"On the Shoulders of Giants"

Though you won't find me complaining about a few extra school holidays for travel, we were back in Carlsbad not long after ringing in the New Year in San Francisco, but still had well over a week of school vacation left before the kids headed back to school. We're most certainly spoiled with great weather and a proliferation of fun things to do around here, so we made the most of those, however, by the time school finally resumed, I sent the kids off with big fat kisses and a not insignificant sigh of relief.

Of course January means birthdays for two of our number, and per the request of our newly minted 8-year-old and 10-year-old, we did their birthday dinner at Chuck-E-Cheese. Although I was well aware that most of their longing for that place was borne chiefly of nostalgia (honestly, Chuck-E-Cheese was an insanely fun break from the depths of Saskatchewan winter despair), when they begged, we agreed. They had a pretty fun time with tokens at the famous casino prep school (that's how Aaron and I refer to the place), and we had pizza that wasn't horrible, and that was that. Emerson got his first pet for his birthday, a betta fish named Sparky (which died within a month and has since been exchanged for a fish named Snappy). Sera got a new art kit, which she has put to great use on all kinds of projects.

Another fun adventure for Emerson and Sera this month has been opening a new site for the San Diego Children's Choir here in Carlsbad. They were among about ten charter members, which has since grown to nearly twenty-five. Aaron has been pushing to open this site for almost a year, and we're all thrilled to see it finally open! Though so far the site only accommodates the elementary branches of the choir, Aaron's hoping to expand it to include the middle-school branch for next fall.

Speaking of middle schoolers, Asher has been rocking it with his basketball team this year. He joined the community league, and has had a great team and coach. They've been thriving, learning new skills, having great games whether they win or lose, and at long last he's been able to put those "hops" to use. At our absolute insistence, he has also continued with trumpet (although he's refuses to play in the jazz band that meets before school), and was excited when his band was invited to play at Disneyland this month, where he spent one of his happier school days ever. Addy has been tripping along just fine, though she doesn't have any exciting extracurricular activities going at the moment. She was excited to bring her little sister along to Activity Days at church now that Sera has turned 8, and she really loves singing with Aaron in the San Diego Children's Concert Choir. I would really like to find something else for her to do as well, perhaps art or some of the horseback riding lessons she has always wanted to try, but I've kind of let it slide lately--I should get on that!

As for me, I've gotten a few things going over the past couple of months as well. I finally opened a KinderKeys class--something I've been waffling on since moving here. It was really only the chiding of friends who wanted a class for their kids that lit the fire under me. I'm so glad I did! I'm sure I've mentioned that I've been pretty bored since we moved here--though I've applied for several jobs, nothing has panned out, but I haven't gotten to the point where I would take a job I didn't really want. I know that sounds selfish and arrogant, but I've had a sense that when the timing is right, the right things will happen. That said, I'm not a very patient person. Anyway, last month I sent in my application to USC for their Musicology PhD program, something which would definitely interest me and would finish off the graduate work I started shortly after graduating from BYU. Not long afterward, I had this kind of bizarre interest in looking into law school, something I had never really considered before--my dad was a lawyer and I can't say he loved it so much that it inspired me, but after looking at options in the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer, weighing in my political interests and activism . . . somewhere along the line, law school started to seem vaguely interesting. More out of curiosity than anything, I attended an open house day at the University of San Diego law school. No one was more shocked than I when I loved it! Aside from beautiful campus architecture and view overlooking the Pacific Ocean (I won't lie and say these had no influence), I got really excited about the power lawyers, judges, and politicians can have in areas like human rights, legislation, and justice. Aaron and I have had quite a few conversations on the topic, and while he is offering his encouragement with reservations for now, we both agree that a law degree is probably more practical than a degree in musicology. I've since registered for the February LSAT and checked out some study guides from the library, and I honestly can't say how much I'm enjoying the process of studying again. I'm one of those strange creatures that truly loves studying, I'm afraid.

Now that it's January, we've embraced a new family theme--boy do I love me a family theme! I've put this one off for two years now because the timing didn't seem right, but I was thrilled to finally introduce our theme this year: "On the Shoulders of Giants." It comes from a paraphrase of a quotation by Isaac Newton that I've loved since it was first introduced to me in a History of Mathematics course many years ago: "If I have seen further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants."

For each of our family councils/family home evenings this year (we've pretty much merged the two at this point), one of the kids chooses an important figure to give a presentation on. We've subdivided the year into monthly themes to help us wind through as many interesting and important people as possible. January has been "inventors," and we've had excellent power-point presentations on Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, and Johannes Gutenberg. Next month is "civil rights leaders," and the kids have already selected Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malala Yousafzai for their presentations. It's been awesome seeing the kids get engaged with the research for their topics themselves, sharing information with each other, helping each other find quotes, videos, and photographs to share, and really paying more attention to how many of the things that we take for granted had to be thought up, worked at, and created by actual people not much different from themselves. At the dinner table each evening, I've started asking a new question as well: "what did you contribute today?" At first everyone, including Aaron, was a bit annoyed at the question, but they're coming around. A couple of times when we've skipped the question (often on Fridays and Saturdays when we don't always eat around the table), we wind up with multiples as people realize that they haven't had a chance to share their purposeful acts of contribution. Even I've been surprised at what an impact this has made in helping the kids to see themselves as part of a larger whole--contributors rather than consumers. Ultimately I'm really glad that we waited until this year for this theme, because the maturity the kids can bring to the table now is so much greater than it would have been in the past. And so at the end of this January, I ask the same of everyone else: what are you contributing? What did you do today that made a difference for someone? They are good questions to have always on a low simmer in the backs of our minds.

New Year, New Adventures

I was missing my camera for much of the month, so everything we have is from Aaron's iPhone--very handy, not always my favorite photo quality (not that my photos are so professional by comparison or anything, haha!).

 

 

Universal Studios, Hollywood!

Never pass up a chance for a photo with SpongeBob!

The real, actual DeLorean from Back to the Future

Shrek and Donkey were hilarious, cracking jokes with us the whole time

Aaron wouldn't let me get a photo when we got there, so this on the way out--we had such a great day at Universal!

Then this girl turned 8!

And this guy turned 10! Did I phone it in a bit on the birthday cakes this year? Possibly. But did you see how much awesome stuff we did in December? For reference, Sera's is a panda cake (sort of), and Emerson's is a lazy man's rendition of the Hogwarts cake I made for Asher's tenth birthday way back when.

Father-Daughter dance at school

 

And I even managed to have Emerson's Harry Potter birthday party before the end of January! That's his Aragog piñata and the pretzels we used to make chocolate dipped wands.

Are those spider webs hanging from the chandeliers in the Great Hall? Why yes, they are.

 





And here are the celebrants post-cake, pre-movie

And sadly, that's all I've got. Thank goodness I got my camera back by the end of February, because it's much harder to keep up on things without it!

Oh wait! Just for fun, there are also these, as found posted on Sera's door:

Love that girl! She's going to rule the world one day!



The Best Christmas Present

We definitely loved getting a trip instead of more stuff this holiday season!

 

Hearst Castle--such an amazing place and story

Elephant seals along the Pacific Coast Highway

So crazy to be wearing coats again!

That's Alcatraz behind us, though that's about the closest we got (not entirely true, we did see it up pretty close from the Sausalito Ferry, even if we didn't get to go on the island itself)

I hate when we see people we know and love and I fail to catch a photo! This is the best I have of our evening with Chris and Hedy's family (actually, Aaron caught a couple of funny videos too)--so fun to have people to hang with who enjoy basketball as much as Asher does!

 

Fountain in Ghiradelli Square

Overlooking the Golden Gate bridge while waiting for the trolley

San Francisco trolleys are the best!

These guys loved swinging out over the side--I can't believe they still let people do that!

Fish and chips on Fisherman's Wharf

Sausalito Ferry

Sausalito Island

I didn't take a single picture of New Year's Eve! Which is just as well, it was kind of a wash anyway--everyone was wiped out, and I'm pretty sure half of us were sound asleep in our hotel room by the time the clock chimed anyway.

 

Happy New Year!

Emerson's Birthday Interview, Age 10

What is your favorite color?

 -Blue

What is your favorite food?

 -Blueberries

What is your favorite thing to wear?

 -Blue jeans (with holes in the knees)

What is your favorite thing to do?

 -Doodle (with my blue pen)

If you could buy anything in the whole world you wanted, what would it be?

 -A mansion with a slide, a firepole, and an elevator, and a blue hover-car

What are you good at?

 -Doodling, building, origami, making pop-up cards

What job would you like when you grow up?

 -An engineer or a news reporter

Where are you going to live when you grow up?

 -A lot of different places--I'll have like seven different houses

What games do you like to play?

 -Games on the trampoline and in my hammock with Sera

What was your favorite thing about being 9?

 -Going all the cool places in California--Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, San Francisco, Sea World

What is your favorite thing about being 10?

 -Getting to be in fourth grade with Ms. Lora's class

Sera's Birthday Interview, Age 8

What is your favorite color?
 -Turquoise and magenta
What is your favorite food?
 -Waffles and pancakes
What is your favorite thing to wear?
 -My doughnut shirt and my jean shorts with pictures on the bottom
What is your favorite thing to do?
 -Play outside with neighborhood friends or on the trampoline, and read in my hammock
If you could buy anything in the whole world you wanted, what would it be?
 -A dog and a baby (adopt one)
What are you good at?
 -Jumping on the trampoline and drawing
What job would you like when you grow up?
 -Doctor
Where are you going to live when you grow up?
 -Indiana
What games do you like to play?
 -Clue, Monopoly and Life
What was your favorite thing about being 7?
 -Going to Knott's Berry Farm and Sea World
What is your favorite thing about being 8?
 - Looking forward to being baptized