A couple of weeks ago, we all packed up from sunny California and headed to the middle of the country to celebrate Thanksgiving with my brother, Deron, and his wife, Kelly. Kelly is due to give birth in January, so we thought this would be our last chance to see her big and pregnant! Our mom came up from Texas too.
My brother and I cooked the dinner while the ladies watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. How is that for a twist on tradition? We had turkey, cornbread stuffing, sweet potato pie, and greens... all things Southern. Yum.
The first day we were in Chicago, it was raining and we did a little shopping. Clara Mae had on her cold weather gear, and got to play with a life sized lego Santa.
The next day, Thanksgiving, it actually snowed, and Clara Mae was so excited she ran around in the snow. We had to corral her to get her inside for the dinner.
For the past two years, our friends Molly and Tina have been taking Clara Mae to the Dance Along Nutcracker in San Francisco. This year, however, they were both busy, so we teamed up with one of Clara Mae's best friends, Gigi, and her Dad, Bob for a Sunday morning performance.
If you are not familiar with the concept of the Dance Along Nutcracker, it goes like this: The orchestra and dancers will perform some music and song, and then, at some point, a sign saying DANCE ALONG will appear and the dance floor packs with little girls in tutus, santa hats, tap shoes, etc... Its quite a scene to behold. As you can see, Clara Mae had to have a costume change mid-show.
We all had a great time. Below are some pictures from the event.
On Saturday, November 3rd (MY BIRTHDAY) , Clara Mae celebrated her fourth spin around the sun in her back yard playhouse. I began building this playhouse this Summer, but it was the deadline of her birthday that got me to finally finish the thing! Here are a couple of pictures of the playhouse. I am very proud of this structure as it is the first thing I have ever built of this magnitude. Special thanks to Edgar Blazona for designing this structure.
Anyway... when we were putting together the guest list for Clara Mae's fourth birthday party, we decided that this was the first party where we would not invite adults... well, at least not adults without children.
So, as a result, we had a far different party than in years past. By Noon, our back yard was crawling with ankle biters, while the adult parents sipped some delicious drinks. As you can see, all the kids were well fed, and Clara Mae had FOUR costume changes during the party. A great time was had by all.
A few weekends back, I really wanted to go to The Crucible's Fire Arts Festival here in Oakland. The Crucible is a non profit arts and crafts education enterprise located in West Oakland. Each year they put on an enormous festival of art made with fire. I have never been and was determined to go this year. The problem was, Clara Mae's mom was not going to be home that night, and (as usual) I waited till the last minute to try and find a babysitter for ole CM. Well, I never did.
I called just about everyone I could think of but could not find anyone to come over and sit with Clara Mae while I went to the festival. I had just about reconciled myself to the fact that I would just not be able to go when an idea struck me: why not take Clara Mae with me? Oh sure, fire is dangerous, and I knew the event would be crowded. But I just figured I would keep Clara on my shoulders or in my arms so that I was certain she could not get hurt. It seemed like a brilliant plan, and I was sure Clara would love to see all the beautiful art there.
So, I packed her into the car and off we went. When we got there, the event was even busier than I imagined! At first I didn't even think we would make it into the venue! But it pays to know lots of people! No sooner had we gotten inside the gate did a GIANT 30' fireball went off fairly close to us. You know the kind... the kind that makes the side of your face hot. Well, Clara Mae (who was in my arms) looked at me, and BURST out crying! She was scared to death, and I felt like a total heel! I promised her that I would protect her and that the fire would not come to where she was, but even so, it took her a good five minutes to calm down. Well, within 10 minutes she was not only calmed down, but exclaiming how COOL every various fire art installation was. Within the half hour she was screaming for MORE and BIGGER fire!
We stayed past her bedtime and saw a lot of very cool performances and art. Below you can see Clara Mae licking the giant ice block that only moments before had a stream of blue fire shooting through the middle of it (they had disconnected the flame at the time).
All in all, I think she totally enjoyed herself and I got to see the festival. For WEEKS after the event Clara Mae would constantly ask: "Where's the fire now, Daddy?"
Last Friday night (July 6, 2007), Candace and I took Clara Mae to the Alameda County Fair out in Pleasanton, CA. Candace had been recalling the county fairs of her youth in North Carolina, and we decided to see if California County Fairs measured up.
We never did see the largest pig (or cutest horse either... I insisted to Candace that I was pretty sure there was no cutest horse contest). In fact, we didn't see any livestock related stuff at all... perhaps we were just in the wrong place. But we rode the big ferris wheel, ate candy apples (the remains of which can be seen on CM's face in the pictures to the right), cotton candy, corn on the cob, and barbecue (it was dinner time). We took Clara Mae on the tiny roller coaster (which she loved), won her an inflatable hammer at the floating ducky game, rode ponies, and in general had a blast.
The picture here is one that we took in one of those photo booths at the fair. Please observe the high quality of the photos. Clara Mae threw a fit when we finally left around 9 PM... but she calmed down when we explained that she would not be able to come back again if she did not calm down.
Clara Mae slept very soundly that night!
On Tuesday, June 12th, Clara Mae and her entire class at Escuela Bilingue Internacional had a graduation ceremony in the gym at her school. Here is a great video of Clara Mae's class performing a song (hint - Clara is the third kid from the left in the pink dress). My little brother Deron and his pregnant wife, Kelly were in town and were able to attend the ceremony as well. Special thanks to Deron for capturing this video with his cell phone!
Last weekend some friends held a large picnic in Roberts Regional Park here in Oakland. There were all the traditional fare there: hot dogs, sausages, hamburgers, etc... and, much to Clara Mae's delight, there was a pinata.But, since these are OUR friends, they had forgotten to bring a ROPE with which to actually HANG the pinata. So, it took awhile for the pinata to actually become airborn and get broken open.. but once it was, Clara Mae was VERY happy to dive in for her candy score.Also, last night we went out to dinner. One of the items on the children's menu was Fusilli with cream sauce. I asked Clara Mae if that is what she wanted, and she said, YES! I want silly cream sauce. And she ate it all!
The first day we were in Chicago, it was raining and we did a little shopping. Clara Mae had on her cold weather gear, and got to play with a life sized lego Santa.
