It was just yesterday that we celebrated her 1st birthday!
This picture was in one of our very first Christmas newsletters.
Now she just celebrated her 18th!
Is Kyle really that much taller than her? He really is a 'Big Fella'!
She is a great playmate and babysitter for the girls...
Here she is with all but one of her girl cousins...next year she will head off to college.. Sigh... they grow up so fast and I'm tearing up as I write this. I am so very very proud of my goddaughter who has become a young lady who loves God. I know that He has great plans for her future!
Hannah had a dream and she wrote about it the following morning:
Not sure where she comes up with these antics! But, of course, my dreams (if I remember them) never made sense either! She actually woke up early on her own and typed this all out and read it to us when we finally woke up. (It was Saturday morning... our only sleeping-in day of the week!) She'll love to hear your thoughts.. so please comment!
Hannah's 3rd grade class went on their first field trip of the school year. It was to the Children's Creativity Museum or formally called ZEUM Museum. It is an interactive arts and technology museum for kids.
Hannah's third grade class
It's located on Fourth Ave in SF in the Yerba Buena Center next to the gorgeous merry-go-round/carousel. It's open Weds through Sunday from 10am-4pm. Admission is $11 per person and under age of 2 is free. They have specific areas for little ones and I can't even describe the super fun things they get to do that is art and technology related... let's just say ipads, huge screens and music. Need I say more? You just have to go check it out..
But for the elementary age and up kids, there are workshops they can spend literally all day in. The first is the Animation Studio.
Softening the clay to mold into a blob
The kids were able to make Blob videos (due to time constraints they used clay to make blobs). If we were here longer they could have made clay people and animals for their videos. Basically they get to learn the basics of stopmotion animation by creating their own clay characters and bringing them to life on the screen. Afterwards you get to take home the movie they created either on a DVD or send via email.
Hannah working on her second video with classmates, Michelle and Sabrina.
The students were able to make two videos: Below is Hannah and her classmate Alex's video called "Drive and Fly." (Sorry no music added.)
This one is called "The Bully and the Friend"
The second workshop they participated in was the Music Studio where they got to sing and record their own video... karaoke style!
Hannah, Sabrina and Michelle singing "Dynamite"
You can pick a song from their 2000+ song selection and dress up to get into character. Performances are behind a green screen and they get to pick their own background and are recorded and put on a DVD for you to take home. It's a great way of expressing themselves and building creative confidence. They learn a little bit of Garageband and develop a musical understanding as well as exploring technology to create their own original work .
Below is Starlight's debut music video, "Dynamite"
Other workshops you can take part are the Community Lab where you use Creatura to 'fingerpaint' on an ipad and it becomes to life on screen'; Design Studio where you can create self portraits, a poster for your animation, or a cover album for your music video; Innovation Lab where you can invent something with just a few materials that the museum provides; and lastly Imagination Lab is for ages 3-6 where they can explore freely in their Sprial Gallery and Cloud Gallery.
As you can see.. this museum is not only for kids... adults can have just as much fun and learn along with the kids. I loved it so much that I definitely will take girls here for a "summer field trip". Anyone what to join us?
Plus there is a great cafe next door to the museum, along with a bowling alley, outdoor playground, and tons of shopping in the area... Bloomingdale's, Century Theater, Target, and the Metreon Center. Something for everyone! AND it's BART accessible!
On one of our 'summer field trips' we went to the Santa Cruz wharf.
There we saw a large amount of pelicans. They are quite large up close.
And they are not timid birds. They get quite aggressive especially when they are hungry.
We witnessed a fight between a sea lion and brown pelican on who would get the dead fish..
Guess who won?
Then the seagulls came to take a turn with the pelican...
Guess who won?
We saw one resting (not sure if this was the same one that was fighting before).
We got quite close to it.
It's beak is enormously long and they do not look friendly. I think someone tried to pet it and it snapped it's long beak at him.
Later we checked out the sea lion lounge (under the pier)
One was quite responsive and posed for me when I asked him to look into the camera.
The ponds/lagoon behind our backyard was open to the public for this weekend only. We decided to go visit there because we always hear a lot of birds back there. "The lagoon was expanded to increase storm water capacity and enhance the natural habitat of the area. The Public Works Agency of the County has created three ponds (constructed wetlands) which is referred to as the ponds."
-Brochure
This is the view of the Lagoon. A lot of geese like to hang out here.
When we signed up at the visitor's center, the kids got to go on a scavenger hunt for different types of seeds. This seed was one of our favorites.
This is a willow plant . If you pop it...
...this is what is inside. The little black dots are the seeds. The wind will carry away the fluff and the seed to reproduce. The fluffy stuff is so soft. Like silk.
We saw an American Robin eating some berries.
Boy, there are a lot of them. I wish I had that in my backyard.
In a small stream, we saw many many frogs hopping about.
Above the water...
...under the water.
In the lagoon, there were a lot of Canada Geese. I always hear these loud honkers flying over me when standing outside my house. I wondered where they were going.
American Coot
Female Ruddy Duck
Snowy Egrets and Great Egrets
Great Egret
Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets
Snowy Egret (left) Great Egret (right)
Western Scrub-Jay
Our house from the other side of our fence. (You can see part of my bird feeder.)
As you all know, the Squirrel is always taking things. He took birdseed, peanuts and even a scooper. One time, he took a whole feeder. We went to the the other side of the fence and there it was, hanging right there on a tree.
I think that the Squirrel took the feeder, dropped it on the other side, and
somebody picked it up and hung it on the tree.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Can you believe that all of what Emily wrote about is literally behind our backyard? It's not normally open to the public and you have to schedule an appointment to be able to walk through it. I see lots of classes on field trips go through it during the day and Boy Scout troops working on projects behind our fence on the weekends. We always hear tons of chirping and croaking noises unbeknownst to us on what it was coming from. So now we know! So amazing! It is also literally on the Fault. Yes, our backyard is THE Fault. Kind of unsettling but we know God is in control of all things!
Sigh... they grow up so fast and I'm tearing up as I write this. I am so very very proud of my goddaughter who has become a young lady who loves God. I know that He has great plans for her future!
