Local Celebrations

This weekend kicked off the holiday season for Livermore. Friday night was Deacon Dave's opening night--complete with a small parade, speech by the mayor, and Deacon Dave throwing Holy water at the crowd. It all feels a little weird, but also so fun to have this quirky night. We didn't actually go through  the display because of the crowds, but we'll be back.

On Saturday, Peanut spent a chunk of the day working on the 4-H float in preparation for the Lights and Sounds parade downtown.

Then he got to ride on the float that night and wave at the crowds.

It was a really nice night--made for some fun parade watching. We've only been one other time, our first year here, and it was SO cold that night. But Daddy-o and I walked around and got some pizza after we dropped Peanut off and then joined some friends to watch all of the entries. Both high school marching bands and color guard were there, along with local businesses, and clubs and scout troops. 

And now the month of Christmas has begun!

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.

Community Service Day 2019

Every spring, there is a service day in Livermore where hundreds of people come together to tackle projects all over the city. This year, our family signed up to help with one of the creek clean-ups. It ended up being encouraging, because there wasn't all that much trash for us to pick up. Way to go, Livermore! 

While we were down there, we got to visit the goats that are brought in every spring to clean things up. Our park day group spends a couple months along this same creek each spring, so the goats are old friends. 

And we also saw thousands of tadpoles. They weren't actually doing that well. The creek was starting to dry up in many places so the tadpoles were concentrated in the small pools that were left. I don't know how fast they can grow legs, but these guys need to hurry if they want to be able to survive the end of the water.

All in all, it was a fun day. We got out in our community and helped clean up an area that we love. We got to be with friends, have a city picnic with local bands playing. It's always nice when you can do some service and have fun while you are at it.

Shakespeare on Tuesdays

Peanut's class has had the amazing opportunity to have people from the Livermore Shakespeare Festival come to work with them every Tuesday since school started. They've learned about Shakespeare and the Globe Theater and read versions of some of his plays.

The final day, they invited the parents to come listen to their reader's theater scene from A Midsummer's Night Dream The kids did great with this performance and I was so proud of Peanut for getting up there in front of everyone. He even had his line memorized!

I also got to go on a field trip with this little guy to see a puppet show version of Alice in Wonderland at the Bankhead.

I'm glad I was able to tag along--field trips are my favorite.

Even though he did not start off loving school, it has been fun watching him learn how to do something hard and really blossom. He's made friends, has gotten comfortable with the school routine, and has made huge leaps in reading and math these last few weeks. He still wants me to walk him into school each day, which has let me get to know all the kids in his class as I am around each morning while they are unloading their backpacks and turning in homework. We're both trying to appreciate the good parts of this school experiment this year.

Summer Birthdays

A summer birthday means patio dining,

warm evenings that are perfect for a walk through downtown,

discovering new things,

treasure hunts with this cute Peanut,

Ah-MAZING peach pie made by Daddy-o,

hiking with these three,

and enjoying forests of redwoods.

(And just in case it all seems a little too perfect, not pictured is the arguing, crying, whining, chore-shirking, and grumpiness that is a part of every day life at our house--that stuff doesn't take a break for anything, not even birthdays.)

The Swimmers are Done!

Swim season is officially done. These kids have worked hard and had a pretty great end to the season to show for it.

They both qualified for championships in several individual events, and at Championships, Bean PRed in back and breast stroke (finally got under 40 seconds for breast!) and Bug PRed in all 4 strokes. They went out with a bang!

This girl is liking to fly!

Bug getting ready. He doesn't love the nerves before each meet, but once he gets swimming, it's all good. 

Our two swimmers. It's fun that their age groups are back to back, so sometimes we have them swimming back to back like this in the same lane.

And then there is Peanut, who spends the meets rolling around on the ground, hopping from lap to lap, and generally trying to kill time. He's been doing these most of his life, but he still doesn't love it.

Championships done!

Bean's group is always big--they had about 14 girls this year, which made for some good relay teams and some good competition to help her push herself.

Bug's group was small this year. There were a few more at the beginning, but Bug was the only one at the last regular meet. It'd be nice if we can recruit more swimmers so he can actually swim some relays next year.

Thanks to their coaches for the great year!

Side Hustle

I found a way to get some doggy time again. I've been missing my sweet Molly, and having a canine walking partner, but our new house doesn't allow pets, so getting another dog just isn't in the card these days.

But Rover.com has helped me find some dog walking and pet sitting clients. These two sweet dogs were my first and it was so fun to have dogs to walk again, even if it was only for a few days. I hope I can pick up a few regular clients so I don't have to walk alone anymore.

Pool Time

Swimming is always more fun with friends or family so we headed to the rec center one afternoon. It wasn't super hot, but most of the kids stayed in the water the whole time (and you can tell from the picture who I had a hard time getting a water shot of--the lack of body fat isn't fun in the water.)

The kids finished off the night with an amazing performance of a play they wrote.

There were pirates, and monsters, and treasure--all the makings of a great story.