Michael turns 8!

Michael actually turned 8 on Oct 20, but we held the party at Conejo Community Park last Sat, amid cooler fall temps after a brief Indian summer of 90+ temps,
which spared my Indiana Jones cake. The impressive figurines (Marianne had a frying pan, Arab villains a monkey & sword, & Indy a whip) came from some ebay store in China - non-edible! - with cake help from Kake Kreations in Sherman Oaks.
Chocolate river rock, jelly bean boulders and a chocolate cake with butter cream.

But the thrills were clearly coming from the games conjuring the Raiders of the Lost Ark (which neither Michael or Jack have seen, btw):

Boulder chase with Q-Tip poison darts.

Jousting the Nazi villain, Arnold Toht

mummy making

Throwing flour-filled socks throw hoops at the enemy

under beautiful California oaks. There were gummy snake and lizards on the tables under a canopy of gorgeous leaves and jungle balloons.

and ID lanyards with names spelled in hieroglyphics

Our initial plan was a Tin Tin party, but caved upon learning so few children knew of the Belgian character and his dog, Milou:
Turned out that there's an Indy - Tin Tin resonance somewhere. Spielberg's film on Tin Tin is in post-production, so lookout, folks. Americans will all be going nuts over the boy soon.

It was great seeing all the children enjoy solid lo-tech fun. This kind of production takes a village, but has a tremendous pay-off.

Our disparate communities - church, Beacon Hill, AWANA, even a blood relative! - blended in well, the centrifuge supplied by young children.

Elle with Lee and Kai, my cousin Kathy's husband and 2 yr old.

The adults

Dressing Indy meant hats

A pre-cake group photo.

Reformation Feast

GRC had its annual Reformation Feast, dovetailing with All Saints Day elsewhere. This event kicks off a season of feasts and is what our church does best, I feel; cook & play & remembering the important matters of faith. The fall feast features soups and stews and a dessert competition. I made an African stew with coconut milk, tomato, and peanut butter - first learned at L'Abri - for flavoring the chicken and sweet potato. A hit!

First we needed to get pumpkins.

Pumpkin patches near the 101 fwy with $5 tickets for the requisite bounce house - but more charming than you'd expect, nevertheless.

Carolyn made a Pin-the-Thesis on the Door contest.

Michael actually won the pumpkin carving contest:based on his favorite theme: catsChildren really love THIS feast, but generally have a larger stake in the worship, since they can participate in the weekly communion, which is focus of the service. Protestants, in a reaction to the medieval church, largely replaced the eucharist with the sermon. Churches like GRC have both.

Winners of this year's various contests!

Harvest 2010

Michael has always loved gardening, collecting seeds. He'd rescue an avocado pit from the garbage can, gather pumpkin seeds every Halloween carving, carefully saving them in a ziploc. After a reasonable tomato harvest last year and terrible results with a lemon tree, we were determined to plant pumpkin seeds this spring, anticipating great orange results.
We are in So Cal, but our particular house gets almost no sunlight. We finally decided that above the water meter in the front lawn was the only spot, worrying we'd get reported to the homeowners' association.
My parents planted Japanese eggplants & cucumbers every year, buying starters from nurseries. I remember creating wells around each plant, fortifying with blood meal, and watching the circular dams hold their water. These generally went into pickles - salted, bran fermented - a staple of Japanese food largely missing from restaurants these days. Leaner postwar memories, when pickles provided a cheap, flavorful counterpoint to a bowl of rice with little protein.

But Michael's farming instincts seem driven by literary and film fantasies, long favoring pumpkins. A charming story, Farmer Boy, described an elaborate plan to feed milk by straw into a pumpkin, fattening it for a contest prize. (A Tacoma dairy farmer friend confirmed this strategy, btw). Our little black box yielded these fabulous leaves taking over the lawn,

until we got a beautiful deep orange Cinderella pumpkin (to the left).
Then he brought these peppercorns back from school grounds - full of instructions on drying, roasting, shelling.
A dad at soccer practice last night offered a pure bred golden retriever, but we're renting and transient, so can't offer a home we don't have. But we're glad for neighbors' animals we borrow and for park equipment our postage stamp backyard lacks.

odds and ends

The boys had their recital at Mrs. Lloyd's house on Sunday. Sign of recession: her students are about half in number this year.
Jack likes to stare into the Yamaha while Michael plays - a position he's occupied for some time now.

***

Carolyn threw a baby shower for Hilary the Saturday before the recital.

Children's book characters graced the living room.

Sample questions from Carolyn's children's book quiz:

1. The Jewish author who escaped Paris hours before it fell to the Nazis and fled to Brazil wrote:

a. The Cat in the Hat

b. Curious George

c. Paddington Bear

2. Which book was the result of a bet Dr. Suess had with his publisher that he could not write a book with 50 different words or less:

a. Red Fish Blue Fish

b. The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

c. Green Eggs and Ham

***

Lastly, some fond Beacon Hill pics:

Carolyn's trojan horse craft:

Author Doug Bond teaching a writing workshop:

"Fall"

In quotes because we've had record-breaking heat recently,

which I actually enjoyed, given our record-breaking cooler summer, and during which Carolyn and I went to a vineyard wedding in Temecula - about 2 hours towards San Diego - while Elle took the boys to their soccer games.
Jack's "game face." He loves kicking balls and expending physical energy in less choreographed ways than Michael, who is apt to start singing and dancing.

M's coach Chris, a Brit expat who goes absolutely ape on the field. We appreciate his sense of fun, however, while forbidding parents to cheer their sons individually - leave that to Chris.Jack found a little friend

Afterwards, Elle drove the boys to a beach just north of Zuma dotted with caves and crawling opportunities.

Stephanie drove,

taking everyone to Neptune's Net for dinner:
A biker joint which M & J thoroughly enjoyed.

StarfishPelicans.

Fall Semester

Beacon Hill Classical Academy survived and launched year two! K-5 in 3 classrooms (shared one of those accordion-divided rooms last year) and 44 students with a waitlist. Having Mrs Meza and Mrs Tucker - both seasoned teachers - teaching K-2 and Mr Smith handling the upper grades made everything feel, well, "legit."

Last year began with 15 kids and we were always struggling financially - those days aren't over by a long shot - but there is strength in numbers. Elle will be joining soon as a teacher's assistant, helping the 1st/2nd split class, especially.

Jack, a kindergartener, was very shy day one, but has come home recently talking a lot about a girl with red hair!Michael's class of 5 expanded to 15 with real school desks - a Craiglist buy:with placards and wall decor celebrating Roman history - this year's theme. We're donating the early Asterix books to the library, supporting the year's Roman theme:After a quick orientation, Mr Smith led the daily chapel devotional, framing BHCA's and the year's purpose in terms of praise and worship:

teaching the meaning of "hallelujah" (Hebrew imperative/command to praise God) with lifted hands pointing to heaven:
We're hoping this year's curriculum is more relaxed - Michael has a tough time convincing his soccer team he is in 3rd grade - but the boys love their school and the homeschooling part seems to be actually going better with two pupils. I think all the parents came away feeling very thankful for this place and for these dedicated people.

Speaking of dedicated individuals, here is a statue of a celebrated 3rd century Roman guard - Saint Maurice - stationed in Switzerland. Maurice was a genuine believer who refused to persecute fellow Christians, and, eventually, was martyred. He was, apparently, a black Egyptian and there is a town - the ski resort, St Moritz, also honors him - named after him at the site of his resistance to the emperor Maximilian, just east of Lake Geneva. This is the beautiful sandstone church and monastery, Romainmotier, in Switzerland, dating to the 5th century. It is amazing to consider that 1st century apostles were at the very spot. And it is great to think our boys will be learning this history - when Europe began shedding paganism - as well.