Adventures with Food

Our read aloud this month was this incredibly fun story translated from Norwegian.  

We celebrated with waffles outside, which is similar to a scene in the book.

We love an excuse to have good food. Read Aloud Revival did an author interview with Maria Parr and it was fun getting to "meet" her after enjoying her book so much.

And in other food fun, Peanut has been interested in Japan lately, and I had bought a beginners' Japanese cookbook written by one of my high school friends, so we decided to try out a couple meals from the book. First up was chicken, rice, and sesame green beans (and some extra veggies on the side in case anyone wasn't thrilled with the other.) This meal involved a trip to the local Ranch 99 market, where we picked up a bunch of extra food to try as well. Udon soup is coming up next week!

 

Solo Hiking

I've decided to embrace solo hikes on the weekends. Not every weekend, and not every hike, but it's really nice having a few hours of quiet to think about life and just soak in the forest. I've had a couple gorgeous mornings in the redwoods on the peninsula this winter.

One advantage of hiking alone is that I'm a lot quieter, which means more wildlife sightings. I think I saw a total of 8 deer on this hike.

And I hit the motherload of mushrooms!

So many different types.

(I LOVE the redwoods. All the redwoods.)

I really need to learn to identify what some of these are,

like this awesome spaceship mushroom, haha.

And found a couple banana slugs along the trail. 

It's definitely wetter over on the peninsula, so more of the fun stuff--

mushrooms and banana slugs. 

 

More February Fun

Found a new spot to play.

So many fallen trees to climb on, and build shelters from.

This kid has been so happy running wild with his friends here.

And another hike with friends at Del Valle. Good hill to climb, great views at the top.

And trees to climb, of course. I think I'm raising a bunch of monkeys.

And this sweet bunny has brought us so much joy the past year. We can't get enough of her. Bean is able to hold her like a baby and Poppy just melts into her arms, with all her legs sticking straight out. She is just so fun--more like a little puppy, always curious and when we let her run around, she likes to run between our legs and pesters us until we play with her. She's been the greatest addition to our family!

 

Some February Happenings

Lots of this game. Zues on the Loose continues to be a favorite for this kiddo.

It's looking a lot like spring. Our best homeschool days end with a trip to the park,

usually to meet up with friends.

Making things in the kitchen is also a favorite activity these days. Peanut wanted to make chocolates for everyone, so we tried out this dinosaur mold for a chocolate cinnamon recipe he'd come up with.

They turned out so cute!

And he even wrapped them all up with labels. Love the creativity in this kid.

Hikes with friends. Sometimes the kids surprise me with how far they want to hike. This day ended up being a real hike.

And ended up with a bunch of climbing.

I love that my high schoolers are still able to play with us sometimes. Covid has it's positives.

And check out that view! Love the green hills--it's been a slow road getting to this point this year.

We've tried to enjoy the good weather, and really, this has been a really mild winter, with very little rain and lots of sunny days. Nice for getting out, but hard on our water needs.

We're plugging away at the outside hours and trying to soak up as much sunshine as we can.

Pidgeon Point Lighthouse

Field trip day!

Peanut and I headed out to the coast to explore a new area.

We visited the lighthouse, which is one of the tallest lighthouses in the country, 115 feet tall.

But the best part is the beach around here. We watched birds and seals and 

explored the tidepools.

We got a decent low tide to explore.

Finding sea stars is always fun.

We haven't done a lot of field trips just the two of us. We've usually had more of the family along, or meet up with friends, but this year has been so different, and field trips are so much more difficult. It was fun spending a day exploring with my last little homeschooler.

 

Palo Alto Foothill Park

When a previously private park finally opens to the public, it seems like a good place to go explore on President's Day.

There's a pretty pond close to the parking lot which made for a nice little walk.

It was a pretty wet day and wet area--lots of moss

and mushroooms.

We hiked up into the hills for awhile and had views of the bay in the distance.

I'd like to see this park on a clear day.

Other interesting finds--there were dozens of these weird little tubes. Turned out they are made by spiders. Kind of crazy.

And more fungi. The peninsula is turning into one of my favorite places to hike.  

Zoom Church

I just want to document the beauty of at home church--snuggled up on the couch with my family and a warm blanket. What is not to like about this?

Mushroom Madness, Take Two

There was no official hunt at Sycamore Grove this year, but we met up with our friends again to see what we could find on our own. After trying to go to the same place, and being chased out by a ranger because apparently that parking lot is only open when there are official events taking place, we went to a nearby area to do our searching.

We did find some, although not the quantity that was found last year.

But there were some very cute tiny ones, and some larger ones, too.

I don't know what it is about mushrooms--I never get tired of finding them.

Another beautiful day, another fallen tree to climb on.

Love hanging out with all these kids.