easter

We spent Easter Sunday at Dave & Nancy's.  We all had a fun day... here's a little video of the action.  Enjoy.

play with your food

A little more than 20 years ago an ancient Croatian lady, after presenting me and my travel companions with an enormous platter of steamed black Mediterranean mussels, demonstrated how to take a mussel shell and use it as a pincher to pluck the briny, meaty little mollusks from their abodes and pop them into your mouth. It was one of a handful of transforming food experiences that I can clearly identify as a signpost on the road toward my career and lifelong passion for things edible.

Last night we steamed a pot of mussels at home and showed Tiz the drill. She had fun with the exercise and ate more than her share of the mussels. You couldn't have found a prouder papa anywhere.

artist at work

Tiz loves to draw, so Kim bought her an easel. She mastered chalk and crayons and now she's graduated to watercolors.  

We've had amazing weather, so we're spending a lot of time out on the patio... the mature trees in our yard diffuse the afternoon sun for great lighting in shots like this. Of course, Kim gets the photo credit (when they're this good, you can bet she was behind the lens).

Tiz is really into how things work. After Kim showed her just once, she methodically dipped her brush in the water, then the color, then brought it to the paper over and over.  It's so fun watching her figure stuff out.  Now I understand why so many parents say this is their favorite age.  

watergirl

watergirl from Matt Lennert on Vimeo.
Our friends Elaine and Joel have a great pool and we've been visiting it often this summer. I decided to make a little movie of one of our excursions, since Tiz is super-cute in the water.  Little did I know that she would decide to swim on her own for the first time today!  What a score to catch it all on film.  Enjoy!

a little more tiz

When she's not playing in the waves, Tiz has made new friends in Larry and Louise's grandkids... they've all been really sweet with her. Here she is playing with Colin indoors to escape the mid-day heat.


Never one to sit idlely, Tiz has also started learning the guitar. Here she is going to town on the solo of 'Stairway to Heaven'.

waves

Tiz has been getting acclimated to the ocean little by little. Today she really started to get comfortable playing in the waves.

flying our colors

Another beach tradition is flying the Jolly Roger. Here, Dad, Cindy and Larry are raising the pirate flag...

...while I'm down on the sand doing a little flying of my own... Kim gave me this stunt kite for Father's Day and this is the perfect venue for learning how to fly it.