Happy 4th!

Hope everyone here in the States had a happy 4th of July! With any luck you had your share of fireworks, fire trucks and marching bands. With drum majors. We hit the parade in Larkspur, which is one town north of ours, and it was good fun. Of course, it’s a little different out here. Our marching band was extremely well turned out, with a perfectly sharp, stern drum major and terrific sound. They had the most phenomenal baton twirler out front who was thrilling and precise; the baton flew forever and never hit the pavement. So, you say? We had that. What’s the big deal? Well I’m going to go out on a limb and venture that your baton twirler was not an effervescent man in his 50s. Just a guess.

We got to see our friends who are just home from an amazing stay in Prague – to sum up what I’ve heard, you should buy your tickets today. Their beautiful girl is walking now and such a sweetheart it was hard not to steal her away. We also saw the parade with Susie and Finn, and their little girl is due any day now – I have some serious money on their child being an angel as well. Sometimes you just know.

Yesterday we really kicked off the holiday weekend – buckle your seat belts, because we went to the county fair. I am a major county fair lover – it has everything and then some. We met up with our friends Amy and Peter and their boys and had such a great day.

fairfeet

This year the fair theme was “Cool Green Fun” and an amazing effort was put into keeping the fair environmentally friendly. Solar and biodiesel power for buildings and sound stages, biodegradable or compostable food containers, recycled material exhibitions, electric cars – even the award ribbons were made with environmentally sound materials. It’s great to see such an enormous venue taking big steps towards protecting the environment.

Here’s an event with something for everyone: rides, music, demonstrations, food, quilts, jam, roses, baby pigs, gigantic pigs, dancing, science, bonsai, cows, ice cream, fireworks, tupperware. Tupperware, for crying out loud. A county fair basically says, “Bring us anything – anything at all – and we will judge it for you.” It rocks. Here’s a snapshot:

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cakesfairquilt

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darthjams

So let’s see… we have a black silkie that actually belongs to some friends of ours who live just around the corner – they were showing a few of their chickens and their dog a well. Then the ferris wheel. The wall of winning cookies & cakes. Quilts. Cars. Bareback riding exhibition. Darth Vader and a storm trooper. Jam.

Woah there, you’re thinking. Back up… Darth Vader? Well it wouldn’t be Marin without him, frankly. There was a whole section of the exhibit hall dedicated to Star Wars related craft. They did it right, though, with amazing costumes and huge guys inside them – very impressive. It was cracking Amy and me up to watch Darth walk through the hall flanked by two storm troopers – she and I took one look at them and wanted to bolt. The little kids, though, were chasing him like he was a Teletubby. Kids. No sense whatsoever.

There also was an experimental science exhibit called the Wizard’s Challenge – it was fantastic. One truly diabolical item, though – a 20 foot rotating tube with a metal walkway running straight through the middle. You can see a photo of it here. Looks innocent enough, but the second you step inside, the walkway appears to slant a good 45 degrees and you find yourself gripping frantically to the railings to keep from falling. If you look at the picture, the adult looks like he’s walking pretty casually with a water bottle in his hand; that’s because he’s focusing on the walkway to combat the tilting sensation. The boy, on the other hand, is looking up, and hanging onto the railing with both hands, because once you look up your eyes tell you you’re about to fall. It was absolutely insane. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.

All in all, it was a completely satisfying day.

cottoncandy

Good Neighbors

We really hit the neighborhood jackpot when we moved into our house. Today I’d like to feature my friend Joan, who lives almost directly across the street from us. She’s like having a sister next door – one who is fun, inventive, kind and wicked smart. She has such a beautiful aesthetic sense as well – have a look at what she pulled together for her younger daughter’s birthday tea party:

backyardparty

They have this arbor-type structure in their back yard, and she hung fabric between the posts to great effect – the color and weight of the fabric and the quality of the light coming through transform the table into something out of a story. An added bonus is that when the table is moved aside, the area becomes a stage with the curtains lending themselves nicely to all kinds of drama. Sweet. Then there’s this:

partytablesconetree

Seriously? It looked like a fairy tale. I wish I had a proper photo of that scone tree – it has a bird on the top and is one of the coolest serving pieces you can imagine. If you break it down, the items here are not too exotic – fruit, tea sandwiches, scones, mini roses – but the combination is gorgeous.

The other day, Joan knocked my socks off with an unexpected gift of a cookbook we’d both been coveting:

cookbook

If you’re familiar with Cook’s Illustrated magazine, you’ll know what a treasure this is. In the magazine, they basically take recipes into the test kitchen and jump all over them – swapping ingredients and testing temperatures and examining methods until they feel they’ve come up with the best result. But instead of just handing over the final recipe, they tell you what they did – what worked, what didn’t. It’s awesome, and now that Joan and I each have one, it looks like our street just got significantly tastier.

Teacher Gifts

It’s that time of year – schools are wrapping up, and parents are wondering just what to wrap up for their children’s hard-working teachers. It’s always a dilemma. My cousin Maura and I usually end up emailing each other around now to brainstorm fresh ideas. (Now Maura, it should be noted, once gave their teachers a Margarita kit at the start of summer. That is what you call a hard act to follow. Not sure what I can add to her idea bin.)

But in the interest of sharing, I thought it might be handy to post my top 5 favorite teacher gifts:
1. Cute mugs with funny sayings on them
2. Scented candles
3. Lotion
4. Soaps
5. Anything with an apple on it!

I know what you’re thinking…. and you’re welcome.

No, no, no, TEACHERS, wait – I’m just kidding!! Shoot, I didn’t mean to, honestly, IT’S GOING TO BE OK! Stop crying!!! Please? Here – have a hankie.

Seriously though, some of my best friends happen to be teachers, so I believe I have an inside track on what they like and need. (That and I’ve asked them.) When asked what they like to receive for gifts, most say “nothing,” because they’re so well respected and compensated. Oh, no, that’s not it. They say “nothing,” because kindness is its own reward. Hm. Maybe they say “nothing” because they’re afraid they’ll receive objects with apples painted on them. Anyway, after “nothing,” they usually say a note is good. And I have to agree – a thoughtful note always rocks. But after that, they might say something like, “wellll, if I had to choose something, gift cards are nice. Oh and lots of cash.” Ok I made that last line up – but I’m very intuitive, and I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re thinking.

These days in our schools, the common thing to do is for the room parents to put out the word that they’re gathering money from everyone, and then they get a VISA gift card that the teachers can then use wherever they’d like. I’m all for this, because a bunch of parents pooling modest donations together makes for a more substantial gift to each teacher. So we go with that plan, and Honey writes her own notes to all her various teachers, and I write a note to her primary teacher.

This year, Hot Wheels is leaving his preschool, which means it’s our last year there as a family as well. It’s a lovely school, and in addition to the donations to his main room teachers, we wanted to give all the teachers a token of appreciation. They all look after him at some point during the day, and we’ve been at the school for years now. I’m writing them notes, but we also baked up some thank yous as well. We had an Anzac thank you, a chocolate chip thank you, and a straight chocolate thank you.

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We stacked the cookies into these bright bowls and topped them with cards from Hot Wheels.

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Unsurprisingly, the pictures were all of cars. (Peculiar looking, but cars nonetheless.)

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These fit my criteria of being mostly consumable with some personal effort thrown in. I’m always open to new ideas, though, so any teachers who want to weigh in – here’s your chance!

Happy summer.

Happy Fathers

Hope all you fathers had happy days yesterday! Dad, I hope you had a terrific time with everyone over – wish we could have been there. It sure sounded like a great afternoon.

I think Tom’s day in general could have been better, seeing as he’s still sick, Honey’s still sick, and it was hard to drum up the energy to do much. Although the day had its share of downs, there were some serious ups as well – please see Exhibit A:

worldsgreatestdad
Exhibit A

Official World’s Greatest Dad hat, lovingly (if not meticulously) embellished by Hot Wheels. Our local Dad rocked this look with a hot Volcom tshirt and board shorts.

On to Exhibit B:

Exhibit B
Exhibit B

Landscapes. The perfect antidote to the flues (flu blues) is a Father’s Day painting session. In these circumstances, the key to success rests entirely in the canvas size to energy level ratio. These little numbers are just a couple inches wide (they’re drying in a shoe box lid). Aren’t they lovely?

Our last exhibit has to do with dessert.

Exhibit C
Exhibit C

Strawberry shortcake. My she’s looking swell! (Nothing quite like dating yourself with ad references from the seventies.)

All in all, the day wasn’t a total wash – just close to it. We hoped that Hot Wheels would dodge the virus, but he came down with it last night. We could sense it coming on when he turned himself in for a rest early in the day, saying, “I’m just going to sleep until dinnertime.” Then a little later on, he was standing in the kitchen, trying to form a coherent sentence about lunch, when he suddenly became aware that his bare feet were standing in a patch of light on the floor. He curled himself down onto the warm square and said, “This is awfully nice.” Now these might not necessarily be hints of oncoming sickness – as Mum pointed out on the phone, he might have just been a cat in a previous life. So we’ll add that to his chart.

Now I’m off to don my Nurse Nancy cap and a crisp apron. If you need some soup or a smoothie, you know where to find me.

One last thing – to Dad, and Craig, and Tom, and the many fathers who truly give the title its finest definition – thank you. For the countless stories, the patience, the drawings, the care, the inventiveness, the curiosity, the jokes, the strength, the effort. Nice work.

Too Late

Nearly every day, Hot Wheels runs the numbers.

“How much money do we have? If we sell our house AND our Mazda 5, can we buy a Ferrari?”

He questions. He plots. He ruminates. Nearly every day.

So yesterday we’re strolling the neighborhood together and we pass a red convertible. “That’s a nice Miata,” he says, and he’s thrilled that standing on the curb next to it, he’s almost taller than it is. A man walking down the opposite sidewalk gives me a smile and calls over, “Watch out – pretty soon he’ll be wanting a Ferrari.”

It was just like the moment last week when we were standing in the Apple store and a guy said to me, “Pretty soon he’ll be dragging you in here.”

Hmpf

On this, the very first official day of summer in our house, both Tom and Honey appear to have come down with the flu. I believe it’s the flu because they’re both complaining about every single square inch of their bodies and they have the same miserable, crawl-under-the-porch look on their faces.

I think it shows spectacularly bad planning on their part.

Party Down

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So every June we have a party for Tom’s birthday. He loves his birthday – well, any excuse to have a party, frankly. Plus it’s a perfect chance to have our friends over to catch up with Gini and Craig while they’re visiting. After a cold grey week, we were all pleasantly surprised to see some sunshine on Saturday. Just in time for friends, snacks, and cupcakes. We had a loose ‘racecar’ theme going on around here. I had visions of doing a cool vintage grand prix look, but well, you know how that goes. I was lucky to get the little race flags for the cupcakes. 

racingcupcakes1

Fortunately we have a Hot Wheels living under our roof, and he was super happy to supply us with plenty of wheels for decorating. Many, many thanks go to Gini and Craig for all the deck sweeping and food prep they put in – I swear, throwing a party is ridiculously easy with four extra hands. Particularly when those hands ran a couple of pubs and a restaurant! Check out these gorgeous appetizers that Gini made:

zucchiniappetizers

They were so delicious. Teeny bits of sautéed mushroom and tomato and carrot on top of zucchinis… tasty and beautiful to boot! Here’s a shot of the table:

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You can see all the cars lined up down the side. Start your engines, people – we’re having a party.

With all that help, I had plenty of time to get dressed and ready – no frantic last minute searching for shoes. (What will my closet think?) It was such a lovely day I wore a sleeveless cotton A-line dress that used to be Mum’s. Thank you, Mum! I’m so grateful for all the shopping I haven’t had to do because of your awesome dresses. Lucky me.

Now Tom’s all excited about his 40th next year. He wants to have TWO bouncy castles.