Throughout this summer on Thursday nights a new event is taking place at Washington Park, Bandstand Bluegrass. After last night’s performance by the Comet Bluegrass All-Stars, three events have already taken place, with twelve more to go through the beginning of September.

Comet Bluegrass All-Stars

Last night my family and I went to check out it. The awesome thing about this event is it is fun for all ages. The photo below was taken from the children’s playground. So even if you are running around the slides and swings with your little ones, you are still within range of hearing the concert.

Washington Park Crowd

Eli’s BBQ is also available every Bandstand Bluegrass night with $5 pulled pork sandwiches. And Mt. Carmel is on hand as well to provide refreshing beer to those of age. Be sure to bring a lawn chair or blanket as permanent seating is limited.

Eli’s BBQ

We had a blast last night and I’m sure we will be down again soon for another fun-filled evening.

Earlier this week my family and I visited Sunrock Farm for a two hour family tour. We joined several other families on a highlight tour of the most enjoyable areas of the farm. All of the children in attendance were able to milk a goat, bottle feed baby goats, gather eggs, hold a baby chick, pet a pig, and brush a horse. Farmer Frank was our guide for the morning, offering many jokes, as well as tons of information about the animals. The cost of the tour is $10 per person and reservations can be made by calling (859) 781-5502. Sunrock Farm also offers school tours, day camps, traveling petting farm, birthday parties, and much more.

Saturday morning my family and I went to Parky’s Farm, a 100-acre educational farm with live animals, wagon and pony rides, playground, indoor Parky’s Playbarn, and more. Most activities and exploring are included with $3 admission per vehicle, or the $10 annual Hamilton County Parks pass. The pony rides are $3 per child shorter than 48 inches, the wagon ride is $2.50 per person (2 and under are free), and the indoor playbarn is $2.50 per child (2 and under are free).

In addition to the above mentioned activities, our two-year-old love the petting yard with one month old baby goats as well as watering all the vegetables in the large gardens. We spent at least three hours at Parky’s with all the activities available. Since the park is inside of Winton Woods, there are many other activities you could enjoy, and you could easily spend an entire day there.

We spent the entire extended weekend down at the lake house in Williamstown. A little work was done to the house, such as hanging shelves in one of the closets, but the majority of the time was spent having fun.

Nick With The Screen

Our evenings were filled with the usual bonfire, but we had new entertainment as well. Kim’s dad received a massive inflatable projector screen for Christmas, and we finally got the chance to break it in this weekend. In fact we watched a movie each of the three nights we were there.

Free Willy

Nick was quite the fisherman, reeling in a half-dozen bluegill. I also helped Trey do some fishing of his own and I think we caught the smallest fish ever. After that embarrassment I did manage to bring in a couple of other decent sized catches.

Bluegill Fishing

Throughout the rest of the weekend we also took a few boat rides and even took a swim in the lake on the last day. The water was a bit chilly but I’m hopeful it will continue to warm up with the recent heat wave we have been having.

Last week the newest features of the Smale Riverfront Park were dedicated and opened to the public. The Duke Energy Garden and Women’s Committee Garden combine to more than double the amount of park space available.

Cincinnati’s New Front Porch

My favorite features of the Duke Energy Garden are a dozen family size swings that overlook the river. I sat on one of these swings for a few minutes and watched boats float by. I can already tell that these are going to be very popular.

Front Lawn

The Duke Energy Garden is the eastern most section of the park, just south of Great American Ball Park and to the east of the already popular Main Street Fountains. The pathways through the park are very close to connecting with the Ohio River Trail, which will soon link Smale with Yeatmans Cove, Sawyer Point, and Friendship Park, offering a mile and a half of continuous paved trail.

Duke Energy Garden

Even though the new swings are my favorite part of the park, my son continues to love running through the interactive Main Street Fountains. But since the swings are just around the corner from the fountains, everyone wins!

Main Street Fountains

Construction continues on the west end of the park. The PNC Grow Up Great Adventure Playground, being built next to the Roebling Suspension Bridge, will open in May 2014. And it looks like funding is in place to have the Vine Street Fountain & Stairs, carousel, and carousel building open in time for the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

A couple of days ago I took my family to the Cincinnati Fire Museum for our first visit. My grandfather was a Cincinnati Firefighter so it’s a bit surprising that I never visited the museum before, at least not to my recollection, even though it has been open for at least as long as I’ve lived in Cincinnati.

Outside

Oldest Surviving Fire Engine

The fire museum is located in a restored 1907 firehouse, the Court Street Firehouse, which sits at 315 West Court Street. The Court Street Firehouse is a registered historic building, listed in the National Register on July 18, 1974.

Hand Pumper

Aurora Pumper

Mt. Washington Fire Department

Hook And Ladder Wagon

There are a few hands on exhibits for children, including an awesome modern fire engine cabin with functioning sirens and flashing lights. I couldn’t figure out how to get the lights to turn on, but leave it to our two-year-old who had them all flashing in no time.

Play Fire Engine

Captain Trey

Over 200 years of firefighting history is on display in the Cincinnati Fire Museum. Exhibits include examples of early leather fire buckets that all citizens were required to own and maintain, a massive 1808 fire drum that was used to sound the alarm in the event of a fire, and the oldest surviving fire engine in Cincinnati.

1927 Ahrens Fire Engine

Helmets

Another awesome family fun activity is taking a slide down the fireman’s pole. Trey had never done this before, so I had to give him a quick demonstration before helping him take a few slides.

Fireman’s Pole

Fireman Trey

We could have easily spent more than the hour we dedicated for this trip. There is a lot of historical information that can take some time to read through. But with low admission prices it is easy to justify a quick trip as well.

Happy Earth Day everyone! We were fortunate to catch the tail end of the Cincinnati Earth Day celebration at Sawyer Point yesterday. In addition to a ton of eco-friendly booths, there were a few animal centered exhibitors.

Freshly Sheared Alpacas

We barely caught the New Richmond Alpaca Farm setup before their three alpacas were loaded into a truck and taken back to the farm. One of the farmers told me that these animals were just sheared two days ago. The farm turns their unique wool into stuffed animals, clothing, and more.

Trey, Goat Handler

Trey had the most fun playing with the animals of Sunrock Farm. He was able to lead a goat around on a leash, hold a baby chick, and pet a really large rabbit. So much fun for kids of all ages!

I’ve had an exciting couple of days. Our new baby girl, Paige Brianna, was born very early this morning at 12:31 A.M. Baby and mom are both doing exceptionally well.

Things got started yesterday after work. It was Kim’s family’s day with Trey, so after work she went to pick him up. She started having contractions sometime in the evening and her parents decided to drive her back home. Once we reconvened at home, we started timing the contractions better, and finally called the doctor around 9 P.M. She told us to go ahead and come into the hospital. While all of that was happening, Trey fell asleep at our house, so my parents came over to our house to watch him for the night. We arrived at the hospital right at 11.

That is when things really got going quickly. We headed to triage to get some measurements and such, before moving over to a delivery room around midnight. The doctor didn’t arrive until 12:20 or so and Paige was born in the next ten minutes. It was such a different experience form what we went through with Trey, where labor and delivery went on for over a dozen hours.

Paige

Proud Dad

We cannot wait to get back home and reunite with Trey. He came by for two visits today and really loved having his baby sister nearby. I think he is definitely going to be protective of her.

More pictures can be viewed on kimandedjr.com. Additional posting could be light the rest of this week and next.

Now that we have a place to stay the night, I think our trips to Williamstown Lake will be numerous this spring and summer. We kicked it off this past weekend and had a day filled with tree trimming and house cleaning. It wasn’t all work though, as we all found time to enjoy a boat ride on the lake. Then we capped off the night with homemade pizzas and a bonfire. With temperatures in the sixties already, I hope it isn’t long until the water is warm enough for swimming.

Our Captains

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Friday evening we took Trey to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Dragons down at the U.S. Bank Arena. This was my first time in years attending a performance of “The Greatest Show On Earth,” but I’m sure it won’t be the last. Overall Trey really seemed to enjoy the circus, though I think he will like it even more when he has an attention span longer than the typical two-year-old.

Ringling Bros.

All-Access Preshow

We arrived nearly an hour before the show was set to start and spent time walking around the merchandise filled concourses and eventually found our way on the circus floor for the all-access preshow. Here families can participate in interactive experiences such as learning juggling and balancing skills, get performer autographs, see one of Ringling Bros. majestic Asian elephant’s paint a one-of-a-kind masterpiece and meet the Ringling Bros. Clowns.

Live Orchestra Setup

My favorite acts from the two hours or so of entertainment were definitely the Alexander Lacey, the Big Cats Trainer and Presenter, as well as the Torres Family, who performs with 8 motorcycles in a 16-foot steel sphere, where speeds can reach up to 65 mph! I was also impressed to see that the entire performance is choreographed along with a live orchestra and not with music from a tape.

Big Cat Presentation

Motorcycle Globe Of Steel

I’m not sure why the show is called “Dragons” as there is very little to do with dragons. A large robotic dragon does peak its head out of the curtain just before intermission and it is sent flying around the circus floor at the end of the night, but that is the only real dragon aspects of the show. If I had to add any other complaints about the show it was that the ringmaster was often hard to hear, but that could just be due to our ancient arena’s poor acoustics. Even without fully understanding his introductions of the acts, it was easy to quickly decipher what was going to happen in each.

Unleashed Dragon

Typically the day before the circus opens up for performances, there is an animal walk from where the circus trains are parked to the arena. This year the train arrived in the middle of the night after being delayed on its route between tour stops. My wife remembers going to see the same event as a child and really wanted to take our son. Once we found out it was canceled for this year we thought of other ideas to get closer to the animals. Fortunately we had a nice bit of luck last night as we were driving home from the west side of town and spotted a few of the elephants being loaded on the train.

Circus Elephant

So Close

Walking By

Rail Cars

Three Elephants

Back Her In

This was very cool to see but I hope we can get the full animal parade next time the circus comes to town.