Saturday in the Park

In Golden Gate Park, rowing on our favorite lake


We couldn't identify this guy in our bird book, anyone?
Sites and dinner in Japantown.

International Parade Day at School

Vince representing Egypt.
The Egyptian flag with a an eagle, a black stripe on the bottom and red stripe on top.

Vincent's Lab: Experiment 1, day 1

Welcome to Vincent's Lab.
We started with some sea monkeys, but we can't tell if they hatched or it's just dust floating in the tank. So
Dad had another idea. And yesterday something new arrived in the mail.

An egg case!


We hung it on a stick and put it in it's cage.


What kind of egg case? A Praying Mantis egg case! We read anywhere from 50-400 eggs are in the case. (Mom hopes that is an exaggeration and not a scientific fact. We'll find out). Here our entomologist paints a plastic model praying mantis.

Vince predicts:
How many days until the eggs hatch? - 11
Is your mantis going to be brown, gray or green? - green
how many legs will it have? 6

Geckos on MLK Day

Vincent and I woke up in Napa, had fun dressing Wyatt, then headed out to brave the wind and rain storm over the Bay Bridge to the California Academy of Sciences. On the way I gave him permission to have 2 star gum drops, but not more because that would give him a tummy ache I warned. The wind and rain was fierce so I kept my eyes on the road, until a few minutes later when he said, "Mommy, I have a good idea, I'll eat 8 AND THEN I'll tell you if I have a tummy ache. I looked back and he had 4 gum drops laid out on each leg and was also chewing 1 (or 2, who knows), I had no idea how many he already ate. I took them off his legs. But 20 minutes later, he said "Mommy, my seat belt is too tight and that's why I have a tummy ache. It's not the star gummies."

Luckily the stomach ache didn't last and the day quickly became one of my favorite days as Vincent's mom. He was so excited and curious and knowledgeable about everything the minute we hit the museum. We'd been looking forward to visiting since Christmas Day when we got a membership from Gramma and Grampa, so we had done some planning. Together we watched some of the videos on their website. After seeing this one our plan was to be sure to see the Geckos. Vince couldn't believe there were 7 dif kinds of geckos in the rainforest. Good camouflagers, we spent time at each case finding them. On the way home he told me his favorites of the day were the bats, snakes, and of course our friends the spiderman frogs. No doubt he's fun and curious all the time, but three and a half has been hard to handle - he has a lot of energy and no control over it. In the museum he put all that energy into making observations, asking questions and looking for more wonder.

Here are some of the creatures we spent some time with.
T Rex greeted us
Pink and Orange starfish
Snakes in these rocks.

Pitch plant - traps bugs
Saffron Finch
Spiderman frogs - poisonous dart frogs
Tomato frog
Gliding Geckos
Gecko upside down and close up. tiny hairs on the fingers let him climb




In the park swinging his stretchy toy snake from the gift shop. V's asleep now with the snake in bed.
At bed time, before I knew what hit me, Vince licked my eyeball. Geckos don't have eyelids and clean their eyes with their tounges.

Sleepover in "Wineland"

Danielle and Charlie planned a trip to Wineland (as Vince called it)! We joined them on Sunday.

In some tasting rooms it's best to hide the kids. Luckily Vince was happy under the table with his games. Wyatt was sleeping in the stroller.
Then they entertained each other.
A Rose (in a rose), outside Hall Winery.
Entering the Persian temple styled tasting room at Darius Winery.

As you can see, one of the coolest things about visiting Napa is the architecture, art and ambiance of the wineries. This is Peju Province Winery. Check out the green stone floor and see Vince's tiger pose.



After a late night, Danielle, Charlie and Wyatt invited us to sleepover! They had a cot wheeled into their room and we had picnic in the hotel room. The sleepover was outrageous fun for V! He was surely the last asleep.

2010 Maggie and Gabbie

On Sunday we celebrated a year of friendship and fun!

Christmas in NH with friends

Here are some more photos from our super Christmas vacation. Lots of get togethers with friends.
Apple and Worm game with Jen
Jason and Jen
The 4 of us, oh wait a minute it's the 3 of us with cute little Wyatt (Penelope took this, unfort we didn't get a pick of P and Harlan)
with Manuel

Annie likes green beans.
Emma, Tori and Stefanie

Juel and Vince

Lori and Zowie
Juel Zowie Vince Wyatt
Us with our babies!
G&G with Judy and Ron, and Annie's there too!
The gang from the old days.
Cousins Gloria and Manuel, off to Spain
Let's do it again soon! xo