Flowers in our garden

Just like we did during Spring Break, we are also tending our school garden during the summer. We were very excited to see our first flowers blossom last week! All of these were planted from seed. It's just unfortunate that they didn't blossom before the school year ended.

Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of these little purple flowers.

This is our first pansy. A few days later there were four of them!

Our first nasturtium.

Happy Mother's Day!

We would like to wish our mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, and all other mothers a very happy Mother's Day!


We had a lovely sunny day, although it was a bit windy. Even so, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. I certainly never imagined when we set out that I would be saying to the children, "Let's cross the street so that we can see the goats." We normally see birds and dogs when we go for a walk. This was the first time we came across goats.


It turns out that these goats are "an environmentally friendly solution to weed control," owned by a goat landscaping business called City Grazing.


Can you believe that this was the view just a few feet away from the grazing goats?

Playing during Spring Break

Spring Break wasn't all work. We made time for fun as well. On Wednesday we drove down to San Jose to meet Erika and Emily from Monterey. We went to the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum. We had so much fun there that we forgot to take photos.

Charlotte and I made a corn husk doll together. It reminded me of an Ohio History class I took one summer at the Old Stone House in Lakewood.

After a lovely picnic lunch outside the museum, we walked over to the carousel.













The children took three rides each. In addition to the ostrich, shark, and hummingbird, they rode a dragon, horse, cheetah, elephant, wolf, and others. It was quite a zoo!

Working through Spring Break

One of the tasks keeping me very busy since last October is our school garden project. I submitted a grant proposal through Lowe's Toolbox for Education, and our school was awarded $7000! Now I am coordinating the effort to make our dream garden a reality. This is turning out to be a slower process than planned, and more work as well.

Here is our yard before the project began.

Ten half wine barrels were donated a few weeks ago. We filled them with soil, and the kids were so excited!


Before Spring Break several classes planted seeds in their barrels and transplanted seeds that they had germinated inside. The garden needed tending during the break, so we made several visits.

Here they are planning what to plant.

Now they are sowing the seeds.

And watering them.

We returned to school yesterday, and this barrel already had many green sprouts: snap peas, radishes, and several kinds of lettuce. We'll post more photos soon!

Sunshine for Spring Break

We are so grateful that after what seems like weeks of rain, the sun has come out during our Spring Break! We decided to take advantage of it while it lasts. A few weeks ago the children insisted that they have never been to Coit Tower. They have, but maybe it was just too long ago to remember. We went again today.


We could not have asked for better. It was sunny, fairly warm, there were no crowds, and the views were lovely.

San Francisco and the Bay Bridge

Charlotte, Alexander, and the Golden Gate Bridge

Quilts

I've written before about the beautiful quilt that my friend Leona made me. It's a very cold and rainy day today, so we may find ourselves wrapped up in it soon!

A few weeks ago we joined Leona and her husband Larry at a quilt show in Santa Clara. It was particularly exciting to see two of Leona's quilts displayed.

Congratulations, Leona, and thanks for sharing your gifts with us!

Lily Cai dance

This school year Charlotte has been participating in the Lily Cai Chinese dance program at her school. She has enjoyed it very much. Her teacher says that she's "very smart" and listens well when she corrects her.


Last week Charlotte performed for the first time. It took place in the school cafeteria in front of all the students and teachers and some families. In May they will perform in a dance festival at Davies Symphony Hall.