Tick...tick...tick...

Want to go on an adventure? J.M. Barrie's beloved childhood story, Peter Pan, comes to San Francisco for it's U.S premier 360 production. Housed in a state of the art CGI theater, Peter Pan is performed in a round tent that is surrounded with high resolution video to fully immerse the audience in a multi-media experience that won't be soon forgotten! Actors and professionals integrate stage performance, music, computers, and video to create a sensory adventure for all ages.

We're heading to SF for our viewing this Wednesday (Math can't wait!)...I'll be sure to provide a more detailed review after!

Peter Pan will be performing Tue & Thur at 7PM, Fri & Sat at 7:30 PM, Wed & Sat at 2PM and Sundays at 1PM and 5PM. It's located at The threesixty Theatre at Ferry Park.

Tickets can be purchased here or you can call 415.551.2056

Exploratorium!

We did our first trip to the Exploratorium last month for a field trip with Math's school. Woah! So cool...especially the grounds surrounding the building. All the moms were all saying how we'd love to have gotten married right under one of those amazing arches...

First off, place was fantastic for kids of all ages (though toddlers might be a little tough, there was a space for them to play, too). We had kids ages 5-12 and all of them had a blast! There was tons of things to touch and explore and experiment. The kids got to watch a cow eye dissection (their faces were pretty priceless), and they enjoyed roaming around with free-reign of the entire space. We went during a week-day and there were plenty of schools there for field trips. The food from the cafeteria was pretty decent, and they had a nice selection of healthy options. I noticed that as we were leaving (around 2pm), the whole place was near empty...so if you are visiting during during the week that would be an ideal time to start!

To quote The Terminator, "We'll be back..."

Beautifull Event

Photo from Beautifull website

Today, November 18th, Beautifull is hosting a "Nutrition for Pregnancy" series going in the Laurel Village from 7:00-8pm. Director of Nutrion, Lisa Sawrey-Kubicek, MS, RD, is going to speak about maintaining a healthy body during pregnancy! There's contest prizes, appetizers, and other goodies that will be available to all you expecting mommies out there in the Bay Area. Might be a good way to meet other prospective play date buddies, too!

Located at 3401 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118. You can RSVP by calling (415) 738-9080.

P.S. - They have frozen yogurt! That would have sealed the deal for me...

For the Eloise in All of Us...

I'm in Pittsburgh, PA right now visiting my family, and met a friend for High Tea at the Omni William Penn hotel. Coincidentally, this is also the place where I had my wedding reception, but hadn't been back in 6 years! We had so much fun. You can read about it here.

Anyway, it got me thinking that High Tea would be a super fun thing to do with any little kid who's into Eloise. And you know, you don't have to go to the Plaza to partake! Spurred on by my love of fine dining, or drinking as it were, I decided to investigate some kid-friendly places to do High Tea in the Bay Area.

Here's the list!

Lovejoy's Tea Room (San Francisco) - One of the best and most well known spots for High Tea.

Secret Garden Tea House (San Francisco) - Another tea lover favorite.

The Terrace at the Ritz-Carlton (San Francisco) - High class tea time.

The Rotunda (San Francisco) - Do some shopping at Neiman's then freshen-up with some tea.

Laurel Court at the Fairmont (San Francisco) - Opulent surroundings!

Lisa's Tea Treasures (Menlo Park, San Jose, Campbell) Victorian, frilly, girly tea! They do party bookings, too.

The English Rose (San Carlos) - Nice, homey, traditional English Tea service

High Tea at the Fairmont (San Jose) - Specialty kid's menu is especially cute!

Samuraí Exhibit

Yesterday was the last day of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum's Samuraí exhibit. So cool! We both learned tons of stuff and took in the glorious sunny weather. While the Samuri exhibit is no longer going on, the museum itself is chock full of intersting art, programs, and resources. Not to mention it's in a gorgeous building full of amazing architecture at every turn.

My older son and I have been exploring what it means to be Asian, or in his case half Asian, together. I'm adopted and growing up I didn't really think much about what it means to be Asian. I grew up in an Irish Catholic family and was loved and happy...really it didn't occur to me to question my cultural identity till I had kids of my own.

I've explained to my son for awhile now that he is half Korean and half Caucasian, and he is also adopted and he is also American. He's more obsessed with making time travel happen at the moment so this isn't a subject that comes up often. Again, yesterday we talked about how he was of Asian decent and how the cultures and foods and folkways and mores are different than the ones he's grown up with. He seemed to think the whole thing was pretty cool since, in his mind, being Asian makes him half ninja warrior...okay, kid, okay.

Zeum

Last week the kids and I had the incredible opportunity to check out Zeum located in downtown San Francisco. Joy Daniels, the PR and Marketing manager of Zeum, invited us for a personal tour and, being the last week before school started, we gladly took her up on the offer.

First off, I can't believe I never knew about Zeum. It's a multimedia, art-integrated museum located just behind the Carousel. The Carousel, oddly enough, almost EVERYONE knows about. I did a little back-research on the place before I decided to take Alexi with me. A few people mentioned it was mostly geared for older kids. I also looked at the website and it seems that way as well, though it did mention a toddler zone. Well, just for the record, Alexi went and he had a blast!

We arrived and Joy met us at the entrance. We hit it off immediately, and I can honestly say I'd enjoy hanging out with her without the kids anytime! She was friendly and easy to talk to, and the conversation was fresh and engaging. She told me a lot about the museum and how it offers many cool programs including apprenticeships for high schoolers, birthday parties and field trips. The field trips sounded the most amazing to me! A professional educator collaborates with your teacher before the field trip to create a visit that will integrate with the class' current curriculum or study theme. How cool is that?

The whole downstairs was completely "touchable" for Alexi and Matthew, my 8 year old. When we first rounded the corner there was a green screen play structure with slide (this is where Alexi spent the majority of his time). A special camera loaded with some nifty software superimposed my tot onto a computer screen of fiery flames...that'll teach him next time he misbehaves! Math ran in the other direction toward the nearest computer monitor and set to work. I didn't see him again for another 30 minutes. The whole downstairs floor was pretty open so I could see both kids as they ran around and explored the puppet theater, dress up station, and block building space. Matthew eventually set up shop in the Animators Studio and didn't come out for over an hour.

The Animators Studio was something most kids don't get to see or experience till their first year of film school. There were tables of tools and "gut clay," or trash clay, that Math used to flesh out his designs over wire frames. Then he was given more expensive, colored clay to "skin" his creations. Math decided to make a scary flying ghost so the animator assistant provided him with some fishing line (hey, they thought of everything). After he'd made his ghosts, he chose a set complete with model ghost house and backdrop. A mounted camera was connected to a computer with iStopMotion software, which was pretty easy and intuitive to use. After some simple instructions he put together the short clip that's shown at the bottom of this post. They e-mailed me the clip before we left. All tolled the whole process took about an hour start to finish...and he was totally engrossed the whole time. Kid was on fire, he was so interested and excited!

There were a ton more things to explore at Zeum (a music production lab where you can make your own rock video, a multimedia lab, and lots more). If we'd had the time (and Alexi hadn't hit his breaking point...you see, he needs to eat a lot) we'd have stayed another 3 million hours, I'm sure. While there were a lot of things for the big kids to do, I have to say, Alexi had his fair share of things to play with, too. I'm glad I brought him.

After we left the Zeum, we checked out their store (hey, it's hard to resist). We picked up some great birthday gifts for some upcoming parties that weekend. Then, as luck would have it, the Metreon was right across the street. We had ourselves a wonderful lunch at our favorite Pizza joint, and then took a ride on the Carousel before heading home. In all, a very fun day in The City!

Zeum Claymation Short made by my 8 year old

DeYoung Museum: King Tut Exhibit

Yesterday some friends and I took our kids to the de Young Fine Art Museum in San Francisco to see the traveling King Tut Exhibit.

I pre-paid our tickets using Ticketmaster, and it paid off (no pun intended) I'd spent the extra $2.50 to print them immediately. The line to even gather your paid tickets looked rather daunting. I got a discount by paying with my American Express, but I saw that Costco was also selling packaged tickets including the audio tour. Kids under 6 are free.

The big kids all really enjoyed the exhibit. I felt a little bad that my older son would have liked to spend a lot more time in there, but there was not much in the way of distractions for Alexi (2). He liked looking at the boats and pointed out the birds and shapes and animals he recognized, but he grew bored very quickly. It's a good thing there were a bunch of us so we could divide and conquer. I can say all the kids thoroughly enjoyed the gift-shop at the end, though. There was also a kiosk where the kids printed out their names in hieroglyphics, too.

After our educational excursion we headed to the cafe for lunch. I'm always pleased with the food, and they added a fantastic infused water stand that really made me giddy!

And after lunch we spent a few hours chilling in the sculpture yard while the kids ran around and played. A great day!

Tree Frog Treks

Tree Frog Treks is a science facility that runs programs, camps, and classes for kids of all ages. I have a friend who lives in the Haight and we dropped our two boys off at the camp for a "rocket science" Kid's Play Night, and then the two of us were able to go out for dinner and dessert sans children. Awesome.

Math came home with wild stories about touching all sorts of cool reptiles, learned how the frog cycle works, and built a small rocket. Dinner, drinks, and a movie were also included.

You do need to register ahead, but if you're coming to SF and want to do some grownup time this might be the perfect way! Drop off is at 5:30, pick up is at 9.

Paxton Gate Curiosities for Kids

If you've ever been to Paxton Gate you know it's like a David Sedaris Wonderland Emporium. Seriously, they have some really weird stuff in there! But fascinating...

Anyway, Paxton Gate has a kid's store! I was in the Mission with a friend over the weekend and we took a peek inside. This whimsical store was chock full of unique art, vintage and handmade treasures, and other beautiful gift ideas for kids of all ages. Unfortunately all I had was my iPhone with me, but here's a glimpse of some of the amazingly cool, quirky things I came across. My favorite was a shaddow puppet stage.

They also offer kid yoga classes in the back room Mondays 2-4. You need to enroll ahead of time with the instructor.

Succulents

Photo by Caitlin Atkinson

What I wouldn't give for the vertical masterpiece above! It was created by a San Francisco artist named Flora Grubb (that's her real name!). She owns and runs a garden nursery, and specializes in works of art made from succulents and other cacti variations. And I'm oh, so smitten!

I'm no green thumb. In fact, I kill almost every plant I touch which is why I find succulents so fascinating! They are hearty little buggers, and beautiful, and require almost no botanical know-how to survive. Plus, since this is mounted on a wall, it would be up and away from my kids (who would invariably try to rip up each of those little suckers as cargo fodder for their toy trucks)! I have dreams of owning such a work of art someday *sigh*

In-law Interludes

The in-laws dropped in for a surprise visit today and yesterday. A visit from the in-laws, I'm happy to report, is actually a good thing in my book! We had the whole day together so we decided to spend it up in The City. Being rather limited on time, we did one touristy thing and then one "off-the-beaten-path" thing. Our family is comprised of serious foodies. The in-laws have spent the better part of their lives in the food-business (owning both a coffee/patisserie house and a restaurant) so it's no surprise this day was full of feasting. We made our way to the Ferry Building Marketplace and comprised ourselves a fabulous make-shift lunch fit for any foodie, and then headed our way to Caffe Trieste, a funky little coffee house with excellent java.

The Ferry Building is a veritable cornucopia of high end foodstuffs. From caviar to wine this place has got you covered!

Caffee Trieste is located right around the corner from the Ferry Building in North Beach (aka Little Italy). There are cute outdoor bistros and romantic cafes lined all along the streets. Crowds seemed to be mostly locals milling about enjoying their afternoon riposo...perfecto!

Check it:

These would make such cute baby shower favors!

At this stand all I could think about was mushroom lasagna.

Cheese, glorious cheese!

Olive oil much?

Our lunch: Acme Bread Co. selection, Mt. Tam brie, St George cheddar, 3 peppercorn salame, Sicilian cracked olives, and extra virgin olive-oil for dipping.

Mocha and a cappuccino.

Art Museum Musings

I grew up in museums as a child. My dad was in the military so we traveled all over, and we lived in Europe for several years. We explored places like the Louvre (the Mona Lisa is tiny), the Palace of Versailles (almost got kicked out for sitting on some old chairs), perfume factories, glass blowing facilities, old castles, zoos, planetariums, art museums, natural history museums, science museums, the list went on and on...and my sister and I complained the WHOLE time. "This is BORING! We want to go home! Why did you bring us here??? We want to go to Disneyland!" And over and over they told us, "Someday you'll appreciate this, damnit!" So now, as a parent, I realize the value in what they were trying instill in their unwilling, wretched children: Art and history and exploration is COOL! And Disney World, while entertaining, doesn't even compare to the real thing...


If you have relatively well behaved kids, I don't see why parents can't feel welcome to take them into "grown-up" museums. Docents following around kindergartners, begging them not to touch anything, are underestimating kid abilities and self-control. There is real intrinsic value in learning to appreciate creativity and imagination, and kids today are the ones who will be supporting these museums in 30 years!

The San Jose Museum of Art is a great kid resource in the south bay. It's not too big, they usually have a wide selection of different art mediums to look at, and the ticket admissions are more than reasonably priced. They also offer youth and summer programs that look like a lot of fun!

I've taken Matthew to see the M.C. Escher and Op Art exhibits in the past, and was recently there for an event opening of the Frida Khalo exhibit.


The DeYoung Fine Art is also a great resource for art exploration. The food is good, the art is plentiful and varied, and the Music Concourse is a great place to get some energy out after being indoors.

California Academy of Sciences

So we've taken a few trips to the CA Academy of Sciences since it opened last fall. We like this place a lot! For a city museum The Academy has packed a lot into a relatively limited space (planetarium, aquarium, natural history museum, exhibits). The building architecture is way cool, and the aquarium goes on and on and on! The kids really enjoyed watching the penguins swim around and the butterflies fly about the bio-dome.

I was a little disturbed by reports of mistreatment of the albino alligator, Claude. Most albino alligators are blind, as is The Academy's. Recent removal for "medical reasons" only further confirms suspicions that Claude probably is not too keen on being stuck in a tank with a bunch of biting comrades either.

Since the place just opened it's probably a good idea to go on a weekday if you can...the weekend crowds are pretty dense, but you can still see most of the exhibits less the rain forest bio-dome if you don't arrive when it opens.

The food at the Cafe and Restaurant was pretty awesome as far as museum dining goes. They had a large selection of hot "sit down" and cold "grab-n-go" options, as well as a plethora of beverages. My sister was pleased with her ricotta and egg tart, and I enjoyed my relatively low key quesadilla and guacamole. Lastly, the outdoor, fenced patio area is perfect for kids to run and play while the grown-ups have some conversation time.

It would be easy to spend a small fortune for a family of 4 here. If you plan on going more than once a year it's probably a good bet to buy a membership.

Common Ground Spearker Series

Common Ground is a symposium brought on by a bunch of Bay Area private schools to further enrich parent education. The speaker series brings in many experts from a wide variety of fields related to raising children, education, and health topics (many progressive in nature). All member school parents are free to attend any of the speaker series, and guests from an outside school can attend for a $20 fee. Even if your child doesn't attend a member school, the $20 fee is worth the free food (private schools have the best grub, seriously), and the speakers are pretty good, too ;0)

Some examples of past speakers:

• Dr. Robert Sapolsky a noted Stanford professor and neuroscientist.
• Dr. Denise Pope, another Stanford professor and author about stressed out overachievers.
• Richard Lavoie, author and special needs expert.

I'm a huge fan of Drs. Sapolsky and Pope, and was bummed to miss their lectures, but Rick Lavoie was entertaining, insightful, and I really enjoyed his book about social pragmatics and learning disabled kids.

de Young Fine Art Museum: Chihuly Extravaganza

Today we made the trek up to San Francisco proper to see de Young Fine Art Museum’s Chihuly installation exhibit. Dale Chihuly is a Tacoma, Washington glass blower who makes the most whimsically beautiful glass pieces I’ve ever seen. His work makes me think of something akin to a Dr. Seuss book, only better!

First we stopped at the Metreon to partake in my favorite wood-fired pizza at Firewood Cafe. I know the Metreon location is kindof a tourist destination, but I love their pizza, and the atmosphere is very kid friendly. The Castro location is also very kid friendly! Anyway, we ordered two Italian sausage pizzas, one pepperoni, and my sister ordered the turkey sandwich. We all were very pleased with our selections, but for me, the spicy olives are the best part.

Then we set off to de Young. We weren’t too smart with our planing. If I were to do it over again, I’ve have ordered tickets ahead of time using WillCall via Ticketmaster, but the show itself was fantastic! My older son (7) really enjoyed all the different ways the glass was molded into things he recognized (shells, flowers, etc), and my toddler liked all the brilliant colors. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to bring strollers into the exhibit. They had a free coat check, and I was thankful I remembered to bring my ring sling.