little learner

while finn complains to his piano teacher that his spring break is harder
than a regular school week because he has to do math facts every day,
his little brother asks for more schoolwork.

he started asking for nightly spelling tests a few weeks ago,
{i must take a photo of one and share}.  he also asked his daddy to
teach him to add triple digit numbers and 'to carry' numbers.
his older friend knows how to do this and he wants to learn too.

just before spring break, c picked up this 2nd grade workbook
for scout so he could learn new concepts during his time off school.
it was the best purchase we've made all month. he was so ready for it.

the first thing he does when he wakes up is either play the piano
OR he jumps up to a stool in the kitchen and starts in his workbook.
as i prepare breakfast, he anxiously shows me what's he's working on,
and has me check his work. since getting the book last Monday,
he is almost done with it.  there are just a few more pages left!

it took some coaxing some days last week to get him out the door to play.
he told me "i know i need to exercise, but i just love doing math."
{he takes after his father in this...not his momma}

i came home from work yesterday, and there he was
sitting at the counter, working away in his book.



scout, age 6

 






















because finn is so social and verbal about his passions,
some don't know that scout is truly our more 'studious' son.
maybe it's his age, but he likes to be assigned homework...
no matter what the subject. the kid just loves to learn.

in the recent parent/teacher conference, his teacher made this observation.
she said "i'm so curious what scout will chose to study in college
because he literally likes so many subjects.  she asked us to look her
up after he graduates high school and i promised her we would.
{this blog entry will officially be my reminder}.

in time, scout may develop more specific interests like his big brother,
but for now, this sweet six year old is excited about learning everything
and that makes his mom excited too.

fireplaces

for the past six months or so,
i've looked at thousands of fireplace places to get ideas of what
to do with the corner fireplace in our mid-century home.

traditional red brick wouldn't work for the style of our home,
and though tile is modern and is c's preference, it's not mid-century modern,
{there's a huge difference}, and more importantly,
i didn't feel it was right for a casual beach home.

after browsing houzz, current and past issues of dwell magazine,
and mid-century modern home websites, i kept coming back to a
simple white brick fireplace.

 

i think the reason for coming back to this time after time was two-fold. 

first, c and i agreed we didn't want the fireplace to be the focus of our
living room.  we believe the view to the backyard's pool and grassy hillside is
what deserves the focus. {for me, the great outdoors will always hold more
beauty than anything man made}. that large open windows to the outdoors
is what made us put an offer in on this home the same day it came on market
a year ago.

second, white brick provides a great backdrop for decorating.
it has texture to give some visual interest, but it's not distracting like fireplaces
containing other materials like stone or tile would be.  i can put anything next to
a white brick fireplace or on the ledge and it would work.
{including the current retro beach print that is there and that i love so much}

we are still undecided on the hearth but are leaning towards
a seamless giant slab of quartize if we can find it for a reasonable price.
our goal is to have this project completed in the next month or so,
and then we can focus on the other hundreds of projects that are needed.

the landscaping is next on our list.

it will be nice when i can drive up to our home someday and not cringe. 
i'm not exaggerating when i say we have the 2nd ugliest house on the block. 
i have asked my neighbors to be patient with us....this house needed everything
and our budget is such that we have to do one at a time. 

st. patty's day: 2014

i feel like i've been MIA for the past 2 weeks.i had a huge deadline at work, a wedding, 2 book clubs and a soccer
games last week.  it was insane!  this week is spring break for the boys,
and c's in northern ca at an architecture workshop with the ca architecture board. 
i've taken time off work to spend time with my favorite little guys and it's been
heaven for me.  we are spending our days at the beach, bike riding,
playing board games, eating junk food and later i promised them we'd go bowling!
i'm loving every minute of this time and only wish it would last longer.

that's all for today, but I wanted to post my st. patty's day draft.
i had forgotten to post last week and and figured better late than never.

months back i was in the carter's store to purchase
some baby boy clothes for my coworker who was expecting.
i came across this cute st. patrick's day tee in size 5 and picked
up for scoutie.

when i brought it home and showed it to him,
he took one look at it and exclaimed,
"i'm not wearing that. it says KISS ME!"

what was i thinking?

any boy older than 4 who can read isn't going to be 'ok' wearing a tee
that says 'kiss me'. {kissing is gross unless it's from immediate family}
the adorableness of the tee made me forget myself.
i made one futile attempt to have him reconsider,
but it was lost cause.

regretfully, i took it back to the store to return.
i got side tracked by cute baby girls clothes
{thinking about my future niece arriving next month}.
i remembered i was sitting sidney the next evening.
he is the adorable 2 year old son of one of my breakfast bunch friends.
i knew he wouldn't mind wearing it so i exchanged the size 5 for a size 2.

his sweet daddy surprised me with a text and this cute pix on monday.

 

sidney shire, age 2

it was perfect tee for this adorable toddler.

so how did the gerber clan spend their day.
well it was a weekday so it was the usual work and school for us all.
we all wore some type of green.  the little guys outfits were much cuter
than ours.  they wore the cute tees  they had raced in 2 days prior.

i got up early and set out a box of lucky charms cereal.
the boys were in heaven as they only get this once a year.




scoutie...

 

 

their lunch boxes were filled with anything green i could find in the fridge:

grapes, broccoli, a spinach salad for finn {the kid won't eat sandwiches}.
i even dug out the shamrock cookie cutter and used for scout's pb and j.

i told c it was kind of fun trying to come up with green food ideas.

{it broke up the monotony of the every day lunch making}

 

i thought about baking something - cupcakes or green muffins and bringing to work,

but we don't need more food in the office. us ladies are all trying to have a healthier
new year and i didn't want to sabatage us and myself.

 

i've made one change to date.
i gave up my diet coke {aka liquid satan} completely as of january 1st! 

i did it cold turkey and though it was difficult the first week or two, 

it's not something i even think about anymore. someday i will give up my
decaf coffee but i'm not quite there yet. *wink*



finn's 4th grade class



ms. jones and her 4th grade class, 2013-2014

in case this photo were to ever get destroyed, i wanted to be sure i have an electronic copy.

my first born: front row, 2nd from left. {finn's first crush: front row 2nd from right}



green machines: st patrick's day run 2014

this past weekend was literally non-stop.
but if you ask the boys the BEST part of their weekend was,
it was our annual st. patty's day race on mission bay.

participants in this race have a choice of doing 6 or 2 miles.
the latter is full of parents with strollers and young kids running
along side. this is the one i've been doing since scout a baby.

c and i were out pretty late the evening before at explorer's
annual art from the heart event and we overslept sat am.
we didn't make it to the starting line by 8am, but it worked out
as the 6 miler racers were lining up just 15 minutes after.
we lined up with them and shot off at the sound of the bullhorn.
it was actually much more fun to start off with this group as
they had much more energy and were more serious runners.

before the race

 

.



























as the 6 mile runners headed to fiesta island to run to run another
5 miles, the boys and i took a u-turn on the bay to stay on course
for the 2 mile run.

c had parked the car and caught up with us about halfway into the run. 
he and finn ran ahead as they were faster than scoutie.  when we all met
up at the end, finn reported he didn't stop once during the run.
{this means in a few years he can run the 6 mile with me !}
scout did great too, stopping just once for a quick drink of water.

c and i were so proud of the boys and they were proud of themselves.
i'm so glad i continue this tradition that i started so many years ago.
i reminds me to take care of myself so we can continue do do this
in the years to come.

this was finn's 6th race {he started at age 5}, and scout's 2nd,
though he will say it's his 3rd race.
{he counts me pushing him in the stroller years ago} *grin*



and as we all walked back to the car together, i couldn't resisst snapping a photo of my three.

children's literature: number the stars

for the past several nights, finn and i have reading
this award winning children's novel before bed:



via

shannon, one of my breakfast bunch friends recommended it.
she is a 5th grade teacher and mentioned she and her students read
and thoroughly enjoyed.  that was a few years ago, but it stayed with me.
i came across a used copy at our library sidewalk sale and purchased it.

my description of this book wouldn't do it justice,
i can only say this is a book that every child older than 10 should read.   
in many schools it's required reading and rightfully so.
the author has a gift for story telling, and this is a story worth telling.

in our taking turns reading, i ended up with the last chapter last night
and got so choked up, finn had to take over for me.  the subject matter is
heavy, but the author keeps the story simple as it's all from annmarie,
a 10 year old girl's perspective.

before i read this book, i knew nothing about the german occupation of denmark,
and how kind and brave the people of this little northern european country were.
i also learned how instrumental sweden was in saving thousands of danish jews. 
it's amazing what they did.  i won't give away but it was so inspiring,
i sent a text to my my swedish coworker that night,  telling her i am grateful for
her swedish ancestors.  they did great things!

number the stars is a book that won't soon be forgotten.
it will have a permanent home in our library.
i look forward to introducing to scoutie in a few years.
{it's not recommended for children's younger than 10}

while finn and i finished this book last night, 
scout finished the 2nd book from the chronicles of narnia series.

if you were wondering about the harry potter series he'd been reading.
he finished the final book last weekend - the very last of 7!



scout, age 6 {completed last book of the HP series}

i think he was a little disappointed there weren't more books. 
he grew to love harry, hermoine, ron, dumbledore and hagrid.
they became household names and breadsticks often became wands
at the dinner table. it seemed there were daily discussions about spells,
muggles and what life would be like if they were wizards at hogwarts. 

i don't think it will be just the boys who are going to miss harry potter and
his posse.  christopher and i grew to love them all too.

purple chipmunks

the purple chipmunks played their first game this past sunday.
i learned this was the name of scout's soccer team as i was throwing
his purple jersey into his soccer bag.  i try to get everything in one place
so that we don't rush around like crazy when it comes time for a game. 

purple chipmunks i asked trying to visualize what one would look like.
scout quickly shared that wasn't the name HE voted on.  he wanted purple pythons
but his team voted and this name won out.  i don't think the name will evoke fear
in their opponents but i don't think most 6 and 7 year olds think about....yet.

we almost didn't make it to his first game on sunday.
aunt jen texted c and i at 3pm {game time} asking where we were. she was at the field.
c nor i had checked our cell phones all day as we were busy with house projects all morning.
as fast as we could move, we dressed scout, grabbed a few waters, chairs and
drove to the field which was 10 minutes away - whew!

the purple chipmunks won their first game and scout was all smiles.

scoutie's almost a head shorter than the boys on his team

 

 

 

the past weekend seemed to be a weekend for scout.

before finn's birthday party, he had been asking to have some

of his friends over so i decided to invite a few families from his

classs over that we wanted to get to know better.  we chatted, ate and
then gathered in the backyard to watch dennis the menace,
an old family favorite of ours.  it was a great choice for the age group,
and kids and parents both had a great time.   

 

one of the families that were over mentioned they were swapping their

san diego home with a french family this summer for 2 weeks.

they are using home exchange to do it, and are super excited about it.

i LOVE the idea of doing this and am going to look into it for our family.
maybe one summer we can do the same. i'm the the perfect candidate for
something like this - i have no qualms about opening up our home to strangers!

and i'll end with a photo of the boys i took a week or two ago.
i came home from work one evening to find the boys in the garage working
with an AXE and a SAW.  their dad was letting them "get used to working with tools",
not a bad thing with supervision, but this is the perfect example of how mom and dads
parent differently.  i could only picture an accident waiting to happen - a sawed off finger
or toe.  {finn didn't even have shoes on}.

i learned they had been sawing and hammering away the last hour and though
they were having a blast, i calmly asked the boys to put the tools away and come inside.

in the meantime, i let christopher know playing with dangerous tools is something
that should be done when i'm not in site.  {sometimes it's better i be left in the dark}  

jamison turns one

my nephew jamison celebrated his 1st birthday this past weekend.
he lives in florida so the boys and i weren't able to be there to celebrate
with him but he was certainly in our thoughts.

here's my favorite photo from his one year birthday photo shoot.
look at the grin on his face.  SO cute!  

photographer

~ my hostess with the mostess s-i-l threw a 'circus themed' birthday.
i can hardly wait to see the photos! i'm sure it was Adorable as ever.
{i got a sneak peak of some wood animals that were used}

soccer season begins

 

today was scout's 1st soccer practice for the 2014 spring season!

he told me he has "been waiting for SO long for soccer to start".
{all of 3 months = a lifetime to a 6 yr old}

i raced home from work to change clothes and pick him up for practice.
i quickly introduced myself to his coach 'fernando', and after 2 minutes of
watching him dribble the ball around with the kids, i knew he was a player.
i'm also guessing his son, kai, will be our team's star player.

since the practice field is right next to the bay,
i asked coach if i could leave scout with him for 45 minutes and go for a run.
{i've yet to have a coach say no}. i let him know i had my cell if he needed me.
i got in a 4 miles run, and was back before practice let out.  it felt fantastic! 

as i thanked the coach and picked up scout's uniform {purple},
the coach said he thought he knew me.  i didn't recognize his face and though
i can't recall names very well, i typically remember faces. his i didn't.

apparently he was our neighbor when we lived on diamond street.
he lived across the street and several houses down.  he remembered c
and me jogging by his house alot with a baby in a jogging stroller.
that was scout! wow - such a small world.

anyway, he's a super nice guy - sports long dreadlocks, has a cool accent
{he's from argentina}. most of all, the kids really seem to really like him.
the entire family is looking forward to sunday, scout's FIRST game of the season.

~ christopher and finn are playing hookey from work and school manana and
heading to palm desert for the bnp tennis tournament tomorrow.  i gave c two tickets
for christmas. i thought he'd bring a buddy, but he opted to take his firstborn.
they are excited about having a father/son day together.
{i promised scoutie a special mother/son day out together - his choice}

scars on 45

 

this past weekend, i had the privledge of seeing scars on 45!
they are a relatively new band and i got to see them play in a
private and intimate venue downtown.  it was SUCH a treat
and even better, it was an ALL acoustic concert!
{forget the electric guitars...bring me a great voice/voices}.
this band did just that with singers, danny and aimee behind the mics.

i can't remember the last time i saw a concert, so this was special.
here's how it went down.

a few weekends ago, i got an email from my friend paul, who discovered scars a few
years earlier and may be their biggest fan. i had heard a few songs and liked them.
his email was an invitation to a limited number of friends to see scars in a private concert
he arranged.   i was worried i wouldn't make the cut, so i voice texted immediately while
driving to pick up the kids.  {no children were in the car}.

i simply said "Me Please" into my phone and crossed my fingers it didn't interpret as
"Eat Peas' or something ridiculous. he responded shortly after with, i've got 2 tickets
 reserved for you ang.  woo hoo! 

on saturday night, jen and i saw this english band perform for our first time.
i immediately fell in love with danny's voice, and was quick to point out that he looked a bit
like noah from the notebook. *swoon*.  actually, i think he is cuter than ryan gosling. 
anyway, i tried not to swoon too much and just focus on his lovely lovely voice instead.

being there brought me back to the days of watching mr. mraz in the little coffee shop in ocean beach.
it was just as small and intimate and so real. scars didn't run off and hide in their bus after they show. 
they grabbed beers and they came out and lounged on a couch and chatted with us lowly less or non-
musical peeps. 

jump on their website or facebook if you have a minute and listen.