Ice Skating Party

Maya decided to be cool for her birthday this year.

Why are these two dressed like this on a 90 degree day?

Ice Skating Party!  Maya decided to celebrate at the Santa Rosa Snoopy Ice Skating Rink.

Maya with old friends and new.

Getting chilly with friends.

Life is good with tacos and soda.

Maya Z. and Sophia R.

Party animals!

In lieu of cake, there were donuts, lots of donuts!

Back to the heat!  A wonderful birthday celebration.

Coco in the House

Coco and her whole family came to visit for a few fun days...

 Having fun in the backyard with Charlotte and Viv.

Our youngest nephew, David, with Uncle Todd.

Tea time.

Charlotte thought that Maya was pretty awesome.

 Walking around town.

Viv got to ride a horse!

Maya contemplates the fact that they were gone too soon in a tree.

Maya Tells Her Story

Maya's class presented tales of their trip to Gold Country in a fun evening gathering.  We heard their stories by a 'campfire,' danced, and gambled.  Good wholesome fun.

 Maya shows off her Wanted poster.

What We Are Doing

Here's a little taste of some of the latest happenings...

 Maya shows off her headpiece from her art class.  She made a snake.

Here are the 4th grade teapots.  Maya made a banana looking one.

The kindergarteners at Dexter's school got to go to a funny little space museum together.

Our final Girl Scout meeting with this great group of girls.

Dexter is a pro at the monkey bars.

Todd was a part of a talk for middle school and high school students at work about ILM's work on "Rogue One".

That's Pablo Hidalgo, Vick Schutz, Jee Young Park, Todd, John Knoll and Erin O'Connor.

That Time of Year

Christmas season is here, so...

Daddy sits on Santa's lap.

We find the perfect tree.

Daddy and his monkey!

Midsummer Night's Dream

Maya decided to try being the play at her new school.  4th-8th graders are allowed to perform so it was a new experience for all her friends.  Mom also decided to volunteer to help with the play too.  College scene painting class back in use once again.  

 Mom found herself painting night-time tree trunks for the four main trees.

The final set.

 Kids prepping before the show.

The back of Maya looking out to the auditorium at the Marin Civic Center.

Maya is ready for makeup to become Peaseblossom, one of the fairies.

Maya waiting with her fellow fairies.


One of the Titanias with her faithful fairies.

On stage!

Maya after the show.

Maya dabbing with her pal, Sophia.

Maya gets some flowers.

Flower reaction shot.

 

Happy girl.

Birthday On Safari Pt 1

This year, we decided to skip the big birthday party.  Instead, we went with our friends to Safari West in Sonoma.  Safari West is a private conservation center that has a huge number of African animals in the Mayacamas mountains.  We decided to stay overnight in the very cool safari tent cabins.  Maya loved it!

 Maya shows off her admission bracelet.

 Maya was thrilled that she would get to sleep on a bunk bed AND she would get to sleep on the top bunk!!

 Happy!

 The view from our room of some of the large game enclosures.

 Amazingly, a mother Giraffe was giving birth to a baby as we arrive.  The baby that you see here is less than an hour old and has just stood up for the first time.  Many of the other giraffes huddled around the edge of the fence watching intently.

 We wandered around a little while and came across an animal that Maya LOVES...

 ...a cheetah!

 Maya and Riley check out the map.

 Laura gets some nice shots of the kiddies.

 Dexter sees some birds.

 After a birthday dinner out, we walk back to our tent cabin.

 Storytime before our big adventure tomorrow!