My Little Geek

"Mommy, can I stay up late and do math?"
-Lorelai

Halloween on the Central Coast

We started off Halloween with a hula performance at Oktoberfest in Los Osos. It was a quick half-hour show which was hectic after the 3-hour long extravaganza we did at Farmer's Market a few weeks ago. I learned a new dance so I was able to perform 2 songs in addition to the traditional chants.

Me and Lorelai in the "green room" before the show.

Lorelai performing the Kaliponi hula.





Spencer got involved in the poi ball audience participation portion. Like uncle, like nephew.

On the way home from the show, Lorelai spotted splashing in the ocean so we pulled over in Pismo Beach to watch a couple pods of whales for a while. Sorry no pictures.

After that, home for trick-or-treating. This year's theme was Star Wars which all started with a Yoda costume for a dog. I never got around to ordering it and Bing probably wouldn't wear it if I had but the theme stuck...

Spencer as Obi-wan at his school parade.


My two Jedi.

Happy Halloween!

Farmer's Market with Na Mele o ke Kai

Comment From the Back Seat

"I think I'll put these boogers back in my nose."

That's my boy.

Aloha

Lorelai and I had our first performance today. We danced at a dementia and Alzheimer's care facility. They decorated everything and all of the residents had leis on. Quite festive. It did give new meaning to the term captive audience. A little weird with all the doors locked to keep them in. Lorelai and her friend Sophie were the youngest and least experienced dancers but they did great and had fun.
Steve's only critique for me was that I forgot to smile. I was having fun, honest. It just doesn't look like it. I did ok, didn't forget the steps. I almost fell over and the end of one of the dances but I watched the video and you can't tell. (I'll post clips when I can figure out how to get it on the computer).

First Day of School!

Despite the fat lip, Lorelai was thrilled to start first grade.


She is super proud to have her own desk.


We had gotten a recommendation for a particular first-grade teacher, I believe the direct quote was "she's AMAZING!" so we requested her. We had no idea at the time that she was the bilingual teacher for first grade. Lorelai is the only non-hispanic in her class. We're hoping she picks up some spanish and doesn't seem to mind being the odd-one in class. She's a little bummed that none of her classmates from kindergarten are in her class but she sees them on the playground.

She was less jazzed to go to school the second day. When I asked her why, she complained that her teacher had said they were going to do math but they just reviewed numbers: "I already know all of them!"

Maybe Letting The Kids Watch Jeff Dunham Wasn't Such a Good Idea

"Daddy, what's a condom?"

Swim With The Fishes

The reasoning behind the title of this post is two-fold. First of all, by beloved Jetta is dead (get it? swimming with the fishes? har har). It was going to cost more than it is worth to fix because the whole back end got torqued and they would have to replace the entire back half of the body. Not happening. We're still waiting to find out how much the insurance will pay me out for it but in the mean time, here's my ride:


Thanks, Mom and Dad!

The second reason for the title is more obvious: the kids are taking swimming lessons and loving it. They are both doing great and actually putting their faces under water. On purpose! Here are some action shots:

Here's How My Day Went

Turtles

I know I have been lazy about posting for the past month... lots going on. Here is the highlight of our trip to Maui. There were three turtles grazing on the reef behind our condo and we spent some quality time together.

Flirt

Lorelai has made a friend. He's 10. His name is Alexander. He's a flirt. Lorelai is eating it up.

The two of them have been hanging out in the pool both afternoons we've been here and today he was showing off his diving skills. Lorelai was rating his dives and gave him a 4 for length on one of them. His response was that the length doesn't matter, just the form.

I turned to my mom and said "it's not the size, its how you use it."

Toothless

She couldn't be more proud.

Hot

I took this at 10 AM yesterday. Its hot.

Proud Mommy

Lorelai's school had a spring carnival today. It was small but really fun. They had half a dozen games that everybody was a winner at, face painting, and food. We won a silent auction for a family game night basket complete with Checkers, Connect Four and Jenga.

Both kids enjoyed the milk bottle game, though Lorelai had better luck knocking the bottles down.


Spencer was lucky if he got the ball near the table, he couldn't decide if he throws right or left handed.


Lorelai wanted her face painted and once the teacher doing the painting talked her out of a brown horse with a black mane and tail (too hard to do) she came up with some lovely strawberries.


Spencer had to have strawberries just like his big sister. He couldn't contain himself and had to flirt with what I hope will be his 6th-grade teacher whom we met at Open House last week.


The fish pond was full of magnetic fish and the idea will probably be ripped off and make an appearance at our 4th of July party this year along with the beanbag toss.


Now we get to the reason for the title of this post. I'm incredibly proud of both of my kids for what you'll see in this video. Of Spencer for his perseverance and good attitude, and of Lorelai for her enthusiastic support of her little brother. I stopped filming just seconds too soon and missed the huge hug she gave him at the end.

Hula

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to take hula classes. I've always been intrigued by the dance, but I had the feeling that it was kind of taboo for a white person to hula. I remember one of the free shows in the mall in Lahaina a few years ago when they were introducing all the little kids so they could take a bow. All these adorable hawaiian girls with what we would consider exotic names. Then they got to the one little blond girl and the lady introducing them got this look on her face like she smelled something nasty and said something along the lines of "Susan??? what kind of a name is that?" I still remember the look on that little girl's face, trying to hold her stage smile while being insulted.

Here, you can't be too white to hula. Everyone is welcome, and I absolutely love every minute of it. It is fun, good exercise and apparently I don't suck at it. The only downside is that hula is done with the knees bent and mine sound like a Jiffy Pop when I dance.

The Doghouse

Our upcoming trip to Disneyland introduced one of the complications of pet ownership: what to do with the dog while out of town?

Stevo's usual solution to any problem: build something!


Steve designed and built a lovely dog house complete with stairs so Bingo can reach the sunning patio on top. He has apparently remembered that he's house broken and hasn't "gone" in the house for a couple of weeks (Bingo, not Stevo) so we'll leave him in the side yard with his house during the day and probably have the neighbors unlock the dog door so he can come in at night.



This project brought to light one of our many differences in parenting styles: I told Lorelai she couldn't be much help making dinner because I was doing stir-fry and all that needed to be done was cutting up veggies and I wasn't really comfortable with her and sharp knives yet so she went outside and Stevo taught her how to use a nail gun.

Hula

Lorelai is taking hula. She's had two classes so far and absolutely loves it. The class is taught by the same halau that has performed with Hapa whenever they are in town.






One of the coolest parts is that Lorelai's friend Sophie is taking it with her. Lorelai isn't a good influence on Sophie's ability to concentrate and pay attention but I think they're both having more fun because they're together.

It looks like so much fun that I've signed up for the adult beginners class. I start later this week. Hee hee!

We should have known he couldn't be that perfect.

During one of the recent multi-day rain storms we've had, Bingo decided the carpet in front of the fishtank was a more attractive spot to pee than going out in the wet. Since then, he has become un-housebroken. Its like we're back to square one with the mutt.

We decided we just wouldn't leave him alone with access to the house while we're gone since that seems to be his chosen time to foul the carpet. One rainy afternoon, to not be cruel and lock him out in the rain with no shelter, we shut him in the kid's bathroom.

Apparently he doesn't like being confined.

He's alive!

For my dad who was afraid that Bingo had run off on us since I hadn't mentioned him in a while.

He's doing marvelously well as the newest member of the family. He has gained 6 pounds since his adoption and can no longer squeeze through the fences (bonus). He hasn't continued to gain weight so we don't have to watch what we feed him. He has only one character flaw and that is that he goes completely apeshit crazy around other dogs. Vicious growls at huge dogs. He'll strain against his collar to the point where he's hacking and coughing. Stupid.

Good Fences

We have thought amongst ourselves since we moved in to this house that the height of our front fence made our neighbor's back yard a bit lacking in the privacy department. We were pleasantly surprised while working on the lawn to have her peek over the fence (stand there) and asked if we minded if she had the fence raised. After a brief discussion of the foolishness of hiring it out, she offered to pay for materials if Steve would do the construction. No problem.


Mandatory before picture:


Bingo kept us company:


The new fence has two step-downs to match the slope of the property and keep it from looking too monolithic. We also put the "friendly" side on our side the whole span instead of alternating:


We sealed the neighbor's side of the boards as we put them up and Lorelai and I stained our side:


Don't have a great after picture but you probably get the idea.

Frankenlawn

The lawn had a gradual slope to it, down towards the fence. There was also a low spot where the palm tree had been. Enter sod cutter.


We cut back the lawn about half-way across, rolled up the strips and back-filled with good soil to level it. Our friends were planning on removing part of their lawn so we shared the cutter and recycled their sod. A wee bit from the nursery and one more piece from the Depot and we have Frankenlawn.


Let summer begin.


Difficult to see in the picture but I'm reading the third Percy Jackson, Lorelai is reading Richard Scary and Spence in reading The Very Lonely Firefly. Not quite as relaxing as solo reading, but nice none the less.

The Tree

I know you've been quivering in suspense since I mentioned that the tree would have a fate... Here's a before shot to refresh your memory:


This was taken last summer so the tree had gotten even bigger. The neighbor didn't like the tree and had her landscape crew shear it off at the fence line giving it an odd triangle-shape. It was planted too close to the house (what did we know?) and required constant trimming to keep it off the roof and out of the gutters. There was a perpetual rain of leaves and seed pods that made the side patio a mess. We realized that it was only going to get more unruly and would become more of a chore to remove as it grew. Enter chain saw:


Steve rented a trailer and we loaded it up to take to the dump. Spencer was a bit upset when the cutting started but was a super helper when it came to loading the trailer.


Unfortunately he thought we were just taking the tree for a ride. When we started unloading it he began sobbing hysterically that he didn't want to leave the tree at the dump.

We went to the Depot and picked out new foliage which made him feel a little better.


Two queen palms at different sizes and the side yard looks huge now!