The Venice of California

Last week we spent a delightful four days with Abby and Adam and baby Charlotte in Venice, California. It was such a relaxing and fun vacation. I think what made it so much fun was that the activities that were fun for the kids were also fun for the grown-ups. There was minimal stress over supervision or entertainment. A notable exception was the excursion to the amusement park at the end of the Santa Monica pier. Some people love amusement parks (i.e. Ryan, the boys, the rest of the free world). I, however, detest them, and the “fun” of trying not to lose the kids gave me a MAJOR stress headache. But basically, we laid low and the kids were happy.  We went biking/running on the beachfront bike path, we built sandcastles and flew kites on the beach, we played games at the house, and Elliot went on lots of “adventures” that consisted solely of locking and unlocking the front door with the house keys.  It was total bliss.  

One of the highlights was the Getty Center. This is one of my dad’s favorite places and has raved about it for years so Abby and I were eager to go. It did not disappoint. The museum was shutting down for Carmageddon so we went on Friday. Ryan had to work from the beach house so he couldn’t join us, but our friend Michelle from high school came along. (If you hadn’t heard about Carmageddon, it was the non-event that was supposed to throw all of LA into a traffic-roiled mess (more than it usually is, I mean) when they shut down the 405 for the entire weekend for road maintenance.) Anyway, even though the kids mutinied and refused to stay in the galleries, the gardens and grounds were so enchanting that it was still a great experience. They especially loved the tram-ride up the mountain-side to get to the museum.

         I loved how every aspect of the buildings and gardens were exquisitely designed. One of my favorite details were these re-bar trellises for bougainvillea. Not everyone (ahem, Adam) thought they were terrific but I sure did. The rebar has rusted and now they look like giant sculptural trees.

It was quite surprising to discover that Venice, California has a series of charming canals—almost, [well, not quite] like the “real” Venice. Who knew?! I know what you’re thinking, when you hear Venice Beach you think exhibitionist bodybuilders and a head-turning parade of heavily tattooed, body-pierced, self-medicated skaters/surfers/runaways/carnival hucksters, but we discovered the quaint “Venetian” side of Venice.

 

 

This is where we stayed in Venice. Not on the canals, but on a cute little pedestrian street a block and a half from the beach. It was the perfect home base.   

         

We stayed in LA for four days and then took 2 days to drive the Pacific Coast Highway home. That was an amazing trip! I will post photos of that part of the trip soon.

Summer Days

I love the summer. I love the suspended pace.  We have a rhythm to our days but no urgent schedule. I love the long days and good, fresh summer food. I feel like I eat so healthily in the summer. [Until about 10:00pm when I eat like a bear going into hibernation. If a bear going into hibernation ate chocolate.] The truth is I heartily enjoy vegetables but sugar is like kryptonite to me.

Anyway, it just seems like things are finally starting to get easier. The kids are playing well together and Elliot is being so affectionate. Whereas just a few weeks ago he was so defiant and most of what came out of his mouth was foul language (no kidding), now he says, “mom, I love you SOOOOOOO much!” or “oh, mom, I love your skirt.” He is very cute with his compliments. I’m surprised by what he notices. I have a feeling he is going to be quite the ladies man. He only tries to mortally wound Anwoo a handful of times a day, which is a vast improvement over his previous non-stop attacks. Even though I think preschool was a great experience for both of them, it was exhausting and left them both sort of cranky afterwards. Now that preschool is over they seem less ornery and there is a better, happier spirit in our house.

So this is how our summer is settling out so far: On Mondays I load Andrew and Elliot into the jogging stroller and Oliver gets on his bike and we all head over to a park for “Summer Running Club.” Summer Running Club is the brainchild of my friend Amy. She made little punch cards for each of the kids to track their laps around the park. One lap is roughly 1/4 mile. Oliver already ran 5 miles! Elliot has only gotten 6 holes punched which means he’s done 1.5 miles over the course of 3 weeks, mostly walking and holding my hand. The kids are developing healthy habits and setting goals. I love it!

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we go jogging on the trails with some friends for what Oliver calls “Mom Running Club”. I am training for the Napa Valley Ragnar, a relay race in September from SF to Calistoga. You would think with all this running and vegetable eating I would be one svelte momma. You would be wrong. Perhaps there is some correlation with my late-night sweets consumption.

On Wednesdays we often go on an excursion with friends from church to a museum or the zoo or some other field trip destination. Last week we went to the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley.  Today they went to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, but skipped that because we went with Ryan not too long ago. Next week we are going to take the ferry into SF which should be quite exciting.

On Fridays we go to the park or do nothing at all. And one of those days we have summer art group.

   

We are just as occupied but it seems less busy or routine. It feels like every day is an opportunity to have a fresh adventure or do nothing at all but enjoy each other’s company.  It seems like things have just settled into place and we’ve found a good pace. I’m hoping I can sustain it.

Boys’ Room DIY Improvements

The week the boys were in camp at Elliot’s preschool I went on a little DIY bender. It was so much fun to have 4 hours a day to work on this project with minimal interruptions. This is what I did:

Made black-out curtains. The boys’ room faces east and it is VERY bright first thing in the morning. I’d like to delay wake up as long as possible. In theory these should also help them fall asleep faster at night when it is still light out. In practice that isn’t working. It does help keep their room cooler when I draw them closed during the day. I am really happy with the way they came out.

Painted some furniture. Specifically, their old dresser from the nursery and a desk and chair I found by the side of the road. Can’t beat that price.

Before:

After:

If you can’t tell I’m trying to work a subtle nautical theme. I don’t want it to be too literal but still capture the beachy/boaty spirit.  I really don’t know if it does, but in any case, it’s a start. This was the first time I’ve done a project like this and it was a lot of fun. I made quite a few mistakes. The most obvious being that if you plan to paint something a dark color like navy you shouldn’t start with white primer. It took 5 coats of paint to finally get the color I wanted.

Here is the old nursery desk after I repainted it. Its size and shape are not ideal for the space under the window, but it’s what we have so I’m working with it. It’s the same color as the desk, it’s just bad lighting in this photo.

       

And finally, here was my little sidekick through out the whole process. He was more (Monday) or less (Friday) content to hang out or take naps in his car seat. What a kid!

The Mom & Oliver Uno Challenge

We battled it out during Elliot’s nap times-- five games a day for the past 12 days. In the end it was close, but Ollie pulled out a clutch 4 game streak to become the first official Halverson Uno Champ. His reward: a bag of Skittles. I lost out on frozen yogurt. Oliver wisely pointed out that had I won I would have had to buy my own frozen yogurt anyway since he has no money. True enough.       Oliver is THRILLED with his victory, can you tell? I, on the other hand, am so sick of Uno. Does anyone have a suggestion for another game that might work for a 5 year old?

Summer Art

Last summer my friend Suzy and I had such a great time doing weekly art projects with our kids that we decided to continue our tradition and do a long distance version this summer. Although we don’t get to enjoy gourmet lunches together after the projects, we are collaborating on ideas and giving each other inspiration. I talked my friend Anna McFadden into doing it with me here in California so we have a small actual art group in addition to our virtual art group back in Nashville.

Today I taught a lesson on symmetry and we made flower mandalas. I tried teaching symmetry last summer when we made paint butterflies (you know, when you drip paint onto a piece of paper and fold it in half and gently press the two sides together. Viola! A butterfly!) Anyway, my explanation of symmetry went wildly off track last year when I said that “if I were to cut this picture in half, both sides would be the same.” They freaked out because they thought I was going to cut their pictures in half and even though I explained emphatically that I was not going to cut their art in half they couldn’t get beyond that. 

So this year went better. I first had them do a symmetry exercise before I tried explaining it with words. I drew a line down the middle of a piece of paper and created a simple shape with geometric pattern blocks one one side of the line. I had them repeat the pattern on the other side, to make it “same on the other side". I explained that this type of pattern is called symmetry. Then we made some asymmetric shapes and talked about what made them asymmetric. We looked at some pictures of animals (crabs, butterflies, people) and talked about symmetry found in nature.  I also introduced the concept of “lines of symmetry,” and “radial symmetry.” My explanation of radial symmetry was a little rough, but they got the concept, despite my poor explanation. We then went out in the yard and hunted for symmetry in nature.

Then we came back inside and made these awesome flower mandalas which are examples of radial symmetry. I got the idea from The Artful Parent. All it took was some paper plates, contact paper and some flowers and leaves. Easy peasy and the kids really, really enjoyed it!

   

Crazy Balls and Mud Pies

Have I described how much I love our backyard? It is the perfect backyard.  And by perfect I do not mean perfectly manicured. It has weeds galore. But it is perfect for our family. It is fenced, flat and not too fussy. At one point it was nicely landscaped so there are still flowers in every season and fruit trees. It retains some its former glory but it is slowly reverting to its natural state. The boys, no doubt, are hastening this process. They throw “mud bombs” down onto the basketball court, they re-routed the flagstone path according to their own whimsy, dismantled part of the dry-laid retaining wall, and dug up some old irrigation lines. [Did I mention how much I LOVE renting!! I hope our landlords don’t blogstalk us…I’m doing my best, I just can’t watch them ALL the time.] They have a booming mudworks construction operation with all their diggers, dumptrucks and backhoe loaders.  They have several excavation efforts underway, too. I think they are building a quarry.

Now that the days are longer we spend most evenings hanging out in the backyard. Ryan and the boys invented a game called “crazy balls.” The object of the game is to hit all the balls (tennis balls, footballs, whiffleballs, basketballs, soccer balls, etc) into the hula hoop with croquet mallets. It replaced “dingleballs” (aka “red-neck golf”, a.k.a.  the “bonk-on-the-head-game”)  as our backyard game of choice since Elliot  kept bonking himself in the head with that game.

I have to go to bed since I re-committed (just this morning!!) not to stay up late. I am in the middle of a great book and a huge DIY project so it’s been very tempting to stay up late. I would write more about our backyard fun but here are some pictures and an open invitation to come visit and hang out with us in the backyard and experience it yourself.

          Our neighbors have a plum tree that hangs over into our yard. Tonight I gave Anwoo his first taste of plum…he ate the whole thing. I was reminded of an image from Ann Lamott’s book Operating Instructions in how she describes the first time her son ate a plum he slowly pushed the peel back out of his mouth like a dollar bill being rejected from a vending machine. I really like that image and was tempted to see what Anwoo would do with the peel but reasoned that he might choke on it so I didn’t let him try it.