castle and roars.  And she was right, he loved it.

Fairy Festival: 

Zoograss Bluegrass:

Present-time (she also chose the gift bag):

October Weekends:

We had some great weekends in October - including a visit from my Aunt Pat, fun with a super-sale Fishyeye lens I found on Amazon, playing in the mud, and all that good stuff.

And - we went to Chicago!!! (See I told you I was behind.)  We had a wonderful time celebrating Lylabird's THIRD birthday. You can check out my sister's post about the weekend at: http://fouraustins.blogspot.com/2011/10/another-traditionlys-birthday.html  (Thank sissy for covering it all.)

In the interest of getting caught up (but not editing even though some of these would be much better with a good polish) - here are some of my pics from our trip.

 We went to the Midnight Circus at the Park - which was so cool (although thank goodness not actually at midnight.)

My favorite pic - our FOUR kids. Crazy!


So, I think that about covers October (Heavens to Betsy, I am almost caught up!)