Month: February 2010

Playdates

Leilani had no school from Thursday to Tuesday afternoon – 2 play dates and a 3 day camping trip (and a visit to the dentist, who admired and cleaned her teeth)

Her friend from school Sophia visited her:

The birch tree in the back yard makes little seed pods (properly called “strobiles“) that easily break apart into flakey seeds. They stay on the tree all year, and sometime last summer, Leilani started picking them off the tree and pretending they were an ingredient for whatever she was cooking in her playhouse. You can see them in the pots in these photos.

Recently, at Home.

I call it Blaukaeppchen (little blue riding hood)

Haku – Lei – Lani

Leilani and I played the raffle at the fungus fair in Santa Cruz . I wanted the truffle oil, she wanted the chocolate mushroom – instead she was the proud winner of a mushroom growing kit in a box. She was very excited about it, Andy read the instructions and did all the preparation (soaking and spreading the compost) and all of us try to remember to water and harvest the mushrooms. Leilani eats them raw now.

Sunrise – Snailset

Leilani and I built a castle.

Good morning!

Leilani all ready to go to Thelan’s Goodbye party.

Leilani is a great little kitchen helper – she actually cut 4 zucchinis with a butter knife, the entire bowl full, and all of them nice and thin.

Leilani’s Art: Cards, Photos, Drawing

(and writing too)

Leilani’s paintings in the background of her photo (yes I let her play with Barbie, no I am not proud of it)

I call it composition in pink…

Aloha run west. Whatever that means…. I’d think it would be sail, or at least swim. I noticed that Leilani thinks only faces and hands are tanned (Lilo’s stomach is all pink), I think it’s time we go back to Kauai and let the sun shine upon us…

ALOHA RUN WEST are words that I made on the fridge with magnetic letters. A few days before Leilani colored this drawing, I was playing with her and made some easy words for her to read, using the available letters (one of each letter–the second A in aloha is an upside down V, but Leilani transcribed it correctly as an A). After coloring, she went to the fridge and copied the words down, something she started doing at school. This is the first time I had seen her copy letters and words at home, usually we write the words and she traces them, as some of you have seen in cards.

Leilani wrote nice valentine’s cards for her friends

and drew nice pictures.

But of all hearts I think these are the coolest. I have never seen the idea before, and I am sure neither has Leilani.

She wrote a date. It was made on the 3rd of February and in Austria it would be perfectly acceptable to write it like this. A and E get confused easily at this stage.

I think I need to re-take this photo, I cut off Leilani.

I think the attempt at 3-D is remarkable, shading and trying to draw a cube (it is supposed to be a house)

Happy Valentine’s Day

A few days before Valentine’s day Leilani asked what the most important rule in our house was. Each of us took a guess (I don’t remember who guessed twice). We liked our houserules so much that Leilani and I made a Valentine’s picture from it:

Mount Tam Again – Spring Weather

[Comments by Andy]

Behind Mt Tam actually (in Marin county, north across the Golden Gate bridge), in the Marin watershed district where mushroom picking is allowed. We found some boletes here last time, but there were not too many mushrooms anymore. I think that other mushroom hunters must’ve picked the area clean.

We did find lots of inedible mushrooms that make nice photos and a few edible black trumpets, enough for one nice dinner (supplemented with the button mushrooms from Leilani’s box…).

Look at the big wood-ears on the tree next to Leilani’s hand:

Here’s a closeup:

Some sort of cup fungus:

With all the winter rain and a week of sunshine, everything is green again:

A type of elfin saddle:

Sonja doesn’t know how this mushroom got so red in photoshop:

The first spring flowers, here an Indian Warrior:

A Shooting Star:

And an Iris:

Lots of cool lichen in these damp woods:

And more funky fungi: