Walk Through California

On Friday Matthew's class participated in Walk Through California. Matthew dressed up as a forty-niner.

Jonathan's Latest Artwork

Elmer (from the book Elmer):

An Easter bunny:

Hippie child

School artwork

More artwork produced in the boys' weekly art class at school:

Sheep (Jonathan):

Winter scene (Matthew):

After school/pre-Costco treat

Buy 1 Get 1 Frappuccinos!

2013 (so far)

I'm a bad blogger. It's April 25 and I have yet to post this year. I was re-reading old entries the other night, feeling nostalgic for the days when I was a devoted blogger and I faithfully chronicled our days at home on the frozen tundra of Chicago.

No, really. I miss those days. My kids spend most of their day at school, and between homework and baseball practice there just isn't very much time to enjoy each other during the week. Both boys are playing Little League this year, in different divisions, and baseball has been dominating our life since January.

Anyway, here are some snapshots from 2013.

Winter break: Burger Bar in SF.

January: Playing on the school playground.

SF Sketchfest. I went to the Party Down reunion on February 9 and was thisclose to Adam Scott. Best night ever or best night ever?

Seriously, thisclose to Adam Scott.

The following day I took the kids into the city for Don't Let the Comedians Do Storytime!, another SF Sketchfest event with Mo Willems and a bunch of funny famous people like Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garofalo, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Michael Ian Black, Andy Richter, and Laraine Newman. We had front row seats for all the awesomeness. The kids learned to draw the Pigeon and Ken Marino (of Party Down and Veronica Mars) complimented them on their drawings.

Meeting Mo after the show.

Hanging out near the Embarcadero.

Finally, an instance in 2013 when "I'm at a pay phone, trying to go home" is actually applicable. We were waiting for BART.

Sunday morning in Berkeley:

The kids had a Monday off in February so we went into the city with Eric and went to the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The boys got to check out architecture kits that had a guide to the building's architecture and design concepts and tools so they could design their own building.

Matthew's museum.

Milkshakes at Lori's Diner:

A Chinese New Year display in the mall in SF:

Dinner at The Counter, one of our favorite WC restaurants.

Jonathan's drawing of "a walrus man in the clouds".

 Hiking at Shell Ridge during one of Matthew's baseball practices:

March. We spent a few days in Fresno for Easter, then spent the rest of spring break at home. We did go to the Tech Museum in San Jose one day.

In downtown WC right after school let out for spring break.

This is a Tsunami Pod, a rescue device.

I love how they are acting as if Captain Picard is a real person.

Jonathan's giraffe art, on display in the school hallway:

Jonathan researched the narwhal for his animal report and diorama:

More shenanigans at The Counter:

Matthew's art on display in the school cafeteria:

More of Jonathan's school artwork:

And that just about brings us up to date.

Merry Christmas 2012!

Ladies and gentlemen, my son

It's been a while

Wow. It is super depressing to click on my blog and see that the last post is from . . . the middle of August. Here are some highlights (mostly for my own personal archival purposes) of the past few months:

The end of August saw the first day of school:


Fourth grader!

First grader!

In September I took Matthew to his first concert. We saw Wilco play at the Greek Theater in Berkeley.

The set list:

They played a combination of classics and cuts from the newest album. I felt really lucky because they hit a lot of my favorites that they apparently did not play during the previous night's show at the Greek. Matthew loved the experience.

I did the Color Me Rad race in Fresno.

Before:

During:

After:

We went camping in October to celebrate the birthdays of Eric, Jonathan, and Joey. We camped near the beach, outside of Santa Cruz.

Matthew really enjoyed the bacon:

The birthday boys at the Boardwalk:

Two days later, Jonathan chose to have his 7th birthday dinner at Fuddruckers:

Eric and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary in Fresno. We left the kids with my parents and went to dinner at a restaurant called The Cracked Pepper. Then we were bored so we went to [redacted] and posed with Ronald McDonald.

For Halloween, Jonathan dressed up as Harry Potter. Matthew was a Creeper from Minecraft, his favorite video game. I spent a couple of nights making his costume. It involved looking at Creeper pictures for reference, drawing grids on the cardboard, coding the grids, mixing paints, and finally painting. It was a lot of work but worth it. Matthew got a lot of compliments, even though not everyone knew what he was supposed to be (one man whose house we trick or treated at guessed Gumby).

I am not a room mom this year, but I spent time helping during the Halloween parties in both boys' classes:

Matthew's class did a mummy wrap:

 October Madness really didn't subside until after the election. Kept up my streak and voted for Obama:

Matthew won the costume contest at the boys' music school:

November has been a busier than expected month as well. Between holidays, non-student days, and minimum days (for conferences) the boys have hardly been in school this month. The Thanksgiving break was a much-needed respite but I haven't been able to accomplish as much (personally) as I had hoped I would in November. Oh well. There is always December. On to the holiday season!