Weekend in Gualala

Dan's office hosted their 35th annual retreat at the owner's property in Gualala, on the north coast. The setting was beautiful, the weather not too foggy, and we all had a great time hanging out with the Ratcliff gang. 

Girls help to set up the tent. Some folks stayed in the cabins, others camped.

Everyone pitched in to help make food and organize events.

Kit Ratcliff, grandson of the founder, loves kids!

The main "house" with kitchen, dining and living room.

Josie had fun with a few other kids her age.

One cabin was elevated in the trees -"the moon viewing cabin"

Playing "memory" with the kids on a burl table.

Stopping for lunch on our way home in downtown Gualala.

Camping on Mt. Diablo

Fog at the lookout near our campsite. Spotted a couple of tarantulas in this area.

Cleaning up or getting more dirty?

Fun climbing challenge for little ones... serious heart attack for parents...

Atop Sentinel Rock 

Evie's 1st Week at Preschool

The first week was full of ups and downs and lot of crying, but there were definitely moments of pure joy - as captured in this photo taken by one of the teachers.

Cousin Max's WeddingFun

A special late night for Josie at Lisa's cousin's wedding... we had a fun time in the photo booth!

Taking Care of Speedy

Speedy enjoys checking out the veggie beds

Speedy, the Russian Tortoise in Josie's preschool class, needed a place to stay during the summer break. We signed up to tortoise-sit for a few days. He was a good house-guest, though he spent a lot of his time sleeping...

During supervised outside time, Speedy's favorite destination was under the bushes

Rainbow Star Magic!

Bay Area Discovery Museum

The Girls at Tilden Park

Camping at Sanborn County Park

Yee-haw!

The Artist

Josie continues to be very interested in doing artwork and craft projects. We're working on plans for a better outdoor painting area to make it easier to set-up when the mood strikes her. 

Favorite motifs are butterflies and rainbows (still), people with crowns and sometimes wings and antennae, ballrooms (indicated by draped curtains, I think). hearts with faces, birds, bees, flowers and grass, and people she knows.

This is a drawing she did (with a little Mommy collaboration), showing Josie marrying her friend Ziggy (their crowns have their initial on them - Josie's "j" is always backwards) and also marrying Twilight Unicorn (from My Little Pony). The tent-like curved lines are the "ballroom" she says. The unicorn is wearing a cape and a crown on top of her rainbow striped horn. She also has wings, so technically, she is a pegasus, right? The girls' dresses have long trains and flowers printed on them and they have large flowers in their hair.

Putting Evie to Bed

Josie loves to pretend to put Evie down for a nap and will read to her, or sing or rub her back (like they do at her preschool). Evie, of course, just loves the attention so she does whatever Josie says. Check out the end of this video where Josie is acting so sweet to her sister, but then covers up her mouth when she starts to talk too loudly... !

Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy

Inspired by a recent play she had seen based on the books about Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, Josie put together her own show for us, with the help of her assistant, Evie. Homemade polkadot wings and the couch as the stage. The whole production was actually more focused on the pre-show announcements (e.g. telling us to turn off our cell phones, letting us know that there would be treats and a jumpy house after the show was over) and the post-show distribution of pretend candy and treats, etc. I'm not sure there was any actual show in between...

Merry-go-round

Evie and her BFF Ziggy at a birthday party at Fairyland

Poor Evie was too little to go on the ride...

Happy Evie

Toast dipped in smoothie... yummy breakfast!

Bike Ride for Oakland Schools

On May 17th Dan participated in Ride 4 A Reason, an awesome grassroots fundraising event for the Oakland Public Schools. More than 250 people participated this year and raised almost $110,000!

Dan now works in the K-12 school design department at Ratcliff Architecture in Emeryville, he felt compelled to help support our local schools. He made a custom DIY jersey with the company logo.

He did the long ride (109 miles from Oakland Tech High School to the capitol grounds in Sacramento). There were 2 shorter rides (starting in Fairfield or Vacaville) which a lot of school-age kids and novice riders did. It was a super positive and inspiring event. Thank you to all of our friends and family who helped to support the cause! Thanks also to Amy, a Duck's Nest mom, who introduced Dan to the event, and did the ride herself along with her husband.

I drove to Sacramento with Josie and Evie to meet Dan at the finish line. While we waited, we made a quick visit to Fairytale Town. Too quick, according to Josie... But celebrating with Daddy (and climbing some cool trees) was also pretty fun. :)

Girls at Fairytale Town

Climbing old cedar tree on the capitol grounds 

The riders gather on the steps while Evie and Josie watch

Go Oakland!

Building a Tower

Colin came over for a sleepover and he and Josie collaborated on this awesome tower/castle/skyscraper structure. It had little vignettes and additions/extensions that spread all over the room. They play so well together now - sharing ideas and negotiating conflicts (most of the time!).

Luckily, the Ev-asuarus didn't get close enough to destroy this awesome creation!

These signs were Colin's favorite part

The rocket launch pad was Josie's favorite par

Rocket ship!

Josie and I improvised a rocket ship project using of oatmeal boxes, toilet paper rolls, construction paper and rainbow duct tape. As Josie said, "We put our ideas together and made something even better!" She put a doll and dog inside (each wearing a jetpack made of a travel shampoo bottle stuffed with red/range paper "flames" that flare out and attached with a rubber band).

While we were working on it, I pulled out a library book we had called "Moonshot" about the Apollo 11 mission and suggested we look at it for ideas and inspiration. Josie frowned at that, and said, "I want to come up with my own ideas." Well, okay then!

In the end, she was so psyched about how this turned out- and I was too!

BTW, the book Moonshot is awesome! Great illustrations. Since it's written almost like a poem, I had to explain what was happening to Josie, but then she was into it.