Rosie is 6

For her sixth birthday party, Rosemary hosted her pals at Kathy's Kreative Kakes.

Spelling aside, the kakes are delicious.

Kathy teaches the kids how to frost, and after two practice rounds (doily, cupcake), each frosts his or her own kake.

Rosemary and Nyana concentrated deeply.

Tess did more eating than frosting.

Rosemary chose a Paw Patrol theme for her birthday kake, and made the paw prints herself.














On Rosemary's actual birthday, we feasted on the kake that Tess decorated.  If you look closely, you can see that Tess encrusted hers with ... popcorn.

Marine Unit

Another weekend, another scouting activity.

Silas' den leader is the head of the San Francisco Police Department's Marine Unit. 

He gave us a tour of their bayside headquarters  (where Silas mounted this Quadski XL), and then took us out on a police speedboat.

The speedboat went fast.

Here is the cub scout gang and their den leader, Keith.

If Silas is ever arrested on the bay, he'll now be able to tell the officers that it's not his first ride in a police boat.

Big Basin

Silas' scouting den camped at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, and Rosemary tagged along.

Here's a picture taken shortly before I realized that I'd forgotten to pack our sleeping bags.

So ... we skipped the first night, and I drove the kids home while they shrieked things from the back seat like, "You're the worst dad ever!"

This neat shot of Rosemary was taken right before a tick bit her.

Rosemary, still atop this huge log, started screaming, "A tick!  A tick!"  I clambered up there, not expecting to find anything. 

But damned if I didn't see the tick's rear legs kicking deeper into Rosemary's belly button as it scrambled to get away from me.

Borrowing a knife from a scout, I tweezed the tick out, killed it, and then drove Rosemary back to San Mateo for some antibiotics.

 A dead deer tick.

After my third drive to Big Basin, I finally was able to relax and participate in the cub scout events. 

Shown here:

The den volunteered to sweep the seats in the Big Basin theater. 

Silas spent a lot of time whittling.

One Down, Nineteen To Go

Rosemary lost her first tooth today.

The tooth has been loose for weeks.  Rosemary kept babying it, for fear that it would hurt when it finally dropped.

Every day for a couple of weeks, she carried this "Tooth Bag" to school so that, if the tooth fell out there, she could bring it home safely.

In the end, she tripped on our stairway and knocked out the tooth when her head hit the top stair.  (She's fine.)

No one in our household believes in the tooth fairy. Nevertheless the tooth has been placed under Rosemary's pillow to be magicked into two dollars by morning.

Historical Figure Presentation

One of the major third-grade projects is to research, write, and present an essay about a historical figure.

The night before the big show, Silas insisted that we drive to the mall to buy a bow tie.  He wanted to look the part.

Silas' presentation began:

"If Thomas Edison had never lived, I would not have been able to write this essay.

"It would have been too dark."

That got a big laugh from the parents, putting some wind in his sails through his remaining two minutes on stage.

Some of the other presenters were Tutankhamun, Abraham Lincoln, John Glenn, and Florence Nightingale.

Easter 2017

Rosemary has declared Easter her favorite holiday.

She likes the activities -- egg dyeing and egg hunting -- and she likes the chocolate.

Our new backyard is not particularly large, but it presented a lot of good egg-hiding places.

We ended the holiday with a lovely Easter dinner at Grandpa Ray and Grandma Charlotte's.

Asilomar

We spent the first weekend of April at the beach -- Asilomar State Park.

The kids' personalities seemed to come through in the face of the ocean.

Rosemary is ready to charge.

Tess is relaxed and doing her own thing.

Silas is getting a laugh.

How is the first weekend of April?  Sunny in the high 60s.

Still too cold for Meredith.

Tess in Trees

Our new house has two Japanese maples out front.

Tess loves the trees, which are beautiful and low-branched, and she is spending a lot of time in her new perch.

The Last Move

Silas has moved five times in nine years.  Tess has moved three times in three years.  (And Rosie, three in five.)

We expect the kids to move zero times from now until college.

Our move-in date is March 17. 

The new house is just a mile from our old home, and we are still in San Mateo.

The kids (especially Silas) are happy that they will remain in their same schools.

The Princess Industrial Complex

Our girls love Frozen and The Little Mermaid as much as anyone. 

But thankfully they have escaped the Princess Industrial Complex. 

Halloween and birthdays tend to have superhero themes. Rosemary doesn't even like to wear dresses.

When the student council declared "Disney Day" (what can I say ... we live in California), Rosemary learned that all of her friends were wearing princess dresses.   Fortunately we had just received a couple as hand-me-downs.

So here is Rosemary's first princess dress, courtesy of peer pressure.

(Rosemary spent the morning saying things like, "I am the royal princess!  Bring me my backpack!")


Tess does not even know what a tutu is for.

Recorder

The recorder, even when expertly played, is not the sweetest sound. But it is a relatively easy instrument to learn, which may explain its role in the Meadow Heights curriculum.

Pinewood Derby 2017

As was the case last year, the Pinewood Derby scouting event follows on the heels of the scout snow trip.

Silas designed his racing car himself, and constructed it mostly by himself -- except for operating the band saw.

None of this would happen without the tireless volunteering efforts of Keith Matthews, who leads Silas' scout den.

Come Saturday, the cars were painted, passed muster, and were checked in for racing day.

Silas' car is at the far left of this picture:  The Black Baron.

Rooting for a win, with Jonas and Henry.

Winter Snow

Silas, Rosemary, and I spent a weekend in Arnold, CA, on the cub scout "Snow Trip."

We had made the same trip the year before.

This time, there was considerably more snow, and at lower altitudes.

Silas engaged in a five-hour-long snowball fight, which ended only because it became too dark to see.

Here he is with Jonas and Henry defending against an attack by a photographer.

Winter Rain

If there is rain on the weekend, the kids get wet.

Fortunately for the drought-ridden state, there have been a lot of rainy weekends this winter.

These photos are from a hike through Laurelwood Park on Sunday.

Thanks

If you give our children a gift, you will get a thank-you note. 

But it might not be this funny.