Two very small slices of life, featuring our very small percussion enthusiasts working unusual instruments today:
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Month: July 2013
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Dancing Eyeball Theater
Clearly G-Man finds miso soup very stimulating. 🙂 A random snippet from our sushi outing last night:
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Ridin’ with KOBI
“It takes a village,” they say—specifically, a village of mischievous dads planting ever-so-slightly bad ideas in kids’ heads. 🙂
On Sunday our motorcycle-riding neighbor Chris had just returned from the racetrack & invited the lads to sit astride his sport bike—and even give the throttle a loud rev! Having long been dubbed KOBI (King Of Bad Ideas), and with Margot safely out of the country, I thought it great to plant this seed in them now. (Seriously, though, Chris made the boys be super careful around the hot tailpipe, and they were quite respectful & well behaved.) A few pics:
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Looen Dancing
Back in March the boys (especially Finn) got a huge kick out of a performance of traditional Chinese “lion dancing.” Somehow I never managed to post the videos, but we got a second chance a couple of weekends ago at San Jose’s History Park. Sorry that this very short vid is a bit glitchy. Maybe someday the Micronaxx can be a two-man lion team of their own!
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The “Henry Face”
Our boy Henry has become well known amongst our friends for the “Henry Face.” He’s reliably grumpy about something or another when we’re out having a good time – like at birthday parties, the pool, holiday celebrations, you name it. In fact, our friend Shay’s daughter Tegan started making The Face herself after watching Henry melt down at his brother’s preschool graduation ceremony (“No one is playing with me, Mom-o! No one is paying attention to me!”). Our friends love to snap photos of Henry grumping out at parties. Here’s a prime example: 
John always remarks, truthfully, that Henry was born frowning:
We recently had some family photos taken, and as Henry was getting grumpier and more short-tempered about the length of the photo shoot, we decided to go for broke with The Henry Face, family-style. Because when you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!
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A Brontowhatnow?
Following a little outing yesterday to see mechanical dinosaurs, the lads watched some Dinosaur Train & got into sidewalk chalk with Mom-O. Watch as Finny questions her grasp of dino species. 🙂
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Training Days
As Margot detailed the other day, we had a ball traveling to Sacramento by train with my folks. Here’s a gallery from the excursion, showing off the deservedly famous California State Railroad Museum.
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Of Pride & Protein-ous
Just like their human master, Finny’s lion pride is blonde & meat-lovin’. As Henry would conclude the ABCs song, “…next time won’t you sing with meat.”
“Equal parts grumpy old man and delightful, snuggly, hilarious kid,” says Margot of Henry*, and I fully agree. Amazingly it’s been a full four years since our crazy little “El Segundo” barnstormed into town. What a crazy ride…
We’re a bit pooped from taking the lads out for some celebratory sushi, but here’s a little gallery of the terrific party we had on the Fourth with our wonderful pals, plus some delightful present-opening with my folks & then this morning.
And from memory lane:
* She also says this about me 😉
This year marks the second year we’ve taken the Micronaxx camping at Big Basin with a bunch of our Las Madres friends and their kids. Last year John was flying solo with the boys because I had a weekend workshop. So, this year was my first time going! We had a blast! We were the first ones to arrive at the camp site on Friday afternoon, so we had our pick of places to pitch our tent. The boys always get really excited about setting up and then testing out the tent and air mattresses, and then proceed to running around and exploring the campground.
There were tons of things for everyone to do, thanks to many of the crafty and camp-expert moms who helped plan the trip. We checked out a tipi made of large branches at the edge of the campground. And of course, we had s’mores after roasting hot dogs for dinner on Friday night. Then the kids ran around in the dark with their headlamps on – which looked like a giant swarm of fireflies.
On Saturday morning, the kids got to paint some bandannas and water bottle holders, which they then took on a short hike to the little waterfall down the trail. We also looked for, and found, banana slugs, which are now known as “bonobos” based on a TALB that was borne out of last year’s sighting.
Here’s a little gallery of all the proceedings.
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Adventures in Railroading
Our overnight trip to Sacramento to visit the Railroad Museum was a big hit with everyone, but especially with birthday boy Henry! The guys loved riding the Amtrak up to Sacramento with Grandma and Grandpa Nack. We got to pass by the mothballed navy fleet in the East Bay, and saw some other interesting sites on our way up, including an old C&H Sugar processing factory outside of Richmond.
Our motel was literally right across the street from the train station on one side, and across the street from the Railroad Museum on the other side! And wow, the Railroad museum was amazing. It is huge! 2 acres of historic engines, passenger cars, memorabilia, a dining car, sleeping car, surveying gear, model trains, a mail car…well worth a visit. It is beautifully maintained and well-presented with lots of docents around and neat exhibits.
Our motel had a pool, which was great because it was 109 both days! I forgot to pack my suit, but the guys all got in the pool Monday night. Afterwards, we hung their trunks on the balcony rail to dry overnight, but when we awoke in the morning, they had disappeared! The motel housekeepers claimed not to have seen them, nor the front desk, and we looked on the balconies below and in the bushes. Not a suit to be found – and we had planned on enjoying the pool until our noon train ride!
But – the silver lining: there was a Macy’s 1 block away on the *third* side of the motel. Finny and I headed over there at 10am Tuesday, found 2 clearance sale suits for him and Henry ($4.50 each! what a bargain!), and I picked up a clearance swimsuit for myself because I was HOT. We spent the rest of the morning in the pool, then dried off and headed for the train station.
Our original train was having engine trouble, so they moved us to a back-up train further down the platform. Then that one had no fuel, so we had to wait for the fuel truck, and while we were waiting, the first train’s engine got repaired, so we shuffled back to that one and finally took off around 2 hours late. The boys were fine with their iPad & movies, and the snack car. Henry was wiped out from all the fun, and finally crashed out on the train ride home for about an hour – a sign of a great adventure!