Soccer in the fog

Alexander was very happy to attend soccer camp for a week in July. We crossed town every morning, heading deeper and deeper into the fog. It was so foggy and damp that his shoes and socks were soaked through at the end of each session. Every evening we used the hair dryer to get his shoes ready for the next day.

Alexander, in the green vest, waiting for his turn

On the other hand, we didn't have to worry about sunscreen or overheating. Alexander had a great time. After the first day he was already asking if he could sign up again next year!

Poppies and Ladybugs

While we were in Cleveland, lots of flowers bloomed in our school garden. I took this photo of the California poppies in my class's barrel. They were mostly orange, but I liked this pink one.


We saw a hummingbird and a ladybug in the garden. The hummingbird flew away too fast for a photo, but I took one of the ladybug on a pansy.


There are so many flowers now, that we even cut a few to put in a vase at home!

Family

George Burns said, "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city."


We are also happy when we can be in the same city with most of our family!

We spent a fun week in Avon Lake, Ohio, with most of us together. Charlotte and Alexander also spent the previous two weeks there with Najm and Najp.

Mini Niagara Falls

I had lots of fun in Niagara Falls. Najp and I went to play mini golf and had ice cream while the girls were in Toronto. I almost got a hole in one. The mini golf was fun.

I took this picture of the mini falls in Niagara Falls. I think they are cool. The big falls made too much mist. I didn't like getting wet. I wear a coat when it rains.

I also liked watching Mantracker on the TV in the hotel room.

My First Time In Niagara Falls

This was my first time in Niagara Falls. We came here because Najm and I were going to a baby shower. I had never been to a baby shower before.

We drove to Toronto the next day. Only Najm and I went. We saw Keresztmama and Emi néni there. The shower was for Martha néni, who is having a baby girl in July.

I thought the falls were loud, wet, and pretty. Every night they lit the falls.

On Saturday, they did fireworks over the falls. They looked small because we were too far away, but we saw the higher ones. They were pretty. We went to the top floor of the hotel to get a better view, but there were no windows. So we went down a level, and there were still no windows. We checked every floor above us, and our floor was the highest floor with windows, so we watched some of it from there.

I took lots of pictures, including the one above. I had a really fun time.

Thinking with The Thinker

Charlotte really wanted to go see the Magna Carta exhibit at the Legion of Honor. I think they learned about the Magna Carta in class this year and her teacher suggested the exhibit. Unfortunately it ended before we went to the Legion of Honor.

We saw the Isabelle de Borchgrave exhibit instead. It was fascinating to see the elaborate costumes that she made completely from paper. Well, more accurately, it was fascinating for me, interesting for Charlotte, and fairly boring for Alexander. We spent some time viewing the rest of their collections and enjoying the beautiful views from the museum grounds.

I did learn that Alexander appreciates statues (which Charlotte found fairly boring) and we checked out each one. They both enjoyed posing with Rodin's The Thinker, and were surprised to hear that we posed with The Thinker at the Cleveland Museum of Art on our wedding day.


Charlotte would like to spend more time this summer visiting parts of San Francisco we have not yet seen. Alexander just wants to go play mini-golf.

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.