Family Dinner

This year one of my/our family goals is to take better advantage of the dinner hour. We eat dinner together nightly so the routine is in place, and these past years I've worked on making dinner a nourishing meal so that is pretty much down, but I am ready to make it even better. For one thing, I want to set the table! During the young years of our children I was pretty lucky to get a nourishing meal on the table, and I called that Good. But now they are older and can help out; we just need to introduce it as a priority. So we have been setting the table, and trying to anticipate anything we might need/want during the meal so that once we sit down we aren't getting up a hundred times. Already it feels more like a gathering, instead of just a feeding hour.

We also decided to direct the family attention each night, to use the captive hour to better ourselves. My mom gave me a book called The Family Dinner for my birthday. Not only is it full of really fun ideas, it is a delight to look at! I highly recommend it.

Here is our weekly schedule (with a little explanation):

DAVIS FAMILY DINNERS

SUNDAY at CHEZ DAVIS The Very Polite Cafe
Conversation Starters

Sunday dinners are simple and "fancy" (because we get sparkling juice in wine glasses), and we practice our very best manners. Last Christmas my mom got us the little box of Table Topics (Family). We read one question and practice good conversation skills which include: waiting your turn to speak (this takes a lot of practice in a family where everyone has so many important things to say!), asking someone further questions about their response, and listening. We've been doing this activity for quite awhile, and some times we see small glimmers that maybe we might be getting somewhere!

MONDAY

Games 'n Fun

This varies. Sometimes we play Truth Truth Trick where each person tells two truths about their day, and one trick, and everyone else has to guess which is the trick (this is tough when we spend all day together!), or sometimes we read silly poems and try to come up with additional rhyming lines. Sometimes we tell stories about when we were young, which are always loved by the girls.

TACO TUESDAY

Right and Wrong

Yep, tacos of all kinds on Tuesdays, and we read stories about people's moral choices, and discuss them.

WEDNESDAY
Current Events

This is new, and we're still seeing how this works, but the girls are to come to the table and be ready to discuss a current event.

THURSDAY
Poetry Night

We read poetry on this night, and are working toward memorizing some poems to recite at dinner.

FRIDAY
Draw & Tell

This is the kids favorite night. I found a book called Doodles at Dinner that has tear out pages. Each page has an object you draw, and then a little fact about the object. So we draw during dinner, and then show our drawing and tell the fact. A home run (except when they spill on their masterpiece...).

SOUPer SATURDAY
Shabbat

Soup is on for this night, and we adapted a Jewish tradition to begin Shabbat (the Sabbath) by breaking off a piece of challah bread and telling something that happened during the week that we are grateful for. We don't always get to the challah bread, but we do have bread, and similar to a toast we say our thanks and take a nibble. Maybe the challah bread will come... This is an idea from The Family Dinner. The author writes about this tradition beautifully.

So, after our first month I'd say we're off to a good start!

Our little yogi

When we're lucky, Ceci joins us to do yoga...





I love this kid!

Happy Birthday Keenan!

Last year's snow storm

Today is Geoff's dad's birthday, and living with him for these many months has been such a delight in so many ways that I want to write a little about him as a birthday tribute.

Most of my thoughts are about him as a Father. Watching him interact with our children gives me a little glimpse into what Geoff's childhood was like, and his dad's contribution to the remarkable human beings all eight of his children are.

When Geoff's dad (Keenan) is with the girls he is 100% present. He delights in their ideas, their silliness (and joins right in), the singing, and their uniqueness. He joins in on their childish ways: making super silly faces, creating funny sounds, laughing loudly at their jokes (genuinely), dancing around with exaggerated movement, letting them climb all over his head and back, and getting generally wild. And, he challenges their thinking, teaching them about everything from the Magna Carta to the solar system, and other topics I unfortunately can't pull out of my sleeve on a moment's notice! He has been reading them poetry with such animation that they beg for more, and then they run upstairs to try their own poetry voice out. They feel his love because he really believes in them, in the most sincere way. In his eyes they really can do anything.

He rejoices in his children/grandchildren. He marvels at who they are, and regularly acknowledges their unique characteristics and abilities. He seems to hunger for knowledge of any sort, so any conversation is worthwhile and he gives full attention and curiosity. He is overwhelmingly thoughtful and generous, and responds to any call for help. He asks and demands very little. His favorite word is...tremendous. And everything is tremendous. He is a tremendous human being; more importantly, a tremendous Father.

Thank you, Keenan, for your example and goodness. We all love you and are inspired by you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

VanGogh report

As a group project the girls were asked to report on one post-impressionist artist; they had a criteria to include in the report. Reporting could be done in any form they chose. It should come as no surprise they chose a play. Van Gogh was the artist.

Working on the stage backdrop...

Day two...

Welcome to the show...

Adele as Van Gogh, sitting in his bedroom at Arles

Tennie as narrator; Van Gogh sharing his art pieces

Notice the lines on Adele's face...mimicking the dark blue lines on one of Van Gogh's self-portraits

Ceci as Gauguin, coming to live with Van Gogh in Arles...going pretty well at first...

...then an argument, and Van Gogh cut off his own ear (it was put in an envelop to send to Gauguin in the next scene)

I had to freeze the play to get a close up of their bloody knife and ear...

Here is Ceci as Van Gogh's mother (the bunny prop was creative liberty...). Van Gogh is mad that she threw away trunks full of his artwork. But she lived to see the work of her late son become famous. The end.

Bravisimo girls!

There will be one more showing of the play for Geoff's mom when she returns from helping with a new grandbaby (Geoff's sister Ingrid's fifth baby, a second girl!)

Monarchs, VanGogh and More!

We had an extended field trip the past few days.

Monarch Butterfly Migration
Several years ago we ordered one of those kits and grew Monarch Butterflies. I'm pretty sure I was more interested in the process than the kids! We heard about a sanctuary in Pacific Grove (near Carmel) where 5,000 butterflies west of the Rockie Mountains overwinter and we wanted to see it while we are living remotely close. The little sanctuary is only maybe two acres, but the butterflies are attracted to the Australian eucalyptus trees that are clumped together there. Unfortunately for us it was a little rainy so those 5,000 butterflies were huddled in trees, but we did see a lot flying around, and we spotted several large clumps of butterflies huddled together.

We saw two butterflies wrestling around on the ground for a good five minutes. They didn't mind our close observation. A docent we met later said they weren't mating. Instead the male was pursuing a female who was NOT interested. He was trying to lift her to the top of the trees where they mate, but she didn't see him fit and was refusing to be lifted! He sure was persistent, but she stood strong.

(In between the sprinkling rain)

We spent several hours on the coast exploring, smelling the salty air, and wishing we could overwinter in Pacific Grove too!

Uh-oh, it liked Ceci's hair...

This was by far the most fearless squirrel I've ever seen. The girls loved watching him up close.

A Day in Paris
Geoff found a delicious Patisserie in San Francisco where we had croissant sandwiches, baguette sandwiches, yummy salads, and amazing pastries. We enjoyed every bite.


After a week of focused study we went to see a few actual paintings from the Musee D'Orsay on exhibit at the de Young art museum. It was awesome, of course. Geoff's mom and her friend met us for the afternoon, and we shuffled around like a herd of cattle admiring color and shape and style. The girls had their clipboards with a worksheet asking them about the artists, and their observations about different characteristics of post-impressionist paintings. The girls enthusiasm waned after about 30 minutes, but they all survived the crowds and aching.


It was a perfect 65 degree and sunny day in the city. We played around in Golden Gate Park for a long while enjoying the warmth.



There was a super nice news camera woman we met who let the girls in the news van, and showed them her tools...

And more...

Geoff had dinner with some friends from the World Economic Forum while the girls and I met our friend Becca and her daughters for dinner. Our girls love these girls like I love their mom so we had a great girls night out!

Saturday morning Geoff, Becca's husband Jared, and all the kids went on a hike while I went to a music workshop given by a friend from Redmond, Washington, Sharla Dance. This amazing woman was Tennie's piano teacher for a few years, and I was so excited she was in the area, and I could arrange to be there. I'll talk more about her in one of my next Reflection posts, but what a treat it was to see her and learn from her!

We zoomed back in time for the Narnia rehearsal. Tennie did not get Lucy, but she is the White Witch's head dwarf, and is growing very excited about the new role. Adele and Ceci are fairies. Ceci has been practicing freezing into a statue...

Adele is NINE!

We're nearly headed out the door for a little road trip to see the monarch butterfly migration, and our "Day in Paris", but I wanted to get a few pictures of Adele's birthday posted before we go.

Geoff's parents work at the temple on Wednesday nights so we had Adele's family birthday dinner on Tuesday night. Geoff's mom made her famous lemon meringue pie at Adele's request.


Adele started her actual birthday with breakfast in bed, followed by an art tour of all the art work made for her birthday hanging throughout the house (Ceci even did one of 'Starry Night' with a hidden "9" shooting star). In the afternoon my good friend Hayley and her kids came to play for the afternoon. We had the traditional treasure hunt, opened presents (Adele is so genuinely grateful for every little thing), had some muffins then went to the park where they fed ducks and climbed trees.




We went straight to drop Tennie at her call backs and the rest of us went out for pizza and gelato. We got home and listened to a long line of phone messages wishing her a happy birthday. She beamed. But the sad ending to a very fun birthday was finding Frog belly up. Another burial...

Oh, I'm getting called to the car!

Rest in peace, Toad

As you know, Adele got two frogs for Christmas. A little girl couldn't have been more adoring of those two frogs, lovingly known as Frog and Toad. She always called us to watch a feeding, and to watch them swim up and down. If anyone accidentally bumped the table which held the cage she was like a mother bear protecting its cubs.

One night last week Adele had a dream that someone bumped the table and the frogs died. The dream was so upsetting that she cried retelling it to Geoff. Well, a few days ago Adele woke up to a dead Toad. There it lay belly up on the bottom of the cage. Adele was crushed. She cried all day, and told anyone and everyone hoping to have more bearers of her grief.

Yesterday we had a small burial. Tennie, of course, was trying to make the moment more memorable by passing out evergreen twigs for all of us to carry in procession, and wanted Ceci to hold an umbrella over Adele as Adele walked with Toad (who was in a cup), and other dramatic flourishes. Adele got fed up with it all and huffed, "I don't want to do all this stuff, I just want to bury my frog in the dirt." Ever practical.



May he rest in peace from digging dogs and hungry raccoons...

Off to a good start...

We kept our school books on the shelves this week and got out our art books to prepare for "A Day in Paris" this next Friday. We're going to San Francisco to see a special exhibit of Musee d'Orsay paintings including famous paintings by VanGogh, Cezanne, Seurat and Gauguin (and also hope to find a good patisserie in the city!) The girls studied lots of techniques and tried out a lot of art this week.

Geoff's mom who has a background in Art History taught a few lessons on post-Impressionism...she was great!

Geoff found a free Baroque concert on the UC Davis campus. It ended up being more of a lecture with a few music pieces, and the girls were amazingly patient during the hour college class! They did get to see a real harpsicord, and the kind woman was nice enough to show us how it works inside.

Adele was as happy about being there as she looks in this picture...

Geoff basically took over the week so I could get myself organized, and get several winter activities underway. The girls will have a full schedule for the next few months. We have most extracurricular activities on Mondays so they don't overtake our week, and most are private lessons to work around our schedule. (All are paid for with charter school funds!) We're starting a family tennis lesson, then the girls will have a nature drawing class and a fusion dance class (a little bit of all types of dancing while focusing on basic techniques). We're sampling these current interests to see which ones are worth further exploration. Tennie and maybe Adele will start piano in the next few weeks, and yesterday the girls auditioned for the next play, Narnia. It is a bigger play than the few they have been in. There will be a live orchestra, and the cast is older. Adele and Ceci will likely have non-speaking and singing parts because of their ages, but Tennie tried out for Lucy! She sang Don't Cry for Me Argentina from the musical Evita and nailed it in her audition. It was awesome! She has been called back for another round of auditioning! We should know if she got the part by late Thursday so stay tuned and we'll keep you posted.