Sunday: a surprise table, Great Circus Parade and elderly Josiah

Two days in a row. I'm scaring myself.

Anyway, busy-busy weekend! Today started with Ned and I taking a long walk while Baba assembled his latest furniture project--a coffee table for Ned to play on--that had remained a secret from me. This is a big deal--I am always checking on Dan's projects and love, love, loooove watching his creative process. But this project he wanted to be a surprise--only Ned could see it before today. And see it she did--all the way from start to finish. She even went with Baba to the wood store a couple weeks ago to pick out just the right piece of black walnut. (Apparently she loved the wood store--they spent an hour there and she was right at home. Dan is so hopeful for a budding woodworker.) And then they spent much time together in his workshop the past couple weeks giggling and horsing around. And when I'd ask her what she was looking at downstairs she'd whisper, "tay-bow" and pat the air--I guess patting the air signifies table surface...kid cracks me up.) Anyway, today was the grand unveiling. And it ROCKS. It is completely unlike his other pieces, and my picture does it no justice whatsoever, but trust me when I say this coffee table is outta sight. (And yes, that is indeed Hank's leg. Bizarre little creature.)



Then we went with Nana and Papa to the Great Circus Parade downtown. Watching this parade today from Juneau Park I was again struck by how cool Milwaukee is. I mean, there's the amazing lake and it's lengthy stretches of public access, the inherently funny, not afraid to be laughed at quality, the traditions such as this parade, the bratwurst...good stuff. Our bird's-eye view from Juneau Park was so cool--we overlooked the starting point and got to see the mechanics of the parade organization, including what happens when a team of horses pulls a mutany and decides they don't want to walk a two hour parade route... And you always wondered why there were unexplained gaps in parades...sit at the starting line next time. :)



And our very busy Sunday ended with a 9th birthday party for our growing-up-way-too-fast nephew Josiah. (Josiah is my sister Lisa's eldest.) Ned loves "Jershiya"--her face lights up in the most adorable way when she says his name. I can't really get over Josiah being 9. Seriously, wasn't it just a couple years ago when I rushed to the airport to meet his 4-month old self?

9. He's NINE. Good Lord.

Happy Birthday, Josiah! We love you!