Beach Day

We escaped the heat today by escaping to the beach at Chrissy Field - a beach on the bay in San Francisco. It was slightly cooler on that side of the bay. Perfect for a long morning skipping school (Molly) and naps (Clara) and house cleaning (Sofia). We somehow squeezed Lucija's carseat in the back and brought her and her mom with us.

Heat Wave

We're in the midst of a real heat wave over here. According to one report, the National Weather Service is calling it "excessively hot." According to everyone here, it's really friggin' hot. How hot? I just checked, and it apparently got into the mid 90's today (96 degrees in Oakland)! Previous record: 87 degrees in 1976. Yikes.

So, I gathered the girls, emptied the sandbox and made a makeshift pool. Then we ate popsicles. Then we hosed each other off. Under the plum tree, of course, so that we could do double duty and water the tree. No wasted water here. Our water district also just adopted water-rationing rules due to near-drought conditions several years in a row. If it's yellow, let it mellow...

Selection

It's fun watching Clara survey her (admittedly very large) cache of toys and decide exactly which one she'd like to get her hands on and explore.

"Happy Mother's Day" Day!

Last week at school Molly made me a lovely card and a necklace for "Happy Mother's Day". She told me I could read the card ("I like it when you play with me cars and trucks") but I had to wait until "Happy Mother's Day" to open the present (the necklace). Then every day she asked if it was "Happy Mother's Day" yet. Finally it was "Happy Mother's Day" today and I got to wear the necklace almost all day. Then she got tired of wearing one of my necklaces and wanted to wear the one she made.

For "Happy Mother's Day" we had an excellent adventure:

First we walked to BART (Clara wouldn't stop staring at Molly)


Then we rode the BART to downtown Berkeley (here we are waiting for the train)


Then we rode the bus to Tilden Park


Then we took a nice hike to Jewel Lake


And after some picnicking,


hanging out,


and buying a mother's day present ("After the Storm" a collection of Bob Walker photos - thanks!), we rode the bus back home.



Here's wishing all the excellent mother's I know had a lovely "Happy Mother's Day" and their own perfect adventure!

Tilden Nature Area Hike

Pictures from last weeks hike.

Garden Farm Tour

Today we enjoyed the "Bay-Friendly Gardening Tour". We made it to just three of the many gardens that were open for the tour, and only one of those three was a residential garden. But there's another tour next week, so we should have plenty of time to get our fill of residential gardens. Today, we focused on the "farming" end of gardening, hitting a 1-acre "family farm" out in the very hot Pleasanton, a 5,000sf community garden in Oakland, and a crazy Berkeley yard with goats, bees, chickens, rabbits, and somehow there was room for vegetables & fruits.

Below: "did you get my smile?" says Molly; Molly and Zach watch a baby goat invade a compost pile; Zach gets up close with a mama goat; Sofia shows off her dress (the girls all wore dresses for the day); a baby goat investigates Sofia & Clara; Sofia & Clara investigate a baby goat; Zach and Molly watch something interesting (another baby goat, perhaps?); Molly is enchanted by the baby goat.

sleep tricks

Clara's latest trick (besides sitting up, staring in awe, eating foods, and having rock star hair) has been to fall asleep in the car seat/stroller. I must say that I appreciate this trick that much more because of her, um, lack of enthusiasm for the car seat/stroller in the past. She even slept almost the entire drive down to visit Nana and Pa last weekend. (the drive back wasn't exactly as smooth, but that's okay).

[Clara sleeps on a long walk through town (4/17/08); same walk; another walk (Tilden 3/12/08); Berkeley walk again (4/17/08); in the Maryland Minivan (3/30/08); and in the rear view rear view mirror (4/16/08).]