Category Archives: Real Life

Real Life :: Art in Schools

Real Life, Real Life : Alix

Education in our public schools is such a hot topic, especially in California. The Ed-Data website says, “Although Californians pay more than the national average in taxes, the monetary effort Californians put toward education is below average.” Sweet! And of course the arts and music fall to the bottom of the priority list. It’s so disheartening. But I’m not here to bum you out. I’m here to share a couple of really great things we got to experience the last couple of weeks that demonstrate how great things can happen when parents take things into their own hands!

We were fortunate to have experienced three really different and unique ways parents have worked together to help our children blossom!

1. THE CREATIVE SPARK ART SHOW + PANCAKE BREAKFAST

Every year our Dad’s Club hosts a pancake breakfast. The pancakes are great….and the bacon is pure crispy deliciousness! I love that everyone gets served on mismatched, sweet old-timey plates. Sure, it’s an extra effort when it comes time to clean up, but how lovely to have real china! (And much more green than paper plates.)

The tables were decorated with flowers the kid’s had picked—our table had violets. So sweet. It’s really a terrific event, but this year was even more special….

Two enterprising moms at our school (one of whom is my friend Teri, founder of the marvelous giddy giddy) decided that this year we would have an art show. They announced the theme: Things That Move! It was wonderfully broad, whatever the kids could dream up—accordians, rollercoasters, butterflies, dogs, go-carts, even little sisters were all represented. Kiddos had a few weeks to work on their project. It could be a sculptural piece or a drawing/painting. The school held a little workshop to after school one day to help any students that needed guidance (and to give kids a place to create their masterpiece). The results were on display in a mock gallery and it was TREMENDOUS!


Wolfie was hit with a horrible ear infection so we were unable to complete his piece (very sad!) but luckily there were several other displays of classroom art and Wolfie’s had one of his drawings featured—he was quite proud!

It was a lot of  work, but it’s something that I think anyone could do at their school. We were lucky we had two amazing women planning ours but even someone with minimal experience could pull this off. You just need to have the desire!

2. THE BEAR NECESSITIES OF THEATER!

The next week we went to a musical production of The Jungle Book that another elementary school in San Francisco had put on. My co-worker/friend’s wife Amal was the director of the show and I was eager see the show and give Wolfie a little taste of children’s theater. I have to confess, I have a dream of putting on a show at Wolfie’s school. I met with Amal for lunch and picked her brain. She gave me some great advice and tips and told me that the entire theater program is parent funded….all the parents volunteer to put on the show. Amal is a really talented singer/musician so they are  lucky to have her. It was also SO amazing to see how the entire school community bonded together to make this show happen. The play was around 45 minutes, the perfect length for elementary school children. The sets were simple but reallllly groovy and the costumes clever and crafty. I was so charmed and couldn’t help but think WHAT a great experience for the whole school!

3. STAGE WRITE ON!
Monday night we went to see a production that Greg was involved with….the StageWrite theater program. This is a really phenomenal program….the StageWrite team works with elementary school children over the course of a year. They pick schools that are in real need. They use theater and writing exercises to help build literacy skills and self-esteem. At the end of the program, the fifth graders write short one act plays….and then the kicker? Professional actors put on the show! Each play features one song that the students have written and Greg and his bandmates write the music. The shows are SO much fun and the kid’s are thrilled to see their work on stage.

The shows are done as staged readings, so costuming and sets are very minimal but WOW the actors are hilarious and really bring the stories to life. Some of the scripts are touching and some are just straight up goofy cool (hey, they’re written by ten year olds, so things like dragons and talking pencils and “The World’s Crazies Night Club, PARTY ROCKERS!” all make appearances.). It was a really brilliant evening and I was so proud of Greg for being a part of this cool program the last three years.

So there you have it. Three very unique and wonderful ways our community is taking matters into their own hands. It’s so important our kiddos have exposure to the creative arts. Does your school have a great art program? Are there things you’d like to bring to your elementary school? Have your kiddos ever participated in dance or a play?

I leave you with this most excellent talk by Sir Ken Robinson. He’s got a really great dry sense of humor and makes a wonderful case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. It’s really great…

Real Life :: Dottie’s Little Getaway.

Real Life, Real Life : Dottie, ,

Oh my, I had a great little vacation. I didn’t go far and I only went for three days, but oh my, was it relaxing.  My sweetie and I did something rather scandalous–we went up to Calistoga in the heart of wine country for a wee vacation. Without our child.  We went up there with nothing planned except some massages and fancy dinners.

And it was terrific.

I must admit, we felt guilty leaving our little Peach for three nights.  I was afraid I would miss her something fierce and of course I did. But you know what? It had been a looonnnnggg time since it was just me staring at this handsome gent across the table.

But it was a lovely trip. We stayed at Indian Springs in Calistoga which is one of the oldest spas in Calistoga and has this divine 1930s/40s feel too it–all white painted beadboard.

We rented one of the cottages and spent a large chunk on this sweet porch reading our books for hours on end.

And the pool. Sweet Lord, the pool. It’s this Olympic pool size mineral spring fed gloriousness that stays around 95-100 degrees. Eric and I would get up super early (the baby might not be there, but our internal alarm clocks are still set for 6:00AM) and have the pool to ourselves. Heaven.

And we had a special birthday dinner at Sol Bar, where the classic cars of the California Mille were parked much to our delight.

Hello Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car!

And lovely drinks were had too.  Don’t judge me for drinking a glass of champagne followed by a delicious frou frou gin drink in VERY quick succession. The hangover the next day judged me enough. I was the birthday girl, afterall.

And speaking of birthday, Eric got me the BEST present. A bias tape maker. For those craftily inclined you know that this thing in genius.  I nearly started to cry.  I had the same reaction to it as Alix had to her Giant Dwarf starlette crown.

All in all, it was just what I needed, a little break from reality to recharge so I can take on the action packed hurrah of summer and beyond. And instead of feeling blue when the vacation was over, I was rather excited to return home so I could see this little one and her little braids again.

Have you ever taken a vacation without your kids?

PS: And don’t forget to return this afternoon to enter the special Mother’s Day giveaway! TRUST me, you’ll want to return for it!

Real Life :: Hawaii Ya Doing?

Real Life, Real Life : Alix

Friends, I can’t even tell you what an amazing trip we had! It was relaxing as can be….sadly it took me a good two days to get used to doing NOTHING! We swam and ate and lounged….a few sights were seen, but mostly it was fun in the sun. Wolfie LOVED it. He doesn’t know how to swim just yet but he was so happy and confident in the water. I ordered him the cutest little swim suits from two of my fave brands, Polarn O. Pyret and Mini Boden. They were kind of Euro style trunks that looked adorable online but In real life they were a leeeeetle bit smaller than I had envisioned. Think Daniel Craig as James Bond. I kept giggling— they were still SUPER cute but hilariously short compared to other kids in their ankle length board shorts. Wolfie loved them, struttin’ around the pool all confident and what not.

I have so many photos to share but for now, here is a little sampler of our trip! These photos were all shot on my iPhone with Instagram (i’m “galexina” if you care to follow! If you aren’t using it, it’s too much fun….Twitter meets Flickr!). MAHALO!



This is where Wolfie spent most of his time. The pool. There was a huge grown up pool and then this terrific kid’s pool with pebbly/sand bottom and a sweet slide, that was only 2 feet of water. It was so amazing for him to be able to play independently in the water. My eye was on him, of course, but I didn’t have to literally hold him or be next to him.

This is where I spent a good deal of my time:

With this:

Looking at this:

Greg eyeing the menu at breakfast:

Mmmmm pineapple pancakes! (in the batter for extra nom) Greg got banana macadamia nut, which were even better….

Hang Ten, Little Dude!


The World’s Largest Shave Ice!!!

The most picture perfect sunsets and warm balmy evenings…..

And one tired and happy kiddo.

Real Life :: A visit from Auntie Faraway.

Real Life

Before the Peach, before my sweetie, there was my dearest friend, Jen. Oh, the stories we could tell…  Through thick and thin and everything in between.

But I can’t lie—we both were nervous about how a baby would change our friendship.

And it did. It gave Jen a new best friend—the Peach. I cannot put into words how much this means to me–to have one of my dearest friends love my little girl.  But Jen is no ordinary person. She is brilliant, funny, and a million other adjectives that one would use to summarize one of their best friends.

Jen lived with me and Eric through one of the toughest times of my life–the end of my maternity leave and the beginning of me going back to work.  She was spending the summer getting ready to move to London where she was going to get her PhD from Goldsmiths—shedding the layers of her career as a music exec and fully embracing being a grad student. Both of us were redefining ourselves and such an experience could have driven us apart, but it actually made us closer and gave each of us a different perspective on the other person.  I am still in awe of Jen for leaving everything she knew to live in London and follow her dream.

Now Jen is traveling the world lecturing on fandom and rocking it so hard inspiring hundreds of students in England and beyond who look up to her as a role model.  I want to take her class on the history of the vinyl record! She still sends videos to the Peach and I try to talk to her at least once a week. We are constantly evolving and continuing to learn from life. And we laugh a lot.

I’m so happy that she still comes back to our little nook and plays with and loves on the Peach. And am honored that she is part of my family.

Yup, motherhood can create new amazing friends, but it can also bond old friendships in ways you can’t even imagine. And for that I’m so thankful!

Do you have a friendship that has stood the test of childhood and beyond?

 

Wolfie’s Bouncey House Olympic Sized Birthday!

Kiddo Parties, Real Life, Real Life : Alix, ,

Last week was Wolfie’s birthday and this weekend we had a party. Now I have a confession to make. Last year he turned 6 on April 6th. And I was SO excited! “Hurray! It’s your Golden Birthday!! You are turning SIX on the SIXTH!!!” Wolfie was really into the Winter Olympics last year and we had a plan to do a fantastic Olympics Themed Party with an obstacle course in the back yard and everything. Cute, right?? Only…..it rained. And rained. And did I mention the rain? The party was postponed and postponed yet again and then ultimately…..he never had a party at all. Ugh. What’s that old saying, “The Cobblers Children Always Go Barefoot”?? I felt SO badly. Here I’m blogging about all these fab parties and my own little guy gets screwed. Nice job, mama.

Needless to say this year I was gonna do it right. I had grand plans to bust out the crafting supplies and design a 4 star birthday! Only….Wolfie had other plans. “Can we please have my party at Pump It Up?” “Um, really? You don’t want to have a fun party at our house? In the back yard?” “No.”

Argh. For those of you haven’t experienced the magic of Pump It Up, it’s a colossal party space that houses several GIGANTIC bouncy house and inflatable structures. On the up side, the party is totally contained and organized by the staff. The kid’s arrive, they get a little spiel on the rules and then they get to go into the room where they bounce like maniacs. The staff sets up and cleans up. Easy peasy! The down side? It’s pretty commercial. The place doesn’t really let you personalize your party. You can’t decorate. You have to use their food. And while it’s loads of fun for the kiddos, it sure ain’t perty. At least, my kinda perty. But as your child gets older you realize they have opinions and their own tastes and it’s less about creating a Martha-style party and more about wanting them to have something fun and “them”. And after last years fiasco, I wanted Wolfie to run the show. So what to do?

Wolfie wanted a Pokemon theme at the Bounce House Extravaganza. I wanted to unload some of the Olympics stuff I had bought last year. Which left us with this:


Ah yes, the Poke-Olympics! I had no clue if this was going to work, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to try. Of course I neglected to realized this place is really popular and the only times they had open were 9am and 7pm….so we had it at the crack o’ dawn.

I made these little “passports” for the kids and before they watched the “rules” video I passed out Pokemon terry cloth wristbands and made a little speech explaining how this was all going to work.

There were six spots on their passport and I told each kiddo they’d get a stamp every time they went on one of the bouncy things. I didn’t want anyone to feel like that had to go on something if they were nervous (the bouncy slide, for example, is a little steep) so I said that they could earn bonus points for striking a special dismount “victory pose” whenever they exited a bouncer.  Greg demonstrated some awesome poses (which got some laughs from the kids). Get all your stamps and you get a prize! The kids sat there kind of stunned…and definitely intrigued!

Here they are listening in rapt attention to my AMAZING speech. hah! Just kiddin’….they were watching the little safety video.

Wolfie got a special crown and scepter as the Birthday King. Please note the crazy casino carpeting. Oof!

So shut mah mouth because the kids had a blast! They kept racing back and forth between the bouncys and me—trying to get stamps in their booklets.

The “victory poses” were the funniest. They’d shoot down the slide and strike a pose!

At the end of their session they all lined up to go into the “party room”. We hummed the Olympics theme and it was time for the medal ceremony. Wolfie got a slightly bigger medal (hey, you only turn 7 once….never mind that the back of the medal said “Happy 6 on the 6th!” Ahem.)

The kids looooooooooved the medals. They had USA on them and the Olympics logo so all the kids thought they were REAL. OLYMPICS. MEDALS. Huzzah! It was awesome.

From there my little Olympiates went to the party room where they ate pizza and fruit and admired each others medals. SO CUTE. Wolfie got to sit on a giant inflatable throne which he was shyly pleased by.

(I can’t lie….the colors….the COLORS! It’s too much. And I love color….but not like this. Yee gads, who decorated this place??)

Please note Sir Wolfgang is wearing his “comfy loungers” and Pokemon tee. Sure I love dressing him up but there is a place and time for everything…and bouncing isn’t a fashion show, it’s about BOUNCIN’ IN COMFORT!

I made pretty simple goodie bags—I forgot to take a picture, but I just used a plain brown paper lunch bag with a little red ribbon and pokemon label (kinda like this). Most parents I know have a love-hate relationship with the goodie bag. They can get a little outta control. And part of me wants to rebel against doing them, but then when it comes down to it, it makes the kids happy and what the heck…yer only little once. The bags had lots of silly little trinkets like lollipop ring pops, red white and blue whistles and these cool spinning tops that lit up (Go Party Supply Store!). I also wrapped big ol’ chocolate chip cookies in aluminum foil and added a ribbon to make them look like medals. These were a big hit!

I bucked the system and we opened presents at the party. I’m not sure how it is where you guys live, but out here there is a growing trend to NOT open presents in front of the kids and wait til you get home (or if you are at home, wait til everyone leaves). I’m not sure if it’s to avoid the chaos/mess of paper or if people think it’s too long for the kids to sit patiently through or they are worried presents will get ruined…BUT, I’m not a fan of this trend. Call me old fashioned, but I think half the fun as a guest is watching the birthday kiddo open up your present! [some of my best friends are in the non-present opening camp so, you know, no offense if you are too….but I’m still gonna make you open your present from me while I’m there! heh]

I will admit, it was a little chaotic, with paper bits flying….but the kids were so cute ooohing and ahhing and giggling over everything!

Wolfie was grinning from ear to ear the whole time. The staff was totally great AND they did all the clean up. So despite my initial reservations….it was pretty awesome! Goes to show you what do I know??

Afterwards we had to race off to Little League…and then we ended the night watching a movie, eating leftover pizza and talking about how awesome his birthday weekend was. An action packed day to be sure.


BUT THAT’S NOT ALL FOLKS

In the middle of the night, Wolfie woke up doubled over in pain moaning and sobbing. We ended up spending over 4 hours in the emergency room and it was pretty awful. Wolfie is a really stoic little guy and to see him crying for two hours straight was heart breaking. He couldn’t even walk so we had to take him in a wheel chair to get his x-rays…by 3:00am we had determined it wasn’t his appendix or any obstructions. It was extreme gas and poopage (sorry….gettin’ all TMI on you guys here). A tad embarrassing but we were just relieved it wasn’t anything worse. We went to bed at 4:30am, emotionally and physically exhausted! What a crazy end to our fantastic day!!

So to end on a positive note, we finally woke up  the next day at 1:30 in the afternoon!!!!!!!! (unheard of). Wolfie was feeling 100% better and we had a great brunch and wandered around in the sunshine.

When we got home, Wolfie and Greg recorded “I’m in a Wheelchair,” a goofy fun song they made up about his ordeal the night before.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY one last time, my little monkey. Thank you for being so sweet and fun….and for letting mama put you in pants that “sorta look like clown pants” and thinking they were cool. I love you!