Glass Blowers in Benicia

Today we went to Benicia to watch some glass blowing by two local artists. The first blower, David Lindsay, was amazing!!! His assistant was quite informative and gave us a play by play as to what David was doing. We learned that cutting hot glass is much like cutting leather. We also were told that glass cools very quickly, therefore David needed to work quickly. When coming out of the 2000 degree fire, the glass becomes liquid form and is similar in consistancy like honey. The colors were vibrant and clear. This studio was Ainsleys favorite, but it was on the smaller side and very warm. Kaley decided that this was not where she wanted to be...so we were able to at least see two pieces created and then left. We ate our picnic lunch under an enormous palm tree on the shore with a great view of the Richmond bridge. The next studio was quite something! The pieces at the Nourot studio were massive. This was Kaley's favorite studio. The most inexpensive piece I could find was $2600.00... Their demonstration room was much larger and they had really good music playing, but the workers were less into talking. We didn't stay very long here. As we were leaving to make our way over to Leapfrog in Emeryville, I spotted a church which I thought we should check out. Much to my delight, it turned out to be St. Dominics of Benicia, established in 1854. We got out of the car and walked around inside the church...yes, the parish was actually open....very different from those here!!! I felt like I was back home. The girls were fascinated with all the candles and images of the Holy Family. We had a really good day today.

Visit to the Ainsley House in Campbell

One can't live a mere hour away from a house bearing the same name and not go visit it.....Visiting the Ainsley House in Campbell was our outing for last week. Ainsley was thrilled that there is a house named Ainsley House. Once in Campbell and at the Historical Society, Miss Ainsley took great pride in explaining to anyone who would listen that she came all the way from Concord to visit the Ainsley House, because her name also is Ainsley. We learned a lot about the Ainsley's on our tour of the house. Beautifully restored in an enchanting park-like setting, the English Tudor style architecture of the Ainsley House transports the visitor to the bygone era of the 1920s. Built in 1925 as the home for Campbell canning pioneer J.C. Ainsley and his wife Alcinda, the home was moved to its present location in 1990. The exquisitely restored and decorated 15 rooms are furnished with much of the original furniture of the era when it was one of the grand homes of the Santa Clara Valley. My favorite rooms were the green bathroom (I thought the shower door was really neat) and a state of the art kitchen. I also loved all the windows! throughout the house!! Ainsley liked the maids quarters (she liked the treadle sewing machine) and Kaley liked the kitchen, as well, especially the mock apple pie on the counter :) J.C. Ainsley was the first to can fruit salad, which is what we know of as fruit cocktail. The Ainsley packing plant packed peaches, pears and apricots. Hunts bought out JC Ainsley who later sold to Dole. The gardens were beautiful and a lovely setting for weddings. We were able to watch a wedding in progress, which delighted the girls!

Ainsley and Kaley with a coutout of the Ainsleys The Tudor Style house
The green bathroom The bathroom shower door, which I really liked. Many of J.C. Ainsley's canning labels
Washing clothes...the girls really liked washing the clothes.



The Fruit Pitting Machine

Ainsley's new shirt.....a label from Ainsley's apricots.

Kaley's "yellow" leaf...

Packing plant year...1925

4th of July, Clayton and The Browns

We made our annual trip to Clayton to participate in their 4th of July parade with the Skows. It was pretty warm but we all had a good time. Ainsley and Kaley decorated and rode their bikes. Ainsley was a little nervous about having to ride slowly and as soon as there was an opening, she made a break for it. Kaley, still on training wheels, did a good job...as did Ainsley!

In the evening, we joined the Brown family for their annual party. They live on the Contra Costa Country Club and each year, the country club sets off an amazing fireworks show...which seems as if it is done just for the Brown party. We had a great time and were able to catch up with some friends we haven't seen in a long while.

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Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Factory Tour

Tuesday we loaded up the car and after Kaley's tennis lesson, we jammed to Petaluma for our tour of Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Factory. Anthony and Elena joined us, too...which added to the excitement of the day. The tour was very informative and the kiddos learned a lot. I had no idea that there was so much work in producing a sticker! We vistited the store to make sure that we left with some of Mrs. Grossman's Stickers, little did we know that they load you with them when you leave

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Visit to Grandpa Ron's

The girls had a good time with Grandpa and Wilma on our recent trip to Fresno. We stayed at Grandma's and the girls loved swimming in the pool. Daddy realized that doing a canon ball at almost 40 feels a bit different than at 18...nonetheless, the girls requested he do it and he obliged

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Miss Eccentric

Ainsley still likes dressing up....this time, she was scarf lady.

Barry Bonds hits #750

Friday night, we went to the Giants game. The Giants played the Diamondbacks and while the Giants did not win, it was an exciting game. Barry Bonds hit one hit out of the stadium, which was is 750 home run. AT&T Field (or whatever the name is at the moment) set off fireworks and steam blew out from all the chimneys surrounding the stadium. It was really quite something to see. We had two fly balls land very close to us. We had a guy with no ticket sitting behind us try to hand security a $20.00 instead of his ticket when asked for it. Later, he made an appearance on the field. He just wanted to say Hi to Barry. Lou Seal amused the girls for quite a while. They would giggle and giggle when he would wave to them. Up close, Kaley wanted nothing to do with him, but Ainsley was ready for a hug and photo. Ainsley climbed to the top of the Coke slide and went down twice. We sat in the Macys seat on the club level and they are just like being on the field. We had a really good evening.

White ribbon of Excellence for our swimmers

Karen and Phil were great teachers this summer for swim lessons. Kaley has turned into quite a little fish and Ainsley did well, too. Here they are with their white ribbons of excellence.

Ainsley and her tennis class

Ainsley, too, has been taking tennis through PH Park and Rec. Both girls really seem to enjoy taking lessons. It is fun to go out and play with them!



Introducing Miss I-Have-An-Idea.....on the tennis courts.