Amazing!

Just Because

Autumn in Studio City

Summer Highlights!

There are several shots of Boylee.  What a great camp.

(I can't get it to embed - click HERE.)

The Halloween Costume

Not His Halloween Costume

Radioactive Rooster!  

Boylee's 4th Grade Classroom

Reading is a big part of the curriculum - because "The more you read the better you write, and the more you write the better you read!"

Last Thursday's schedule.

Boylee's reading timeline.

Last week we celebrated the publishing of their personal narrative.  Boylee wrote about a time he went to the beach and almost got sucked out to sea!

It's a small classroom.  This is the entire thing!

Finally Boylee's upstairs -- the real mark of being a big kid (at our school, anyway).

Nightswimming in Central Cal

Where it was ten hundred million degrees.

Boylee's Quote of the Day

"It's every nine-year-old's dream to be eleven."

School!

Oh, the end of summer is so melancholy.  Except it isn't really the end of summer yet, is it?  Nevertheless, school is starting.

Yesterday we met Boylee's teacher and took a quick glance at his classroom.  Ms. P is young, pretty and seems very gentle.  But she's been teaching 4th grade for several years, so I'm sure she's stronger than she looks.  From her bio we see that she's got a strong background in art, and loves photography, French and yoga.  Sounds like an interesting combo.

Boylee's fairly happy, but not particularly thrilled to be going back.  He's glad to be seeing friends again, and is interested in being upstairs at school after two years downstairs with the younger kids.

I will keep you posted!

Boylee's Blog

http://mineshaftcentral.blogspot.com

Art Camp

When we got back to town we did one week of a fabulous art camp, run by two staff members of our school.  The week's theme was sculpture.

The camp venue is a quiet spot in Griffith Park, so the kids are outdoors all day.  And it was HOT.

This sculpture they built collectively over a few days.

A hike in the early part of the day, before the real heat set in.

Book sculpture project.

Boylee with his.  It has a thread at the top so it can be hung up.

Running through a sprinkler!  Relief!

The instructors dismembered a big pile of stuffed animals, and then the kids mixed & matched various pieces, and sewed them together to create a unique animal of their own design.

They also made some small clay sculptures...and spent a lot of time spritzing either other with water bottles.  Boylee came home every day filthy - which generally means he had a great time!

One Last Thing About Camp

Part of the fun of camp is the elaborate weekly schedule.  Click on it for a close-up!

bbs- Boylee

The Post Written by Boylee Himself

Hi guys! I am starting to post on Blah-La-La! i am also making a blog that will be entitled

Panda Post

More Highlights

We picked the best day ever to visit Alcatraz.  Look at that view of the city!  

Taking the Junior Ranger oath, after successfully completing his Junior Ranger workbook, which was filled with facts and questions about the island.

At his favorite store in the whole, wide world.

What Happened in July

We're back from our five weeks up north.  We had a great time!  Except when I tripped over, and broke, my laptop power cord, which meant I couldn't post any pictures.  Here's a quick summary:

Walking with Dad.  Wow, Boylee's getting tall.

Brand new wetsuit!  (Thanks, Papa & Noni!)  This led to...first ever up north ocean swimming.  He loved it!

New camp friend: Ryan.  A sweet, generous boy, Ryan gave up his own sleeping bag so that Boylee could go to a sleepover. Didn't quite work out, but thanks for trying, Ryan!

The town pelican.  This guy had it made because he was brave enough to hang out close to people.  We saw him being fed several times.

Bike riding with cousin Uriel! Boylee's hand-me-down bike fit Uriel perfectly.  And the bike he got for his birthday (but just got to use for the first time) fit him perfectly.  So both boys were happy!

Alcatraz!   Waaaaay more fun than we could have imagined.  

Last day of camp...final camp circle.

With favorite counselor, Daniel.  

I'll have more to report, but there's a general update.  Now we have one week of art camp, then about ten days of free time...and then school will start.  Tragic!

My Little Fox (not a tiger!)

This is a rare thing indeed.  Boylee rarely allows facepaint near him.

Success!

It was a great day!  He wants to stay in the older group!  And we planned a playdate with Mark for tomorrow afternoon!  And there's going to be a zip line! And he came home covered in sand!  That is a great, great day!

First Day of Camp!

Boylee was nervous and so was I.   I'm keeping my fingers crossed that today goes well - as always, he was put in the correct group for his age, but the one boy he really knows well here, Mark, is in a younger group.  Boylee wanted to switch...I sort of wanted him to get a chance to branch out and make new friends, knowing that we can have plenty of playdates with Mark outside of camp...I'm not sure I did the right thing but I told him that the camp was too full for switching today, and if he still wanted to switch we could talk about it at the end of the day.  Aargh.

Today all the groups are together on the beach, anyway, so he and Mark can play all they want.

And then if he sticks with his proper group, here's what they've got planned for the week:  meet some scientists working to remove an invasive crab species, beach swimming, tennis, "bird drawing class," clay pit-play, more beach time, Audubon visit, art, costumes & dancing, soccer and a fashion show.  I'm not sure he'll be into the fashion show.

He has two counselors.  The girl, Ellie, was his counselor two years ago and gave him a big welcome.  The other, Daniel, is new and seems very cool in a way that Boylee will probably like:  he looks like he skateboards a lot.

I'm really, really hoping he comes home happy.

Last Day of School

On the last day of school, Boylee and his fellow 3rd graders welcomed all of the 2nd grades to give them a preview of what next year will be like for them.  The teacher snapped this photo -- I think they're supposed to be presenting a timeline of our city's history.  Not sure how seriously they took this task, but I acknowledge that it's hard to concentrate on the last day of school.  

The boys, from left:  Julien, Olaf, Julian, Boylee and Lion.  What an assortment of names!

Boylee's New Favorite Movie

What can I say?  The kid loves a good musical.  And it prompted a nice conversation on the difference between integration and segregation.

He loved Zac Efron in this, too, but he told me he has zero interest in High School Musical.  Not ready for that teenager stuff yet, I guess.

An Interpretive Dance

It's about the L.A. River.  And I guess they were told to dress in green, though Boylee missed that instruction (possibly when he was in China).  Luckily the orange warm-up makes him easy to see.

A Few More

Monkeys!

I complimented Boylee on his new, Chinese-style hat. 

He said, "No, that's a New York-style hat."  ?!?

The hotel in Yunnan Province.  I saw the interior when we Skype'd and it seemed 

warm and cozy, with dark wood and a roaring fireplace.  

Big Boy Bedroom

Boylee gets back from China today...and hopefully he'll love what I've done to his bedroom.  I guess I should have taken some "before" pictures, but here's what it looks like now:

New comforter cover, new pillows, new whiteboard, framed drawings by Nickelodeon illustrators, and there's his Hogarts crest to top it all off.

New lamp to replace the babyish old nursery lamp.

Same old desk, reorganized and topped with new bulletin boards, folders and pen holders.

A closer look at his desk, where he now actually has room to sit and work.

His dresser, cleaned out and reorganized.  All the games moved to the living room, so now there's room for other things.

Bookshelf - still jam-packed full of books...but lots moved on to other families or to his baby box.

And the beautiful 4ft x 4ft white board.  At the office supply store it would cost way more than $100.  At the hardware store a sheet of melamine twice this big costs about $20, plus another buck or two for them to cut it in half.  We still have the other half for future use.

Caught in a rainstorm while rafting on the Yangtzee.

Hiking in Yunnan Province.

Hotel in Beijing.

Happy after conquering a "chinese-style" bathroom.

Forbidden City

Tibetan cliff village.