The Community Center

The North class celebrates the opening of the new Community Center!

First day as a kindergartener

Mad Scientists

Treasure Hunt

Cara came over to babysit. She designed a treasure hunt, complete with costume props.

pool party

Post-Russian River pool party at Miran's house!


Pool!



Anders has been working on his hand-stands.





Soren has become fearless in the water.

Ready...

...go!

Ta-da!

Next trick: Ready...

...go!

Ta-da!

Tuckered out.

Tie Dye

Tie dyes the boys made (with some help).

More from Russian River

From Clara:

Zoe likes naan

Mikael, Lavelle and Zoe, who were driving up the coast, joined us for our annual pilgrimage to Jenner for Indian food at Sizzling Tandoor. Which worked well, because it turns out Zoe can eat naan like nobody's business.


Anders and Zoe worked on some art before the food arrived.


The lighting in this pic was not very good, so the colors are off and there's a lot of noise, but this is a mango lassi served in a Sierra Nevada pint glass.


After lunch, Soren tested out noses, to see what noises they made.

Aladdin

Anders got to watch the first half of Aladdin yesterday before bed, and then got to watch the whole thing today along with Dylan, Cara and Soren.

Cinq Cépages vertical

I brought up three bottles of Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cépages wine, from 1996, 1997 and 1999.

The Cinq Cépages (French for "Five Grapes") is always a blend of the five classic French grapes—cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, petit verdot and malbec—but is anchored by the cabernet sauvignon, which always makes up at least 75% of the blend.

The 1996 was the Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year in its release year (1999), when it sold for $28 at the winery (the price elsewhere rose dramatically after the accolade was bestowed, but the winery held the line at $28—and I made a special trip to the winery just to buy a bottle). The 1997 was, according to some, an even better vintage. The 1999... well, I just bought it years ago to extend the vertical.

In recent years, I had read online tasting notes suggesting that maybe these wines were past their prime. And upon opening, it seemed maybe that was true for the 1996 and 1997. But a while later, with steak, they rallied. Whether it was the additional time open or the steak, I don't know, but they were all delightful. The 1999 (of which I still have a bottle) actually seemed a bit young, even after 14 years, so maybe I'll hold that one back for a few more years.

Sleep

I'm probably an idiot to have used the flash to get this shot (that's certainly what Sigrid seemed to think), but it all worked out.

Swimmin' in the hot tub

Soren thinks it's always good to practice your butterfly stroke in the hot tub.

Spirit Bear visits Russian River

Going to visit the cousins, wearing the tshirt Grammy bought.

Dogpatch Boulders

Sigrid took Matt, Anders and Soren rock climbing at Dogpatch Boulders. Here's Anders on the kid's wall.


The kid's wall was too easy for Matt, but he gave it a climb anyway.


Soren wouldn't try the wall...

...but he did like the slide.



Anders also managed to get pretty far up on the adult wall.

Felton train

When Anders was about nineteen months old, we checked out the train in Felton, and though he loved trains, the real thing was so loud it terrified him. So we didn't ride it.

But Soren is older than Anders was, and less fearful, so when we saw that Thomas was coming to Felton, we decided to give it a try.



We had hot dogs...

...and our faces painted...



...and rode the train.


If you look way up at the front of the train, you can see Thomas. Sort of.


Oh, and Matt is in town visiting, too.


No screaming, no fear.