le blog d'eustache & aéma & augustin: 06/01/2008

Augustin's First Swinging Experience

At Dolores Park on May 25th 2008.

Playdate in Golden Gate Park.

Bao and Jim Ausman invited Aéma for a playdate with their daughter Ava at Golden Gate park (with the parents of Chihiro, another toddler of the same age), on June 22nd 2008. It of course ended up at the carousel.

Aéma was scared of the tunnel slide at first, but once ~~tossed into~~ convinced, she agreed it is the coolest thing ever, and slid it down about a million times.

Eustache found his favorite slide as well: a cement run you slide down seating on a piece of cardboard. He and Aéma were wearing bike helmets because they went biking, not due to overanxious safety-concerned parents, but I was kinda glad he had it on.

Did we say biking? Here's Eustache doing his first turns of the pedals without the training wheels, while Aéma's biking skills improve dramatically: now she pedals and steers!

Lucia di Lammermoor

On June 20th, the SF Opera presented a free simulcast of the performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (which Yoriko and I had seen in the comfort of the opera house a few days earlier) on the High-Def scoreboard of the SF Giants ball park.

For those familiar with the opera: we stayed for the first two Acts only, ok? Act III gets gory, with Lucia killing the husband she was forced to take, and a despaired Edgardo committing suicide over her warm body. Not something we would be looking forward to explain to the kids.

Camping at Arroyo Seco.

First camping experience for Riley (Gillou's view of things here), Aéma and Eustache, on June 14-15th. I had picked a campground for car camping not too far from San Francisco (130 miles): Arroyo Seco.

Campground neighbors found some crawdads in the creek (later on, they "freed" them in the grass...)

We arrived in the evening (due to the b-day party below), so we had the golden light to check out the lake by the campground.

There was poison oak around the trails, so it's better to carry the kids.

Building the tents, and playing with the head lamps: a big hit with the kids.

Chef Gillou took care of grilling the burgers on the BBQ. Chef moi forgot to bring salt for a tomato salad which really called for it.

The kids slept, even though it was chilly in the foggy morning.

We knew going there that the Arroyo River Gorge was closed due to the Indians Wild Fire (both areas are connected by the Arroyo Seco-Indians Road). We called the campground a few times, and they told me to come down anyway. But they ended up kicking us out on the Sunday morning to make room for firemen who wanted to do "controlled burns". Instead of playing at the day use area in the scenic part of the forest, we had to go, in the words of the campground employee, "by the green bridge, that's where the Hispanic go."

It was definitely not as pretty, but kids had fun, and they want to go camping again!

Sebastian's Birthday Party.

Sebastian Bonderenko invited Eustache for his 4yo birthday party on June 14th 2008. They live almost right across the street from 364 Crescent, my house for a few years! Sebastian's mom Anna cuts the cake (with brother Theo and dad "Keep Austin Weird" Chris). Eustache and school friend Jakob look on the cutting. Aema too!

Charlie's Birthday Party.

Eustache's friend Charlie turned 5 yo, and celebrated on June 8th 2008 at Douglass Playground. Aéma got a nasty sun burn on the forearm, due to careless parents who did not put sun screens on that arm, even though the sleeves was rolled up. Still, great fun nonetheless.

Also, for the sake of accuracy, a careless parent inserted some pictures of Augustin here, which actually belong to the Rose Garden post (and which you can see in the right context below). But pix are from the same day, and there's never too many baby pictures.

Dancing at Ralph and Clara's.

May 31st 2008. Before going to Eustache's schoolfriend Augustin's B-day party, we visited Ralph and Clara's for a super nice BBQ party, with live entertainment. Too bad we had to run after this song!

North Beach

The pre-school across the street from the North Beach pool had a party, open to anyone in the neighborhood. Nice! We went with Evan, Josh, Ralph and Clara.

Back to the Present! Katja's Visit to SF

Enough of this revisiting the past for now. I believe all the backlog has been emptied. On the other hand, the early years of this blog are quite spare, maybe I could go dig some stuff for 2004, 2005, etc. Let's make use of all this free space bestowed on us by google. Still, we've been watching Kung Fu Panda, and let's remember Oogway's wisdom: "you are too concerned with what was and what will be. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a gift, that's why it's called the present."

And the present, well, the not-a-year-ago-past, is Katja's visit from Berlin.

Jonas, Eustache, Aéma reading a book together at home. June 2nd 2008.

At Juri Commons with Katja, Oliver, Jonas, Yoriko, Augustin, Aéma, Eustache, June 4th 2008.

Eustache's amazing feat of strength.

Dinner at Surya, a favorite! June 4th 2008.

Meet-up with Katja and her family at Berkeley's Rose Garden (up on Euclid & Rose), before dinner all together with Petra in Albany (not pictured), June 8th 2008.

Blast From the Past: September 15th 2007, Kite Fest on the Marina Greens.

With Alexis visiting from NY, Aidan, Riley, Gillou and Bonnie visiting from the South Bay, September 15th at the Marina Greens. Let's pretend that the kite strings the kids are holding leads to the giant green lizzard, and not to a puny triangular kite.

Blast From the Past: September 15th 2007

Fascination for fire marshal hats and cell phone undiminished nearly a year later. September 15th, 2007.

Blast From the Past: September 8th 2007

Tilden Park (miniature steam train, little farm and hike in the park with Katya, David and Olga.

Blast From the Past: September 2007

At Chava's, on mission @ 24th. Not pictured: the mariachi band which started to blast in their shiny uniforms. Also, a hint that Augustin is on the way. September 1st, 2007.

Alta Plaza Park (for prior visit, click here). September 1st, 2007.

Nicolas turned 34 a few days later (this was September 3rd, 2007).

Blast From the Past: August 26th 2007

You'd think that almost a year later, they'd eat better. But August 26th 2007 or now: same difference.

Blast From the Past: August 26th 2007, Alpine Lake

A walk in the Mount Tamalpais watershed, off the Fairfax to Bolinas road. A very pretty area, which we should go back to. August 26th 2007.

Blast from the Past: August 22nd

The Book (Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever) is indeed the Best Book Ever. So much that this is not really a blast from the past than a recurring picture, for Eustache & Aéma, and hopefully for Augustin.

Blast From the Past, August 18th 2007, Fisherman's Wharf

One the main issue with not posting pictures right away and waiting 10 months (!) is that I do not recall what we were doing there. Maybe we just went to see the sea lions, just for the heck of it.

Blast From the Past: August 18th Swimming Pool

August 18th at the North Beach Swimming Pool.

Blast From the Past: August 12th and 15th 2007

Rossi park on August 12th, and Haas park on August 15th.

Blast From the Past: August 4th 2007.

This was David & Olga joint birthday party (this year, it's this coming Sunday!) on August 4th, 2007.

Blast From the Past: July 21st 2007

Deborah and Joe got married at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, July 21st 2007. Instructions were to dress in a fun way, thus Eustache's outfit.

Blast From the Past: July 19th 2007

Buying a house means lots of trips to Home Depot.

Bast From the Past: July 15th 2007

Yoriko's friend Yuko introduced us to friends of hers, a French couple, whose son Raphael had a party/bbq on baker's beach, July 15th 2007.

Blast From the Past: July 14th 2007

With former Nokia colleagues: Birgitta, Jari & Leo, Sanika, bbq at Meg's house.

Blast From the Past: July 8th 2007

Still filling in the gap that I dug between 4th of July 2007 and May 2008.

This is a concert at Stern Grove, where pianist Jeremy Denk performs a Mozart concerto with the SF Symphony on July 8th 2007. This week-end, the 2008 edition will happen (Orli Shaham instead of Denk)!