Bikes, chalk, dancing, pillow forts, and football, oh my!

Most of you who know me know that I'm big on bikes... and baseball. So, when a local group of sustainable transportation advocates decided to host an event at Progressive Field to bring attention to the importance of complete streets, I knew the Bongornos simply had to represent! Nora & I hooked up the bike hitch and rode over the bridge to the party. Naomi & Elise (still too young for a helmet, alas) drove down and met us there.

The girls (Nora, Sofia & Fiona) loved running around in the stands - I think we had more people there for this event than the actual baseball team was drawing this season!


Nora, looking very much the big girl, checking out the hundreds of bikes in the bike corral and Bob Feller (don't worry, that's not her beer):

She loved the music and wasn't afraid to show it!

Too cool for school:

That same weekend, we went down to Yellow Springs to meet up with Eden, Eli & Violet and on to Cincinnati to meet baby Vera (congrats Rick & Les!). Sunday morning in Cincinnati, Jake was playing down in Clifton at the StreetScapes chalk festival, so we all went and Nora got to add her touch to a big piece right on Telford Avenue!


Caroline (with Julian), Les (with Vera), Sarah (with Finn), Jake, & Me (with Elise):



Moving indoors, Nora built an awesome pillow fort (ok, Naomi helped) and showed Elise the way through:


Mimi came back from Spain (and Portugal and Ireland) with lots of gifts, including this amazing flamenco dress! Nora was enjoying a "mimosa" to complete the scene:

Back to being a mommy:


Nora & Elise had some friends over (Will, Mae & Joel) for the Browns game.

They were much more into building a "hotel" than watching the game!

Let's fly a kite

This Saturday was a sunny windy fall day - perfect weather for some kite flying! So, we headed down to Edgewater in the afternoon to enjoy the Kite Festival. Nora got to make her own kite and it took off fast and strong into the air with the hundreds of other kites there. It was a wonderful afternoon.





Pointing at her kite. She looks underwhelmed, but she really did have fun!








A little more animated, playing wolf attack with Papa...

Chicago and Minnesota

We had a lovely long weekend full of driving, friends, love, more driving, and good food. First, we drove to Chicago and stayed in the Matteson's new digs and got to meet Violet for the first time (and they got to meet Elise)!

Nora and Eli warmed up to eachother quickly, or maybe Eli was ready to get cozy a bit sooner. :)



Violet is a cutie pie!


Nora agrees...


Elise and Violet got to know eachother better...




Then we drove to MN for Simone and John's wedding! It was a wonderful love-filled weekend. Simone had a group of her ladies (including me and Nora!) dressed in bright colors with parasols (idyllic, yeah?) "give her away", which was beautiful. And, to top it off the processional song was Beirut's "Scenic World" - Chris and my wedding song! Just wonderful.




The B sisters hamming it up in our cabin...


Then, back we drove to Chicago for some fun on the playground and more couch cuddles.

Nora seems to have conquered her fear of slides! Check out that electric hair!




Cute smiles...


Silly faces!



And, back home, Elise was so worn out she allowed me to lay her down while asleep in the Ergo, and she stayed in that exact position for almost an hour! Too cute.