Light Gate (Jan 30)

We came across an (art) installment months ago in Manhattan beach.  It is pretty close to one of the restaurants that we like to eat there.  I had tagged it on my calendar to go see it on Jan 29th as that's what the plaque had mentioned when we were there the first time:

And this is what the Light Gate looks like:

Really not like too much, but once the sun starts to set...

So neat, eh??!!  The purple color is spectacular!  And near the structure is a plaque that says January 27th instead.  Obviously some conflicting information!  The other date is November 14th, so maybe we will get it right then :-)

The shadow on the other side is getting long:

A couple other people show up to take photos too:

While we wait for Daddy to show up:

We also go into the Manhattan Beach public library, which is just next door.  Look at this cool installment in the library - a giant kelp!

Graham and Charlie enjoyed the other parts of the library too, especially the computers :-/

Bobby finally shows up!  Family we-fie!!!

We are definitely having some fun now:

We are probably starting to look silly now... Ha ha!

Hmmm... I wonder who this might be?  [Charlie]

[Charlie again]

Fun with some shadows:

This is probably my favorite:

Boys were attempting to climb the structure.  Glad there were no broken bones or broken glass:

As you can see, the sun is just a tiny bit off from center:

Until November then!  I wonder how many people do show up and watch the sun set from the Light Gate??!

 Off to dinner but wait... something fun to go around in/on/under:

Never a dull moment with these boys:

Another art installation on the way to the restaurant.  It's a big sail boat just outside the police station, if I can recall correctly.  You can sort of see the moon on the sail - that white speck on the top right :-)

It was a beautiful sunset tonight.  As usual, photos just don't do justice:

Maybe I  just need to get a new phone.  Or actually a new small handy-dandy but super camera would be nice *hint *hint ;-P

Fun Run (Jan 30)

Graham and Charlie had their Fun Run at school a couple of weeks ago.  I had my shift during the Fun Run, hence the green apron :-)

I also had my compression socks that I normally wear for golf.  I'm telling you, being at school is a work out! Ha ha!  I also put on my new sweater, which Bobby called the Grandma/lady-with-lots-of-cats sweater. Ha!  Well, as long as it keeps me warm.  Plus, it was super cheap! :-)

Here's a video of Charlie running around the field - in slow motion.  Bobby had taken it on his phone and unfortunately, the video is a bit grainy:

Graham's turn came not long after 1st and 2nd Grade finished.  Charlie's teacher let me off my duties early so I could see Graham run.  How nice of her!  Actually, kids were being checked out to leave after the Fun Run.  What??!  I mean there was still a good 2-3 hours of good learning after.  Hmmm... that would definitely not happen in Asia, I don't think!

Good form for Graham!

And he would "fly" around the corner after the tunnel:

Daddy was able to show up to both but unfortunately just a little bit late for Graham's run.  I made them pose by the tunnel.  "Pretend like you are running!":

This year, I can't remember the exact amount that was raised but it was double of what it was last year.  The school hired a company to organize the Fun Run and I personally thought it was a bit aggressive, but I guess you can't really argue too much if the method worked.  Graham and Charlie both made a few phone calls to family members for some pledges.  Each pledge (per lap or flat donation) was rewarded with some sort of toy/gift from the company.  So the boys were obviously very excited!  We'll see what happens next year but a big THANK YOU again to our family members that pledged! 

Random photos

Just some random photos from recent to months ago that I may or may not have posted :-)

Bobby and I were big on avocado toast for a bit.  The thick drizzle of balsamic vinegar makes it extra yummy!  And the tomatoes were from our yard:

The view at the bottom of the hill when we drive home, before we make the left turn at the traffic light.  This day seemed particular pretty with the marine layer rolling in:

It's not every day that you have to stop and wait for horses and their riders to cross the road:

Charlie has me so hooked on boba tea that I actually went out of the way to find some! Tasty!!!

Our new glass bathroom knobs finally arrived!  I don't quite like the way these feel on the hand but maybe these won't break off as easily.  Still so pretty to look at though.  I keep telling Bobby that these knobs will totally sell the house when that time comes - and we know that time will come... eventually :-/

Our school had an Open House last weekend and the kids in the class were given the task last week to write about what they like about the school.  And this is what Charlie wrote:

"I love the Teaching Parents like my mom" and so cute how he put the heart shape and then a winky face!  Awwww... so sweet! I have to admit, my heart did melt just that little bit. I have yet to find Graham's note.  Have to keep searching on the big board!

When I was writing Holiday cards to an old housing host in Ohio, it made me think back about how he had sent me some Graeter's ice-cream when I was pregnant with Graham.  I searched up the company's website and discovered that they have their products at our local supermarket!  But wow, can you believe that it is more expensive than Haagen-Dazs??!  Okay, maybe just like by a quarter or 50cents, but still.  Whaaaat...!!!  Still so worth it. LOL!!! ;-p

Hope you all enjoyed these.  More random photos to come next time!

Pruning

I have been busy pruning.  Before:

Don't laugh... after!

Before:

After!

Okay, I admit - I am a bit aggressive when it comes to pruning.  But it's just so messy and I can see some new leafs coming up.  So perhaps a bit confident it will survive the pruning?!
There was also some yucky stuff growing on the leaves:

Lots of oranges for sure!  I gave SOOOOO many away and now we are just down to the little bitty ones:

And hopefully this will take care of whoever that is making a mess with all the peeled and half-eaten oranges in this corner of the yard!

And just today, instead of having to prune the grape vines, we have decided to give them away.  I posted it on a local neighborhood App and someone replied and sent her gardener over to the house! I'm so glad I didn't have to dig them up either.  And look how nice and clean the wall/backyard looks now!

Debating whether to take the pergola down.  As you can see, it seems a bit slanted.  I did give it a good nudge and it still seems to be pretty sturdy.  So maybe just a good coat of stain?  And now that the grapes vines are gone, the orange trees can be moved back towards the wall to give the boys a bit more room in the yard. That's the plan at least... for now :-)

The baseball practice net is down because today was SUPER windy! I took a video today of our windy whirly thing to show how fast the wind was but my phone camera can only capture so many frames a second:

Suppose to be colder tomorrow.  It was 49F this morning.  Brrrr...!!! Hopefully it won't be as windy!

Recent happenings

Charlie LOVES gnocchi and so I decided to make some.  Trader Joes actually has some dehydrated ones but I thought "It can't be that difficult, can it?"

Well, Bobby suggested the whole "fork technique" to make those lines on the gnocchi.  Well, it didn't work very well:

In the end, I just rolled it up into like a long snake and cut them up into 1" slices.  If anything, it was much quicker!

We normally pan-fry the store bought gnocchi with butter.  So, we did the same with these... boil first then pan-fry.  But you know what, funny enough just the boiled ones actually tasted better!

I was looking for some Chinese New Year candy at the local Korean supermarket.  I guess I should have known that a Korean market will not have any Chinese stuff. Ha ha! But they do have Japanese dumpling wrappers - so technically, you just never know, do you??! :-P
For lunch, I decided to order this claypot dish at the restaurant inside the supermarket.  Yummy! It did take me a while to eat as the claypot kept everything super hot for a really long time:

At another recent food outing, I met up with a friend for lunch at a Vegan restaurant.  I had a pita with "meatless" ground beef and as you can see, LOTS of veggies!

 

And my friend had a selection of 4 items/veggies.  I don't know how she ate those collard greens, but she did!

I've been taking some art training to teach Charlie's class.  What do you think of my seahorse? The technique is called Repousse, although with an accent on the last e.  I can't seem to figure out how to do it on my keyboard!  Help anyone??!  Anyway, you sort of "stretch" the metal foil to make bumps and valleys.  The adults had a tough time during the training so think about how I am going to explain this to a whole bunch of 7 and 8 year olds! Ha ha!!!

And as if there isn't enough stuff to do around the house, my fancy glass door knob broke off!  Somehow Bobby managed to break it off when he was using the boys' bathroom:

I taped it up with blue tape because there was a really sharp edge on the back part where it had broken off.  Well, too late! Bobby cut himself!  We were pretty close to calling 911 since it was sort of an emergency... but after putting on the bandaid, everything was just fine:

Ha ha, who is my big baby!  I don't think he was anywhere close to the time when I actually stabbed myself with a screwdriver :-P

Still trying to sort out the backyard.  I bought a metal shelf recently.  This is what happens when you drop off some things to donate and end up walking into the donation store after:

I think it will clear up some of the mess.  Okay, still yet to put all that stuff on top of the counter away.  If anything, at least now Bobby and Graham knows where the battery and charger is for the weed-whacker!

So, here's our next project - planting corn and edamame!

In the meantime, I am trying to reclaim our living space.  Boys have put their sleeping bag down and made a cave with the couch pillows:

I recently found this photo that was posted by a school photographer.  And I am just imagining Charlie doing this exact pose when I tell him I want my living space back.  And he is going to reply... "Awww... and you're going to cry if I don't give it back???"

Ahhh... joys with my boys!

Never a dull moment at the beach

Who knew we would come across someone practicing with their parachute!

I think I am more excited than the boys. Ha!

Let the digging begin!

I think Charlie is trying to give Graham some instructions, but as usual after a while, Graham walks away and tries to tomahawk the shovel into the sand:

Sunsets are pretty here.  I still don't think the boys realize how lucky they are:

Someday I am going to hit the waves on a surf board.  Ha ha! :-)

Charlie's sand fort!

Still might need some more work.  Next time!  The whales should be migrating again, so hope to see some soon!

Recent achievements

Graham came home last month with a Cougar of Character Award for Alertness and Action. Yay!!!

He was so super happy and couldn't wait to tell me when he got into the car.  The award came with a gift certificate for the same ice-cream place that we went to in Santa Barbara called Creamistry.  YUM!  I didn't want to burst his bubble but hmm... I think he still needs to work on his alertness and action.  Hopefully it will come with maturity??!

Oh, by the way, Graham made me this little box using origami.  And then, thinking about all these little pins that I had from Bobby's new shirt packaging, I managed to rummage through the house and found some foam.  Ta da!!!  The perfect needle holder :-)

In the meantime, Charlie has now run a whole MARATHON during these past few months of Run Club.  26.2 miles... that's almost 105 laps around the softball/school field. Woot hoot!!!  Yay for Charlie!!!

Actually come to think of it, I think Graham finished his marathon a couple of weeks after Charlie did.  I wonder what happened to his certificate.  Although, they both did get these little Marathon tags to add on to their collection of "paws".

Anyway, I wonder if this is how Charlie re-energizes in between activities:

Or most like this!  He was unwell for almost a whole week - right before Martin Luther King Day in Jan.  He could have returned to school on Friday but almost 90 kids were out that day!  That's almost 1/4 of the entire school!

Some kids may have sneaked out for the long holiday, but even so - I think there were about 11 sick kids just in Charlie's class.  And you'd think this kids was sick.  Ha!

Graham and Charlie couldn't be more different.  Charlie made a 3D drawing of the Rubik's cube and even colored it accordingly:

Graham, on the other hand, managed to finally solve one side of the Rubik's cube. He was so ecstatic!!!

And here, we were out for an early dinner at a restaurant.  Charlie has built himself a really large "chair" and was saying "ahhh... " when he laid on it:

Graham, on the other hand had stacked all his blocks out in a way where he only has a tiny little bit to sit on.  Ha! They couldn't be more different!

Although, Charlie was hogging all of those big Jenga blocks!

We have already convinced Charlie that he needs to be a pilot when he grows up and he can work on his art on the side.  And Graham is convinced he will be an inventor.  Although he doesn't really make an effort to solve issues, so I keep reminding him that he needs to put in just that little bit of extra work!  I guess only time will tell.