Cafe School

Part of every week, we spend time doing work in a cafe. Tuesday mornings, Kaia and I spend two hours at the Readers' Cafe at Fort Mason while Mari is in her art class. It's my favorite; we're surrounded by books, they serve Blue Bottle coffee, and one of the employees loves Kaia and will often treat him to a hot chocolate (because "he's the most polite child I've ever met!"). We always sit at the same table on the cusp of the bookstore. It is some of the most pleasurable time for me - one-on-one, always a nice chunk of time, well-paced. On Kaia's birthday, we sang to him as I brought over his lemon bomboloni with a candle burning on it!

Mari and I spend time at different cafes on Mondays and Wednesdays each week while Kaia is singing. Usually, we walk up Gough St. to Tartine - which we learned the first time is not related to the Tartine on 18th Street. However, they've gotten to know us so it's pleasant enough. They have recently gotten connected with the French International School down the street; the students' art hangs on their walls. We don't like the vampire one much, but the grizzly bear studies are very captivating! Lately, Mar's been craving the See Saw cafe on Octavia where they've got a play room set up. She played with the dollhouse in there today for the entire time. Then rolled on the faux bear skin rug for awhile (once the other babies had cleared out)! She usually doesn't want food or drink, unlike Kaia who is a creature of habit. And when she is hungry, it's on the way out the door these days :).

Today, we actually spent most of our afternoon in two cafes. The Peets in Marin housed us while we waited on our car which was (supposedly) being worked on... won't go into how the temp gauge is still not installed after the second request to do it and a specific trip for that explicit reason! Then we rushed to chorus, made it by the skin of our teeth, and spent the next hour at See Saw. I think the focused time is great. And with internet access in almost all of them, it really allows us to get done what never seems to easily get done at home.

Feeling like Spring is here!

We let loose our butterflies today! The sun was shining; they felt it on their wings and took off. Kaia took one onto his hand and it spread out its wings and sat there for awhile. They flew high up into the holly tree and were gone. Kaia felt sad at first. "First you pop Yoda (Mr. Shap balloon creation), now the butterflies have to go free."

The tulips have shot out of the ground too. All of the bulbs are showing themselves. It's been raining for quite awhile now so the sun will finally dry out the yard a bit for everything to grow. The kids have started some seeds indoors: sunflowers, parley, snap peas, bee balm, cucumber, chard... We are itching to get them in the ground and see the garden take shape. (I'm also planning to - finally - build some kind of structure out there to play in!)

Karelian Pies

Today we spent a few hours baking Karelian pies for country day tomorrow! Delicious little morsels which are very filling to take to our Finland celebration. The kids were into it and we listened to the Sound of Music as we spread the creamy rice filling onto the paper thin dough rounds, and pinched them up into cute hand-sized pies. The egg butter which is served on top is amazing!

Mari pulled her presentation together on the forests of Finland - she did a poster board with the three primary tree species: birch, spruce and Scots pine. Scots pine is her favorite because it reminds her of Scotty! She drew birch bark, a spruce tree and several pines. She sees the forests for the trees ;).

Kaia has really got the rhythm of his presentations. It's amazing how comfortable he is doing them after only three times! I feel convinced that the public speaking ease will continue into adulthood and will have to be a positive.

They are both so hard-working: play as well as school. I am amazed to be in their company. Such a fortunate woman am I.

Summer Camp!?

Okay, I'm still not used to how quickly the time goes! I remember when years felt like forever! My birthday was always halfway through the year, then summer, then Thanksgiving and Christmas...and it all felt like twenty years in today's time. Now it's March, I've got to get on with setting up stuff for summer (like camp), and the school year feels like it's almost done. I'm just getting the rhythm down! At this rate, Kaia is going to be out of high school in a blink, Mari's going to be in college in another two, and I'm going to still think second grade is on its way. Breathe :)....

Finlandia

Trying to work on our country day stuff! Not always an easy task... Always so much to cover and only a few weeks time. Kaia is interested in the lakes of Finland. It seems like a beautiful and interesting place. Female president, social programs, 100% literacy... Mari's opting out of a presentation this month.

A Day in Glen Canyon

We spent most of the day hiking in Glen Canyon today (3/17/11). Kaia got away with a bit of rock climbing and when I asked him to use "a more conservative judgment" about height of rocks, he let me know, "It feels like you are telling me not to do everything that I'd like to do"!

Mari and he hid, slipped through the mud, got sun kissed cheeks, trail blazed through tree rooted paths, climbed, caught lady bugs galore, and got very dirty! Heavenly day.

Diego Rivera mural

Today we went to the Diego Rivera mural at City College SF which he painted on Treasure Island in 1940. The guide was great and gave a comprehensive explanation of the work - it was a tour of North America, really. It's titled Pan American Unity. As far as our Mexico study is concerned, it put everything into context, past and present, north and south. Worth the visit!

Outside the theater which houses the mural is a replica of an Olmec head - prominent in the presentation that Kaia recently did. This city is amazing.