28 workouts in 30 days!

I have the worst habit of either being completely on the exercise wagon, or else not even in the same time zone as the wagon. I have been this way forever. Moderation and I just don't have a good working relationship. Which brings me to my June pact with myself.

On May 31, I promised myself that I would work out every single day in June. And I (almost) did! I'm going to give myself credit for full completion of the pact, because I had very good excuses for not working out on June 8 (was busy cropping and mounting a total of 220 photos on certificates for my students until way past midnight), and June 24 (was away camping, and, to be fair, spent three hours running up and down sand dunes that afternoon). So, YAY! The wagon is back in town! The wagon is right here in our living room!

I should mention that my workout routine is kind of funny and, well, pathetic. This is what the scene looks like:The video (with sound muted) is (oh, so embarrassingly) a Susan Powter step workout from the nineties– maybe even the eighties...... and to the left (perched on an ottoman which is perched on a chair for better reception) you see Clara's radio (which I have to steal from her room after she falls asleep each night). The radio is tuned to (okay, this is so dorky I maybe shouldn't even say it) ....NPR (I know, right?), so I can listen to the BBC World Service while I step and jump and grapevine around. I usually get about halfway into Forum, and occasionally even stretch it out to All Things Considered. As crazy as it sounds, sweating to news and interviews is just the most fabulous way to wind down at the end of the day. And yes, we are paying members of our local station. :)So, there you have it. I feel fantastic, and I'm ready to take on July!

Through their eyes

You know how, when it rains while you're camping, it's a big pain in the neck because you have to set everything up to dry in the backyard once you get home?Maybe it's not so much a pain in the neck, as a bonus day of camping.

Trees, Marshmallows, Sand, and Memories

We took a quick little camping trip this week, down the coast to Memorial Park. Photo ops abounded, but in the darkness of the redwoods I always had to choose between flash and blurry. In any case, here's the story told in photos:

I love giant redwoods. It makes me sad to think about how many of them get made into fences. Look how teeny we look in our campsite:

Trails run all through the park, and we strolled around, looking up at the trees, and down at the banana slugs.

Last year, we camped with friends who observed the tradition of letting their kids pick out whatever junky cereal they wanted as a special camping treat. Clara and Trevor have been looking forward to cereal shopping all year....

And, while we're on the subject of camp food, we naturally need to pay homage to that campiest of all treats– the s'more.

It was chilly, but we were cozy.

We headed to the beach for a day, where dunes and driftwood kept us entertained. The place was empty except for us, and I stared out at that endless ocean, so very grateful that there is not a tarball in sight. My heart breaks when I think about the Gulf of Mexico.

The fuzzy little blond guy is Trevi's doll, Kevin, and he was as much a part of this camping trip as the rest of us.

Memorial Park is a cool camping spot for another reason– Chad and I got married in the park's amphitheater almost 12 years ago. We staged an impromptu re-enactment, with the kids serving as our bridal party.

Just look at those amazing trees. They really give you a sense of the greatness of the world.

The best thing since sliced bread

I think I'm going to eat one of these sandwiches just about every day for the entire summer, and probably beyond that. Yum. Mustard, mayo, cheese, a bit of black pepper, red leaf lettuce, and heaps of tomatoes. Trevi loves this concoction, too, and calls it The Mummy Special. Clara likes a more bare-bones version (cheese and mayo only), but I swear that she would get hooked if I could just get her to try one bite. Breakfast, lunch, dinner...this is an equal-opportunity sandwich. I seriously need to go and make one right this minute.

Bonfante 10th Anniversary!

Bonfante Gardens celebrates its tenth year this summer, and we're celebrating our tenth year of loving the place. Clara was seven months old when we first rode on these little cars, and now she and Trevi can go it alone (but we let them chauffeur us most of the time– they owe us BIG TIME on the chauffeur services, right?).
Among the Bonfante traditions (most of which I've probably already blogged about), are the following:
1. The duck paddle boats (which Chad seems to think are bumper boats)
2. Ice cream (and THANK GOODNESS they FINALLY offer a cone that contains less than a gallon of soft serve)
3. Pretending to fall asleep on the ferris wheel (based on Trevi actually falling asleep on the ferris wheel in 2007)
4. The train. You just have to ride on the train. And, while riding, you have to talk about how Trevor the toddler used to say, "I want Bart Woo woo", every time he saw a BART train.
5. The Misty Maze! Chad tries to scare the kids, and they squeal with delight. Since the maze wasn't misting today, and everything was nice and dry, I forced everyone to pose for a self-timer.
Here's to ten more years of fun, Bonfante! Oh, yikes, I guess that would make the kids 19 and 16......Do you think soft serve cones and paddle ducks will still cut it????

Lego Pizza

Trevor got a Lego set for Christmas that included a neat little pizza shop, which has been built and dismantled a dozen times by now. But today, the kids decided that they could create their own pizza shop, which they declared to be "way more awesome" than the original version. Check it out. There are tables inside, umbrella tables outside, a nice kitchen, a drive-through, a delivery car, and a spacious parking lot.
And there's a rest room, of course. I have a feeling that's how this whole building project began. I hope the officer got free coffee with his pizza.

Sliderman

Remember when they used to just have plain old "Slip'n'Slide"? Ya, well that was back in the days when "girl" bikes didn't have white tires. White tires? Really? What sense does that make??? But I digress....
These days, you're hard-pressed to find kids' pajamas, or sunglasses, or toothpaste that doesn't have some character or other emblazoned on it. Our last slip'n'slide had a Sponge Bob theme (even though we have never watched the show), and we affectionately called it our "Sponge Bob Slippy Pants." That thing lasted us for a few years, but eventually ripped or broke, or sprung some sort of a leak, so we moved on to Spiderman, aka "Sliderman". We haven't had many hot days yet this year, so we busted out Sliderman for the first time today.
Since we haven't actually watched Spiderman, Trevor wondered aloud, "Why is Spiderman saying 'I love you' in sign language?"
Which prompted some tomfoolery. Clara discovered that Spidey could also be a sports fan:
Or a surfer:
And I guess the regular, old-school Slip'n'Slide couldn't do all that..... :)

Bridging

Clara has been a Brownie for three years now, and today was the much-anticipated "Bridging" ceremony which turns her into a Junior. And not a minute too soon, either – her Brownie vest is the teeniest little thing, with no room for any more badges, or any more Clara.There was an actual bridge (albeit teeny as well) for the girls to walk over, and Clara indulged me with a pose before setting across.I didn't, however, get a picture of Trevor crashing his bike and falling off that same bridge after the ceremony. (He was fine. Small bridges can be a good thing.)

Reading and Lobbying

We went straight to the library yesterday, to register for the summer reading program, and YAY, it seems to have provided the perfect little motivator for Trevi! The thing that cracks me up is that he isn't all that interested in the lanyard and charms and medals that you can earn along the way. Instead, he has his eyes on the big prize: meeting the mayor. I asked him why he wanted to meet the mayor so badly, and he said, "So I can tell her that all of the buildings here should have solar panels, and use less energy, and the police cars should all be electric cars." Can you feel my motherly pride radiating from the computer screen????

Our mayor is actually a man, but I love that he assumed it was a woman. :)

Last Day

Did I take a picture of the kids on their last day of school? No, I did not. Trust me when I say that they looked even cuter than they did on their first day, way back in August.

It was a sad day for me. I am not ready for the school year to be over. My class was just so absolutely beyond delightful. Sigh. Lots of tears shed today.

But, there's a summer in front of us, and it's going to be a beauty!
Onward and upward!

Peace, Love, Soccer

Check out this cutie.  She looked so fabulously confident as she headed out to practice today, that I couldn't resist snapping a few shots.  Many of her shirts at this point feature either soccer balls or peace signs, so you can imagine why she rocks this particular shirt as often as possible.

I dare you not to smile when you look at this pic of Soccer Girl, the early days:

At 1 1/2, she hadn't quite mastered the ponytail yet...

Berbs vs. Bird

This bird must have younger siblings.  It walked very calmly across the lawn, knowing full well that a) its presence would really agitate Berbs, and that b) Berbs couldn't get it in a million years.

I could practically hear it taunting, Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!  You can't catch me!

Beanbag Chair #2

I don't think I've ever posted a pic of the awesome beanbag chair that Grammy made for Trevi's birthday. Notice the cat motif. 

And notice the cat.

These boys go way back.

A Girl Can Dream

Clara knows I'll never actually buy her anything from the American Girl catalog, but that doesn't stop her from gazing longingly at its pages for hours on end.For the cost of a doll-sized camp chair and a doll-sized tent, we could buy the people-sized equivalents, and still have money left over for a summer's worth of graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate.  Really good chocolate, even.

Strawberry Crane

I don't condone playing with your food, but.......

Well, okay, maybe I do condone it.