Kirin is 5

 Our summer of birthdays is officially complete, with the addition of a new 5-year-old!

It was a big week, because it was also the week Kirin started (virtual) kindergarten.  Which meant that Kirin had a crash course in zoom, and wanted a zoom interview just like his big brother.

Milan is 8

We now have an 8-year-old!

 

I'm going to have to find myself a new quilt...

 

It took a few tries, but we thought it only fitting to do this year's interview on zoom.  (The first try recorded only a video of the questioner and none of the resident 8-year-old.  This also explains some of why the responses are a bit terse... ) 

A Spring of Sheltering in Place

The closure of schools for the remainder of the school year was tough

Between their zoom calls and learning at home, Milan played some FaceTime chess and Kirin learned to draw Gerald from Mo Willems

Thanks to this book, Kirin has now learned how to read!

 We are now the proud owners of not one but two trampolines

Celebrating mom's milestone birthday with a picnic at the oval and a joyride to San Francisco

Our cleaning crew hard at work making the bathrooms shine on Mother's Day

Kirin was sent some supplies to stage some videos for his Pre-K (zoom) graduation

We had a mini mask factory going on for a bit - here are a few of our creations

And here are Milan and Kirin heading to the first day of summer camp in this strange new world we live in now

We recently celebrated our 14th anniversary with a hike and outdoor dining

From Out and About to Sheltering-in-Place

It's hard to imagine that not too long ago, we were traipsing around the bay area and now we have been sheltering-in-place through a global pandemic..

During the pre-pandemic era, we got to give Disha masi the grand tour

She returned the favor by introducing the kids to taking shots of them jumping in mid-air,

the concept of photo-bombing,

(you can see they caught on quickly)

 and boomerang videos.

 We went on a ferry ride across the bay,

 hiked in a redwood forest,

and played on the beach!

We were sad to see Disha masi go, but at least we learned how to photobomb in style!

Here are Milan and Kirin recreating an incident where we found Kirin headfirst in a trash can near his bed in the middle of the night (with more smiles than there were originally)

We experienced the most intricate balloon animals at a recent party,

tried out some refraction glasses from our cousins,

and rode the carousel at Happy Hollow in our last few weeks of freedom.

Sheltering-in-place has brought some new challenges, but also some new experiences.

Both Kirin and Milan have periodic video calls with their classrooms and teachers (and have become zoom experts in a matter of days),

I have been starting my day with early morning walks up to the dish, 

and we unearthed our crepe maker for the first time in a decade and have a new weekend tradition.

Kirin's quarantine advice in the video below - your mileage may vary...

Hope everyone is staying healthy and well during these uncertain times.  We look forward to an opportunity to see people when the time is right!

Fall is in the Air

See mom and Kirin's new ride (after our bike trailer was sadly stolen)

Navratri (some happier than others to be there)

Photo shoot!  With surprisingly cooperative little people

 A banana and a batman walked into a bar...

The most normal-looking photo from Diwali I could find

Milan and I saw a sunset and a moon rise from the dish trail

We had a fun visit from cousins in Virginia over Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a good photo of all of them, but this video of brownie batter eating pretty much says it all

Holiday festivities at the local mall

We unearthed a wii after a decade and it hasn't lost its luster.  

Here's some whole body boxing

Happy holidays!