San Francisco Heart Treasure Hunt

This post is sponsored by Galileo Learning. All opinions are my own.

Summer may seem like a long way off right now but in actual fact it's creeping up on us. Before we know it Summer will be here and with that comes the kids being home from school for weeks and weeks on end. Eleven long weeks. That's a lot of time to fill with activities to combat boredom.

One of our favorite things to do over the Summer break is explore San Francisco. We're so lucky to live on the doorstep of such a wonderful city full of amazing places to visit. Some days we'll spend the day visiting a particular museum or gallery, some days are spent at playgrounds and other days are spent just exploring with no particular destination in mind.

"Abstracting Sights" now located at Dataway, 255 Golden Gate Ave (private)

Today I've teamed up with Galileo Learning to bring you a fun San Francisco exploration idea.

52 Weeks: Week 4

Week 4: Cookie

This week has been a quiet one for our family. All three girls have been sick with a nasty bug so we've been pretty much housebound all week. No swim classes, no playgrounds, days off school... I'm sure the girls don't mind that last one!

With three snotty noses, three pairs of bleary, red eyes and three tired little bodies I didn't think I'd have any photos to share this week. But then the girls decided to build a Duplo fort for Ava's pet gecko Cookie and I knew I had to share it.

Cookie was Ava's birthday present last year. With her birthday coming up next week that means Cookie has been living with us for pretty much a whole year now. He has definitely grown a lot in that time. You can see how little he was when we first got him here.

Salvation Mountain

A few years back I saw some photos of the most amazingly colorful art installation in the desert and I just knew that we had to visit there one day. As luck would have it, that explosion of color in the desert happens to be right here in California, just over an hour's drive from Palm Springs, and a perfect destination for our recent Southern California road trip.

Salvation Mountain is a completely surreal place. I never really know how to describe it to people. The creation of outsider artist Leonard Knight, Salvation Mountain is a 50 foot high and 150 foot wide "mountain" made entirely of adobe clay, straw and donated paint. Leonard started working on the mountain in the 1980s to promote his message "God is love". The mountain features many biblical texts as well as recurring motifs of birds, flowers and waterfalls. Leonard continues his work to this very day and the mountain continues to evolve.

Nine Months Old

Nine months old!

I know I say it every month, but I really can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. Nine months feels like such a milestone. In just three months time Mathilde will celebrate her first birthday. How is that even possible?

Grumpy Cat in Berkeley

Today a celebrity was in town.

Grumpy Cat, the "demotivational" sensation and star of several books (and even a movie) was in Berkeley as the special guest at the ribbon cutting of Berkeley Humane's new Mobile Adoption Center.

Berkeley Humane provides care for homeless animals, from rescue to rehabilitation to placement with loving owners. Their new Mobile Adoption Center is a state of the art, temperature controlled RV with custom built modular and detachable kennels. Roll up windows allow the cats and dogs inside to be viewed from the outside, and doors at both ends allow potential adopters to walk through and engage with the animals. This amazing vehicle provides limitless opportunities for Berkeley Humane to bring homeless cats and dogs to communities throughout the East Bay in the search of new families for these lovable animals to join.

To celebrate the launch of "The Grumpy Guide to Life" last year, Grumpy Cat's publisher Chronicle Books ran a nation wide competition to find "Grumpy Town USA", with the prize being a visit from Grumpy Cat herself. Berkeley Humane submitted an entry to raise awareness of the good work that they do throughout the community and to celebrate the launch of their Mobile Adoption Center. With the support of Berkeley's Mayor, the Police Association and Chamber of Commerce, Berkeley Humane's entry was successful and here we are; officially Grumpy Town USA!

So this afternoon we put on our best grumpy faces and headed to Berkeley Humane's headquarters to meet the grumpiest cat on the planet.

52 Weeks: Week 3

Week 3: At the playground

We're so lucky to have so many great parks within walking distance of our apartment building. There's one particular park a few blocks from our home that we frequent the most. Ava and Lola take karate classes there twice a week, they like to ride their their bikes/scooters/skateboards there, and several times a week we head to the playground to play.

This week I thought I'd share some shots from our visit to the playground on Monday afternoon.

A Few Days in Los Angeles

On our recent trip to Southern California we spent a couple of days in Los Angeles.

I'll be honest. LA isn't my favourite place but I figured we couldn't travel all the way down there and not see any of the city. Ava and Lola had only briefly visited Los Angeles in the past (a quick breakfast in Hollywood with my sister on the way to Disneyland and a transfer at LAX when we first arrived from Australia) and there were a few things they were pretty keen to see.

Ava and Lola couldn't wait to visit Santa Monica Pier, the stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame, the handprints and footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, and La Brea Tar Pit. But most of all, they couldn't wait to buy cupcakes from the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM! Ok, I was pretty excited about the cupcakes too!

The girls enjoyed Los Angeles and I must admit that I actually kind of warmed to it a little too. You won't be seeing us moving there any time soon but my opinion of the city has improved a little!

Here's a look at our time in Los Angeles...