Haley – TCHO Chocolate Factory Tour
Haley went with the Temple youth group on a tour of the TCHO Chocolate Factory in San Francisco on 4/7. Yum!
Play-a-Thon
The Play-a-Thon was on Friday, 3/15. I left work early and went to Costco to get fruit and pizza. LOTS of fruit for the kids, and …. 23 pizzas! I filled a flat bed wagon and had help loading it into my car (which smelled pike pizza for a week). I got the kids to unload at the school, and it seemed to be the right number of pizzas. I had to leave early to go to a meeting, but I left things in the capable hands of Kathie and the other volunteers. It was a wildly successful event: we raised over $6,400 for the music program!
Play-a-Thon Preparation
I spent a hectic couple of weeks at the beginning of March preparing for the Taylor Play-a-Thon. This is a band fundraiser where the kids play 20 songs and collect either per-song or lump sum donations. I had to prepare all of the information, pledge sheets, and pledge envelopes. I had to copy everything, then had two moms come over and help, and Haley helped too. Plus I had to organize volunteers to help collect money, bring refreshments, serve, and clean up. A busy couple of weeks!
Holocaust Education
Haley’s class is studying the Holocaust (and will be leading the Yom Hashoah (day of remembrance) service at PTS on 4/12), and there was an associated Parent Education day on 3/3. Helen Farkas, a long-time PTS member and a Holocaust survivor, came and talked about her experiences, and signed copies of her book. It was an emotional talk, but a story we all need to hear.
President’s Day Weekend – Full of Activities!!
We all had full and fun activities over the weekend, with the family scattered far and wide.
Haley went with Glynis & Susan to Susan’s yearly family gathering. This time it was at Angel’s Camp, where they had fun playing Chopped and frolicking in the snow.
Katelyn went to Disneyland with the Mills band. She had a great time, until she came down with some kind of nasty stomach bug in the wee hours of Monday morning, just before they came home. At least she got to enjoy the weekend. Kathie went too, as a chaperone.
Val and I stayed home and had a visit from Jane, Val’s birth mother. We did all kinds of fun activities. On Friday, they hung out while I went to the Exiles meeting. On Saturday, Val and I went to the rabbi’s daughter, Ellie’s, Bat Mitzvah at PTS. Then the two of them took off for dim sum in SF and a visit to Muir Woods. I met up with them for a lovely birthday dinner at Revival in Berkeley since Val’s birthday had been on Thursday, and Jane’s was the following Thursday. On Saturday we hit the California Academy of Sciences’ members-only hours, and got to see the Rainforest and Earthquake exhibits before they got too crowded. We saw the penguin feeding, Claude the albino alligator, and lots more. After catching the beautiful views from Twin Peaks, they dropped me at BART so I could head back south and spend some quality time with my friend Rio, while they continuing prowling around SF. Jane left that evening. Val and I had a relaxing Monday, ending with dinner at Piperade in SF with George and Linda, continuing the celebration of Val’s birthday.
Except for Katelyn’s getting sick (which continued most of the week), it was a wonderful time.
Taylor Concert Tour
Once again, Haley participated in the Taylor Concert Tour on 2/8. This is where the middle school music groups go to each of the 4 elementary schools in the district and do a mini-concert to encourage the kids to participate in music. The musicians get a day off school, and get to have lunch at the food court at the Tanforan Mall. They had a great time! Being the parent liaison for the band, I got to wrangle volunteers to chaperone, help cart things around, and monitor the kids at the mall.
Second Swim Meet for Haley
Despite having an ongoing cough, Haley swam in her second swim meet on 2/9. This was the “home” swim meet, at the Burlingame Aquatic Club (Burlingame HS). It was our first outdoor meet, and given that we were there just after 7am it was FREEZING! It was 39 degrees when we got in the car and a toasty 42 degrees when we arrived. We were cold even when we left just before noon.
Haley had a nasty cough left over from a cold so was ambivalent about swimming at all, but she was a champ, swimming both of the events she’d signed up for. The 200 yd breast stroke was her first in a meet. She didn’t get disqualified for form or any other reason (as kids often do their first time swimming a stroke in a meet, especially the breast stroke), and got a decent time. Her second event was the 50yd freestyle. She was pretty exhausted by then, but did it anyway. Her time of 45.36 seconds was about 4 seconds more than her previous time of 39.89, but we were all just happy she did the race at all given how she felt.
Haley in LA
Haley went to Los Angeles with other 7th graders from PTS, hosted by families from Temple Isaiah. They went to services, visited museums, had Havdalah on the Santa Monica beach, and visited Universal Studios. She had an awesome time! The only hard part was pickup from the airport afterwards. Their plane landed at 3:30 PST on Sunday, 2/3. Does that time sound familiar, especially to football fans? Yes, we had to pick her up at the airport at the exact moment the Superbowl was starting! I picked up and Kathie met us halfway to her house, so we each shared some pain of being away from the game. Folks at my house just put it on pause and waited for me, so I didn’t miss any of it. Too bad we didn’t win. 🙁
Haley’s First Swim Meet!
Haley swam at a meet at Oceana High School in Pacifica. She swam 39.81 in the 50 freestyle, and 9:17.03 in the 500 freestyle. To calibrate, the minimum competitive level for the 50 free (level B) is 34.29, and for the 500 free is 7:10.79. So on the 50 free she’s close to qualifying, but still has a ways to go for the 500. The good news is that often kids get disqualified in early meets because they do something wrong, like not touching the wall or an incorrect turn or stroke, and Haley didn’t, so that’s all good news.
We were there for almost 7 hours!
Christmas
The kids were here on Christmas Eve – we just ordered in Chinese and watched movies. On Christmas morning I usually go to Kathie’s. She was sweet and brough the kids’ gifts over so we could open them here and I wouldn’t have to travel. Pictures here.
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