A Little Arboreal Excitement

I never posted these photos of a little episode in our backyard on a windy April afternoon.

The neighbor's tree broke off right at ground level and came tipping over the fence onto our patio! Maggie saw the whole thing. When I went out to investigate by peeking over the fence, I almost couldn't figure out where the tree had been. There was no broken trunk. No stump. Nothing. Finally I spotted a place in the ground where the tree had been. It was pretty strange.

It just missed the patio cover and, surprisingly, didn't damage the fence at all.

Our neighbors were still at work when this happened, and when Howard came over that evening after spotting a tree trunk hanging over his back fence, Damon really enjoyed giving him a hard time about it. We weren't really worried about it. No harm done.

Their gardener chainsawed the whole thing a few days later and after a bit of sweeping, that was the end of it.  It sure was a strange view out our sliding glass door that week, though.

 

Young Authors' Faire

Maggie really swept away the competition this year at school. After being selected as a winner in the Young Artists' Faire she was ALSO awarded a trophy at the Young Authors' Faire. 

After being introduced by her teacher, Maggie announces the title of her book as the principal, Ms. Doi, waits to present her with a trophy.

Everyone in Maggie's class wrote, illustrated, and "published" (i.e. made it into a bound book) a story. Maggie's classmates selected Maggie and one other student to be honored at the Faire. (The Artists' Faire was judged by some teachers, but apparently for the Authors' Faire the kids got to vote.) 

Maggie poses with her book Vanessa is a Monkey Girl.

We're so proud of all the great work that Maggie did in second grade. It was a rough beginning for her, having to switch schools and be the new girl twice, but she managed beautifully and really found her place at Zanker. Her teacher Mrs. Kim made each day fun. She thought Maggie was such a joy and brought out good things in her.

At the end of the school year a few weeks later, Maggie used the above photo to make a truly unique teacher gift for Mrs. Kim. This was ALL Maggie's idea--very clever and creative.

We printed the photo and stuck it to a magnetic board with clear contact paper. Then Maggie drew different accessories on paper, put them on the sticky side of some adhesive magnets and trimmed around them. All of the magnets could be stored in the pocket below the magnetic board or simply stick to the borders. We also left a portion of the magnetic board empty at the top so that Mrs. Kim can stick other things to it, making it useful AND entertaining. No matter how Mrs. Kim chooses to store the magnets & use the board, she'll always have a funny way to remember her silly student.  

An Overnight Guest

Damon often goes for walks during his lunch hour. His office is near park that has paths through a marshy part of the southern tip of San Francisco Bay. He spots all kinds of shore birds, frequently finds lizards, and occasionally sees snakes.

There's also a canal adjacent to the office parking lot. The canal connects to the bay marshes and is also a source of wildlife spotting.

One evening Damon brought us home a little visitor that he found on the bank of the canal.

 

 

This red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) is a semi-aquatic turtle that is actually not native to California. (I just learned that reading the Wikipedia article linked above.) We only had the turtle stay one night in our bathtub and then Damon returned him to the wild. I guess maybe we might have done the ecosystem a little favor if we'd kept him out of there (according to Wikipedia--the red-eared slider is becoming invasive in California!).

Everyone got a thrill out of his visit, and I got a bit of a spook when I heard him clunking around in the bathtub upstairs after the kids were all asleep and Damon was out of the house. I forgot he was there and couldn't figure out what that noise was! Luckily, as I creeped up the stairs to investigate I remembered. Then I just added a little more water to the tub and we were both happy.

Coast Camping Trip: Jade Cove & Trip's End

We were indeed camped near Jade Cove, and one afternoon we stopped there to check out the rocks on that beach. Holly, however, had fallen asleep in the car, so I opted to stay there with her while Damon took the older three down to the shore. I'm sure I wanted the chance to doze as well, as I did not sleep well at all on this camping trip. (We forgot our pillows and I just couldn't get comfortable--or keep my head warm!)

 

When they returned to the car, Damon said it was a good thing that Holly and I stayed behind. The path to the beach was very steep and would not have been safe for Holly at all. Sliding and screaming was apparently a big part of the excursion.

 

Still, giant boulders for climbing,

cool rocks and crevasses to explore,

spots for resting,

the impressive surf,

and the general splendor and excitement of a rocky seaside cliff definitely made the adventure worthwhile for my little band of explorers--

--even though they didn't really find any jade at Jade Cove.  No matter. It was a fun camping trip and an enjoyable weekend.

On Saturday, after we broke camp we drove south and met Damon's parents at a beach where we could view elephant seals. They were amazing and HUGE, and we learned a lot of interesting things from a volunteer docent. Then we went to Cayucos for lunch and onto Grandma's house for hot showers. We spent Saturday night there, went to church Sunday morning, and left for home late Sunday afternoon. Just before heading for home, we decided to take the kids to the neighborhood park, which is visible from Highway 101. While there, we saw someone from White Salmon!! She was a shop owner that we'd known for all the years we lived in White Salmon who was merely stopping at the park with her daughter and granddaughter as a break during their road trip from LA to Monterey. We were each only there for the same 45 minutes; what a crazy coincidence.

What a great way to spend our spring break.

Coast Camping Trip: Coastal Treasures

From our campsite at Plaskett Creek Campground we could hear the ocean waves. It was just a short walk out of the campground, across Highway 1, through this meadow, 

and down this trail to get to the ocean. (Gosh, I guess that didn't sound short! Really, it wasn't far.) 

 

We spent a couple of hours down near the beach exploring on the sand . . .

. . . and on the rocks.

I spent a long time just sitting in the sun on a rock and the children kept bringing me the interesting rocks, shells, seaweed, and parts of sea creatures that they found. I felt like a queen being presented with gifts. Damon kept telling me to get up and look around, but I told him I didn't have to since they were bringing everything to me!

Holly loves ladybugs right now and she was in heaven because they were everywhere on the rocks and sand. I'm sure she spent much of her time at the beach with a handful of 3 or 4 ladybugs, always reluctant to let them go.

I found this one creeping along the sand when I did take a stroll down the beach.

I knew that we were near a place called Jade Cove, so we spent a lot of time trying to find green rocks that could be jade. We're not sure whether or not any of it was genuine, but we did find a lot of rocks with green veins in them. Gunnar found this big rock with so much green in it that he wanted to keep the whole thing and carried it all the way back to our campsite! He's a strong and determined little boy.

I always love seeing how much my family enjoys being at a shoreline and can entertain themselves for so long when surrounded by water, rocks, and beautiful landscape.

Coast Camping Trip: Campground Fun

We went camping for a few days during the girls' spring break back in April. Plaskett Creek Campground was a grassy, relatively quiet spot along the scenic coastal Highway 1, about 55 miles south of Monterey.

This is the only photo I got that really shows our whole campsite, with the table, fire pit, and tent. I have no idea what everyone is looking at. Probably someone else's really big fire.

We did pretty well with our fires, especially considering we brought no firewood with us and the bundles available for purchase from the campground hosts were pretty meager. We did a bit of collecting (is that legal?) and managed to have enough fire to cook hot dogs and marshmallows and warm us in the morning.

Anticipating this most exciting part of camping, Maggie drew us up some directions before we left home. (Note: Step 1 says, "Get tiny sticks..."

 Voila! Here's what we got:

Success, I say.

The coals were great for marshmallows, even on our pretty pitiful homemade sticks since we forgot (couldn't find?) our roasting sticks in the garage.

We want s'more of this fun family time!

These gigantic trees were all through the campground, providing shade that wasn't too necessary in the cool of April. However, they were fun for climbing. Can you see Gunnar's face peeking out of the tree below?

Here's his hand:

There he is!

The grass was also great for kickball, a large tree making home plate, and playing catch. I found a sunny spot where I could lounge against a large rock and read. But we didn't spend all of our time at the campsite. . . next post!

Attack of the Antonians

 

I finally remembered to scan this drawing of Adah’s that she made last fall when we were under full ant attack. It’s been on the fridge and then sitting on my desk next to the computer. I knew it was too good to just toss, not just for it’s artistic merits, but for what it revealed about our first months in Milpitas.

A few days ago I finally scanned it and saved it in Adah’s file on the computer, but I wondered how I would fit it into the blog, and figured I’d just have to post it and tell the tale of how ants continually invaded our kitchen counters and cabinets, sometimes even crawling across the full length of the sliding glass door from the family room and then into the kitchen. I figured the story would be about how we once found them swarming the Nutella jar, but gratefully they did not (fully) infiltrate. (I wiped out all the parts that ants touched around the opening. It’s fine, right?) And then, the story would conclude with us vanquishing the little pests and then peacefully living out our days in Milpitas.

That is, until yesterday.

I was just about to get in the shower when Maggie informed me there were ants in the kitchen. At first, I wasn’t too worried since I did still see the rare loner. However, down in the kitchen was that unmistakable little line of ants working its way across the counter. This time they had actually found the trash. So, instead of shampooing and sudsing, I started vacuuming and Windexing (works great on ants). Then I found one of our last two ant bait traps, set it up by the window where they were coming in, and resumed my get-ready-for-church routine.

This morning I discovered a new trail, coming in from the sliding glass door and across the back of the family room to the kitchen table. SIGH. They really couldn’t have waited one more week? We’re moving to our new house in Sunnyvale this Saturday. We’ll be totally out of this house by the next Saturday. Why, oh why, couldn’t those “antonians” wait?

P.S. It's a one-eyed vacume [sic] because it had two lights on the front, and one was burned out. That vacuum has since been replaced. The light was only one of many issues. The spray bottle refers to Windex, of course.