Summer and Company: September 2014

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Dinner Party Hot Dish

Also, I usually don't post work things on this blog, but I'm particularly excited about this event and want to pass it on:

The Dinner Party Download and Hot Dish are teaming up for Dinner Party Hot Dish, an evening of short dinner-party anecdotes, stories, and asides from Rico Gagliano, Davy Rothbart, Lou Mathews, Kent Woodyard, and me.

And as if that's not enough, Chef Rossi and his culinary students at the Art Institute will be serving thematically-appropriate dishes to go with the stories!

It's all part of Lit Crawl LA: NoHo. Come check it out! Wednesday, October 22, at 9pm.
Find more info and RSVP here.

Fall Activity Jar

Arthur making slime

Well, this summer went by so fast that we probably only did about half the activities in our jar, but oh well. Now on to the fall jar! And I added a bunch of new things this year.

Nature scavenger hunt
Corn maze
Press apple cider
Pick pumpkins
Pick apples
Make caramel apples
Carve pumpkins
Go on a hayride
Take a leaf drive
Make pine cone bird feeders
Make cookies for the chickens (B's idea)
Bake a pie
Watch a Halloween movie
Eat candy corn
Carved apple heads
Make apple butter
Skeleton puzzle
Tell spooky stories
Roast pumpkin seeds
Build a haunted house
Make slime
Giant spider web
Halloween craft day

Best of Summer

This summer seemed to fly by - it felt like we barely had time to do many of the activities we usually do every summer. Still, we managed to have a lot of fun.

Arthur toes

We kicked off the summer with a visit from Travis in what has become an annual tradition. He stayed with us for about two weeks, time enough for Beatrice to decide she's going to marry him. Dev also had a late birthday celebration with Travis, Sam, Lilli, and Monty, and we all celebrated by building a dog-powered Rube Goldberg machine.

At LACMA

We went camping in Malibu and the kids went to summer camp at Stough Canyon Nature Center (this was Arthur's first year). Then in August we went camping again, this time in Sequoia, where we introduced the kids to General Sherman, the largest tree in the world.

Getting filthy with Cromwell

Playing a scavenger hunt game with their new compasses (Thank you, Amy!)

General Sherman

Suzan and Naresh came out to visit for the Fourth of July. (See more photos here.)

Later we also enjoyed visits from my sister and from Aubrey and Melissa.

Dev, Gillian, and I went to the PopUp L.A. white dinner party again, along with Amy, Lesley, and Michelle. This year it was held on the polo grounds of the Will Rogers Estate.

This time I went with an Ice Age theme.

And let's not forget, we saw the world's largest rubber duck! When it stopped in the Port of Los Angeles on its trip around the world.

And of course, the biggest event of all, our trip to Chile.

In between all the trips and visitors, we did find time for a few ordinary daily activities, like food trucks, Shakespeare in the park, outdoor movies and concerts, and after-dark flashlight walks.

Playing in the wading pool

Yes, there's a lobster truck.

Ghostbusters in the park

This year we saw Iron and Wine and Neutral Milk Hotel.

This is what you get when you try to photograph the kids running around outside at sunset with glow sticks.

We went to the usual places, like the zoo, the aquarium, LACMA, the Natural History Museum, and Kidspace.

We discovered two amazing water parks (basically, public pools with huge aquatic playgrounds).

And we played at home.

For some reason we had a terrible crop of summer vegetables this year. Most things, like the tomatoes and eggplants, didn't even produce enough to make up a single meal, but we did have luck with our zucchini.