Colors of the Season

While most farms in New England have been put to sleep for the season, the farms around here are still cranking, producing beautiful veggies and fruits, nuts and greens...all through the winter. How very lucky we are to have this bounty.

Sometimes I feel like somehow I am cheating. How is it that we have more than enough food here, and there are places in the world that face famine.

Food for thought...for today.

A New Day

Yes. We. Can.

During the early morning as the sun was rising over the hills of Santa Cruz, our house was stirring from slumber. Was it a dream, I asked myself? Could it be that we now have Barack Obama as our new president?

I walked out of the room to see my almost five year old daughter coming down the stairs.

"Good morning, Mommy." she said in her cute little morning voice.

"Good morning, Clairey. Obama did it!" I had promised I would tell them first thing in the morning.

Her eyes widened. Her head perked up. "He did?" she asked excitedly, not really looking for a confirmation. She then ran back upstairs, into her room where her brother was still warm and snuggled up in his blanket, sleeping.

"Momo!!! Obama did it!! He got president!!"

"Yay!" I heard Momo's one word reply.

What a way to wake up on this new hopeful day!

Election Day

Claire's handmade sign

On the sidewalk, promoting the next president

On this historic day, for this country and for the world, we are anxiously awaiting the results of who will be the next president of the U.S.

It's no secret that our family is rooting hard for Barack Obama. Even our children can't stop saying his name. What a breath of fresh air it will be to have an intelligent, eloquent, decent human being be the head of this very large and diverse country (in a lot of trouble)!

We are hopeful. We are so hopeful. More than that, we are thrilled for our children and their generation. In my mind, today is about much more than the next four years...

Happy Halloween

October 31, 2008

Bat (not Batman) and Ballerina

Walnuts!

Our Sonoma family came over this weekend with a huge bag of walnuts from their friends. Our kids got a big kick out of breaking them open with a rock, and discovering the nutty pieces inside (hours of entertainment!). I think we will make a big batch of pesto with them tonight after a trip to the farmers' market... Pesto for winter!

Busy

Fall, 2007 in Cambridge, MA

We have been busy, that is why I have not posted as frequently as I would like. I don't even take as many photos as I would like! Where has time gone?

Kindergarten has been a wonderful shift for these kids. They are learning fast, and are excited about it.

I will try to snap a photo of them on Halloween this year. They finally want to dress up as someone else - imagine that!

Last Year

when autumn meant the end of warm weather...

Carmel by the Sea

What a difference Carmel is from Santa Cruz! Sure it has a nice white sandy beach, with views of the infamous Pebble Beach golf course. But there were way too many McCain/Palin signs peppering about the town; too many well-to-do yuppies (with their bichon frise) on the streets; too many tourists shopping the too-expensive stores.

I always forget about all of this, which is why we only visit this place once a year (always leaving wondering why we came), at the most! Regardless, it is nice to go away sometimes, only to come back home feeling grateful that most of the people here are at least voting for the right man for the office! (It makes the air a little easier to breathe somehow).

Fall photos

from our afternoon at the farm yesterday...

Pumpkin Field Trip

The kids' kindergarten class went to Johnson's Farm in Boulder Creek yesterday to pick pumpkins. The air was chilly, but the sky was crystal clear. A true sign that harvest season is upon us.

There will be many more pumpkins around here before the other next festive things take over... Christmas trees? Cookies? Snow? Nope... none of that this year!

Two wheels!

We took his training wheels off yesterday. It took 10 minutes max for him to get comfortable, and now, he is a pro! Just like that!

Warning: watching this video may make you dizzy!

Snoopy

Snoopy is the official friend in the kids' kindergarten class at Westlake Elementary. Each day, one kid gets to take Snoopy home with him/her, along with a journal where Snoopy (a parent) records what happened to him during his day with each child.

Our kids have both brought him home separately. I am not sure who is more excited about it, me or them. But it is a special day when we get to have Snoop here, and out and about with us! Maybe I am trying to relive my own Kindergarten (did I go to kindergarten?) with them.

Harvest Festival

The annual UCSC harvest festival was held today, amidst the first rainfall of the season (!). We had not felt a drop of rain since we got back here at the end of July... Strange, but true.

Practically every children we know in town were there, some had grown so much in the year we were gone that I did not recognize them at first. Good thing most of the parents still look the same!

Our beloved farm was not quite the same with hundreds of people, a band, food stalls, and everything else. We like it better when it is calm and quiet. Regardless, the kids had fun painting, and harvesting sunflowers and tasting apples. Our good friend, Sophia (in last picture), has been going to the event with us since the kids could walk. It was fun to have her there again today!

Bean Hollow

The beauty of their Kindergarten program is that they get out at noon. The rest of the day is up to us... and most of the time, we play!

Yesterday we found out that low tide was going to be in the early afternoon, so to Bean Hollow Beach we went. This was the same beach we went to on my birthday, as you may recall...

The tidepools here are probably one of the best in the area with lots of sea life to see when the tide is low, not to mention hundreds of crabs! Our little marine biologists loved exploring these tidepools.

We didn't find any sea stars, but we found plenty of hermit crabs, bullhead fishes, giant sea anemone, snails, sea urchins and tons of seaweed.

The fog was looming over head the whole time we were there, so it was not quite a day to sun-bathe...but we had a fun-filled afternoon regardless.

Happy Fall

Baby Gopher snake

Resting on an avocado tree

"Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall" is a hand-written sign outside of our door today. It was made by Claire who decided that we were celebrating the change of seasons during our dinner last night.

Indeed, today is the Fall Equinox, so.......Hello Fall!

We had such a full summer... It started way back in Cambridge, where the kids went to summer school, learned to swim at Walden Pond, and we all made it cross-country back here to sunny California.

We will not have the same brilliant and dramatic fall as we did last year in New England. In fact, fall here is more like a long Indian summer when the days are warm and the nights are cool. There will be several harvest festivals around town from now until Thanksgiving. We will not fret the imminent long and cold and dark winter... but there will be no sledding or snowman-making either...

Oh, the pain and beauty of transitions... We will savor it all!

First week and Field Trip

Our kindergarteners made it through their first week of school! So far, so good. They are making new friends, learning new things, and growing up fast!

Today I joined their class on the first field trip of the year to Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville (fruit capital of the world!). The place is known for their apple orchards, and their fruit pies! The kids enjoyed picking apples, learning about them, and playing around the ranch.

When the farmer asked if anyone knew how the apple fruits are made. Guess who shouted out:

"The bees pollinate the blossoms!"

Yup, our very own children! First it was Claire, and then Momo chimed in. They were with 40 other classmates...

I was a proud Mama.

First Day

You are looking at our brand new Kindergarteners!

They had a good first day. I think it was harder on me than on them. As I anxiously waited for them to pop out of their classroom, I saw a peek of their smiling faces.

"It was great, Mommy!" said Momo excitedly.

"I had a great day, Mama!" confirmed Clairey.

I felt a big weight lifted from my shoulders (and chest, and head). Yet I realized that this is just the beginning of many many more junctions in life I will be going through with them. One down, many more to go. But this was a big one for sure.