Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Ian!  We celebrated 22 in style and together which is the best.  A good lunch with relatives, great art show in the city (thanks to Gertrude Stein) a yummy dinner and delicious cake made by Nate.

                           
                                         Blueberry pancakes and the New York Times crossword puzzle.

A special present from Eli.  He had been carrying it around in his pocket all day.

                                   
                                                                Here's looking at you kid!

               
                      A cool poetry book from Nate that travels from Emily Dickinson to Dean Young.

                                                                     What was that word?

                                     
                                       Our yummy chocolate zucchini cake from Epicurius.
                                       Happy Birthday Dear Ian!                   

Pears and Pizza

It's that time of year where pears start filling up our garden and kitchen.  We've made pear crisp, eaten lots of fresh pears and are getting ready to can some.  We also share lots with the starlings who have great feasts on them until Eli goes out and growls at them in a loud gutteral voice and they all fly away.  He really is quite powerful!  Here's his question of the day.  Why do people's hair turn gray?  We are going to look that one up.

                    Nate has learned lots of delicious cooking skills this year including yummy pizza dough.                                  This was some of the best dough he's made. 

We had pizza with homemade pesto from the garden basil.  Topped with tomatoes, artichoke hearts, goat cheese and olives.  It was delicious.


We started sewing camp today.  I couldn't get Eli to participate too much but he did embroider freehand a beautiful, green leaf.  Mostly he just keeps the girls laughing during snack.

 

  This person was his model from last year.  There are different people that have wandered their way into a variety of frames.  He developed his own unique stitch which looks a lot like the slip stitch, but we call it 

    "Eli's Stitch".  He has even taught to other kids at camp.  

Welcome Home!

Grandpa came home last week and we got to visit him there yesterday.  The night before I had talked to him on the speaker phone and it was the first time in months that I had talked to both Grandma and Grandpa at home.  I could understand everything he said.  So good to see him at home, sitting in his chair, at his table, on his computer and watching TV.  Eli was excited to get to watch the Giants game with him at his house.  We brought them dinner-soup, cornbread, salad and pear crisp.  He got to try a little bit of almost everything.  We left after having some good laughs with him.

Things aren't the same but they are all familiar.  His laughter, sense of humor, determination and perseverance.  We just meet him right where he is and support that.  Climbing whatever Half Dome he is conquering at the moment.       

Giants Game

 

A brand new space to record a little of the happenings around here.  In the garden, at the beach, at school, doing projects.  Right now we are savoring summer.  Even though it's foggy and cold out we are loving the slower pace summer brings and all the adventures it's entailed.  Camping, camp, Junior Lifeguards, and exploring farms.  Open days to fill up with adventures.    

Yesterday we ventured up to San Francisco to watch the Giants play ball.  They played the Pirates and were clobbered badly.  By the eighth inning you could see their shoulders start to sag.  But we didn't care too much. We were so excited to actually be in the stadium we had seen so often on TV.  To actually see it's green expansiveness spread out before us and the players in person.  

I loved going to the game with Eli.  He was so excited  to go.  In the morning we searched around for his orange shirt and black pants and his Giants baseball cap from Grandpa.    He loves baseball and has a real eye for the nuances that are happening in the game.  On his hand was his mitt, the entire game, to catch all those foul balls that came nowhere near us.  Throughout the whole game he was completely focused catching every play.  Maybe there were a few moments when he might have been dreaming about being the
catcher down there himself.    

We took Nate's friend from Sweden who also loved it.  A true American experience.  Nate explained the game to him so he could follow it.  I think he got the basic idea down. Though there are always those obscure rules that pop up that we're still learning  His main comments were "I can't stop smiling" and
"I feel like I'm in a movie."