Cara and kids visit

Cara and her four kids came down to enjoy some time in the pool today.  

 When Riley showed up in this bathing suit, Serafina immediately changed so they could match.

 Here are the kids having some dessert.  Going around the table from the left is: Paige, Andrew, Riley, Serafina, Addison and Leo.

 These guys have been friends for a long time and still get along really well.

 One group picture before they had to head home.

California Academy of Sciences

On Friday, we headed up to San Francisco to visit the California Academy of Sciences.  Leo went earlier this summer with friends, but Serafina didn't go that time.  Nana came over and we made the drive to the city.  Nana went with us for our first visit back in 2014.  

Here we are waiting to experience the earthquake simulation.  

 I told Leo to stand up straight and this is what I got.

 This is at the top of the rainforest exhibit with lots of butterflies fluttering around.  Serafina said she liked the butterflies but her face tells a different story.

 Visiting the "living roof".

 After the big outing and the long drive, I came home and took a nap.  That night Tom went to the ball game to see the Mets play the Giants.  The kids and I went to dinner and then to the park to burn off some energy before dessert.

They are way too big for this playground equipment but that didn't stop them.

Santa Cruz

Leo has been skateboarding more and more recently.  He's also asked to visit the local skate parks.  Today we combined a skate park visit with a trip to the beach when we went to Santa Cruz.  

He is still a newbie but he's very brave and doesn't get intimidated by the big kids there.  

Serafina has been bringing her roller skates to skate parks.  Today she wasn't sure if she wanted to go in so she stayed outside the gate for a while.  

 Then she got brave and went inside.  She stuck to some flat spots but she had fun.

 Then we headed to the beach.

 There was a rip current so swimming wasn't advised.  They dug a giant hole instead and buried a log.

 Then we got ice cream from our favorite spot.

Pretty perfect trip to Santa Cruz.

Big concert night with Beck and more

Two years ago, Leo saw his first "real" concert when we took him to Beck at the Greek theater in Berkeley.  Beck came back to California with two other bands that we like, so we took both kids last night to a big rock concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre.  This was Serafina's first "real" concert.  The kids were there once before for a Forth of July show but they were too little to remember. 

 In addition to the three bands we wanted to see, there was an opening act that was not good and very loud.  Serafina was definitely worried about how the rest of the night would go after hearing the first band.

 Fortunately, they had a pretty short set and we mostly walked around the venue instead of listening to the band.  The first band on the triple bill was Spoon.  They were great.

Next up was Cage the Elephant.  My kids are fans of their songs and the lead singer was very high energy.  He came out into the crowd several times which was fun. 

It was during this band that we learned that in addition to not liking loud noises, Serafina does not like pyrotechnics.  The fire on stage made her very nervous.  

I promised her that Beck would be fire-free.  But she realized how late is was and how much more show still left to see.  She was already tired and she wasn't sure if she would make it.

Beck was great and she really enjoyed the first couple songs.

But then she sat down and she faded.  And then she managed to lay down and that was the end of her concert watching.  She didn't complain, cry or insist we go home.  She just curled up in the seats and went to sleep.

We really appreicated what a trooper she was because even though we thought we might leave early, we didn't want to miss any of the show so we didn't.

Both kids were awesome and it was a fun, tiring night.

Dance Camps for both kids

Last week, both kids attended dance camp at the studio where Serafina dances during the school year.  Leo was in a hip hop camp with an awesome teacher Mr. Grant.  He learned a lot about the history of hip hop.  

Here's his class.  Leo was the oldest in his group. 

 Serafina was in a Contemporary Dance camp.  She loved it.  She was the youngest but she really liked her teacher and she felt that dancing with the older, more skilled girls helped her elevate her own dancing.  Here's her group.

On the last day of camp, they showed off what they've learned.  Leo's class demonstrated some "across the floor" moves.

And then presented a short routine.  Afterwards, Mr. Grant told me that Leo is a natural performer and should keep it up. 

Serafina's group had a full dance routine.  The piece was inspired by poems from Shel Silverstein's book "A Light in The Attic", which was one of my childhood favorites and a book my kids have read several times.  The sections of the dance with the whole group were chorographed by the teacher, Ms. Gabby.  The smaller group sections were chorographed by the kids themselves.  The result is pretty impressive.  

Here are my two performers.  I was really proud of them and they had a great time.

Giant kids on a tire swing

4th of July weekend (featuring Lina and her boys!)

Two and a half years ago, Leo's friend Max moved back to Australia with his mom and little brother.  His mom, Lina, is one of my closest friends and I miss her terribly.  Two summers ago, they came back to visit and it was awesome to spend time with them.  This month they traveled back to the states to see their dad in his new apartment in New York.  Lina was wonderful to make a stop in California to see us first.  

They landed in the morning on July 3rd and after a nap, met us at the park for some catch up time before seeing their old neighbor. 

Here's Leo (in a helmet because he was skateboarding), Max, Serafina, Felix, Sidney and Sunny. 

 July 4th we hosted a pool party so friends could come over and spend some time with Lina and her boys.

Serafina loves to dress for a theme.

 Even though we saw her the day before, Kristi and I were thrilled to get more Lina time.

 Felix in the pool.  When he was little, he would splash around the shallow end of the pool and never close his mouth.  He can swim much better now and go into the deep end, but he still doesn't close his mouth.

 Float party.

 Glasses and goggles?  Always the cool dad.

 Ricky and the kids giving Tom a ride.

 Serafina and Sunny.

 My friend Christina made this "watermelon" sorbet cake.

 It was actually lime and raspberry sorbet with chocolate chips.  It only looked like a watermelon.

 Of course there was plenty of VR time once they were done swimming.  After the sun went down, we put the fireworks show on TV and gave the kids the house while the grown ups sat outside.  It was quite nice.

 We had a long, fun party on Thursday, but Kristi and I needed just a little more Lina so Friday night Tom was a superstar and hung with our kids as well as Lina's boys so we could go out.

After dinner and drinks, we discovered Lina's rental car had a flat tire.   Kristi gave me a hard time earlier that I let Lina drive the rental car to the restaurant but I saved her life!  We stopped by the gas station and filled it up.

 One last picture before we said goodbye.  We really want to visit her in Australia and hopefully we can make it work some day.

 Since it had already been non-stop kids at the house, we thought we might as well host Sunny for a sleepover Saturday night.

They started out having a swim; they were both in tropical tankinis.

 After dinner, Tom dropped us off at the local McDonalds so we could get McFlurries.  We ate them while we walked home.

They had a fun night while Leo stayed at Nana's.  He didn't want to have anything to do with these girls. He didn't mind coming home to donuts this morning though.