“You’re just in time to cut up the shapes of the cookies!”
— another in an ongoing series entitled “the first thing the kid says to me when I get home from work”

We visited the annual Waldorf School Holday Faire yesterday, something we also did in 2009 and 2010. A few words and pictures:

Above Left: the kid hunkers down and examines some details in an enchanted ‘Gnome Forest’. Above Right: Contemplating what to play on next at the playground.

Above Left: Cookie decorating.
Above Right: Trying to give her dad a nudge from the swing.

Even more pics:

“Wanna see my butterfly playing an xylophone?”
— the kid introduces her latest drawing

Back in 2003 I brought a camcorder to a family get-together and shot some video. I later discovered I’d shot the whole thing with the mic input on zero. That meant no sound at all. Disappointed, I tossed the tape in a box and forgot about it.

While searching around in a closet today I found that old tape. It’s funny how time changes things. When I first shot the video I considered it worthless. Now, eight years later, I feel as if I’ve unearthed a little forgotten treasure. It was a very nice surprise indeed.

Music: “Like Someone in Love” from The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow by Tal Farlow.

“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

The next day, she was inspired to make a caterpillar house and look for caterpillars while visiting grandma’s.

She didn’t discover any caterpillars, though grandma reported seeing some lovely green and black ones on her tomatoes a few weeks back. But she did find two green grasshoppers on the geraniums next to a rose bush.

So into the caterpillar (now grasshopper) house they went. They didn’t stay long, but they humoured L and didn’t seem to mind too much. After testing out the box they went back to napping on the geranium.

Maybe next time she will find a new insect friend!

Dad (telling a story): ”Wubie rounded the corner and headed straight for the kid!”
The Kid (thinking quickly): “…And she jumped up high onto the ceiling where there was a little hook!”
— The kid describes how she eludes Wubert in a make-believe story

What the Hail from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s a quick video from March when we had a bit of hail outside our place.

“Mommy, where’s my goggles?” – Lucy preparing to cook

The youngest member and I were invited to a party at Filoli, an after hours stroll for members.

Madame handled her first garden party with aplomb. She enjoyed the hors d’oeuvres, particularly the crackers.

She waited patiently to go in the house,  listening to the barbershop quartet.

She was excited to go upstairs (usually not allowed, but open on this special occasion) and see the rooms up there.

In the ballroom she entertained the guests with some impromptu ballet to accompany the piano player.

She enjoyed herself so much, she didn’t want to leave…even when her tuckered mom was ready to go.

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?

“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

Daddy: “What’d you think of that house we looked at?”
Lucy: “I loved it! It had so many weird rooms!”
— Looking at houses w/ Lucy

Friday Morning (Again) from Mike C on Vimeo.

Late last year I made a post about shooting video of a typical morning. From the post:

I thought it’d be interesting to shoot a video of a regular day, so I placed my little pocket handheld on my nightstand when I went to bed and started shooting video as soon as I woke up on Friday morning.

By the end of the day I’d decided against posting the video for all to see because of an assortment of reasons. However, I re-watched the video recently and thought it’d be OK to post an abridged version. I basically chopped out everything that followed my drive to work.

Music Used:

• “Sidewalk Flight”, “Drive In”, “Main Title” from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack by Jon Brion
• “Rusty Cage” from The Legend of Johnny Cash by Johnny Cash

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.