Spring Break 2014 part 2

This afternoon we went to the airport to pick up Aunt Leslie and Ryan! We let our travel weary guests relax for the day, and planned some adventures for the rest of the week.
Thursday:

Ferry to Alcatraz

We had a perfect day for a boat ride and a tour of Alcatraz Island. We tried to get the kids into solitary confinement, to varying degrees of success.

 Alex wasn't having it.

 Ryan and Zachary used the buddy system. So much for solitary.

Mady was definitely the bravest of all!

 Alex came to visit Ryan in the Big House.

I stood as far back as I could, and then laid down on the ground, and still couldn't get the top of the lighthouse. The troops were getting restless, so we had to go with what we had.

Friday:

We went back to the city to run wild at the Exploratorium. Ryan jumped right into the wild behavior.

Everyone had fun doing all of the different experiments. Mady wanted to be a part of everything.

 Much like Ryan, I have no idea what is happening in this picture.

Saturday:

Oakland Zoo day! We saw the animals. We rode the rides. Fun was had by all.

Sunday:

Alex and Zachary had a baseball game so we kept it simple and played at the park and at home.

 Hitting machines!

Monday:

Spring break is over and Alex and Zachary are headed back to school. We corralled the kids for breakfast and then Ryan rode with us to drop the boys off at school.

 Mady tried to keep Ryan from going home.

She wasn't successful, and a great visit had to come to an end. Thank you for visiting us Aunt Leslie and Ryan! We had so much fun.

Spring Break 2014

This winter has been crazy. California is in a drought, and there has been very little snow in the mountains. Our favorite ski place was open, but yesterday they announced that they were closing for the season. So, we had to find a new snow adventure for spring break. We decided to go sledding at Adventure Mountain. It is right on the border of California and Nevada, and is at 7,300 feet. We didn't see snow until we were over 7,000 feet!

We arrived mid-afternoon and decided to just use the little plastic sled we had borrowed from friends. The boys went down the hill once or twice, and then they saw the big pile of snow to climb up! They sat up on the hill with their snowball makers and had lots of fun. Mady really liked sledding and Phil and I took turns riding down a small hill with her.

At the end of the day, we decided to take the kids to a new state, and crossed the border into Nevada. We ended up at Harrah's Hotel and Casino for the night and thought that Zachary would enjoy looking at the walls at the Hard Rock Cafe. Our meals actually exceeded my expectations. And everyone enjoyed the videos and memorabilia. For breakfast, we ate at the hotel's restaurant. There were a bunch of carved bears that Mady enjoyed. We had trouble pulling her away.

Lake Tahoe in the morning.

We returned to Adventure Mountain and rented a big inner tube for the day. Oh my gosh! The inner tube was so much fun. We wound up renting another one. Alex and Zachary started out sharing the tube and riding down together while Mady played in the snow.

They started out on a shorter hill, and didn't climb all the way up and by mid morning, they were at the top of the big run. I went down will Alex once, and we went so fast my hat flew off and we jumped the side of the run! Mady even went on a couple of runs by herself.

She was crying on the way down, but laughing and asking to go again at the bottom. Alex and Zachary tired themselves out and just wanted to play on the big snow pile. While they were doing that, Mady and I found an unused short run nearby and went up and down and up and down. We closed the place down and headed home for part two of the spring break adventure.

 Making snowballs on the big pile of snow.

 Zachary and Mommy

 Daddy and Mady

 Too tired to pose for the picture

Making snowballs explode

Pi Day

Happy Pi Day! To celebrate, I made jello pi for Alex's class. These are so much fun.

Zachary's class was also having their recycle fashion show today. Here's the class all dressed up in their outfits made of recyclables. I'm amazed at the creativity of these creations!

Zachary created a robot. His hat wasn't balanced well, and tended to fall off, but he made it through the fashion show without any problems.

Mady enjoyed the show and the after party!

After school, the boys headed up to UC Berkeley to participate in a study at the Early Learning Lab. Alex and Zachary both had an opportunity to be test subjects for a couple of studies.

To complete our very busy Pi day, we stopped for a pizza pi(e) on the way home!

She's Ready

Mady might be trying to tell me something. It's time to go!

Little League and New Years

Today was a jam-packed day of fun! The first thing we had on the agenda was getting little league uniforms and team pictures. Alex and Zachary are on the same team this year! We're so excited to see them play together and also to have half as many practices and games.

They are playing for the coach Alex had last year, so most of the players are returners too. Alex is keeping his number from last year, and Zachary is taking over the number for smallest player!

The Opening Ceremony followed our picture appointment. We're lacking in great pictures of the parade, but here is their team and banner. They're in the group somewhere!

After the parade of teams, we snuck out early and the boys did a quick change into their school uniforms and met up with classmates to perform at the Lunar New Year celebration. The kids sang a few songs in Chinese, and they all did a great job.

At the end of the show, there was a lion dance. The lions were very interactive with the crowd and so much fun to watch. Especially when they would creep up and scare the audience.

So proud of my handsome little men!

Purple Belt

Alex passed his belt test! Because we had Spark Day activities, he wasn't able to attend the belt ceremony. When he told Sifu he couldn't make it to the ceremony, he was given the option of doing 100 push-ups or making Sifu a sandwich. He chose to make the sandwich. So before class, he made a cheese sandwich by himself to deliver to Sifu! The sifus were very pleased with the sandwich and even posted it to their Facebook page! After class they presented Alex with his new, purple belt.

Spark Day 2014

It is Spark Day at the boys' school! This year Phil taught a class about statistics and probability called "What Are the Chances?" The kids played games with dice and drew marbles and tracked the results with graphs.

While Zachary and Phil were charting their results, Alex was upstairs in a Zumba class!

The instructor was great, and very high energy. I think Alex had fun. Mady was invited to dance too, but she was feeling a little shy.