Burning Man - Metropolis.. the new earth..

Yes, we left in late August for Burning Man for our forth year in a row.. we we have an RV, we have NO excuse not to be there..
this year my cousins son Nathan rode up with us, that was a real treat.. he is 21, really alive and fun, he's been to 10 festivals this summer and he was on fire about Burning Man.. he'd been making necklaces and jewelry to offer as gifts and Reese got inspired and I bought him a bunch of beads and he started making necklaces, wire wrapping beads and making earrings, it was very cool..
We picked up a couple from Winnipeg in Reno (they spent 3 days on a bus to get to Reno) and they rode 7 hours into the burn with us. I drove up from Ojai, picked Steve up at the Reno airport and we drove in together.. Reese and Luc had a ball sharing stories of past burns with the 3 virgins ( someone who has not been to Burning Man before) and we happily arrived at Kidsville (our camp where we stay every year with 100 or so other families) early Monday morning.

The boys had these amazing custom Ninja outfits that Steve bought for them this year, I think they wore them almost everyday! Reese got to fire spin for a second time when a group of performers came to visit kidsville, he was a big hit. both boys also got to spin some fire poi (as well as the 2 other boys that were their friends that we claimed to be their parents.. haha) We had a blast roaming the playa, climbing on art, oohing and aahing at the amazing creativity, hooping at various camps, eating dinner as we roamed various camps and we were offered Bacon, turkey dinner and most exciting Top Ramon (offered in a giant tub), we played on a great obstacle course, battled with giant turkey legs, and watch the grown ups act like kids at Thunderdome bashing each other with foam bats! All over the playa, folks took our photos, gifted the kids cool stuff, offered us rides on art cars .. the usual gig..

I did some late night dancing, checked out the big rave camps, did some yoga, learned some acro yoga, thai massage, had a reiki session, did the human carcass wash twice (that's a blast you wash others and get washed using squirt bottles), did some contact improv, and some other cool adult activities that I won't write about here..

We had great weather this year and as usual got our hearts very filled up with all the love on the playa..

Elevate Party - Reese the fire spinner!

Just a week or so after we moved to our new home in Ojai, the Elevate crew (the is the company Steve works for now, www.elevate.us ) threw a big party at Glen Muse (our new home). Amazing party, see some great photos at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=14220060&id=634875642&ref=fbx_album
met incredible folks, we had some amazing fire spinners on hand, and Reese got to twirl a fire hoop, a dream of his!! Top notch entertainment, singers, DJ's, sweet kids and loving heart centered folks.. that feel like a new family coming together!!

CA Homeschool Conference.. what a blast..

We were so fortunate to not only spend the summer in the South Bay and be able to see all our friends, including Colleen and her brood who were in LA for a month.. It's amazing how the kids are growing up.. her baby (that i was graced with attending his unassisted home birth) is 5, her oldest is 18, got to spend a few days with him and take him to a few meetings, that was a treat! Reese loved seeing NIgel, Janina, Iman and baby Andre! We took Colleen to the contact improv in Santa Monica and boy she loved that, such a beautiful intimate dance!

We spent 3 days in Ontario at the CHN conference, Steve came with us, hooray, and my mom came out for a day also!! Such an impressive line up of talks, my favorites were a mom who talked about a book group for kids (thats on my list of things i want to do.. can't wait to do a poetry discussion and read Rumi), another talk called WIld Days, that was all about nature exploration and letting kids explore and discover, an expert on green living & urban gardening, Laura from MBNS our old nursery school gave a great heart centered communication workshop and Steve raved about the dads panel. We want to host an unschooling panel next year! Reese gave an amazing performance at the talent show hooping as well as hosting and teaching Magic the gathering duals. Luc spent 8+hours a day building Kapla blocks creations alone, with friends, with daddy and grandma.. whatever..
So many of our friends were there, it felt like a family reunion, without the drama..

Hermosa, Manhattan, Big Bear, San Clemente & RV trips.

Quite the summer adventure and it continues.. We packed up our apartment in Boulder end of May, we had a great winter and spring there, loved our place on Mapleton Ave (even with the 2 month roof construction project), we loved being in our own space, we loved our roomates Daniel and Scott, we had lots of kids over and stayed home and played games a ton.. the highlights of Boulder were Magic Tournaments ( 2 nights a week and Luc got to play legos with Tris and mommy got time alone, of course i went to yoga... ), Kids Night Out at the Longmont Rec Center (and of course time with our best buds Ryan, Connor, Kaia and Noah), Sleep Overs with Tim, Joey and Miranda.. oh how I miss them, 3 of the most beautiful and amazing kids I know, rock climbing and hiking at Mt Senitas, Clay Class with Mira at her awesome house up Boulder Canyon, Improv Class at Rocky Mntn Theater for kids, hanging with our friends Eya, Oliver, Levi, Jaylin, Tony & Hattie, Will and Nickie, our unschoolers park day, visiting the Planetarium, dancing at Rhythm Sanctuary on Thurs nights and the kids who showed up to play legos!!

But Daddy was in California and had only seen kids for a few days at a time on visits so we had to come out and have more daddy time and visit all the relatives in LA. We started with a week in Hermosa Beach, took a 12 day RV trip with my sis Melinda and her kids Hope and Austin up to Santa Rosa, camped in Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay on the beach, went to SF (melinda had not been there before), visited the Exploratorium (the most fun Science Museum in SF), saw the Redwoods, swam in the Russian River and went to the Harmony Festival (great music, shopping, eco green village, lectures, dancing, frolic, hooping). Reese was Mr Independent, he had his own phone and was off and exploring on his own most of the weekend.

We spent a very relaxing week in San Clemente at our timeshare, did very little, played at the beach, shuffleboard, ping pong, swam, chilled and played lots of games with my mom & Bryan, Mindy and kids.. my boys had a blast with Daddy playing games, they love beating him ...

We rented a studio apt in Manhattan Beach for a month and really enjoyed the beach, homeschooler park day, beach day, speech club (yes Reese made quite a showing one week when he won all 3 awards in one day, best speech, best impromptu and best evaluator!), my girlfriend Colleen who moved her brood up to Canada was in town for a month visiting and we loved seeing them!

Highlight of the summer were the 2 productions the kids got to do: Sleeping Beauty (Reese played the Prince Philip who delivers true loves kiss to awaken the princess and Luc played a goon working for the evil Malificient, he was a scream! Also got to do Annie and Reese played Rooster Hannigan the down on his luck brother of Ms Hannigan who pretends to be Annie's parent to collect the reward, Luc played a dog catcher (his big line.. seen any strange mutts around here? ), a policeman, a laundry boy and a servant of Oliver Warbucks.. he was a busy little guy. The boys were both amazing, they spent 40-50 hours in rehearsal time on each show in just 10 days each! They made great friends, showed great maturity dealing with all the down time as they rehearsed multiple casts and of course memorized every song and everyone's lines in both shows! Mommy got a few hours to herself and enjoyed lots of Bikrim Yoga, runs on the beach and time with friends! Nothing quite like the joy of watching my kids work really hard, be really passionate about something and perform so beautifully on stage!

singing the songs..

One of the best parts of spending the summer in Hermosa Beach is the family theater group we've participated in the last 3 summers. Thanks to Alexis the boys got to do High School Musical 2 summers ago and fell in love with musical theater! Reese will be playing Rooster in Annie next Saturday and he is thrilled to always be cast in lead roles. We listen to the songs non stop, they practice for 5 hours a day for 2 weeks straight and then the performance. Luc will be playing multiple roles as a cop, laundry man, dog catcher and radio station worker.

Last night Luc and I lay in bed and he was singing one of the songs in Annie that has a line "I'm richer than Midas", Daddy Worbucks sings the song after his heart has opened finally as Annie enters into his life and he realizes how lonely and unhappy he was (despite his wealth and success) when he had no one to truly love.
"Who's Midas?' Luc asks and we have a whole discussion about King Midas and how love makes you rich not possessions. But money is useful for getting stuff you want, luc commented.. but we are rich in love, that's for sure.. then he started asking about President Roosevelt (who is in the Annie play). "We're white right mom? yes, "was President Roosevelt white?" yes, but Obama is not right? right, "who is the second black president mom?" well there is no second, Obama is still in office and he is the first.. "there is a lot of brown people in the world huh?', yeah.. then he sings 3 lines from "Tomorrow, tomorrow I love ya tomorrow, you're always a day away".. and sings himself to sleep..

radical neglect is all i can say..

In May of 2009, we left Boulder mid month headed to Nevada, picked up our RV and drove it to Portland for the Life is Good
Unschooling Conference. We ended up spending 2 full weeks hanging with the unschoolers in Portland, who by the way have an unschoolers park day every day of the week in some area of Portland.. wow..

The parks in Portland are amazing, huge, the most beautiful trees I've ever seen.. we went to a different park everyday, exploring many areas of the vast city of Portland and really enjoyed our time connecting with many we met from the conference. I also had several nice visits with my great aunt Louise, my Grandma Dorothy's only living sibling.. they are the 2 youngest of 5 kids and it's just them still here..

We left Portland and headed south to the coast to visit my friend Lily who lives at the beach, got craving seeing our friends and family in LA and dropped our RV off and headed for Southern California