Human Race and Free Comic Book Day – 5/4

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Human Race
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Our good friend has been involved in an organization that is raising money to build an accessible playground in town…which brought us to this year’s 5-mile Human Race — a bunch of charities with runners and walkers enjoying the beautiful views off West Cliff. It was a really inspirational event!

We registered the whole family, but then I realized that the girls still had dance class (which, for some reason, I thought would be over by now!), so only Dylan and I went.


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Finley and Dylan at almost 10!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

At first, we thought it would rain, so Dylan donned a plastic bag (a tip he learned from Ms. Butler!)! And, so here he is (just as the sprinkles were ending), posing with his long-time buddy, Finley.


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in a tree
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Finley didn’t end up doing the event–instead, we found him in a tree at the end! We did see his sister, Cleo, out there, though, and we ended up walking with her for about a half mile or so…and we also saw whales! We are so lucky to live here….

Dylan was a trooper throughout the race. He really is so easy-going and fun to hang out with and talk to….He likes to walk, but when he runs, re really takes off (and, there were a couple of points where he was really eager to run)! Anyway, we had a great time!


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comic book haul
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Later in the day, I took the big kids, K. and T. to Penny Ice Creamery and the local comic book store for Free Comic Book Day. Look at our haul!

Ok, so I’m not actually sure how age-appropriate some of these are, but Chloe liked the DC Super Hero Girls comic and Dylan and T. picked out Geronimo Stilton comics that they both really liked. Still making our way through the stack…!


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Walk-a-thoner

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Cameron was so happy and excited about the school walk-a-thon today. She made her goal: 15 laps (the maximum!)!

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precious story times

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story time
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I have been spending the past several days (since giving notice at the last job) doing house-y things: prepping the laundry room for having the floors redone (they’re water-damaged), trying to get rid of old stuff, and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. I have also literally spent hours trying to figure out childcare (reviewing nanny applications) and summer camp schedules! But, I also wanted to spend some extra time with Thing 3.

When Dylan and Cameron were her age, we went to story time regularly and I was reminded of just how precious that time is when I took Chloe these past couple of Thursdays. She loved it. She was so reserved and timid during the interactive part, but I got to enjoy her burrowing into my neck and staying close to me the entire time! When it was just her and me at the activity table, she was back to her old chatty self!

The first week, the theme was “Transportation” (we have discovered that they are working their way through the alphabet) so the activity involved pasting some tracks and train cars (and other little decor, like butterflies and such) on to a piece of paper. Simple, but enjoyable.

This past Thursday, we did undersea critters and Chloe made lovely cupcake wrapper fish with sparkly bubbles. I discovered she is really good at writing her own name!


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making fish and writing her name
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We have seen samples of Chloe’s writing development from preschool “journals”, but a lot of them had dots to guide letter formation, or the letters were out of order. Last week, Chloe had me make the dots to trace. This past week, she wrote her name all by herself!


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Chloe’s signature
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Sometimes I wonder if she’s really ready for Kindergarten already, but then I think that it’s best to probably best to wait another year. Although she is getting pretty good at number recognition, counting to 20, and improving on writing her name, she still has not begun to write numbers (I don’t think)!


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The last of Cameron’s many March birthday parties

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Chloe with her “reading glasses”
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron was invited to a million birthday parties these past few weeks. I managed to persuade Tom that I needed to stay home with Chloe (who happened to get sick), so he accompanied her to most of them (hence no pictures!). But, she went roller-skating (Jasper and Jada), did Martial Arts, Star Wars-style (Chiara) and went treasure-hunting (Charley). But, by birthday party #5, Chloe was well enough and Gabo has a baby sister, so we all went. And, it was very fun !

Gabo’s little sister actually has a dairy allergy and their mom knows we are vegan, so there was even vegan pizza for us to eat and vegan cheezy poofs and vegan cheezits and Daiya cheese! The girls love the cheezy poofs…and they got Cold Stone Creamery sorbet in lieu of cake. It is always nice to just blend in with the others and have our kids feel like they don’t have to wait for their own treat (although, I am definitely not opposed to teaching them to delay gratification!).


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another with the reading glasses
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Heading home from Gabo’s Harry Potter-themed bday party where everyone got some specs….Chloe asks, “are these reading glasses?” Ahhh, the joys of being older parents!


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adjusting
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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ahhh…better!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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St. Patrick’s Day

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Irish soda bread
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We didn’t do much for St. Paddy’s day, which made me feel just a tad bit guilty. Other parents made things like green pancakes for breakfast, or made like the leprechauns had visited their home, leaving treats and whatnot. I found green Minecraft socks for Dylan to wear and encouraged Cameron to wear her Dela Dragon t-shirt because it had green in it. Well, and I also gave her teacher some old Chanukah gelt because that is vegan chocolate and, who knows, maybe the leprechauns visiting the class would leave some chocolate coins behind in the leprechaun traps, never mind the fact that the coins have menorahs on them. The point is, when you’re vegan, you must always take that extra step in trying to anticipate whatever snack or treat might appear on any given school day. I fail the vast majority of the time, but luckily, the 2 big kids have learned to get by without.

Oh, and Tom went out and got 2 cans of shaving cream and donated some of our glitter to the leprechaun trap project at school….

Anyway, I felt a little guilty, so I thought we’d aim for a St. Paddy’s Day dinner–Shepherd’s Pie and Irish Soda Bread.

Chloe and Cameron helped make the bread: they measured, mixed, poured and stirred!

Once Tom was home, Tom got started on Shepherd’s Pie. Dylan and Cameron helped mash the potatoes.

The big, awesome bonus thing, is that this recipe has tons of veggies cooked right into it…and the big kids just loved it!!


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the meal
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I know, the picture doesn’t do it justice…It was delicious! And, we are thrilled and delighted that we’ve discovered another meal that 2 out of 3 kids will happily eat!!!


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Just another Wednesday – 3/16/2016

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waiting for Dylan
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Who could resist this cutie pie? Here we are waiting for Dylan to finish his ballet class. We’ve been picking Chloe up before dance starts so that I don’t have to rush out and get her between Dylan and Cameron’s piano lesson. I love the extra time…and the extra smiles.


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everyday is dress-up day
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

She loves this Minnie Mouse dress. Yes, Ariel has been shelved and Minnie Mouse is the new obsession. Tom went out and bought a few Minnie-themed outfits for her, including this lovely dress, so that she is not in the same durn thing every, single day. She also discovered she really likes these black shoes she’s wearing — a pair Lola got for Cameron’s super cute Alice in Wonderland costume back when Dylan was in 1st grade!

I have a feeling I will greatly miss moments like this, and I continue to hope I have made the right decision with respect to work. As of today, I officially have 7 days of my 24-day weekend left….


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Minecraft Modding – 02/28/2016

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modding
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Took the big kids to another Minecraft modding session over the hill! This time, we made plugins for shooting cats from a bow instead of arrows, generating red mushrooms that grew into giant mushrooms made of a variety or ore blocks and another to increase experience whenever a player crafts something.

This time around, the pacing of the session was very good–the presenters (one of whom was the 8th grade son of the organizer!) made sure everyone was in the same place before moving on to the next step–but it was still quite a lot for the kids to digest. Still, with every session, they are getting more experience and exposure and I’m delighted that they continue to maintain a strong interest in coding!


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screenshot
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Yep, that’s Java, written in an IDE — the stuff of grown-ups and professionals!


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in the game
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

A few kids were very interested to see what Dylan, in particular, was doing….I guess those hours of gameplay really have led to some “expertise” on this game!

Meanwhile, I’m so thrilled that T. was there, too. She just won a MESA competition at her middle school and will be advancing to regionals in April. Her MESA team picture showed 3 girls…and she was the only girl in this Minecraft modding session. Go girls!


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Monterey Bay Aquarium field trip – 02/23/2016

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looking for sea stars
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Last week, I chaperoned Cameron’s class on a field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Having learned from my experience with Dylan when he went in first grade, I knew what to expect (each chaperone is responsible for his/her own group of kids), but I also lucked out in that I only had 2 students — Cameron and her very quiet, and well-behaved classmate, L.!


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MBA with Cameron
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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sweeties
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

After watching the feeding in the big tank, we met up with a few other gals from the class….


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touching stuff
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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sliding
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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in the splash zone
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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outside on a gorgeous day
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We didn’t get to see one corner of the downstairs area, but I wasn’t going to try to rush it. Overall, this time around, it was a far mellower experience! My gals stuck together and waited for each other and were content to spend time at each exhibit. I feel bad that we missed the seahorses and standing under the wave window, but I’m also glad it wasn’t as stressful as my experience with Dylan’s first-grade class! And, the girls were so sweet in the car. They sang the “elefantes” song all the way to 100, leaving me and Maestra Jennifer to chat peacefully up front!


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Priceless…

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Chloe’s finger
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Poor Chloe hurt her finger and Tom and I could barely hold in our laughter. She worked so hard to really isolate the “injury” so it would be more obvious to us! Too bad we couldn’t see anything at all!


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First Grade Things – 03/05/2016

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Thing 2!!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Last Friday was dress as a book character day at school. Cameron’s buddy, N. had asked her on Wednesday if she wanted to dress up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 so we printed out Thing 1 and Thing 2 images from the internet, laminated them and pinned them to some red clothes. I wasn’t sure how well the whole thing would turn out. I was content to just use whatever was in our house (in addition to buying some blue hairspray and super stiff gel from CVS), but Tom went to Target to pick up some new red pants and a long-sleeve red shirt (we only had short-sleeved ones), which was nice….


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a big Thing 2
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Well, Cameron just loved it! She was as happy as could be!

We met N. and her mom at the school a little early to give N. her laminated number and a red sweatshirt (she wore it inside out) and to spray her hair with a little blue.


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Cameron and N.
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here are the 2 Things! I was busy finishing up a story I was reading to a little gaggle of gals (for an event called Family Fridays — the first Friday of the month — where parents are invited to read with the class for about 30 minutes) when N.’s mom managed to snap this adorable picture of the girls together! I was recruited to help out with an art project right after finishing up reading, so I was unable to get a picture of the 2 with my own camera!


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evening bubbles
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron loved her Thing 2 thing so much (because, obviously, as our second child, she is truly our Thing 2!), she didn’t want to change out of her clothes or wash her hair out when she got home from school!


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bubbles for Chloe
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

She managed to persuade Chloe to come outside for bubbles….


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always dancing
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Little Thing 3 is always up for a happy dance!


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growing up
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Our Thing 2 is truly growing up. She has often had much difficulty apologizing — she would get upset if she thought she did something “bad” and would often deny doing anything wrong — but, in at least this case, she wrote a note to her good buddy Gigi apologizing for something she didn’t mean to do, but that Gigi had been hurt by anyway. She has grown by leaps and bounds this year (and she is bright enough to realize it herself!).

Also, Dylan opted out of dressing up because his class went on a field trip to Loch Lomond where they learned some stuff about watersheds! Poor guy forgot his umbrella in the classroom (and his best buddy forgot her rain jacket!), so they both got pretty soaked! Still, he said it was a super fun field trip!


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