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.