something like this

As predicted, our friend Russell didn’t end up making an acceptance speech at the Oscars last night, but we are all still psyched for him. Our friends Susie and Finn came over with their gorgeous baby girl, winner for best performance in a leading role for her work in “Birth – The Next Generation.” Our friend Mark joined us as well – he brought a container of cookies he called “Starship Gingerprises” that were unbelievably tasty. Honey made Russell-inspired sandwiches with roasted turkey, gruyere and cranberry sauce that were fantastic, and we tried a new Cooking Light recipe for apple/raisin compote on toasts with brie. It was delicious, but we bought light brie accidentally (heavens!) and it just doesn’t melt properly. It was still tasty and easy to make, so a win in my book.

It was a great night, although we only got one quick glimpse of our friends during the broadcast. If you go to the Oscars website, you can see them at the very beginning of the Visual Effects acceptance speech clip.

The place to go, though is to the Access Hollywood site, and check out the clip of Sandra Bullock talking about how much she loves Gabourey Sidibe. Keep watching, because as the interview goes on there are some awesome moments of Courtney and Russell in the background. I’m sorry Sandra, you were gorgeous and funny too, but there’s this moment when Courtney turns around and you see the cool layered detail of her dress in the back… it’s fabulous. And what a beautiful woman!! It’s not every couple who can just step into a situation like the Oscars red carpet and look so thoroughly at home.

There’s another photo of them on the Huffington Post site, which I love because they’re smiling at each other. That prankster Sandra hopped into the photo in front of them again in this one – she’s such a card.

Well done guys!! We’re all so happy for you.

It’s been a month of technical delays, but it looks like we’re up and running again. DSL was touch and go for a little while there but it’s all good again.

Everything else has been rolling along nicely, I’m happy to say. We’ve been keeping up our Friday afternoon art days – I always think of them as the Ruth Days, after my neighbor and mentor, Ruth Bowen. She was a brilliant mother, teacher and artist who also relished having people, kids and grownups alike, making art in her home. I wish so much that she could join us; I think she’d really have fun with this gang. I still use her materials though, and try to channel her great optimistic spirit every week. So the Ruthies benefit from all that talent and kindness one way or another.

Still Life Abstracts

For our second session, we kept things pretty open with some still life abstract paintings, touching on negative space, composition and layering. I asked the girls to look at a few basic forms – a teapot, a vase, some scientific glass – and do some sketches of those forms intersecting on the paper. We played with leaving out sections of line, looking for shapes that appealed to us, and I encouraged them to think about the whole page. That is always such a tough thing to do.

Once they came up with sketches they liked, they penciled their compositions onto watercolor paper and drew in some of the lines with crayon to act as a resist for the watercolor. Then it was time to paint. We looked at limited palettes and balancing color across the page.

After working on these paintings for a while, they branched out into all kinds of painting.

I’ve known these kids for years now, but it amazes me how different it is to be working side by side with them. By trying to keep the concept simple – exposure and experience – I think we’re getting into a nice groove.

For a long time now I’ve been wanting to host a kind of open studios at our house for kids to come over and make art after school. Turns out some of my friends who have kids in Honey’s grade were interested in the same thing. I finally got my act together and we had our first meeting last week.

It was a very basic still life session with charcoal. I started them out with quick studies, which are unbelievably challenging to many kids, particularly 4th graders – there’s a real drive to work super slowly, small and detailed, barely looking at the subject.

We also explored the material – charcoal is pretty fantastic stuff when it comes to range in line quality, tone and texture, as well as its ability to end up absolutely everywhere.

We also touched on the concept of negative space – just trying to explore different ways of looking at what we’re drawing. Check out this terrific chair study:

Pretty great, eh? I’m still figuring out the balance between instruction and freedom – too teachy and it’s overbearing, but I know from experience that too open-ended and it’s chaotic. I think it might come down to a brief time where I lay out a basic concept or two, and then we all work away together.

Here’s the thing: I think there’s something to be said for kids and adults engaging in art together. Not just kids being taught or watched by adults, but observing, working, exploring side by side. Making art (or music, or dance, or poetry…) can be a risky business, and I think it’s exciting to take those chances together.

Our Beautiful Aunt Mary and Uncle Dick gave Hot Wheels a new HESS race car for Christmas. It’s actually better than a race car, if that’s even possible. It’s a race car with a smaller race car inside it. A nested race car. He has been spending many a happy hour since, getting the race cars acquainted with the truck that he received last year. It’s going so well, they’re already on to stunts. They’ve perfected a moving transfer of the smaller race car from truck to big race car. It rocks.

Thank you, Dick and Mary!!!!

A weekend ago, on Saturday morning, Honey decided to make some scrambled eggs.

She started out with just your basic eggs and milk and some grated cheese. Then she decided it needed some tomato, and as I passed through the kitchen on the way to my room I saw her dart to the fridge, saying, “I know what this needs! Some spinach!” A little salt and pepper later and she had a fine breakfast. It was a little soupy, but boy did it taste great.

After that we headed into the city to meet up with our friends Amy and Scott and their two children, who were in town for the weekend from LA. We met up at the Warming Hut at Chrissy Fields, which is one of the best spots in the entire city, as far as I’m concerned. Nestled right at the southern base of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Warming Hut is a café and store that supports the Golden Gate National Parks (Chrissy Field being one of those parks). It’s the perfect spot for a cup of cocoa and a sandwich while you take in a spectacular view of the bridge, the city and the bay.

There’s a pier where you can fish and catch crabs, and the kids always love walking out to see if anyone’s had any luck. That Saturday, This dude was checking everybody out -

I’m telling you this guy was like the pier mafia. He was half as big as Hot Wheels, and if you looked at him too long he’d come strutting over, all “Are you lookin at me? You got somethin you gotta say? I didn’t think so.”

See what I mean? Don’t let the perspective fool you – he only looks smaller because he’s farther away. Back away slowly, Hot Wheels, do not make eye contact.

Here are three fun biking events from the past two weeks:

1. Family Ride to Tiburon

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we finally took a great ride that we’d been planning forever with our friends Rik and Sherri and their two awesome kids. We went from Mill Valley to Tiburon on a clear and windy Saturday afternoon. The ride was amazing; only one challenging hill and mostly beautiful bike path, tons of people out enjoying the day, stunning views of the bay and the city to the south. Everything went smoothly and the kids all had a fantastic time. We stopped at Waypoint pizza and got the back room all to ourselves – the food was made even more tasty by our ride beforehand. After we ate, we admired the view for a bit before heading back home.

Tom has this great app called Runkeeper on his iPhone which tracks all the stats on your adventures – distance, time, pace and even elevation – using the phone’s gps. Here’s the screen for our return ride from Tiburon:

How awesome is that?! The kids loved checking out the route and looking at the elevation chart – speed certainly is variable when your riders range from six to, well, you know, more than six. I love the information design on these screens – they’re easy to read and beautiful to look at. So satisfying. All in all, it was an incredible day.

2. Walk and Wheel Wednesdays

As I’ve mentioned here before, I put in a small amount of time for the Safe Routes to School committee at our kids’ elementary school. One of the ways we’re trying to build participation in the program is to encourage a weekly walk/wheel/carpool to school day. We try to drum up enthusiasm for the whole idea by putting up posters and a table at the school entrance on the first Wednesday of each month. Whole Foods was good enough to give us some bags of granola to hand out to the students, and we’ve been stamping hands to show they participated. However, we’ve been struggling to come up with other ways to get the message out without printing up hundreds of flyers that will just be tossed when the kids go home after school.

Last week, I started thinking about edible advertising. So I bought a couple bags of cuties and some food markers and put the message right on the clementines.

They had faces on one side, and “Walk & Wheel Wednesdays” on the other. It was fun watching the kids trying to decide which face to choose, and I think they worked pretty well. Anyone out there have other ideas? I’d love to hear them.

3. Xtra Clean

I’ve carried lots of fun things with my xtracycle.

I love having a bike that can carry my vacuum cleaner.

Well kids, it looks like we have some catching up to do. All the way back to Thanksgiving, if you can believe that. Do you remember Thanksgiving? I know it’s hard to think with all the carols of the bells ringing in your ears from every store you entered this week, but see what you can come up with. My favorite line from this Thanksgiving came from our neighbor, who is eight. That Wednesday, he strolled over to us outside our house with his hands in his pockets and casually asked, “Where are you guys going for Disneyland?” It’s difficult to describe the “aw shoot!” moment when he realized he’d blown the reveal. We just glossed over it, though, and focused on how excited we were for him.

Turns out we went to Burlingame for Disneyland this year. We’d made plans with our friends from LA to meet along the coast for Thanksgiving, but then it turned out we were all hoping to head to the snow this year, and in the end we decided to meet after Christmas instead. So on a whim, we searched the prices of every Embassy Suites in the Bay Area, and came up with a scorcher of a deal down by the airport, and we decided to just go there for the night. We didn’t tell the kids because we really love watching their faces when they get surprised.

Thanksgiving morning, Tom and Honey did a Turkey Trot – about four miles through the valley to the beach and back. While they were gone, I surreptitiously packed the necessities – a board game, some movies, snacks, and a changes of clothes. We stopped in San Francisco to have lunch at a diner and walk around a bit, and then we headed down to the hotel. When we pulled up and Tom said, “What do you say we stay here tonight?” the kids went bazonkers. And rightly so – it was awesome.

Yep, there were these mammoth trees filling the atrium of the building. There were glass elevators. There was a pool and two jacuzzis. There were koi swimming around in these little ponds and streams that you could walk along to watch them.

Check that out – do you see the little tables and bridges? Can you find the waterfall? Any second now, Snow White will appear.

This is what I’m here to tell you – hotels rock. So do overnights when the kids can basically do all the things they love best in the world. We were right next to the airport, for crying out loud – we just sat on the bed and watched the planes come in. Most of all we were hugely, happily thankful to be together. I hope you all had a wonderful time as well – I’d love to hear what your favorite Thanksgiving foods are. Hands down, mine is apple pie. Although I made Mum’s sweet dinner rolls that week as well just because it’s plain wrong to have a major holiday without them. What makes Thanksgiving for you?

That’s right – there he is, with his ‘worker pajamas’ and birthday toast. He’s six. Crazy. (Let me add that I’m fully aware that toast looks pretty dodgy. It’s vegemite. He loves it – what can I say?)

Never have I seen anyone relish a birthday like Hot Wheels. First there were the weeks of counting down. Then on Monday he started singing songs about the wondrous day. On Thursday, as we left school he informed his sister and me that he wanted his birthday to be perfect. “I want it to be perkect,” he said, and suggested that Honey finish all her homework and that I “do the dishes.” I informed him that it was in fact a birthday, not a coronation, but he ignored me.

Friday morning, I heard his feet hit the floor at exactly 6:15, and we were off. What a great day. He loved his presents, he loved his birthday crown at school, he told me incredulously that people kept wishing him a happy birthday! It was awesome!

As I’ve mentioned before, our elementary school has suspended edible treats for birthdays, so put away the cupcake tins, people. However, instead of just stopping there, they tell parents that “most” people bring in a non-edible treat for their children to hand out to classmates. And they do. That means no child wants to be the one killjoy not to bring something in. With Honey, we got around it by handing out daffodil bulbs. Hot Wheels had other ideas. He wanted to give out, well, Hot Wheels.

Shocking, isn’t it? We found a great deal on one of those big packs, so they were inexpensive, and I’m hoping that the other families will like them, despite the fact that they’re not biodegradable. We have these sheets with photos of the students in the class, and Hot Wheels spent a lonnnng time matching kids to cars. (That will probably be the next facebook quiz – “What Hot Wheels car are you?”)

The great thing about having leftover fish-costume fleece is that it’s super easy to whip up into gift bags, and now I have less leftover fleece!

So today we had a small party with six friends. It was a – brace yourselves – Color-Changing Hot Wheels party. Surprised?

Here he is, waiting for his friends to arrive. (At this point, the party was still over an hour away.)

We kept it casual with a bunch of track set up in the driveway, and a lot of just playing around the house. It was really fun, and although he didn’t quite explode with happiness, it was darn close.

On Sunday, Amy and Andy had our kids over for the afternoon, and Tom and I took a hike. A spectacular hike. The day was foggy and cool, and although the parking lots on Mount Tam were all packed, the trails weren’t crowded. We had long stretches where we didn’t see anyone, and the weather made the terrain all the more lush and mysterious, like this:

And this:

It was a bit like hiking through a novel.

We started up on Mt Tam and took the Matt Davis trail down to Stinson Beach. There were trees feathered with moss and tiny ferns, tunnels of arched trunks leading to open meadows, sweet woodsy smells and the sound of running creeks and lots and lots of steps.

On a clear day there would have been breathtaking views in surprising moments. On Sunday, the fog was thick enough that there were stretches where the path would appear out of the grey just a few feet in front of us. Instead of looking out, we found ourselves focusing on the textures, patterns and intricacies close at hand.

When we made it to Stinson, just look at what was waiting for us at the Parkside!

mmmm.

After that, we headed back up the mountain, following the Dipsea and Steep Ravine trails. Remember the steps? There were more. Steps cut from stone, steps built out of old logs, and – I kid you not – there was even a ladder at one point. Granted, it was wide and well constructed, but it was a ladder nonetheless. The trip back up felt like Tolkien land.

See what I mean? At least we’d had second breakfast. And elevenses. And lunch…

Wow I can’t really believe this girl is nine. Here she is riding down the driveway where she first met her Boston grandparents when she was just a few days old. I’d been sitting in the living room watching for them, and the moment I saw them pull in I was up from the rocking chair, through the door and in the driveway before they could get out of the car. I can still see Dad’s expression when he saw her; he froze and put his hands to his face like he was seeing something so amazing, so wondrous. It was one of those moments I can never forget. And now here she is, cruising off to school down that very driveway.

This year at school they’ve instituted a new no-food birthday policy, and yet they told us at back-to-school night that most families bring in something to give out for birthdays. Seriously. I think this is a little nutty. However, it’s a bit stinky to be the only family to skip out on the birthday treat thing so we put our heads together to think of a little something to give that wouldn’t break the bank or add just another plastic tchotchke to the collection. There are 28 kids in the class, so it’s worth thinking about! Then one day I was coming out of the grocery store and I saw daffodil bulbs, two bags for $7 and 15 in a bag. Perfect! For each student we put two bulbs in a paper bag with a little ribbon and a label (a few extras for the teacher’s bag with the flower on the front). It’s an ideal time of year for putting in the bulbs, and daffodils always remind me of Nana, who loved seeing them in the spring. I’ve had some nice comments from the other parents, and it was easy peasy. Slam dunk.

For her birthday, Honey had a sleepover with just a couple of friends she’s known for a long time. She originally wanted to go camping, but all the sites around here are completely booked out. Then she wanted to set up the tent on the back deck, but it got so cold at night this week we knew they’d all need to come in at 3am. So, after all that, we just put the tent in the art room. I highly recommend this, for any occasion whatsoever. It’s crazy fun.

For some reason, Honey’s not so big on cake, but this year she was remarkably specific. She asked for a round vanilla cake with just a bit of lemon, mint green frosting with a blue circle in the middle. Right.

I love how that second shot has the salt shaker in the background. I probably should have photoshopped that out, but I kind of like the random quality we’ve got going on there. Anyway, they had some pizza, ate some cake, watched a movie from the tent and then conked out at 9:30. Did you get that? 9:30. I think that might be some kind of record for a 9 year old sleepover. I think we should get parent scouts merit badges for that.

Right before I went to bed I tiptoed in to make sure everything was ok. In the dark room, the tent emanated the most incredibly soft, rhythmic breathing, making me want to sit and listen for ages. It felt like an art installation piece. Everyone slept till seven (seven! I just heard another record breaking), had pancakes and played till it was time to go home. What a terrific night!