I was at school today for a dance practice with the second graders for our multicultural dance performance. After practice, I saw Leo's class headed to the cafeteria. The teacher asked if I could help with their reading buddy project. How could I say no? I ended up scooping 50 can pear halves onto plates for Leo's class and their first grade buddies.
The result was pretty cute and kind of disgusting. Leo ate the candy nose but nothing else.
It goes without saying that the frequency of school shooting and gun violence is extremely upsetting. Today we participated in a peaceful march calling for gun reform. We attended the March for Our Lives event with my friend Mary and her two older girls. Here are Franny, Leo and Sophia on our way to the march.
Several people asked to take Leo's picture with the sign we made.
I wore a special shirt I got for the march. It says "Wake up. Walk out. March for Our Lives." I unzipped my layers to take this picture and then zipped back up. It was cold out there.
Here we are at the beginning of the march.
We weren't the only ones with a "greater than" sign.
Leo and the girls are all big Hamilton (the musical) fans and were thrilled by this Hamilton sign.
We marched along the route for a while. Many of the signs were stark reminders that our kids are at risk in the very schools that are supposed to be preparing them for life.
The rain started coming down hard and we were all getting soaked so we headed home. It felt good to be part of this important moment. I just wish we didn't have to even do it in the first place.
While the adults were upstairs on Friday night, watching the immense amount of snow fall and discussing the traffic and weather (the two topics that dominate all conversations in Tahoe), the kids were downstairs making these amazing videos. Enjoy!
Thursday and Friday were Staff Development days at the school so the kids had two days off. Like last year, we headed up to Tahoe to take advantage of the extra ski days. Unlike last year, my friend Lizzy and her family weren't able to come because of sick kids and an unfriendly forecast.
Last year, we had sunny skies and plenty of skiing. This year the group only skied together for about two hours on Thursday. Yep. All the girls in this picture (moms included) gave up at lunch time. Aida, Kristi and their daughters headed back to Aida's ski house. Serafina and I hung out and kept each other company.
We were tempted to visit Aida's house Thursday night for a quick beer, but the weather wasn't great so we headed home instead. We found these perfect snowballs on our staircase, which meant they had to be destroyed.
Thursday night, Tom and I realized the only way we could to do our planned potluck dinner at Aida's house on Friday was if we could spend the night because there would be too much snow on the roads for us to make it home, especially in the dark. Luckily, Aida's house is big and her heart is generous so even though she was already hosting Kristi's family, she said we could absolutely stay.
Friday morning, Tom shoveled a path out of our driveway and we hit the road early to get to the ski spot. The snow was coming down hard though and because of a 20 + car pile up, they closed the road to the ski resort, which is the same road to get to Aida's house. My kids were very concerned they wouldn't be able to spend time with their friends. We had no choice but to head back to Truckee and wait to see if they opened up the road. We passed the time by having second breakfast at a funky little spot with graffiti walls. I let my kids add their names to the hundreds of signatures and they thought that was pretty cool.
As we finished up at the restaurant, we got word that the road opened back up so we headed out. Our destination was the ski spot first and getting there was extremely treacherous. Tom handled the driving well, but I'm not sure I took a breath for the last 15 minutes of the journey in white-out conditions. The kids had no interest in skiing in the falling snow, so Tom went out by himself for a few runs. Aida was concerned we weren't going to be able to get our car to her house with the snow piling up, so we wrapped it up and made the very short, but very stressful drive to her house. We cheered and high-fived each other when we pulled into the driveway.
The kids were having fun on the back porch when we got there and my kid joined in.
The dads made Navid and Leo a snow fort.
After all the difficult travel, it was nice to relax with friends. Here's Tom and Ricky.
Serafina, Sunny and Ana.
Leo and Navid playing ninjas in their matching long johns.
We had a nice dinner and a relaxing night knowing we didn't have to try to drive home. It snowed and snowed and snowed while we were there. Tom and Bobby headed to the ski spot early Saturday morning. I went to load my car up later in the morning and discovered this.
Oy! With Ricky's help, I unburied the car enough to get in and get down to the ski spot. It was still snowing and though the roads had been plowed a few hours earlier, it wasn't very fun being behind the wheel. I handed the kids off to Tom and hopped on a shuttle just in time to make it to a yoga class.
The kids skied while I was at yoga, but as soon as I was back, they were happy to stay inside with me since it was still snowing.
It was a team effort to get the car cleared off enough to put skis on the racks.
On the drive back to our rental house on Saturday, it finally stopped snowing. We squeezed in some more fun before going inside to warm up.
This morning (Sunday), we woke up early and I sent the skiers out into a beautiful, blue sky day. There was traffic getting to the ski spot and lots of people on the mountain, but they had a great time in the fresh snow and sunshine.
I'll try to upload some videos soon. Over the several day storm (Tuesday to Saturday), over 100 inches of snow fell at the top of the ski resorts. It was a huge storm and we drove right into it. Brave? Crazy? A little of both? Who's to say?
Today Leo's class had Rancho Day. The kids have been earning "money" to buy land and cattle for their rancho and making goods to trade.
I visited after lunch to help with some of the activities. Here's how the classroom looked when I arrived. All the desks were moved and the blue tape marked off the different ranchos.
Here's Leo's rancho. The little brown papers represent their cattle.
Leo's rancho group included Kunal and Elouan. Here they are displaying their goods for trading.
Leo made wine, which is hilarious and slightly embarrassing.
Negotiating a trade for some binoculars his group made.
My favorite item was these baskets with corn and apples.
Today I chaperoned the fourth grade field trip to Levi's stadium. Serafina did the same field trip last year.
When we were there with the first graders, there were about four other schools on the same field trip. This time, we were the only school. We got to stay together as a class and here's the kids I was assigned to not lose. Spoiler alert...I didn't lose anyone.
Gotta have the stadium selfie.
Last year we didn't experience the education center. I'm not sure if it wasn't ready to use or they didn't let the little kids in it, but this time we started there and the kids like using the touch screen tables to solve "football math".
And then they had to build their own stadiums.
Last year we didn't go outside to the actual stadium and in fact, we spent so much time underground that I began to feel like a mole person. This year we got to go outside! In the sun! With fresh air!
The kids did relay races.
The second round included pads.
We weren't allowed to touch the actual grass, just the AstroTurf that surrounds the field. We still got some awesome pictures.
We even got to eat outside in the stands, which was really nice too.
Then it was on to the museum. Here's Leo with the statue of Leo Nomellini, who was a defensive tackle from 1950 - 1963.
Leo, Jerry Rice, Ryan and Kyle.
Before we left the museum, the guide pointed out a statue of a player with just one glove. He asked if anyone knew why the player (who's name I can't remember) wore only one glove. Leo raised his hand and said "because he likes Michael Jackson". The guide was floored. Leo had the right answer and no other kid had offered up that answer before. Later in the field trip, our guide pointed out Leo to another guide to tell him that Leo got the answer right. Apparently, most kids guess that the player lost the other glove. I guess they don't get a lot of 80s pop fans visiting the museum.
We then headed to the "Game Zone" which was full of interactive displays. Here's Amy and Leo in the big helmet.
Leo trying on the uniform.
Leo and Romy.
Or Jerry Rice and Joe Montana.
The whole class in the helmet.
Our last stop was the visitors' locker room where they tried on helmets from different eras.
And then it was back to school on the fancy charter bus after a long, exhausting day.
