Congratulations to Paul and Joanne!

 

One of my best friends just had a beautiful baby girl (and my goddaughter!) Esther Adelfa Henley! I can't wait to meet her!

Halloween Invitations 2014: It Lands!

I just finished distributing the last of this year's Halloween party invitations for our B-movie/retro sci-fi-themed party.

Inside the envelope is a little black box with a glowing green alien face.

 

We started with some black ring boxes which come with their own foam inserts. We took green LEDs, bent the contacts to the right size and shape, slipped in a 3V CR2032 battery, and tucked the LED inside the foam to diffuse the light.

 

 

The alien face was printed on two sheets - one transparency, one vellum - and stacked on top of the foam.  And then we used silver holographic paper to line the box lids.



Initially we designed the boxes so that opening the lid pulled a plastic tab that activated the LED - however, testing revealed that the LEDs actually stayed lit for almost a week on their own, so we just threw them in the mail already turned on.

 

The invitation itself is printed on a transparency sheet and then backed by metallic silver cardstock.

Since the invitations are small and don't provide a lot of room for information, they direct readers to the party website where I can add additional instructions, a map to my house, etc.

Here's a screen shot from the party website.

Meanwhile Dev and I have already started collecting supplies for the party itself - coming soon!

Monthly Activity Plans: September

Since Beatrice started kindergarten in August, I've been a little unhappy.  In most respects, I like her kindergarten - I think it's about as good a public school as you'll find - but when she left preschool I was expecting that kindergarten would be a big leap forward for her academically, a leap I knew she wanted and was ready to take.  But the truth is, so far kindergarten has probably been less challenging than preschool, and with fewer hands-on activities like experiments and projects. 

Now Beatrice is very good at creating her own projects, but I still felt like something was missing.

The solution I came up with was to start doing more short one-on-one activities with her in the afternoons while Arthur and William are napping (though sometimes Arthur joins in, too).  So I made up with a calendar of lessons to do every day - or realistically, most days, since sometimes other things come up instead.  We started doing these things last year but now I'm trying to do them in a somewhat more structured way.

MONDAY we do math.
TUESDAY we do computer programming.
WEDNESDAY we do science.
THURSDAY we do history and literature.
FRIDAY we do art.

So far some have worked better than others, but here's what we did in September:

For math we did money.  Arthur and Beatrice's favorite activity was the snack store.  Basically I set up little bowls of snacks that cost different amounts of money, from 1 cent to 2 dollars, and gave them each two dollars in coins and bills, and let them buy different snacks to eat.

For computers we started working with Scratch, this amazing programming language for kids - more on that soon.



Beatrice's first computer program

For science we did states of matter and some basic chemistry.  We did a couple of fun things with this one, including a solid/liquid/gas scavenger hunt and atom dancing (where they had to dance like atoms in a gas, liquid, or solid).

Atoms in a solid



Atoms in a gas

For history and literature, we did understanding maps and U.S. geography.  This was probably the one Beatrice liked the best because it was the most imaginative.  I had her draw maps of her favorite places, give directions on how to get to local places, and tell a story in map form.  We also did a game about understanding relative distances, like how long it would take to get to Pasadena versus Texas versus Alaska, and then we planned out trips to see different people and sites in the U.S., like how to drive from here to visit her cousins in Austin.

There are so many great resources online for these kinds of things, most intended for homeschoolers but useful for anyone.  There are also a few subjects for which I found almost nothing online, especially for genetics and evolution, so I might put up the worksheets I made in case anyone ever stumbles upon this blog and wants to use them.

Anyway, it's a work in progress but so far, so good.

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.

The Japanese maple unfurling its new leaves.*

The grape vines colonizing the sidewalk.

 We got back from Chile just in time for Beatrice to start kindergarten.

 

A few more fun moments:

 

At a special lunch with Beatrice

 

The children perform a puppet show for William (who appears to be trying to escape).

Dev on Free Slushie Day

Beatrice delivering a lecture in a physics classroom at Caltech

Arthur took this photo of his own feet.

Getting a piggy back ride from Zoe

Beatrice mixing Arthur a custom cocktail: water, apple juice, grape juice, maraschino cherries, and peach Greek yogurt

Meanwhile, tonight I finished making this year's Halloween invitations, meaning that fall is officially on its way...

 

* Technically we took this photo in the spring, but I love it too much to leave it off the blog.