Let It Rain Lemonade: Days 7 & 8: Sunny Day at Ivywild School

I didn't always know it, but having a handful of unique places to eat baked goods or grab some hot chocolate is pretty important to me. I'm not talking about Dunkin' Donuts here, although I have been known to enjoy the Dunkin' from time to time. For me, it's not completely about the delicious eats even. It's the atmosphere. Is that lame? Well, I don't care, because I found one, and it's got it all - atmosphere and deliciousness PLUS room for rowdy kids.

Enter Ivywild School. It's even got preservation, history, and upcycling on it's side. It is really, truly an old school re-purposed to be a bakery, coffee shop, brewery, fresh market, and cool Colorado t-shirt . . . place. It's a capital 'C' Cool place. The Principal offers libations. See?

These kids might just be waiting their turn in line. Hope they're not in trouble! ;)

I love when the details matter. I love that the 'bakery windows' are real, re-purposed windows:

Avery ordered a piece of the chocolate cake once. As far as cake goes, it's a winner on flavor, but doesn't it look pretty as well?

I felt a little bit french today buying a fresh baguette out of a basket. It's not so bad feeling a little bit french. I liked it very much.

I learned that Blake, Avery, and I should share this very large cinnamon roll with an excessive amount of cream cheese frosting on top. This is as far as the three of us got:

I now realize that the pictures below are slightly crooked, so I want you to imagine the scene of a 5-year-old girl talking to you relentlessly, always requiring a response, while an almost two-year-old boy begs to be held, and all you want to do is take a pretty picture to remind yourself of the good things.

I still think those rows of bottles of water and glasses and stacks of pretty linens is very lovely, crooked or not.

The hot chocolate isn't sweet. It reminds me of a thick bowl of chocolate I ordered at a french restaurant in Seattle. It was served it with a bowl of cream so you can soften the bitterness just a bit. This beautiful cup of chocolate isn't quite so dramatic, but if you order one, don't expect Swiss Miss is all I'm saying.

We hung out on the large patio out front with 5 kids running around and no one else to be annoyed. The sun beat down on our backs and faces so that I was reminded of another perk of living here. Did you know that Colorado Springs boasts 300 days of sun? I've just now come to believe that is a good thing. I missed the cozy nature of the low-hanging clouds of Seattle for a little too long, but sunny days are pretty awesome. I don't think I can write an entire post about it, so I'm adding it as a day of it's own here.

The kids played hide-and-seek under the tables and just ran and giggled. That outside patio allowed us moms to enjoy the sound of our own voices for a solid 2 hours. Miracles do happen.

We looked out at this ever-changing sky:

Do you see that weird tractor just kicking it in that equally strange field in front of the school? (Hello, 1998 - 'kicking it'.) Well, we played on that, too, and picked dandelions.