Halloween Part II

The boys’ first Halloween – what a fabulous night. Pizza and margheritas at our friends Claire and Jeff’s in San Anselmo, where their street goes all out with ghouligh decorations of decaying skeletons, ghosts, cobwebs and spiders and even a headless candlelit pumpkin man carrying a sword... the kids loved it as their bags became so heavily laiden with "candy"... enough to last until next year! Everyone has been so wonderful, we have all really been made to feel very welcomed.

Halloween Part I

Sammy enjoying storytime beside Jack prior to the Halloween Parade at school - spooky cake bakes, haunted houses and costume parades - the school really shuts down for this day! From the front to the back, these are Jack's Kindergarten friends - Thomas, Arden, Blaze, (hmm?), Josh and Miya. Also had Jack's first Parent Teacher Conference, which was lovely. Mario & Paige and the whole class have really embraced Jack (had to pull out the Kleenex!) and he is soaking up the new experiences... however we are starting to hear a slight American accent!!!

Muir Beach

Goey's last night, so we went out to Muir Beach (about 25mins away) and found a fabulous secluded bay with an authentic English pub - The Pelican Inn. The boys rolled on the grass outside drinking lemonade (something we did as kids in Perth at the Majestic?!) whilst we feasted on bangers and mash inside by candlelight!

Earthquake!

Whoa! Jack and I were sitting on the couch at about 8pm tonight when the windows started rattling and then heard what sounded like a herd of buffalo trampling across the roof above us... an EARTHQUAKE measuring a magnitude of 5.6 shook the San Franciso Bay Area for what seemed like ages but was only about 10 seconds. The epicentre was just east of San Jose; so far there have only been reports of slight damage - and no serious injuries. It was a bit freaky, and David is in Seattle tonight too. The aftershocks have passed so I think we should be fine! It is amazing how connected I feel with information available immediately on the internet - especially as I can't seem to find a news channel amongst the hundreds on offer on the tv!

Golden Gate Park

Squirrels, squirrels everywhere, and lots of nuts to eat!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Last Wednesday heralded the first Field Trip for Jack's class. Sammy and I tagged along with them to the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch. We each chose a pumpkin to make into pumpkin pies and selected a rather large one to carve for Halloween. We then went on a tractor ride, dug for potatoes, got lost in the hay bale maze and ate pumpkin ice-cream! The weather was HOT and we could have been in country Victoria given the rolling hills and dry paddocks. Lots of fun.

Park Pictures Part III

Park Pictures Part II

Park Pictures Part I

Six Flags Animal Kingdom

And to top off Jack's birthday weekend extravaganza, we all schlepped north up Highway 101 to Vallejo to the Six Flags theme park "Animal Kingdom" which boasted attractions from the land, sea and sky. The tamest of the roller coasters was 'The Cobra' (not the one pictured here!) which Jack gave a good workout - even coaxing Goey and Davey along for the ride... a few grey faces after that! There were elephants to ride, giraffes to feed, turtles, crocodiles, dolphins and even killer whales! Our favourite rides included Thomas the Tank Engine, Harold the Helicopter and the Leaping Frogs! We left after dark, when the other variety of animals started appearing to accompany the cheerleader championships... by then we were all pom-pommed and pigtailed out. As they say... only in America!

Birthday Cake

Well, without a cake from Grandie, we had to improvise. A store bought, extremely rich, mad child inducing chocolate cake topped off a lazy day (boys visiting Muir Beach and girls re-visiting the shopping mall at Corte Madera!). Six candles and a great big number six!

Happy Birthday
Jack x0x0x0x

Jack's 6th Birthday!

Well Friday was the big day... Jack turned 6! He was so excited opening his pressies in the morning - a basketball from Sam, a dragon board game from us, a rather grand embroidered american flag and a californian state flag with bears on it from Goey, a magic money trick game from dad, a Hawks coin and stamp book from mum, a lego star wars computer game with joystick controller from Grandie and Pop (much joy there), an Amazon voucher from Aunty Dani and some pocket money for banking from both his Nanas! His friends back home sent lovely messages and pressies and we saw each other on Skype. His SPS Prep S class even sang Happy Birthday (in Italian too) on Skype... he was chuffed. Jason & Michelle Veitch arrived last night from Montana too. They gave Jack a leather pouch full of snake rattles and ivory elk teeth from the ranch - Jack was gobsmacked. Michelle's now 20 weeks and both in great spirits! They fell in love with Teak which is just as well as he is going there for the Xmas holiday! During the school day, David and Jason came along as they performed a Montessori based 'Birthday Circle' where his class passed around a photo from every year of his life from birth to 5 years old and David had to tell a story about each phase of his life. A moving experience. We are all so proud of him.

Halloween Preparation

Goey and I helped the boys make tealight halloween gourds and a mini pumpkin to decorate the house ready for the arrival of Jason & Michelle tonight. Getting into the spirit of things! The boys also tried out their new costumes!

SFMoMA

I drove into the city (thank you very much) with Trish to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It was incredible. We could have spent hours in the gallery shop alone! Sam had the iPod audio tour the whole time so he was happy, and Olafur Eliasson (the fabulous Icelandic installation artist who was at the NGV earlier this year with his white Lego interactive installation 'The cubic structural evolution project 2004' on loan from the QAG) had the whole top floor, part of which was a kaleidoscopic glass walkway across the roof. Wow, a real sensory experience. There was a room set up as his studio - reminded me of a mixture between Bronwyn Oliver's hand woven copper maquettes and Trinh Vu's new paper sculptures. Then through to a room of photographs Sue Lovegrove would have loved, a misty rainbow waterfall room, and then freezer packed with a frozen ice vehicle, where we all had to wrap ourselves in supplied blankets like a Joseph Beuyes walking sculpture! Fantastic. All that and then scooted back across the Golden Gate Bridge to collect Jack at 2pm! Phew!!

The Napa

We accidentally arrived in the Napa Valley yesterday! We meant to just be driving to Napa to check out the Dean and De Luca (the NY one is still tops) and happened upon V.Sattui established in 1885 serving a very palatable champagne and rather tasty bbq treats. We pulled up a pew in the garden and savoured the surrounds on a wonderfully warm and sunny Californian Sunday afternoon in the fall. I must say though, so far they're still not a patch on our fave Melbourne vineyards T'Gallant or Montalto... so far...

The Cockatoo Man

We met a very strange man last weekend at Sausalito - The Cockatoo Professor, a master of pantomime, he made us look thru a huge telescope then made his white cockatoo sit on each of us and then made us give him an inordinate amount of money as a tip! Very strange, and quite surreal but the boys really loved it.