Jaspers 6th Birthday Party

This morning I went to tour a preschool and Em & the boy went shopping then we met up at
a gorgeous park in montclair for Jasper's Birthday Party (!!!!) - there were lots of great games for the kids & food & drinks (and coffee thanks so much laura and RV) & there was the most amazing trio of cakes decorated with space designs with M&M's - so cool

(Jasper lights the candles)
The Cakes
the smiles...

Traffic Stopper

Post halloween

I've been enjoying watching as our pumpkins decompose this week. #naturetakesitstoll

Crazy Awesome Sunset

Lately we have been having some of the most amazing sunsets. Each evening I pretty much stop in my tracks and stare out the windows and down the hillside & feel truly blessed to be in such an amazing place. These photo's dont really do it justice at all.



but you get the idea I hope.
I know that they truly are stunning because after I spend my 20 minutes stuck at the window I have been seeing tweets and status updates from Oakland, SF, Berkeley all saying the same thing.

I am glad to feel so truly blessed and although I really really miss friends & family on the other side of the country my soul is just elevated by the beauty of this part of the world.

at the farm

This is us as we wait for Elizabeth and the boys to meet us at Tilden's Little Farm for an adventure day outing. Don't worry - it gets better.

Water Weight

38 lbs and 3/4ths water

Nuff Said

Thanks for the photo Jean

Silly Face

a quick shot of the boy being silly for the camera phone and baby Thomas as we hang out afterschool in "Melanie Great Park" known to civilians as Tassajara Park in El Cerrito. We've started coming here about once a week to meet up with Mel & Tom-tom and to spy on the kids from the neighboring school that I am thinking about as one of our options for next year.

Giant Celebration Parade

After some deliberation the night before I decided that after I dropped the boy off at preschool I would go ahead and come into the city to check out the PARADE OF CHAMPIONS!!!! I think it was a very good decision to not bring him with because the crowds were insane & I suspect WAY MORE than the city had planned for.

These photos are from the FRINGES and in no way reflect the actual numbers of people there - seriously they are just catching the smatterings. I got close enough to see the tops of some of the floats heading into civic center & then I gave up and went up to Louies in the Castro for a haircut. (Guess what NO LINE) - Enjoyed the camraderie of a lot of happy folks on the BART trains both there and back - but reminded that I really don't like crowds.

so CONGRATS SF GIANTS

Can't wait to bring the boy to a game or twenty in the spring!!!

Grandpa!!!!

Gourmet Ghetto Dead

Halloween Parade

Treat

Cambridge Halloween

The coplon-newfs in their holiday finery

(princess leia, yoda, darth and luke)

Grandma & Grandpa are coming

and here is the boy waiting for the BART train to take us to SFO to pick them up. He is soooo sooo excited to show off his new Berkeley Hills house, and to get to go trick or treating with them. Hopefully we will have some good weather mixed in with the weekends rain.

Go GIANTS!!!!

2-0

A Clear Picture of one of the deer

Finally they hold still long enough...

My trip to the coin -op

or what I did with my ME time today. Comforters can fit in the laundromat dryers!

Post Call

Em had her first call shift at the New Job - she left the boy and I Sunday afternoon at the OctoPretzel show at Ashkenaz . We were very sad to see her go and had to come home and cook a fancy dinner to make ourselves feel better. But the upside is that the next day after a nice adventure day morning at Habitot and LHS we got to have lunch and a WHOLE afternoon in Mommy's company.

This meant flying kites at the Marina....

Adventure Day - Packing it In

while em was home sleeping R. and I headed out for a double adventure morning. We started by heading down to Habitot which was totally crazy since rain had been predicted for the morning. We ran into mama Chelsea and Jude from our preschool as we got there. We started in the ART area and played with some silly putty/gak type stuff and then headed to the shuttle....

The NASA space shuttle and accompying costumes was a big hit with the boy as always. Then to round out our science morning we headed up to Lawrence Hall of Science to ride the rollercoaster exhibit and we even got to see rainbows in the fountain outside.



Then we got to meet up with Mommy for sandwiches and kite flying at the Marina - yeah.