Back in January we hosted a birthday party for madame.

This year’s theme was Beatrix Potter. Everyone wore masks of different Potter characters, and we had tea, sandwiches, scones and cakes for the party.

We played with some of her new presents…

and had a rousing game of impromptu ‘balloon ball’ too!

“And that is Wubie dressed as an angel.”
— the kid explains a Christmas drawing

It’s that time of the year, so I’m cranking out some home movies. Here’s a video of yesterday’s our Christmas get-together at my mom’s place. Every year we say “Wow, look how grown up the kids are!” For some reason it seemed especially apparent this year.

Sorry you couldn’t make it!: Sam & Mirjana & family (OR), Tisa & Jim (HI), Nina & Larry (TX), Michelle & Michael (CT!)

Music Used:

• “Deck the Halls”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, “Silent Night”, “Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)”, from Christmas Album by Charlie Byrd

“You can’t go to the airport, Wubert! There’s a plane squash you…and take you away. That’s not fun, Wubert.”
— the kid explains to Wubie why he can’t go on a plane trip in September, 2009

Here’s a quick video from this year’s Dicken’s fair. The kid’s Gpa Tom and Gma Karen are featured, along with some footage of the kid playing one of her favorite fair games, “Boot the Cat.”

Music used:

• “Christmas is Coming” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas

“Hurry! Before the car breaks!”
— The kid tries to get her parents up and out of the house

Before we visited my mom on Sunday Jill said, “You should make another family history video!” I was feeling slightly less than energetic, but since it’d been a while since my last video, I hurriedly packed some cameras in a bag and we set off.

Once there, my mom gave me a drumstick (yay!) and I parked myself in front of her TV to watch some HGTV (I can watch stuff ‘Professional Grade’ and ‘American Handyman’ for hours!)

“Hey, aren’t you going to video your mom?” my bothersome lovely wife asked.

I gave a low Wubie grumble as I unglued myself from the comfy confines of the La-Z-Boy, muttered a cheerless goodbye to Mike Holmes, and went outside.

Once mom agreed to the interview, I grabbed my ultra-cool Canon 60D…and discovered I’d left its battery in its charging cradle at home. Awesome.

“Oh well,” I thought, “that’s why you bring backups!”

So I pulled out my trusty Flip camera and handed it to Jill. She was taking on the dual role of both interviewer and camera person for the video. I grabbed my other backup, (yes, I brought along three cameras!) wrestled with a tripod for a bit, and we shot an impromptu interview.

And it was a lot of fun.

Some notes:

• Next time I shoot a video with two cameras I need to make sure they’re both recording at the same rate. I had lots of audio sync issues while editing this video
• Because of the audio issues, I ended up cutting the interview into two parts. I hope to post the second part later this week
• Boy, am I glad Jill shot video w/ the Flip during the interview. I started the edit thinking I wouldn’t use much of her Flip footage; I ended up using most of it. I like its saturated look
• Jill was the all-star here. She’s the one that prodded both me and my mom for the shoot. It was her questions that kept the interview going
• Less than halfway through the shoot I had to leave my camera as the kid ‘volunteered’ me for a game of ‘Chase Me’
• I made the beginning of this video (the pan over all of the photos) a few years ago as a test. I never used it for anything (except for a post), so I thought I’d make it the intro for this video. The music is “Mr. Blue Sky” from the Amelie soundtrack

We went to the Nevada County Fair, which had loads of rides, games, food, music,  animals and exhibits.

 
After watching her fearless cousin tackle walking on water in a big bubble, L had to give it a try!

We had a wonderful visit, can’t wait to see everyone again!

Do you know what I dreamed about last night? Caterpillars at Filoli! - Lucy

One of the neat things about visiting Filoli is that you never know what you will see. The flowers are changed often, and the wildlife varies as well according to the season.

Recently we have seen wild turkeys and deer, and even both in the same day! The turkeys are hilarious…very self-assured birds who sometimes walk in front of a car, puff up, and gobble gobble at you.  The deer are so used to Filoli that they do not bolt at the first sight of visitors…esp. since we stay mostly at a distance.

There is also a resident rooster at Filoli, and though we have never seen him, we hear him often. Sometimes they let one of the chickens roam around in the garden…the last time that happened, Lucy was just a baby. She was scared of it even from a distance, and wanted to run away.

Oddly enough, her grandmother was also scared of chickens. She related this to me one time when we were walking through Filoli (possibly the same day as the chicken episode). Lucy has also shown a great dislike of chickens and roosters at petting zoos…so I think this might be an inherited trait.

Anyway, the last few visits we have been noticing…caterpillars! There are the little tiny green ones that dangle on strings hanging out of trees and get stuck in your hair (they have these every year at Stanford too), and the regular sized ones with stripes or spotty patterns. Here are some of the cool caterpillars we found recently.
Anyone able to identify them?

“Going to a party in the bathroom!”
— Lucy singing in the bathtub

Lately, I’ve been scanning lots of old family photos at my mom’s place. Here are a few from Oklahoma in the mid 1950s when dad was stationed at Fort Sill.

Mom’s own father actually drove her from CA to OK in mom’s first car, a Studebaker. He then took a bus back home once he had dropped his daughter off in OK.

Above Left: my mom and a neighbor. Above Right: My dad and a neighbor’s kid (at this time my parents didn’t have any children.)

“Daddy, can I go with you to take out the garbage, not because I like the smell of garbage but because I like being with you.”
— Lucy (what a sweet kid!)

Easter Egg Hunt (2011) from Mike C on Vimeo.

Due to miscellaneous happenings, the family wasn’t able to get together on Easter this year. Because of this, we made a point of congregating at Gma Vita’s place for Mother’s Day. Above is a video Jill shot of this year’s belated Easter Egg Hunt (which actually took place on Mother’s Day.)

This year’s turnout of egg hunters was a little on the small side due to some kids getting “too old” to hunt for eggs and others missing the event all together. Oh well, more eggs for the little ones!

After watching the video, you can check out some previous egg hunts below. It’s pretty incredible seeing how much the kids have grown over the last three years.

Easter Egg Hunt 2010

Easter Egg Hunt 2009

Easter Egg Hunt 2008

Yesterday we went with Grandma to see Lucy’s cousin starring as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz at her school.

Lucy is a big fan of putting on shows, and she loved it…she was on the edge of her seat. We envision a lot of plays and shows in our future.

There were no photos of the show allowed, so we just snapped some before and after pics. It was a lot of fun, and we look forward to the next one. Congrats on a wonderful play!

We’ve been to Filoli three times since it reopened in February. We went on Grandmommy’s birthday with the family, as has become our tradition.

Looking back through our photos I am reminded how happy Grandmommy was there, despite her illness. (The first photo below is Lucy now…the one next to it is Grandmommy in the same space 3 years ago. )

How peaceful and relaxing and ‘away from it all’ it is here.