Our strange world now demands that we speak up clearly in favor of reason & evidence, so today we did. After hand-crafting some signs with Mom-O, the boys joined us & our friends the Hogarties in our local March for Science. Take a peek!
[Side note: Here’s a collection of great signs (and sines & cosines!) seen at marches around the country.]
After stalking Easter eggs & wolfing down their candy contents, the boys headed up to San Francisco with us on Sunday to explore the California Academy of Sciences. Check out a few glimpses of our day:
The Willow Glen Green Dragons cool off after their latest victory 💦⚾️😄🐲
Something told me that my trip to the basement this morning wouldn’t end well… 😜
Before heading over to explore the Sutro Baths, cousin Patrick turned us on to San Francisco’s Esmeralda Park. Check out our high- and low-speed adventures!
What’s the sound of 1,000 little fingers slapping? Watch this vid & see, as the dudes & I circled the infield and high-fived a couple hundred of their fellow Willow Glen Little Leaguers:
On Saturday we drove north to SF to rendezvous with cousin Patrick Loughnane & his wife Jocelyn, then check out the ruins of San Francisco’s historic Sutro Baths. The crazy-gusty wind blew Finn & Margot back to the car, but intrepid Hen led the rest of us down to the caves & along the catwalks among the pools (much to Grandpa Nack’s unease :-p). Check out a few photos from the little adventure, and watch for Patrick’s hair to convey just how gusty things got!
From the redwoods to the Rockies…
From Death Valley to Dubuque…
From the Pacific coast to the shores of Lake Michigan…
…in every season and at every age, we’ve sure had some excellent times riding the rails with our dudes & pals.
Following Sunday’s train show, Old Railroad Man Hen decided he’d really like to print out an exhibit of our photos capturing just some of our adventures. Here’s a sample of the ever-growing set!
Oh, and here are our very oldest & very newest Hen/train pics. 🙂
On Sunday I took rail-crazed Hen to the aptly named Great Train Show in San Jose. Amidst the thousands of creations & vintage items for sale, he found a pair of cars he really loved & bought using his own dough. Here’s a rough video peek into our day:
Afterwards, G-Man—showing his eternal love of organizing things—took the initiative and created a little railroading exhibit on his dresser:
Our big man Finn turns 9 this week (What?! Nine?! Nein!!). Though he’s not fond of being the center of attention, we managed to get him to agree to a small, low-key celebration with two of his best buddies, Colton and Damien. We took everyone out to the Lego Batman movie, then went out for pizza, and home for cake, gifts, and a sleepover.
Finn also did an excellent job of art-directing and helping to construct his custom birthday cake: chocolate cake, frosted with Nutella, filled with more Nutella and banana slices, and ringed with cookie straws. A good, sugar- and nerf battle-fueled time was had by all. Here’s a little gallery of the proceedings.
“Ohhhh!!” said Hen, cackling as he saw this bit of silliness I whipped up, “Get those off the screen & put them in my mouth!!” That kid has never met a carbohydrate he didn’t like, so it was fun to make him this tasty morsel.
This year the lads took a much more active hand in crafting their Pinewood Derby cars, applying hacksaws, a Dremel, paint, and glue to shape their hot rides (which ran much faster this year than last!). Here’s a little gallery showing the construction, plus a video from the day.
Hope you & your feathered friends enjoyed the big game. 🙂
Henry can be a touch, well, unenthusiastic when it comes to certain sensations (from trying new foods to getting his hair washed), so we were doubly delighted when—amidst lots of muck & mud—he braved Camp Campbell’s giant “Mole Hole” tube slide over & over. Check out his first, and most questionable, landing. 🙂
Recipe:
While I dozed on Saturday following the march, the dudes took a break from screen time and surprised me by constructing a really elaborate launch pad, jet packs, helmets, communicators, and more for Leo, Tim, and other members of the animal posse. Here’s a little gallery of some space-age cuteness.
I felt so proud & privileged today to march alongside Finn & Hen (and in spirit alongside Mom-O in DC) in the record-setting Women’s March. Numerous marchers smiled & took pics of the sign Hen thought up and made by himself (well, with a little questionable spelling assistance from Finn). I’ll translate: “You fried circus peanut, you’re not going to rule our state, you’ll rule the dungeon. Boo Trump!” :-p
Here are a few shots from the day.
Poor Finn simply wanted to look nice in a portrait.
Henry, diving into the shot, wasn’t having any of that. 🙂
Auntie Laura’s Christmas gift just about made a one-way trip to purgatory (i.e. Neighbor Todd’s sketchy yard), but fortunately we were able to rescue it just after I stopped filming. 😬🚁😀
Following in Finnster’s footsteps (see previous), Hen reads aloud Jon Klassen’s magnum opus, “We Found A Hat.” 🙂
After attending a very nice service at the Stone Church at which the lads joined us in singing Silent Night outside, we all enjoyed surveying Christmas lights. Here’s a super short video glimpse: