Boys in Trees

(with helmets and wearing suit jackets ... what could be better?)

Temescal - fishing & laughing

Met Jasper and his mom at Lake Temescal to try our hand at some more fishing after we all acquired a taste for it at Camp last week. The boys will never ever catch anything because all they do is jump around and make each other laugh. But despite the sillies they are both learning how to cast pretty well.

A couple of engineers...

Rafi and the boy are working on a suspension bridge at Lawrence Hall of Science. We cut preschool today so that we could hang out some more with the G-N clan - mom, dad, Doron, Rafi and Zohara and Ziva. It was rainy so LHS was our place. The boy is pretty smitten with Rafi - they both love to build complex and beautiful structures.

When a tree falls in the neighborhood

The neighbors called last night just after midnight to tell us that everyone was okay and that we shouldn't freak out if we saw FireTrucks coming up to their house. It was rainy and very very windy out and one of the giant trees in their yard had just come down onto their roof. - I hadn't heard a thing!!

This morning we went over to take a look - Wowza





Thank goodness everyone was fine & the house is hopefully fine - that is some good construction that it can catch a direct hit and not crumble.

Firewood anyone?

Indoor Play Cafe

On this rainy rainy morning we had a play date with Amy and Cypress at Sadie Days in Oakland - it was a pretty cool space but crowded - lots of moms escaping the bad weather. Still I love a place where the boy can run and play and I can have a latte!!!! Plus seeing Amy was a BIG bonus.

Tashlich

L'Shanah Tovah Ya'all.

I can't believe that we are back in the Bay Area to start the New Year (5771). We attended erev services at Beth El - the reform congregation just down the hill from us in Berkeley. Yoel Kahn from CSZ is the Rabbi there now and Rueben is the Asst. Rabbi so it felt very at home for us - and there are a lot of kids at the early service so the boy could sit and play angry birds without causing too much of a stir. In the morning we came into the city for the CSZ services at the Herbst Theater which REALLY feels like coming home. We sat in one of the boxes and the boy played with magnets on the floor - I was surprised to have Jack's Grandma Inez come over and say hi - didn't realize that she attends CSZ. We went from services to grab a lunch to go from one of my favorite dives then headed out to Chrissy Field to do Taschlich.



The bridge was just visible through the fog but as we enjoyed our lunch the sun came out more and more.

For the boy it was a chance to play on the beach as we cast our crumbs into the sea.
Oh yeah - it was also a great chance for him to enjoy Jesse's company as well and to gather some more tips on strategy for taking on the helmet heads of Angry Birds.

Some scenes from the Family Week Parade

One of the opening events of Family Week in P-Town is the parade on Sunday afternoon. These are some photos of the families as we meandered around town. The boy is pretty excited to be around so many kids - and also to see his friends Asher, Maya and Harriet. It looks like its gonna be a pretty good week.

Shire 4th of July

the boy had been getting pretty bored just hanging out with his momma's - lucky for him Alex, Ted and Jack came out to the shire to spend the 4th with us. Everyone spent LOTS of time in the pool, lots of eating and lots of playing of the momma mommy ball.

Em took everyone out to see the fireworks too -

Last Day of School

At the kids last day of preschool all the parents came in to enjoy a "performance" of them all singing to us followed by a picnic lunch in the play yard. Our boy stood front and center for the performance (you can see him here - back to the crowd) and didn't sing a note!!

They were crazy adorable - I am going to miss GNS very, very much

GNS Three's Class Picture

Front Row: James, Briac, Harrison, Cece, Daniella, R, Liam and Katherine

Middle Row: Eva, Rachel, Maya, Oliver, Lily, Zoe, Sofia, Max, Isadora

Back: Jen G.

Absent - Elanor

Adventure Day Marissa

For our "Adventure Day" with Marissa we decided to be very Boston and to walk the Freedom trail. We started by hopping the T down to Park street and then finding the head of the trail there - it took us down to the waterfront where we stopped into the aquarium (and had a bit of lunch) and up through the North End before coming out around Fanuil Hall.

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Hooker Entrance

Riss wouldn't stand by the sign for me to take her picture for some reason... so you just have to imagine.

Birthday Photos

these poor shots will have to keep you satisfied until I get copies of the photos that Grandpa Phil took. But until then here are some views of our rained in birthday boy and co. Since it was POURING and thundering we cancelled our planned playdate in the park and just pared down to family and the og playgroup kids in our apt. Gabe, Jack (also a birthday boy today) and Harriet joined us along with the Granparents N. and DGina Farah and Dori. We valiantly did our best to drink a couple dozen juice boxes and eat 4 bags of pretzels and chips. We got some good BBQ sandwiches from Coast Cafe and Mommy brought 20 special cookies from the cafe by her work.



Present opening time was a HUGE hit.

Thanks everyone for such a fun time.

Uncle Adam ...

came to visit this week which gives me the perfect reason to post this picture of his whole lovely family on the blog!!!!

New Library Playdate

Running around the playground at the new library with our buds & their dads on a recent Tuesday afterschool - fun

On Skype ---

The boy skype's with his bff girlfriend in Seattle. Now that we have a new laptop (at 17" that is probably a bit of a misnomer) we have a built in web cam. A visit with Lila and her grandma in Seattle was our maiden voyage - the kids were so cute.

Our Thanksgiving

This is a shot of Quincy House at Harvard - You can't really see it, but there is a very, very nice penthouse apartment on the top floor (behind the trees) which is where we got to spend our Thanksgiving.


Note the fabulous place setting candy decorations - oreo cookies, reese's and candy corn - I think the boy thought he'd died and gone to some type of Martha Stewart candy heaven... He also thought that ALL the little turkeys were for him...

and here he is jumping on the furniture after eating his fill

Honestly it was quite a lovely thanksgiving with some of the best food that I have had & the apartment was very nice with incredible views of Cambridge & Boston. Also the house mascot is a penguin & the boy is now very attached to the 4 foot stuffed penguin that he played with all night!!

Demolition !

Jeff invited El Destructo upstairs to have a hand at the demolition thats been going on in their kitchen. The work he is doing is amazing by the way - the top floor is looking amazing with a laundry room & a new bathroom - rain shower head & claw foot tub included. The lower floor is in the midst of transformation.


Em, Mikey & Jeff in the newly framed kitchen doorway.


El Destructo with his goggles on ripping down some plaster in the kitchen.

Garden Nursery Pajama Day Fun

Monito's nursery school likes to hold a pajama day for the kids before the holiday weekends. Today was our first one. I had been looking forward to this since last year when Em & I visited the school it was PJ day & I thought it looked like so much fun. Really - what's cuter than a bunch of 3 year olds running amok in their footsies?

The teachers & the parent teacher also wear PJ's to school for the day & the classroom is transformed for "night time" with lots of caves (big boxes), sleeping bags, flashlights and other fun stuff.

This year the kids also were "going on a bear hunt" for PJ day ---
Here is the monkey & one of his classmates making bears with teacher Rachel (easy name to remember huh)



showing off his bear (that he carried around with him ALL day according to the teachers)

The classroom also has a cool loft space that the kids have transformed into a FIRETRUCK
this year - complete with hoses, helmets and the steering wheels that used to be in the outside play yard...



put this all together and you get.....

A couple of Pajama clad fire fighters!!!!!

More fall foliage fun

Gabe, Jack & our boy get busy at the Amigos school playground.