25 January 2009

We picked up trash in our neighborhood for the Martin Luther King Day of Service. We found about 7 pieces of trash in our orderly neighborhood.


Helen took advantage of Becky being distracted by the inauguration Tuesday morning to cover her waffle with chocolate chips. Things we loved about the inauguration: Aretha Franklin's magnificent performance, Reverend Lowry's benediction, Obama's call for responsibility, Michelle's green leather gloves, the helicopter. Helen ate the chocolate chips for breakfast and left the waffle.


Abe likes playing pirates with his animals, Captain Bob (the bear) and Pirate Max (the lion). Abe calls himself "Pirate Abe."


For activity days this week, we sewed handbags from empty Capri-Sun bags. The project turned out bigger than Becky expected, with 20 girls out of a possible 18 attending. Our previous highest attendance was 15 girls at an activity. The activity was a success in that each of the girls had a good time and we had enough Capri-Sun wrappers to go around. We had a lot of help from moms and friends and needed every bit of it. In the photo are Hannah, Sophie and Rylee.

Nate's debut album, Mr. Cadbury Kensington, arrived over the weekend and we're enjoying the frenetic mix. The first track is our favorite. Good Work, Nate!

Helen gave a talk in Primary today. She wouldn't let Becky write a talk for her and insisted on thinking up what she wanted to say herself. Helen did such a great job-- hard to believe she's only 4.

18 January 2009

Saturday we went sledding in the mountains with friends. The sky was clear blue, there was plenty of snow and it was too warm for coats. Helen enjoyed sledding so much. "Because I'm four now."


Gibson has a cold so he just wanted to sit and watch. Brandan and Becky took turns holding him, but Gibson really prefers Brandan.


Here comes Sophie!


Then it's back up the hill.

A big group of teenagers was sledding as well. One of them shows off the latest way to break an arm. His sled looks like a skateboard attached to a short ski. You're supposed to stand on it to slide down the slope. It has no bindings.

Abe is standing with our friend, Mia. Mia's mom, dad and baby sister also came with us. Abe and Mia liked sliding down on their ski bibs without a sled. Abe is sporting his third pair of gloves of the day in the photo.

Sophie's friend, Rylee, also came with us. The big girls took some big spills going over jumps and Sophie was fairly sore this morning. She tried to talk Becky into letting her take a pillow to church to sit on today.

A hip hip hooray for Sophie-- she auditioned for Annie, the high school's musical this year, and will play the part of an orphan in the show. For the audition she memorized a 2 minute comedic monologue and prepared a song to perform. Rehearsals start in February and the show will be in April.

11 January 2009

One year older and wiser, too! Brandan celebrated his birthday on January 4th. To discover his age, solve this birthday math puzzle: What is the 13th prime number where n=1 to 49? (Hint: Use the Sieve of Eratosthenes.)


Gibson has developed an expensive hobby-- snapping earpieces off glasses. The photo shows Brandan's and Sophie's glasses after Gibson got his hands on them. This could translate into a marketable skill later on-- maybe twisting claws off crabs at a seafood counter. In the meantime, keep your glasses out of his reach. His reach expands daily.


Here's Sophie with the desert biome diorama she made for school. The cacti are real; the snakes are not. We love the tidbits we learn from Sophie's homework. For example, desert biomes are second only to rain forests in plant diversity. Who knew?


Abe is forging ahead with his reading skills. Here he's picking words out of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. He generously shares his new talent with Gibson and Helen.

Learning to use our bake oven has been a steep learning curve. We've experimented a few times with pizza since no one ever died from eating raw pizza. So far we've learned to plan ahead and to overheat the oven and let it cool down rather than underheat it and hope the food cooks anyways. Saturday was our best attempt yet as dinner was ready before bedtime. Below is Becky and Sophie's favorite pizza combination: butternut squash, caramelized onions, walnuts and blue cheese.

4 January 2009

We're back from our trip to San Diego. We had a wonderful time, thanks to our hosts, Ruth and Bill, and their terrific kids, Lizzy, Zoe, John and Will. They were so generous in making us comfortable and joined us in exploring San Diego. Ruth thoughtfully planned 15 meals that besides being delicious, were allergy friendly-- an Olympian task and very appreciated.


Ruth arranged for a tour of the UCSD campus' outdoor sculpture collection. A private foundation funds the acquisition of art from current artists. The artists are given nearly complete control over the siting and construction of the sculptures. Some are impressive and some are not. This boulder bear is in the middle of the spectrum and was a hit with the kids. The artist used rocks as he found them and only minimally shaped the boulders. The machinery used to move the space shuttle was used to position the enormous boulder that makes the bear's belly.


Here is a photo of our tour guide, Christy, a landscape architect and Ruth's friend. Christy was a great guide, setting our pace for kids and finding the pieces they would love. We learned college campuses are big playgrounds for kids-- minimal traffic with lots of stairs and walkways to dash around on. Behind Christy in the photo is the UCSD library, an experiment in upside-down architecture and named in honor of Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss).


We hiked to the beach in Torrey Pines State park and watched a beautiful sunset-- even seeing the mythic green flash just as the sun disappeared. Sophie, Lizzy and Zoe are junior members of the polar bear club. The water was not warm. Sophie and Zoe are in the photo.

Helen celebrated her 4th birthday on our trip. She has an iron will, a quick mind and a 400 watt smile. We love our little princess!

We spent Tuesday at Sea World. The orcas were majestic and our family favorite. The weather was warm and beautiful and we stayed until after dark, fascinated by the huge variety of water creatures.

This photo is from Moonlight Beach. The water was still cold. Sophie, Lizzy and Zoe still played in it. Abe didn't get in the water, but Zoe towed him down a sand hill on a body board.

We celebrated New Year's Eve with Ruth's parents, brother, niece and nephew. The hit of the evening was a bag of balloons like clowns use to twist into animals. The kids were wildly creative making things out of balloons. Sophie ended up with a bug costume, complete with hat, wings, sandals and goggles. Everyone ended up with at least one thing to wear. Here Gibson and Abe model helmets.

Helen thought our stay was 11 days too short. Sophie suggested we trade houses with Ruth and Bill's family for the coming year. In the end, we had to come home. We had one last stop for fun at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, California. After a fun tour, the kids enjoyed munching on complimentary jelly bellies.

Photos we wished we had: Nate and his cute girlfriend, Katie, whom we met in LA for lunch. Katie works in a law firm and handled lunch with four kids without blinking an eye.

Also, Frank and Traci and their three handsome boys, old friends who live in San Diego. Traci was roommates with Becky and Ruth in college and is now an extremely sensible mom who likes to blow things up as the school science guru. Frank is a prosecutor in the San Diego DA's office, working on a gang task force. Frank is one reason that San Diego is not Tiajuana.

Tomorrow it's back to work and school, but we're still basking in memories of the San Diego sun and a New Year where everything is possible.