Boys Club Loves Sugar (Bowl)

SILAS' FIRST SKI LESSON:

Silas says: "skiing is a little hard, but anyways I could almost do it. It was hard to get up when I was falling down. The teacher helped me up when I was falling down. Because it still was steep, that is why I was falling down. After I went skiing I got to watch Over the Hedge on the TV. After we went skiing we had a snowball fight before we went in and watched the movie" The instructor told us that Silas almost learned how to stop on his own.

JASPER CRUISES DOWN INTERMEDIATE SLOPES:

Jasper Says: "I had a fun time skiing. I went down the Mt. Judah ski lift, it is really hard, but the second time I did it it was really easy. I went on the White Pine chair lift twice by myself. After we got home to the cabin I started building the Lego Emperial Cruiser, over 1300 peices."

DaDa says: great day with the boys, first of four in Tahoe, my half of Spring Break. Bright eyed boys and a few tears and then success. Jasper was fast and furious down the intermediates, it was great to chase him. Seeing Silas in all his gear was amazing. I am proud of the little Noodle, he went with his chin up into a completely new situation and rallied.

Remember the Little People

For many years now, I have had a thing for old toys. By old I mean as old as me (41). I have ammassed quite a collection of vintage Tonka trucks, Hot Wheels, Fisher Prices Little People (FPLP) over the years. Maybe this is because I refuse to let go of the glory years of my childhood in Del Mar or because I want to to share the artifacts of those times with my boys. In either case, they love nothing more than to go into the basement and open boxes of vintage treasure.

By the time Jasper was 2 years old he had a broad collection of FPLP sets, vintage of course (masonite not plastic bases for those in the know). So, over the next few months I hope to introduce you to some of our collections and provide you with the vintage toy education you have always wanted.

I am sure you are all very intersted in the history and evolution of the FPLP, so here is a link to "ThisOldToy.Com" a great FPLP history site. Our collection focuses on the wood body/wood head and wood body/plastic head models, but we have a few all full plastic versions for rare models. The bulk of the beauties in our collection are from the toy glory years of the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies. The birth of rock n' roll also saw the birth of redline Hot Wheels and the expansion of the FPLP products.

From the site mentioned above I got the following information about our collection:

1963-1972
Straight-sided people and dogs. All wood (always), they have no narrow "peg" on the base. 5.





1967-1975
Geometric-shaped base people, used with the #151 Goldilocks & Three Bears set (67-70), the #136 Lacing Shoe (65-70), and #146 Pull-A-Long Lacing Shoe (70-75).




1965-1990
The most prevelant of "little people" body styles is the wide body/narrow "peg" base version. This is what most people are referring to when talking about "little people". This style was introduced in 1965 in the #192 School Bus set, and was used until 1990.




Here is a picture of the FPLP display in our living room

There is a Mo in the Basement

A visit from Uncle Mo is always unpredictable. Amos Glick lived with Jasper and Silas in the early years and continues to be a freaky force in their lives. Uncle Mo Visited this evening on a lay-over from Las Vegas to Belgium where he is invited to an interational improv festival. When he returns he will be a full time clown in Las Vegas at the Wynn's permanent show LE REVE. DaDa Charlie saw the show last month. Seeing Amos in the center of a 2000 seat theater in the round doing a striptease down to a little white G-String was both disturbing and worth the price of admission.

Meet the Hedgehog

Silas would like to introduce you to Hedgie the hedgehog. We acquired Hedgie the puppet at Megan's birthday party about 6 years ago, before Silas was born. Hedgie has become a big part of our daily life. Hedgies companion, Blue Bear, now lives at Silas' mom's house. Silas chose to keep Hedgie at the Boys Club because, logically, Hedgie is a boy. Many mornings we wake up with Hedgie and do "funny shows with Hedgie". These include such antics as:

• Smell the flower fart summersault


• Singing made up songs (though Silas does not want Hedgie to sing lately)


• Flying to the cieling on fart power


• and many more

Here is a picture of Silas' and his best stuffed friend:

Arbor Day

While working for Autodesk I got to promote a mapping website for managing the Urban Forest in San Francisco. Some of the promotion meant press interviews with various trade rags and spending a morning with the Mayor planting and mapping trees. Here is a picture of Mayor Gavin Newsom and I planting and mapping in SF.

Freedom Day

March 11, the first day and evening of the Crocker Boys on their own and still living and loving our home on the Great Highway. Told the boys on Saturday night and then joined great friends and blessed sunny day and evening of surf and BBQ. Thank you Joel and Danielle, Rich and Michelle, Andrew and Kris and my date Amos and all their kids: Elijah, Lucas, Lila Rose, Taylor, Zachary, Benjamin, and Jeremy. For Jasper and Silas this was a wonderful launch into our new family paradigm. Thanks for the support and friendship.

The day was big for DaDa too; his boys are connecting to the ocean. Jasper surfed his brains out with new booties and all and Silas got a few steps closer. Here are a couple pictures from the great beginning:

Jasper and DaDa heading into the great OB surf.

Jasper paddleing into a big one.

DaDa is it my turn yet?

Kids chow down on some serious BBQ.

Photo credits: Andrew Mackles