Leo's Magic Garden field trip

Shew.  It's been quite a week.  In addition to all our regular activities, we had Open House, a baseball game and the book fair.  Yesterday I went with the second graders on their final field trip of the year.  We took the public bus to the Adult Education campus in Santa Clara where there is a community garden.  The teachers called it the "Magic Garden" and the kids were broken up into groups and lead through the garden by senior citizens volunteer .  There wasn't too much for the parents to do except escort the kids through the neighborhood to the bus stop and ride the bus with them.  It was still exhausting though.

Here are the kids ready to cross the street to get to the bus stop.  The teachers told the kids to wear hats and Leo decided to wear his Arkansas bubba hat.

 Not sure who thought it would be a good idea to have the kids sitting on the curb, but moments after this picture was taken one of the moms freaked out about it and had them all scoot back.  I helped her.

 Loading up.

 On the bus, Leo and I talked about the last time we were on a public bus and remembered that we rode one from Queens to Manhattan when we were in New York in 2013.

 The garden tour started with the group meeting for some rules and information.

 Then he set off with his docent and three of the rowdiest boys in the class.

 Planting seeds.

 Checking out some different kinds of seeds and dirt.

 He liked the snapdragon and some fennel leaves he got to taste.

 Looking for the bus to go back to school.

 Serafina got a special evening with Nana last night and that included a trip to the ice cream store near her house.

Open House 2016

Tonight was the elementary school's Open House.  It's the first time both kids are at the same school and the first time Nana was able to join us.  It made it extra fun.  

We started in Serafina's classroom.  Nana and Tom were impressed with all her hard work.  

 She was so excited and proud to show off her stuff.

 Serafina and her teacher Mrs. Robinson.

 My favorite item on display with this story Serafina wrote.

If it's hard to read, it says "I am Serafina. I am 6 and a half years old.  I like cats.  I have a cat.  Her name is Bile."  Of course, she was trying to write Billie, but the fact she wrote Bile instead is hilarious since Billie barfs regularly.  

 Then it was on to Leo's room.  This is a timeline of pictures from baby to seven year old.

 The photograph is from the first day of school.  He made this picture and wrote a flower haiku.

 His classroom is small and it was pretty crowded.  The painting next to his shoulder is his artwork depicting the family at our ski house.

Multicultural Festival 2016

The Multicultural Festive was the crowded, exhausting experience it usually is, but it was still a fun time.  Leo and Nana headed home for a bit before coming to the festival.  Serafina ran around with her friends and sampled lots of food and tried different crafts.  I helped some friends at the Norway booth.  Here's Serafina the Viking.  

 The weather was terrible most of the day, but the sun came out in time for the performances to be held outside.  Here's Serafina catching some air while she enthusiastically dances with Gianna.

 Nana and Leo made sure to come back for the show.

 Getting a congratulations hug from her teacher.

 Tom, Leo and Nana headed home after Serafina danced.  We stayed around a little longer so she could see some of her classmates perform.  I had to bribe her with snacks so we could leave.  I had helped with set up so I wanted to go home before clean up started or else I knew I'd get roped into helping with that too.

Mexican Dance

Tomorrow is the Multicultural Festival at the elementary school.  I've never documented it before because it's absolute chaos and I've always been busy helping at the booths during the event.  Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, which means it will mostly be held in the cafeteria.  Holding it inside is no one's idea of a good time, but there isn't much to be done about that.  In addition to the booths representing different cultures from around the world, each grade level performs a dance (or two) from a country.  Kids sign up to participate and then practice after school for a couple months.  Of course, Serafina wanted to do it, especially since her buddies Gianna and Sunny were doing it too.  She is doing a Mexican dance and yesterday was the dress rehearsal.  Since it will be crowded tomorrow.  I made sure to get my pictures and videos yesterday.  

Here she is with Gianna and Sunny.  

Silly girls!  

 Here's the whole group after the rehearsal.

 And here's the video.  It was so noisy in the cafeteria and there were a bunch of upper graders hanging out right in front where the parents wanted to be to take pictures and videos.  If you listen closes, you can hear me say "Jesus kids" when I get really fed up with those brats.

Face swap

Last ski trip of the season

We headed up to Tahoe on Wednesday night for our last visit of the ski season.  We ate at our favorite restaurant, packed up the house and, of course, did some skiing.  

Ready to head out on Thursday.  

 Hanging in the lodge when it was a bit windy and cold.

 Visiting the Olympic Museum at Squaw Valley.

Enjoying some spring weather.  

Sassy snow girl.  

And shredding it up on the slopes.  

Spring Break so far

It's been a pretty quiet spring break so far.  Leo is still under the weather and Serafina is sniffling a lot.  I don't know if it's allergies or the beginning of a cold.  The kids have been taking turns spending time with Nana and yesterday we finally got out to the park with some friends.  

Serafina had some fun with Snapchat yesterday morning.  

 Here are the girls at the park - Serafina, Ana, Lane and Emma.

 Then the boys attack.

 And they are still having lots of fun with that box.  They even expanded their ship with a second box.

Rainy weekend with a sick kid

It was a rainy weekend, so Leo's baseball game was canceled.  I got his baseball pictures though.  

 It's a good thing there was no game because Leo is pretty sick.  He has a cold with a nasty cough.

 Poor kid.  Not the greatest way to start spring break but hopefully he'll be over it soon.

I like that these kids aren't too old to have fun in an empty box. They decorated it and made it into a rocket ship.