As I mentioned on Friday, this past weekend was the Jewish Party in the Park, a celebration of urban Jewish life in Druid Hill Park spearheaded by Beth Am, the Reservoir Hill synagogue nearby. Among the events of the day was the Shofar Flash Mob, led by Beth Am's Rabbi Daniel Burg (who I profiled here). Just after 1pm, when Rabbi Burg yelled out "Tekiah!" (the first of three sounds shofar-blowers make on the upcoming Jewish High Holidays), about a dozen in the crowd took out their horns (including my little boy Benny, pictured, using the toy shofar his brother Jack made last year—you can see someone in a Ravens jersey blowing a real one in the background) and blew. Ok, so it was more of a flash-minyan than a flash-mob, but still fun.

The Party wasn't overwhelmingly crowded, but considering that the event was competing with the second Ravens game of the season, attendance was impressive. Most impressive was the kind of people who came: Mostly Baltimore City residents enthusiastically looking to find and build Jewish institutions in the city. For at least a couple generations, the center of Jewish life in Baltimore has been in the suburbs. But, spearheaded in large part by Beth Am and a few other groups, there is a push for local Jews to be re-connect with their urban roots. The movement comes parallel with a broader trend that has seen young middle-class and upper-middle-class families of all religious and ethnic backgrounds opting to stay in the city or move back, as discussed in this story and exemplified by the increasing membership and influence of the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance (DBFA).

It was great to hear about a couple of some new initiatives for Jewish families in the city:

I've been involved with the Baltimore JCC for much of my life—and have long been familiar with its two locations, in Northwest Baltimore and in Owings Mills—so I was surprised and happy to hear about the new Downtown Baltimore JCC! There's no actual C (Center) yet, but the group holds classes for kids 5 and under and various downtown locations, and serves as a clearinghouse for other Jewish groups.

Shalom Hon! is a new initiative of the Center for Jewish Education. Hosted by the website for Baltimore's Child (a 2010 Best of Baltimore winner), Shalom, Hon! is a central calendar for all Jewish events in Baltimore, integrating the events of synagogues, preschools, and family-focused groups.

The Downtown Baltimore Jewish Family Network is a great way to connect with other families in the neighborhood and hear about upcoming events.

As we've seen in recent years, an increase in young families pouring their energy into the city is great for schools, for urban institutions, and for the children and families themselves. We're looking forward to even more movement in this direction.

Summer's been great, but now we're entering my favorite zone for weekend activities, Fall. Not only is it full of pumpkin patches, hay rides, hay mazes, etc. (hey, I'm a hay guy), but it's also nice and cool, which means you play outside longer.

This Saturday, from 10 to 7, is Hampdenfest, the alternative to Honfest. It's co-sponsored by the Hampden Village Merchants Association and Hampden Community Council and includes four stages of music, the annual toilet bowl race (pictured), tons of food and crafts, and a large children's area. Loads of neighborhood charm and fun. 

If that's a little too much toilet for you, head to the Ukrainian Festival in Patterson Park on Saturday and Sunday. They have amazing food and works of art, but the highlight is the entertainment: Traditional Ukrainian dancing with elaborate, beautiful costumes and, sometimes, swords!

Sunday is Children's Day at Ladew Gardens in Monkton. If you've never been, it's a truly mind-blowingly beautiful place and on Sunday they have lots of children's entertainment, live animals, crafts, and more.

Have a great one!

So, I heard something somewhere about a storm or something? Some lady named Irene was talking about it. I think.

Suffice it to say, I am not the most prepared citizen. I make a willful effort to ignore much of the hype and panic in situations like this (left). I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, but my stubborn, contrarian tendencies seem to override concern for my loved ones. So there it is.

In my defense, reports I've read make it sound as if the worst that's likely to happen to us is a power outage. When I realized this, I made a mental note to go out and buy a flashlight. Soon thereafter I read a Facebook post from someone who had been to four stores looking for flashlights and they were all sold out, so I scratched out my mental note. I've got headlamps from when I was in the Peace Corps somewhere in the house and now I've got a mental note to find them before the apocalypse strikes. Worse comes to worse, we've got birthday candles.

The only other reasonable thing I can think to do is to make sure we've got enough food to outlast the storm. I'll be honest with you, we haven't been shopping in a while. We're down to half a loaf of bread and some olives. And the boys don't like olives. Then again, the thought of going into a supermarket in the middle of all this hysteria is actually worse than the thought of us starving to death. I finally gave in and checked weather.com today and it seems the storm will pass by early morning Sunday. I think we can make it until then without resorting to cannibalism. Let's hope I can convince the boys to try olives.

With those fears resolved, we're down to worrying about what the heck we're going to do cooped up in the house for a day and a half. You may recall, the whole point of these "Keep Em Busy" posts was that I don't like it when the boys are sitting around the house with nothing to do. They get evil.

Conveniently enough, earlier these week, I held a contest for Cirque du Soleil tickets that required entrants to submit ideas for rainy-day activities in the comments. There were a ton of great ideas, from designing masks and arm bands and creating super-hero identities to pretending the floors are hot lava and coming up with ways to get around the house—click the link in that last sentence to check them out. Some other quick ideas:

-Papier Mache. It's just flour and water, and you can turn empty bottles, egg cartons, or paper towel rolls into rockets, masks, and swords, then paint them. Down side: It's messy. Jack, Benny, and I each ruined a pair of pants last time we did this.

-Smell game: Put 5 or 6 different strong-smelling foods/herbs in a cup each (lemon, onion, cinnamon, popcorn, etc.) and cover with tissue paper/napkin with holes and rubber bands. Have kid(s) smell each and draw a picture of what each smells like, either an actual picture of what they think it is or, if they don't know (try to pick at least one they won't know - maybe anchovies), try to use colors, shapes, etc. that LOOK like it smells. Downside: anchovies.

-Built a fort. The concept's been around since forever—what exactly is a "fort" anyway—because it works. There are various methods, but like to gather a bunch of chairs and drape blankets and sheets over them. Then we make arrows—just pieces of paper folded vertically as tightly as possible—and throw them at invaders, often mommy.

Good luck!

PS: My blog buddy, (cool) progeny has an actually helpful list of things to think about in advance of the hurricane. For sensible advice for parents, I encourage you to head there...

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner of Cirque du Soleil tickets, but we were in the middle of surviving an EARTHQUAKE over here!!

There were lots of great rainy day activities and I, for one, am totally looking back over the comments in the contest post next time my kids are home and bored.

The winner is Lynne Wallace Wright, who not only replied quickly, but had a great suggestion of having kids create armbands and masks and turn themselves into superheroes of their own creation. Love it!

For everyone else, please stay tuned. I'm planning to do another big giveaway (for a different event) in about a week or so! Thanks!