This gallery contains 18 photos.
This summer I spent three lovely weeks in Orléans with my daughter and granddaughters, ages four and six. During the week, the little girls, who are bilingual in French, attended a Centre Loisirs pour les enfants (see news photos here) … Continue reading
So I’m in Sacramento for a business meeting and I drop by the local mall to take an air-conditioned walk and what do I see but the Lego Store. A few days before I’d gotten an email about their Speed Champions set. Marked for ages 8 to 14, I figure at 72 I’d have it made. So back to the Hilton and I begin to build the Porsche 917 K.
A few days and 732 pieces later, it all comes together. I dare you to find the photos of the real cars? Love the detail right down to the wrenches on the wall and in the drawers, the video monitors, the hydraulic lift that goes up and down, fuel line, and air guns for tire changes, and all the itsy-bitsy decals (a little difficult for arthritic fingers!). And I watched this Sunday’s Indy race at Long Beach while I was putting it together. So I’m a happy camper, except that Helio Castroneves didn’t win and Simon Pagenaud got away with murder. Someone asked my if I’m going to share my new creation with my grandchildren…no way! However, my six-year-old granddaughter has already managed to break Mimi’s rule. Okay…I’ll share.
Ribbet! Ribbet! The frogs waited patiently for the Tiana birthday party to begin
The Tiana castle cake has magically appeared on the buffet
Princess and the Frog green cupcakes await the guests
And who should arrive to color with the guest of honor but Princess Tiana herself!
And then the big moment comes, and Princess Tiana tells her story to the delight of guests big and small.
‘Twas the day after Christmas, when all thru the house
Some creature was stirring, could it be a mouse?
Empty stockings were flung on the floor with a shrug
And Legos and dollies covered the rug
The children were wrestling on top their beds,
With way too much sugar still filling their heads,
And me with my covers pulled up to my chin,
Had just settled down for a chance to sleep in —
When outside my door there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Out of my bed, I flew like a flash,
Tore open the blinds and threw up the sash.
The sun was just rising this cold winter day,
Giving sparkle below to San Francisco bay
Then, what to my bleary eyes should appear,
A five-year-old being, who was no longer sick
And a three-year-old darling, so lively and quick,
I knew for a fact it must be grandkids
More rapid than eagles their footsteps they came,
They whistled, and shouted, and called us by name:
“Now! Mimi, now! Nonna, now! Daddy and Mama,
“Come! Mimi, Come! Nonna, Come! Daddy and Mama;
“It’s time to get up! It’s time for our toast!
Are we going to school? Or maybe the coast?”
Oh, dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”
pitch black
door squeaks open
four little feet at the
bottom of sturdy legs
wrapped in Frozen flannel
pad over to my bedside
turn off my c-pap
can’t breathe
can’t sleep
peal covers off my
reluctant body
clock says 6:36
“get up, Mimi”
down two flights
bananas in hand
turn on Sophia the First
up two flights
gather outfits
pink stripe
polka dot princess
down two flights
distribute same
stern warning to get dressed or
TV off
clamber into shower
try not to slip on
treacherous tile
everyone dressed
up one flight
breakfast
cheerios for one
toast for the other
orange juice
sipped through snout of
dog…bear…whatever
assemble lunches
daddy fixed the night before
line up
backpacks
water
jackets
shoes
water down hair
slick back into
ponytails
clock ticking
mommy says 7:45
ready or not
everything on
down four flights of
red brick steps
van seat still blocked by
boxes of whatever
beyond my brain to
figure it out
mommy helps
off they go
chattering in French
up four flights of
same dangerous brick
gather garbage
theirs…mine
down four flights
stuff in cans
up four flights
count as exercise
dishes in dishwasher
down one flight to my
Provençal pink lime
hideaway
strangely quiet
writing time
8:01
gratitudes
children here and afar
productive
loving
grandchildren
smart
healthy
prayers for women
who have not my
blessings
whose exhaustion comes
not from hectic mornings
but from mourning
lives without
little ones to
pry open their eyelids at
6:36
On my birthday, lunch at Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley renown for using local, organic foods and credited as the inspiration for the style of cooking known as California cuisine. Restauranteur, author, and food activist Alice Waters co-founded Chez Panisse in 1971 with film producer Paul Aratow, then professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.
The menu for October 9th. Began with our favorite from our many trips to France–kir royals. Then Gypsy salad for me and Goat Cheese salad for my daughter. We both had the duck confit with squash gratin. Then I had the Apple & quiince galette and she had the bittersweet chocolate pave. Click on photo for next week’s menus.
Dessert pour moi
Dessert pour ma fille
The next morning. Simpler fare back at Chez Karen
And then a walk with the granddaughters to burn off all those calories. Looking back up from where we came from.
Having a rest and a snack half-way down.
Looking down at our long way to go. Our Upper Rockridge neighborhood is filled with these “paths” of concrete steps that take you from one street to another.
On night two, a surprise dinner cooked by my expert chef son-in-law of lamb shanks, polenta, and broccolini and carrots. As wonderful as any restaurant.
The chef and his wife! And all enjoyed al fresco in our backyard.
After!
Ooops! Not to be forgotten dinner on the birthday night with a dear friend at the newly opened Neopolitan restaurant in Danville CA called Laconda Ravello. Absolutely delicious lasagna. Ending with a martini glass filled with doughnut holes covered with sugar and drenched in chocolate. Best new restaurant in town.
My how he grew! From that scary first week in the ICU at UC Davis to toy trucks to tractors.
From a “new ear” party to riding a bike to playing pirate with Mimi on his 5th birthday
From his first computer to artist to app developer.
From testing out the school playground that Papa designed, to a hug for little brother Sam, to getting his first iPhone.
Most of all, being a loving son, a great grandson, a star student as a freshman in high school, a cross-country runner, and a young man of integrity and faith. What more could a grandmother have? Except of course that there are three other younger ones just like him!
I find the quiet today a bit disconcerting after eight days amidst the energy and enthusiasm of my four grandchildren. Although I’m still enjoying my annual flamingo Christmas tree.
The holidays began with a six-day trip to Oregon where my son Zach and daughter-in-law Amy are raising my two grandsons, Ryan almost 15 and Sam 11.
At the beautiful Pittock Mansion in Portland
Sam’s NinjaBread Cookies!
The Oyster Themed dining room at the Pittock Mansion
Zach and Amy whipping up great dinners in their kitchen
Sam…the real ninja!
And I enjoyed watching the “boys” play with their Anki Drive car racing set–played on an iPad with real cars that zipped around the track on the floor.
Then back to San Ramon for a Christmas Eve of baking…not one but two bûches de Noël plus Grandma Kinnison’s famous Christmas cookies. And Christmas day with Santa coming through with a train around the tree and much “FROZEN” bounty to the delight of the girls.
Christmas dinner–oysters, salmon, foie gras (shipped in from New York!), caviar, butternut squash soup, filet de mignon and all the fixings
Aveline and Estelle with some of their favorites.
“I’m hiding!”
“Peek-a-boo!”
Bûche de Noël
A wonderland of new Dicken’s houses for my daughter.
And finally, a Christmas greeting to my French friends on FB via my bilingual daughter and granddaughters and a French Christmas song by Aveline.
It was 4:47 p.m. I had secured a place on one of the park benches outside of the City Hall ostensibly waiting for the Disney holiday parade to come marching by.
My decision was only partly informed by that fact that this grandparent’s body is not quite up to ten full hours of finding excuses to not go on the rides my four-year-old granddaughter finds thrilling (especially Tower of Terror!) or tracking down any more large fuzzy characters for my two-year-old granddaughter to hug and be photographed with. I’d had my beignets at the Jazz Kitchen and my pancakes with ears at Goofy’s Kitchen. I’d seen Aladdin for the umpteenth time–and found it just as enjoyable as the first time.
I’d even won the trivia contest conducted while we waited to gain entrance. What year was Disneyland founded? I not only knew the answer but I had been there in 1955 at age 11 and experienced that incredible new phenomenon called a theme park. Mom was into openings. She had taken my brother and me all the way up to Los Angeles from La Jolla for a ride on the first freeway built in California (or anywhere!) four years earlier in 1951. I remember sitting on my little seat-belt-less hassock in the back seat amazed that this big street had things call “exits”.
But I digress. What amazed me as I sat there nursing my sore joints on the bench was looking up and seeing a tree full of huge black birds, with more landing every minute, right next to the cupola of Disneyland’s City Hall. Very Hitchcock-esque. The only sign of evil in this land of overwhelming good.
This gallery contains 9 photos.
I just have to look at these favorite photos of my four grandchildren.
Dr. Karen Stephen aka Doc Flamingo 
