Sure, Kiana’s seventh birthday was actually in May … but when you give an “experience” for her birthday gift, the fun naturally stretches beyond the actual day. and month.
For Part One of the promise gift, we took Kiana to Great America on Thursday for a full day of thrill rides and fun. She was a little nervous about some of the spinnie rides and the roller coasters.
But she soon got over her fears, and had a great time, as seen here on the Taxi Jam kiddie roller coaster in GA’s KidZville. She also rode Psycho Mouse, the Runaway Reptar, and even the Demon (which I may have ridden back when the park first opened when i was eight or so).
Immediately after school got out on Thursday, we headed up to the Tahoe Cabin for a long weekend to kick-off the summer.
While the weather was much cooler than you might expect for a summer adventure, we had a great time anyway. On Friday, Grandee & Grandpa visited, and the Borg Family came up for Saturday & Sunday.
On Sunday, we started exploring the nearby “Lake” Van Norden, which is a spectacular example of an evolving high-elevation mountain meadow habitat. But right on the edge of the meadow is this awesome rock formation, undoubtedly dropped onto the scenery from glaciers that receded thousands of years ago.
But enough about nature! … let’s get to the creative play of the kids!
In between pictures and our picnic lunch, the kids played on
“Pride Rock,” cawed like wild birds, and had a great time pretending they were part of the animal kingdom living in the high meadow. Awesome!
While she may not start Kindergarten for a couple of months, our little baby is growing up nonetheless.
Felicia “graduated” from preschool today, after three fantastic years at San Jose Parents Participating Nursery School (SJPPNS), where Jocelyn has also gone to preschool for two years earlier this decade. She’s a lot older than she was when she started in 2006 (as pictured in her green shirt from Day 1).
Of course, it was also a graduation of sort for us, as parents. David spent three years on the Board of the co-op preschool, managing their finances and helping at the top level of leadership. And while we’ll spend time in her Kindergarten class, it won’t be anything like all of those days in the classroom, cooking fun snacks, crafting messy art projects, and digging in the sand pond.
Good luck to all of our preschool friends! … We know from our first time through that these friendships endure, and will renew as our kids move through the world together!
We spent the last weekend in May up at our Donner Summit Cabin, primarily getting the place ready for some major furniture rearranging that we will finish during our next visit.
But in between moving couches upstairs, selling one of the futon bunk beds, and taking picture of other thing we need to unload … we found ourselves exploring long-abandoned train tunnels and snow sheds near Donner Summit.
We took this picture looking back out of the tunnel entrance, which is located just south of the Donner Ski Ranch parking lot. We drove east through the tunnel, in and out of snow sheds for about a mile and a half along the original route of the Central Pacific Railroad. Technically, we entered Tunnel #6 (aka the Summit Tunnel), drove above ground for a spell, through the very short Tunnel #7, along the “Chinese Wall” and into Tunnel #8, which leads to a mile-long snow shed.
After our family’s philosophical conversations and practical efforts to defeat Proposition 8 last November, it was disappointing to see the California Supreme Court affirm this blatant form of discrimination.
But Enough! Now we’re called to action … beginning with a “Day of Decision” rally that started at Plaza de Cesar Chavez and ended with a march and rally at San Jose City Hall.
So the girls participated in their first protest rally. Actually, to be honest, it was probably the first protest rally for any of us – yeah, shame on us.
The girls were more spectators than participants, but it still remains nearly impossible to explain to them why anyone would vote to prevent a loving couple from getting married, regardless of their genders. They don’t understand, and neither do we.
Felicia performed in the big “Mini Show” at our local Center Stage Dance this weekend, including the standard array of musical numbers, cute costumes, and entertaining miscues.
This song is one of the newer dances, and Felicia (generally far right in the video) became really attached to it:
And an apology for the lousy camera angle and the lack of complete focus on Felicia. The studio is a challenging video environment, and it didn’t help that Felicia’s sister and mother kept telling her to stand in front of them.
That’s the official title of the family’s first-ever Science Fair entry, asking the question, “Does elevation have an effect on baking?”
With some helpful guidance from Aunt Jenn, some specialized equipment from Grandee, and some strategic assistance from Karen, Jocelyn conducted two different baking experiments, each one performed at home in San Jose (just above Sea Level) and at our cabin on top of Donner Summit (just under 7000 feet elevation).
Project Purpose Statement: I want to see if elevation has an effect on baking because I have a cabin at about 7,000 feet. I am going to make bread at about sea level and at about 7,000 feet.
Hypothesis: I think the bread will rise higher in the mountains because the air molecules are farther apart.
And after completing — and eating – both projects, she compared the data, created some comparison charts, and drew her conclusion:
Conclusion: My hypothesis was correct. The maple bread rose higher in the mountains. However the popovers didn’t. One difference is the yeast. Another difference is the time allowed to rise. I was surprised because I didn’t know yeast could make a difference. I learned how to measure something that’s an odd size with displacement.
After several weeks of focusing on Jocelyn’s play performance at church last Sunday, Felicia had her day in the sun today, as her “Littlest Angels” choir performed before the service this morning.
Although for the most part, it was only Felicia who was singing:
We call that a solo, ladies and gentlemen! Felicia was also excited about ribbon-dancing down the aisle before singing and about giving away flowers to moms afterward … both of which you could argue she did by herself, too.
Sure, Kiana’s seventh birthday was actually in May … but when you give an “experience” for her birthday gift, the fun naturally stretches beyond the actual day. and month.
