Weekending :: Beach, Art Show + Symphony

We had a bit of a heatwave last week and when that happens we head to the beach in Bodega Bay (just 7 miles west of our home).  

This boy of mine is now 11, but he still enjoys hanging out with me.  I'll take it as long as I can get it.  He dug holes in the sand and chatted with a few locals.  I'm so glad we got our beach fix because it was like hitting a reset button for all of us.

 

Over the weekend we attended Grady's alma mater, Pastures Preschool.  They were having their bi-annual art show and open house and it is an event not to be missed.  We bid on a painting and took in all of the beauty and comfort that this little red schoolhouse had to offer.  I love that Grady never passes up an opportunity to go back here, play with the little kids and climb his favorite trees.

gsh = my little unicorn

Grady woke up with some crazy hair that morning.  He commented that he looked like a unicorn that had run into a wall.  I encouraged him to write a haiku about it.  He wanted to illustrate it out in his art studio and asked me to type up the words.  He gifted this poem and a basket of strawberries to his first (and favorite) teacher, Stacy.

Fake Godfather Posing

Our friends gifted us with their season tickets for the Santa Rosa Symphony.  Grady was less than thrilled at the prospect of wearing a suit jacket AND sitting still listening to old people's music.  He survived and we enjoyed the final symphony of the season, Spring Rhapsody, in the world-renowned Weill Hall at Sonoma State University's Green Music Center.  

It was incredible and Grady even stayed awake.

Handwriting, Horses & Harmonicas

Grady can now write all of his letters from the alphabet and spell his name. As you can see, the letters are very long for "Y" and "T". He can also spell a few words like Ball, Grady and tells us the time every morning when he wakes up.

This week was filled with activities. Grady attended a birthday party for his friend Ellie. She loves horses, so he dressed up like a cowboy for her. Cowboy hat, horse necklace from mom and rubber "cowboy" boots. Yee-Haw!

We spent a day in Petaluma with my mom (Gigi) and rode Champion, the mechanical horse on Kentucky Street. This is a ritual for us when spending time in Petaluma.

This is a rather disturbing photo of Grady and his Grandma posing as Madonna and a boy-toy? We also went bowling and had a great time! Grady wants to win a trophy (aka Piston Cup) for his skill at rolling a bowling ball. The boy dreams big...



Grady is studying the artist Joseph Cornell at his preschool. He was a self-taught artist who relied mostly exclusively on found materials. He has an exhibit at SF Museum of Modern Art and we're going to take Grady there next month. Above is a picture of Grady's found objects that he converted into a window box to display his "treasures". He goes on walks with his Gigi and collects items that strike his fancy (bottle caps, feathers, broken wire, etc.) and saves them to create his art. This artist is right up his alley!

Steve gave Grady one of his Christmas presents early this year. A real harmonica. Grady had received a bunch of plastic toys from China and we had to throw them all away. He was so sad that Steve felt the need to give him a small token to help him forget about all of the other things in the trash. With Grady's love of music and his good rhythm, off we went to the Valley Ford Hotel to listen to a real, live singer/harmonica player. He invited Grady to play on one of the songs and so a very dark video clip is attached below with Grady helping out with the song "Me and Bobby McGee".

Auctions, Accordians & Acoustic Guitars

We attended the Bodega Land Trust Auction recently and bid on all sorts of savory items. This is a small town fundraising event that takes place at the Bodega Fire Hall in the next town over and where Grady attends preschool. Last year was my first year attending and there was great food, wine and bidding wars all over the place with my good friends, Jill Davidson & Linda Mahley. This year the food was not as good, I didn't drink any wine and the worthy items were scarce to bid on. I couldn't even outbid Jill on anything and that just took the fun out of it. All monies still went towards a worthy cause, but I just wasn't up for it this year. Grady hung out front with a few local characters who taught him how to play hopscotch, so all was not lost.

We went to our weekly Sunday music night at the Valley Ford Hotel (VFH) and listened to Amber Lee & the Anomalies who played a sparkly red accordian and sang soft, beautiful music. She invited Grady to play the slide whistle and a little percussion. His musical timing and rhythm is really good and I'd like to get him involved in some kind of lessons in the near future for piano, violin or guitar.