Exciting times for Mommy and Jory!

Daddy and Mommy played hooky with Jory to go watch the Happy Birds show at the plane museum last week:

Joey also did some work in the flight simulator:

but most of all, Mommy got her check for winning first prize in the Pacific Novel Writing Competition!

Food festival

Emma and David bought us foodie passports to the SFEats food truck food festival at pier 70!

Jory had a good time eating coconut fried chicken bahn mi, frankaroni (Mac and cheese with bacon studded hot dogs), and matcha strawberry frozen custard. 

And here's Jory as a chicken!

Jory's goodbye party in Germany

While we were in Heidelberg, Jory went to the Kinderhaus at EMBL where I was working. They had a goodbye party for him that was incredibly touching: they made a T-shirt with all their names, a rocket with pictures of all of the kids, and a book of photos. But perhaps the most special was a tradition in which they had a bag made of a thin fabric that they passed around, and each kid whispered some wish for Jory into the bag. They then lit the bag on fire, and it disintegrated into little pieces, which Jory caught out of the air and put in his pocket (to hold onto the wishes).

Then, he chose two of his friends to do sparklers with him, while they sang a song:

We were very lucky to have Jory at such a great place!

Space!

Jory has recently gotten really into space. This extends to both nonfiction, where he now knows the Apollo 11 story by heart ("one small step for man..."), and fiction, in which Darth Vader features prominently.

I took Jory to the Visitor's Center at NASA Ames, where he got to stand in front of a picture of Neil Armstrong:

a model of a Saturn V rocket:

even mimic Neil himself:

Mommy got him some Neapolitan astronaut ice cream (it looks better than it tastes):

He's also well equipped for battles with the Emperor:

(or other enemies closer to home):