Crockett Day Camp with REPTILES!

Our friend Marla, Brennan's mom (far left), did a great job of obtaining government funding of her idea for a Crockett 2-week day camp for children 5 and under. Kai had attended the second week of the late afternoon day camp over 2-days.


Kai colors on a coffee filter to make this butterfly!

He assembles cones (he did not want to participate in the music together class)

And prefers to copy the older children in scaling this bathroom wall.

Kai tests the stealth black and red paper airplane I made for him.

And gets into a competition with the other boys to see who could have it land on the tree limb.

On the second day, a representative of the East Bay Vivarium comes out with his containers of creepy crawlers... a tarantula and scorpion.

And a frog found in the deserts of Africa. This one is known for retaining water, which the bushmen dig up to squeeze these frogs of their water (out of desperation of survival I would think). But that is the fattest frog I've seen! And that poor unsuspecting lady had an enormous lizard thrusted at her!
Video: Reptiles!

Kai and Brennan make noise-makers, folded plates stapled shut with uncooked rice and beans enclosed decorated with stickers and glitter.

Brennan enjoyed putting glitter in Kai's hair and I enjoyed using roll-on glue on his back complete with glitter. I should have printed GB for "glitter boy" instead. Brennan obviously had a great time running around the grounds with his shirt off.

Thanks Marla for including us!

Berkeley Kite Festival

We met the Bienerts and the Greger family at the Richmond Marina and cycled 8- miles to the Berkeley Marina armed with tasty picnic food consisting of bistro-type sandwiches, fruit and pasta salad.


The weather was a bit chilly but that didn't stop the kiters from flying their kites of all sizes and shapes.

Brennan and Kai check out the kites together.

Kai later participated in the candy run. A bag of candy ascended up a kite string and was released to the children below anxiously awaiting a sweet reward. Of course, I got my fill too!

Just to give you an idea of how big these kites are... look at the size of the spectators below.

On the way back, Rolf and Greg are caught picking blackberries growing wild here. We use it to top off our vanilla ice cream. YUMMY!

Video: Blue Angels type kite show?

Hand Prints

Greg and White Water Rafting in The Grand Canyon

Greg at the first leg of the Grand Canyon rafting trip in Arizona. Greg went with his buddy Ian who is an ER doctor, and Raye (the best man at our wedding) who had years as a white water rafting guide (and who posed in Playgirl-woo hoo). Three others went along too, one was Manu whom I had met in Colorado (Raye's girlfriend) and the others were Ian's friends.

Interesting to see that also the Quakers were also fully outfitted for the trip.

And here I was thinking that this would be an "only men" outing? This is their guide who came along with the equipment, food and beer (how could they turn her down?)

Ian on the left.

Amazing cascading rock pattern!

Greg up high. To note: its 45 degrees in the water, and the air temp is 110+ degrees.

That's Manu in her itsy-bitsy bikini and her man Raye.

Raye is obviously overjoyed here!

Clambering rock faces.

And wading through slimy-green water.

Although the hike out the Canyon was quite difficult (he was near a heat exhaustion), he had an extremely good time. He marveled at just how bright the stars were at night and how the cliffs loomed magnificently overhead. Raye, Manu, and Ian continued their journey for another week- while Greg hiked out with his two new friends that were on the trip with him.

It was back home to reality for Greg BUT he came back healthy, smiling, and refreshed. He also was quite spirited appreciating everything he had...even Kai and I (ha ha).

Video: The boys laugh like little girls while white water-rafting.

Hi Daddy, Love Kai

By the time daddy returned from the Grand Canyons I had...

• painted the hallway
• painted the master bathroom
• cleaned out my closet and Kai's bedroom off unnecessary stuff
• installed a closet system
• pruned the garden with 30 garbage cans full of debris and dumping it down the steep hill in our backyard.
• fixed anything broken
• made a donation to the salvation army of our useless junk (treasured to others).
• cleaned out the kitchen
• installed and hung our garden tools on the fence outside.
• AND still treat a full load of patients all while caring for a crazy 2- year old and still doing extracurricular activities every day.

I figured that should be enough to impress Greg (ha ha). But it really made me realize how empty a single parent could feel...I couldn't sleep well- so I would work myself ragged, to the point of waking with numb hands and arms- obviously from overuse!

The week daddy left for The Grand Canyons

Daddy Greg left for his Grand Canyon trip in AZ. I was invited by Ian to go, but just like his wife Christie, I refused- I don't think I could bear to be away from Kai for that long of a period. We picked up Ian at the BART train in Orinda and drove to the Oakland Airport, where Kai and I waved goodbye to Greg and Ian.


On the way home, I picked up paint, gardening tools for Kai and a closet system. Kai insisted that I purchase the garden tools for him, as you can see- he really wanted to help me with the yard mess I had to tackle. (Which by the way I estimated 30 garbage cans worth of debri that I had clipped, chopped, and weeded in a weeks worth.)



We had a swim with Kai's godmother Alejandra in Pleasanton, and then later dinner at Chevy's restaurant- where Kai made a tremendous amount of mess and was a constant distraction. His godfather Martin was wise enough not to come along, or perhaps intolerant. After dropping Ale off, I stopped at the Stoneridge Mall, so that I could get Kai's tired out for the ride home.

During lunch break, I would take Kai to different parks. This one was taken at Pinole Coummunity Park.

On another day, I surprised Kai with a trip to Tilden Parks train attraction. He was so excited he practically got on the train without waiting for me to purchase ride tickets.

A beautiful ride through the redwoods.

Kai looks like a giant on the caboose. And we went for another 10-minute ride as he insisted that we do it again!

Afterwards, we stopped at the Little Farm in Tilden Park where he got to see the museum there and pet the goats.

A cat ready to pounce on Kai?

Bird nests found in the vicinity.

The California Happy Cows!

Kai kicks back in the sandbox at the play structure there.

Then on Wednesdays we go to Baby Yoga class in San Pablo. The instructor keeps telling me to relax and get into the cat/cow pose- BUT how can I when Kai keeps using me as a platform from which to jump? Even my delegated 10-minutes of meditation there is impossible because I have to chase after a screaming little boy who is a potential danger to other children there (I feared he would trample them laying supine).

On Thursday, Lukas and Ute came over for a play date. We went to Kennedy Grove in El Sobrante for some fresh air and a nice hike. The boys stick out their blue tongues at us!

I don't think Ute was impressed by my description of the "tree skin" and "tree boobies" to Kai. I had to find some way to keep him interested in nature! This park is quite relaxing with its towering Eucalyptus trees and freshly cut grass.

In addition, Kai and I had dinner with the Bienert's on Saturday, and the Greger family on Sunday after a nice hike through historic downtown Crockett before picking up Greg from the airport.