Close encounter

Anika & Rayna meet Ka, Dave's ball python.

Meadow Minuet

Anika's rendition of Meadow Minuet for her Suzuki Book 1 graduation recording.

Remember

Anika will remember, remember the 5th of November as a sparkling good time. No effigies were harmed in this particular celebration. Another fine photo by host Alex.

Rayna starts guitar lessons

Rayna after four weeks of Suzuki guitar, exhibiting fine form during her lesson earlier this week at California Conservatory of Guitar. After we finished one of her daily home lessons tonight, she said "Dad, I want to learn Bach Tanz" - a song I had been helping Anika with earlier in the evening. I told her she could get there in about a year, but that we needed to finish Twinkle, Twinkle first :-)

Anika's 7th Birthday

Anika tests a hoop before applying her rainbow color scheme with electrical tape

We held a hula-hoop making party for Anika's 7th Birthday. The kids loved it. Thanks to my cousin Melissa for sharing her "recipe": 100 psi 3/4" irrigation tubing, 3/4" connectors, pvc cutter, electrical tape and a hair dryer. Cut to length, heat ends, jam on connector, decorate to suit. These pictures from neighbor Alex who took much better photos than mine.

The finished products

New triple meets new house

We finally unpack the Bike Friday Triple and introduce it to our new house. The inaugural trip today was rather short - four blocks to the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival, many future adventures beckon. 

Rayna Rides

Rayna rides w/o training wheels

And again!

Logans on the move

We are very excited to soon be relocating to a home in downtown "Old Mountain View", situated on a cul-de-sac four blocks from Castro St. We will be able to walk to the library, parks, farmer's market, pool, book store, restaurants, performing arts center, and gymnastics club. Jon has a 8 block walk to the train station, where he can catch a shuttle bus to work. Neighboring houses have roughly a dozen kids aged 4-8, and great people, including some long time friends of ours. Slightly bittersweet to be leaving the house where our girls were born (literally), but really couldn't have asked for a better new situation. A modest down size in living space (long desired by Jennifer) will be accompanied by an enormous upgrade in quality of life.

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Storytime with Anika

Anika reads Seuss to Rayna before bedtime.

Game Day

During Mom's afternoon at knitting, the girls and I enjoyed game time. Rayna always runs to get her dragon cap in order to play a Dragonborn Wizard in  Wrath of Ashardalon: A D&D Boardgame. Anika prefers an Elf.

We also played Chateau Roquefort. Anika groks both games, Rayna just enjoys being part of the action. Rayna's first choice of game would probably be Dwarves&Dice or Gobblet Gobblers.

Daddy-Anika time

• Popcorn from the air popper: $1
• Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone on Blu-Ray - $9
• Cheeseburgers, fries and shake @ In-And-Out - $12
• Saturday afternoon date with my oldest daughter - priceless

Test Drive

Test driving a Bike Friday Triple. Based upon the Logan ladies' reaction, one of these may be in our future. Thanks to the Berkeley family who let some strangers take their treasure out for a spin.

Anika's 2nd Recital: Perpetual Motion

Anika's Recital, 30 April 2011

Anika rides!

Anika's first ride without training wheels