Cousin Devon

My cousin Michaela is in the Army and is in Iraq on her second tour. Der daughter Devon is living with my Aunt and Uncle in Montesano. This weekend we drove down to Montesano and picked her up for a weekend in the big city. She had a great time. We are glad we only have two kids.

Leo's Third Birthday

Park with Boyd and Phillip

We went to the park on Sunday with our good friends Boyd and Phillip who were visiting from San Francisco. I remember my own parents introducing me to their "best friends from college" and me thinking 'yeah, yeah, but they don't even live here' and then we would spend one hour with them having dinner or putting on a show for them (my performance of choice was singing "Delta Dawn"). For Boyd and Phillip, we had practiced the song "Filthy Gorgeous" which includes the unlikely sight of Leo screaming " 'Cause your FIFHY, and GOGOUS, your DITHGUTING!" I knew it would make the Boys from S.F. giggle! Then we went to the park where everything was about spinning for some reason....

Boyd on the evil centrifugal nightmare spinner of death from which it is impossible to escape or come to a stop.

Phillip got going a little too fast and couldn't escape without intervention. Too much Spinning

Too much even for the duracel Hassons....

Train to Sumner

Leo's excitement about trains prompted Joey to recruit his parents and all of us to take a commuter train from Seattle to Sumner (an southern suburb). Leo was so thrilled. It was the perfect three-year-old standing on the seat yelling - "FWEIGHT TWAIN!" and pointing to all the industrial things as we passed them on the train.

Sylvie in the train station

In Sumner we got doughnuts and hopped back on the train to go home.

Halloween

Sylvie was a mermaid wearing the Sleeping Beauty wig from her famous halloween debut two years ago. The wig is so knarled and tangled but it worked perfectly in the all-forward-to-the-side mermaid doo.

firefighter leo

Sylvie eating witches brew

Amazing Obama Pumpkins!

ADA Walk Sunday AM

It was freezing at 8 AM on a sunny october morning. Note the hat on Leo and the gloves on Sylvie. Still, never too cold to bouncy house.

We started the walk with very modest goals. Walk part way and turn around. Harry walked with us and started the walk with an Egg McMuffin in hand - we had gotten ours on the way to the walk and scarffed them in the car :0. Sylvie and Leo grubbed on the free apple juice.

Joey was literally wearing the following: long underwear, undershirt, long sleeve tee, Earl's 1976 Demetre wool ski sweater, jeans, wool socks, a down jacket and a hat Heidi made. He is cold-fobic, must be the Greek in him. Harry and Joey complained about how they always ask for money at Ezzy Bessy on the holidays.

Seward park is particularly gorgeous on a Sunday AM.
Kris and Gracie were freezing too!
This clown made Sylvie this organge dog which totally fell apart and popped on the walk. When we returned he made a flower for her after she explained the demise of the dog. Just as we were leaving the flower popped and Sylvie entered a downward "its-not-fair" spiral that she and we were unable to recover from for a long time. It was one of those times where I totally empathised with her and could see myself being upset about something like that when I was 5. All of her anger was directed at me though I had nothing to do with it and I was pissed at the clown.

Purple flower and butterfly with sparkles though, right?!

We did it all for Nancy who organized and raised the dough for a great day.

Thanks Aunty Nancy!

Jubliee Farms

Rosh Ha Kindergarten

As my father before me, I visited Sylvie's class to explain and celebrate The New Year. The funny part is that I wasn't allowed to speak much because I don't speak Spanish and there is no english spoken. When the teacher was explaning the round challah for the new year, she kept referring to in a way that I wasn't thinking the children got so they only words I spoke the whole time were "Como se dise CROWN". I passed out the manzanas and honey and pan and alot of the adorable kids smiled and asked said mas por favor. Sylvie said - mom I want more bread -nice. This was the first time I had made challah since I dont' remember and it was a little tightly wound - in more than one way. I said the blessings in Hebrew with the help of the teacher whose kids go to the northend JCC and the School's coulselor Markos who has been a member of my synagogue since I can remember though I have never spoken to him before.
The best part was singing head shoulders knees and toes in both hebrew and spanish. The kids actually did learn part of it - that is was they do all day and they do it well. I am looking forward to doing it again, and to a good new year.

It's Working...

Beacon Hill International School Opening

The Grand Opening of Sylvie's School. The Beacon Hill Public Elementary School has been in existence since the early 1900s but has recently been reinvented as an international school boasting a dual language immersion program featuring Mandarin and Chinese. Sylvie is in 1/2 Spanish immersion. There was a big celebration with school board mukity muks talking about "best practices" and congratulating themselves, the parents and the children on being a part of such an innovative and unique program. There was a Mariache band as well as Chinese lion dancing. Woo Hoo!

A sea of uniformed children flanked by parents and multicultural kids dressed in traditional outfits.

Remlinger Farms