Lego Camp!

Two weeks before school started, Cal and I were at the park when he stumbled upon a community center classroom group right in the midst of enjoying lego camp. It was all I could do to drag him away from the windows. He begged and begged to go in and join them, which was not possible. However, we did get a flyer from a camp counselor, and looked it up online once we got home. 

It was pretty difficult to find an opening, and I ended up signing up for a time in November by mistake! Cal was heartbroken as we drove home. I got back online (and on the phone, and went into the community center downtown), and we were able to snag the last lego camp spot in a neighboring town. I was so relieved. It was definitely worth the extra drive to get this kid to his beloved Lego camp! :)

 Cal loved the "free build" portions of the day, but I was impressed with how structured the activities were. The whole goal of the camp is to teach engineering concepts and vocabulary to the kids.  They had a specific project to work on when they arrived each day, with the instructor guiding them through the various stages of development.

 Some times the project was a plane, or a truck, or a conveyor belt, or a crane. Each time, they would go through the specific parts of the project so the kids were learning engineering vocabulary. I thought it was awesome!

Even daily cleanup was cool. The kids had to sort the pieces into various groups depending on type, and deliver them to the correctly labelled bin. It was actually quite amazing to watch.

 The last 15 minutes, the instructor would go over the different parts they had learned about, with the kids answering with terms like, "chassis," "42-tooth gear," "axle," "holding rod," and "fuselage."

We will definitely be back next year!

Reed's Birthday Week

We started the week off with Sunday dinner at Heather's house, in honor of Reed's birthday. We always love visiting her in Palo Alto. Look who was hoping for a piece of London broil:

Reed and I have been trying to go on walks in the evenings.  He has even been waking up and going into work earlier so that he can be home for dinner at a good hour, with plenty of time for a family walk afterwards. I really appreciate how seriously he takes his role as a husband and father. He is always willing to do whatever it takes to be there for all three of us, and it makes a huge difference to our family.

On this particular night, we wore the boys completely out!

Tuesday, I took the kids to our weekly park day. I send an email out weekly to all the young moms in our congregation, and we meet up and let the kids play while we talk with other adults. Cal has been practicing his pedal bike, and is getting really confident. The one thing he has yet to master is starting on his own; I ended up chasing him all over the park so I could launch him on his way every time he stopped. His friend E.J. (3-years-old) was really excited that Cal had a Lightning McQueen bike, and in his excitement, kept accidentally riding straight into Cal's trajectory. He'd yell, "Lightning McQueeeeeeeeen" and zoom right into Cal, who was, by then, also screaming. Nonstop comedy.

Even with the dive bombs, Cal was very good to his little friend, who followed him around the entire morning on his own red bike.

Tuesday night, Reed and I continued our semiannual "fancy feast" tradition at the Plumed Horse. We'd been once before, a few years ago, on Valentine's Day, and didn't have the best experience. We decided to give it another try, and we're so glad we did. This time, the food (and our experience) was fantastic. I tried abalone and antelope, and we both enjoyed copious offerings of amuse bouche from the chef (he was apparently in a very good mood that night). They even brought Reed his own supernova dessert with a candle for his birthday.

It was a great evening. I'm so glad this wonderful man was born.

We continue to enjoy our stay-at-home summer. Wednesday, we had an ice-cream social at our friend's house in the afternoon. The look on Cal's face can probably tell you how he felt about it:

Cal and his buddies enjoying their ice cream:

Cal picked out Reed's birthday present this year, and when it arrived, he begged to play it all day. Reed, good dad that he is, got Robot Rally all set up, and played through it with Cal.

Friday was miniature golfing with friends. This little golf course has been very good to us this year!

We partied nonstop this weekend. It was the first time we've left Elliot with a babysitter, and it went really well. We went out on a date (to see Guardians of the Galaxy--loved it!) Friday night, and then went to a Clue-themed housewarming party on Saturday night. I went as the maid, and Reed was Mr. Green. It was a hoot and a half. We laughed ourselves silly!

The baby did great with sitters both nights. Looks like a lot of date nights are in our near future!

The Week in Pictures

Elliot is a very happy baby. We can always make him squeal/giggle, and he often returns a smile with a big, bashful grin before hiding his face in my shoulder.

 Hie is also pretty interested in being held nonstop. Thankfully, I can usually get some things done by wearing him around in the carrier. My back is sure getting strong!

 Emergency trip to the laundromat this week. We misplaced the key to the laundry room at our apartment complex, so Cal helped me take everything to a laundromat when we ran our of clean clothes.

 Bowling with friends. The worker was so nice and brought the kids two special bowling balls that only weighed 6 pounds. It was still a struggle for either of the kids to lift them, but each of them did manage a spare -- all on their own!

A cooking class with good friends at Sur la Table this week. The theme was "Summer Fiesta." It was so fun spending time with these two girls. (And I even smuggled some pork home to my husband!)

 Dinner and swimming with friends. They made us pizza on their grill (fantastic!), and the kids ran around changing in and out of swimsuits.

 Reed got to try out their new drum set. Look at that smile!

 The kids had a dancing contest while Reed was drumming.

 And finally, ending the week with a splash in the pool with Dad and friends.

 Just a cross section of our summer. :)

Summer of Love: Mini Golf

In an effort to control how much TV Cal watches this summer, he and I created this "Screen time" chart. It has ten simple chores on it, like getting dressed, packing his bag for the day, cleaning his room, etc. I'm hoping it will help him get better (and faster!) at our morning routine.

Tonight, we went out for burgers and shakes as a family, and then played a round of mini golf together. It was a really hot day, but after the sun had set, the weather was just perfect.

Summer of Love: Food Trucks

Reed and I have been wanting to try out the food trucks for a while now, and we decided that getting a group together for dinner would make for a perfect summer's evening. We certainly weren't disappointed.

 About halfway through the evening, the street musicians made an announcement and had the crowd serenade Cal for his birthday. Here he is waving to everyone as the accordion hummed out "Happy Birthday."

We drove home under a starry sky, bellies full of street tacos and frozen custard, ears ringing with accordion music, kids asleep in their carseats. :)

Cal's Fire Station Birthday

Cal had a fun firetruck birthday this month to celebrate turning five. We took a tour of our city fire station, and activity I highly recommend, birthday or no.

The fire captain and his team were so wonderful with the kids. We had a huge group (around 20 kids, with their parents), and the station team was very kind and accommodating.

After a tour of where the fireman eat, sleep and work at the station, they took us out to the garage to show us some safety demonstrations, which I ended up loving. First, they had Cal demonstrate "stop, drop, and roll." He was so excited to be helping the fire captain with his demo.

One of the fire fighters got suited up head to toe in fire-fighting gear, not only to show the kids the different pieces of the uniform, but also to ensure them that they did not need to be afraid when I firefighter found them inside a building.

They divided us into two groups, and showed us all the compartments on the engines. The kids were super interested.

Here's the whole group. We have such an awesome community of friends here in California. We had kids from church, and several friends from preschool.

When the tour finished up, the party continued at a nearby park. Reed was an awesome husband and skipped the station tour in order to set up the food for me. The station tour ended right around lunchtime, so the kids were hungry!

The main attraction was, of course, this amazing fire truck cake that my friend Natalie made. It had light up siren and headlights, and was a delicious, from scratch chocolate that I now crave daily.

I can't believe my little guy is five.  We love you, Cal. Thanks for making our lives such a fun adventure. :)