Beck

On Friday afternoon, Tom, Leo and I drove to Berkeley to see Beck play at the Greek Theater at UC Berkeley.  It was Leo's first "real" concert.  We dropped off Tom to get in line and went to fetch burritos for dinner.  Here's Leo in front of the theater.  He was so eager to get there; he wasn't pleased that I was making him stop to take a picture.  He smiled anyway. 

 Of course, we hurried up to get there and then wait in line for over an hour.  Leo was so excited but he tolerated the wait.  Here's Tom and Leo in line to get in.

 Our friend had gotten there quite early in the afternoon and was very close to the front of the line.  When they finally started letting people in, we had our pick of spots.  Even the fancy stone thrones were still up for grabs.  They are cool looking but not the best for hanging out and seeing a rock concert, so we took a picture and then joined our group in a better spot.

 Our spot was pretty close to the stage.

 But not too close.  And as you can see, we were right at the ledge that gave us enough elevation to see the stage well.  Here we are before eating our dinner and doing more waiting.

 The place started filling up and Leo got out his ear plugs.

 There was still a lot of waiting and there was an opening band.

 Leo was very excited for Beck to come on, which didn't happen until 9:30 at night.  Fortuantely, it was an extremely good show with lots of audience participation.  Leo did amazing the whole night.  Here we are still waiting for Beck.

Here's a video of Leo rocking out.

Aquamaids camp videos

Serafina's Aquamaids camp concluded on Friday.  In just four days, the girls picked up a lot of cool skills.  They showed them off at the end of camp.  She's the one in the middle in the videos.  The girl in the front on the Aquamaids' Junior Olympics team.  She was there to help the girls out most days.  Serafina was pretty thrilled to be swimming with a real Aquamaid.  

Killer Queens

My friend Mary invited us to join her and her girls for a free concert in the park this evening.  The band was an all female Queen cover band called the Killer Queens.  It was lovely weather and we had a great time. 

Here's Franny, Millie, Leo, Serafina and Sofia.  

 Serafina and Millie took a selfie.

Aquamaids Camp

Today was Serafina's first day of synchronized swim camp with the Aquamaids.   She did it two years ago, but it was only a half day camp that time.  Now she's there from 8:45 - 2pm.  

 There are only three girls in the camp this time.  They did some jumping jacks to warm up.

 She was in the pool working on her tricks when I came to pick her up.

 We had to stop by 7-11 for our free slurpees, of course.

Leo's stop motion animation film

Last month, Leo went to Star Wars stop motion animation camp for a week.  He had fun and produced this movie.  He does the voice of Han Solo.  Stay tuned after The Rescue for a short dance battle.

Fancy ice cream

My kids earn points during the summer for doing worksheets and reading.  I don't want them to forget everything they learned during the school year and I reward them for every 200 points they earn.  They hit their first 200 points so we went for "fancy" ice cream.  

Here are a few videos showing the process. 

Here's Serafina's with lots of toppings. 

 Leo's.

 And mine.

It was tasty but it's definitely more about the experience and watching the unique process to make the ice cream.

Fourth of July Pool Party

Our year round front door decor, Fred, got very patriotic in preparation for our Fourth of July party.  

 My dear friend Lina is visiting from Australia with her kids for a few days and I decided to host a pool party to celebrate America and hang with Lina and the boys.  Here's Lina meeting baby Halle for the first time.

 There were tons of kids and floats in the pool.  It was noisy chaos but very fun.

 Sunny and Serafina hanging on the pizza float.

 The dads linger near the beer cooler.  Go figure.

 All the girls and Felix have a picnic dinner.

 The boys have dinner too.

 There were lots of desserts, including popsicles.

 It's been so wonderful to see Lina.  Here's our group shot.

And another after we all grabbed each other's asses.  

 Moms and some of the kids.

 Sunny, Emma, Lane, Felix and Sidney.

It was a really fun day.