Month: June 2010

The Maker Faire is an expo of arts, crafts, electronics, animatronics, and everything else in between, with an emphasis on do-it-yourself projects.

We decided to go Saturday after hearing Dave & Rebecca went with their kids, and we liked it so much we went back on Sunday.

Decorated art car:

The rides at this fair are do-it-yourself as well (actually there were some home-made fair “rides,” but we missed them):

Inside a dark hall was a bunch of light art and various projects. When we first went in, there was a concert of electronic music and tesla coils making lightning, which really scared Leilani.

It didn’t help that there were remote-controlled, glow-in-the-dark, “land” sharks driving around and chasing people. After a while, Leilani mastered her fear of these (once she understood the remote control and saw the guy who operates them), to the point that these became her favorite sight (maybe that’s why all the Disneyland rides were frightful):

Here is another home-made remote-controlled vehicle. This one was popular with kids.

Leilani made a rocket from paper and got to shoot it with compressed air 5 or 6 times until it finally got too crumpled from the landing. Both parents helped her make it, though she did a lot of the cutting and taping. However, Sonja stuffed as much crumpled up tissue as possible into the front (> 1.5 napkins instead of one) and Andy made sure some key parts of the design were to spec, and as a result, Leilani’s rocket was one of the highest flying, impressing the organizers and spectators (several years of building model rockets were not wasted after all):

Hi, dragon.

Can I pet you?

More cool vehicles:

Leilan to Andyi: “I think you need some reading glasses for your ears.”

Another good one:
We were tired. Andy: “I could use a nap…”
Leilani: “What’s that?”

Leilani and Olivia had a sleepover yesterday.. the sleepover part was good and easy, but the rest… would have been slapstick had I not been so cranky to begin with.

One big project fell through a few weeks ago – I just found out it was implemented exactly to my specs… but by someone else. I did not see a dime (got promissed free advertising though). 2 of my clients put their projects on hold pretty suddenly and unexpectantly, and another project that I expected… anyway. That’s work. The Austrian consul deferred a meeting, oh well, what’s a week more. And after driving in circles for 10 minutes I finally found the right address to pick up a mirror (at the correct time) and nobody was there (got it in the meantime and it is very nice…) so, that was the start of the situation.

Like many times before I picked up Olivia on a Tuesday – just at 1pm an hour later than usual. Since time for the eating – playing – going to the riding lesson is always too short we are often late for the lesson, so I had the glorious idea of packing a lunch – Amy’s sandwich for Olivia, mine for Leilani, stuff they like – and driving there directly. Katie told me their homework assignment, prepare a story to tell tomorrow at camp.

When we walked out I suggested a picnic – “No we are not hungry.” I tried a little more but they insisted. I suggested it again after a few minutes, but no… I tried to get them to tell me a story, Leilani made up a little one about little ponies, and Olivia didn’t tell anything. I tried to nudge Leilani a little towards a story she’d remember the next day, so we tried a fairytale… I told Rapunzel twice and then Leilani tried and Olivia interrupted (“You know it was not real hair, Rapunzel had a wig…”) and they goofed off again. Olivia wouldn’t try, and I got Leilani to try again, Little Red Riding Hood, but same thing (“The wolf didn’t really eat the grandma…”), I gave up and suggested food. It was 1:30, we were at a nice little fruitstand with picnic tables. Leilani said she was “really” hungry. Especially when I showed her the sandwiches. I unbuckled her, she stuck one hand out the car door and claimed it was too cold she’d eat in the car. I handed her the plate with the (now unwrapped) sandwiches and walked over to Olivia’s side – I wasn’t quite behind the car when Leilani decided to get out of the car after all and dropped the plate of food.

Leilani shouted and cried and yelled, while I tried to find the alternate lunch and helped Olivia to get set up. Leilani’s yelling (as if it was my fault) really pushed me so I stared yelling at her (regret, regret…). That the eggs I had were undercooked and slimy did not help the situation. While I tried to peel the eggs Olivia started dropping food. I ran after Olivia’s bag thats sailed off in the breeze, and then gave Leilani popcorn. Olivia dropped a large part of her nori. Leilani dropped half the popcorn. It was like having 2 2-year-olds. I threatened the playdate would be over if there would be one more accident or I’d hear one more “Ooops”. I made them both go in the car and sit and eat – Leilani ate most the popcorn and Olivia 2 square inches of nori while I shopped.

I gave Leilani some fresh veggies and told Olivia there would not be any riding lessons if she did not eat her sandwich, because hungry kids are accident prone and badly behaved. We arrived 10 minutes and 1/2 a bite later at the stable. It was almost 2pm. I told them we would not get out of the car until the sandwich was eaten. 2:15 I got out of the car and sat on the hood because I could not bear it any longer inside (took me almost an hour to clean the car, but it needed it anyway…). 3:15 the sandwich was gone. It was actually the correct time, the lesson should have started at 3:30, but a walk at the beach or something would have been nicer. My mood improved again. But Cherokee was not there. He was in a horsecamp, the other riding instructor told us they’d easily be done by 3:30. The girls played nicely, but it was past 4:30 when Leilani got on the horse. And the lesson was a lot longer than usual… we were home at almost 6:30, and 7:00 should have been bedtime. Fortunately Andy had a good dinner waiting for us, and took over. Leilani was very hungry and wolved down a huge plate of food, and a cup of soymilk and maybe 2 oz of cheese for desert. (No sweet dessert before bedtime). Olivia ate her noodles, one pea and one small bite of carrots…no salad , no milk… (I was pretty afraid she’d starve, so she got a sweet breakfast.) They were in bed at 7:30, and asleep within minutes.

We walked along the Pacifica coast. It was a beautiful day, but not a happy one.

Every year a few Pacifica houses fall into the ocean. Every El-Nino year (like this one) a lot of them. We suspect these might be next.

Cool rocks and conglomerates.

Splashing in a puddle

We suspect Leilani had gotten food coloring, or she was sick, and without any reason – at least that’s what it seemed like to us she had ever increasing meltdowns that day, until she threw herself down and refused to walk back with us.

Leilani took her camera to school and shared it freely. I took a few, a few elementary school aged kids took a few, but most all of the photos were taken by preschoolers. It is a long post with lots of photos, but I want to preserve the memory of Leilani’s friends on one of their last days together. This fall most of them will be in Kindergarten

I found that in between, makes a good alternat title for this post. “What I See”

They played a ball game. From the left Bigil (Nikhil’s sister in the pink sweater), last in the row with Leilani: Antony, then Oscar, next is Josselyn then Leilani and the big girl is Jennifer, (Antony’s sister).

From the left: Standing: Nina, Ezequiel, Sophia, can’t figure out who is next, sitting behind Estefanie ( Antony’s sister) and teacher Liselle. The other row from the back: Antony, Jennifer, Oscar, Josselyn and Leilani

Bella (Camille’s sister)

Bigil

Bigil and Sophia

They raised and released butterflies.

Dylan, Nikhil and Anthony

Camille

Nina and Bigil… too close…

Dylan

Ezequiel

Camille, Samantha S, Marianna and Bigil

Regina, Lily and Josselyn

Jay and Teacher Liselle

Liselle with Jay, Leilani and Camille

Leilani and Sophia

Lily

Teacher Liselle

Dylan, Ezequiel, Bigil and Nikhil

Oscar

Regina and Lily

Samantha B

Sophia

Susan and Bella