Middle school

The jump from 5th to 6th grade and this new school has been huge. Leo has been working day and night on projects and homework. Here's how he feels about it:

Burning Man pix 2

More pictures from Burning Man. Sofia Sofreaka only overlapped one day with us but she and Leo instantly became best buds:

The kids playing in Earth@Home

The kids shooting lollipops with the lollipop gun. Stuns at 20 feet. They are on the roof deck of the Armadillo, the art car that Dave and Boris (our Campmates) helped design and build for some billionaire.

Our neighbors' art car

Leo in the cupcake at night:

The cupcake at Center Camp

Another nice art car with a view

Jousting. It looked scarier and more out of control than it actually was

Sunset!

Boris' art piece for our camp:

Therm made a fantastic piece - moths. Some of the Therm folks were in our camp this year, too. The moths are really loud and can be played like musical instruments. They are very percussive. They shoot colored flames - green and orange and yellow and red and bits of turquoise.

Leo in some 'evil' chair.

Zap! and Leo getting zapped.

The medusa head during the day

You spin the wheel and it rotates the whole contraption which sends umbrellas through this poor guy's body.

The poor guy being speared by umbrellas.

A friend of the octopus creator, with a great matching hat:

And the octopus, made out of tons of concrete and tiles. I think they were looking for a buyer. Anyone?

The boyz on the Boar.

Leo dismounting the Boar.

Talk to God phone booth. People lined up for this. And they were on the phone for hours.

The 747 on the playa:

Inside the 747:

Leo in the cockpit

Leo getting cleared at the Insecurity Checkpoint so he can board the 747:

Skateboard park:

This guy was brilliant. He cleaned and fixed up a porta-potty and had a line of women waiting for the Lady's Room experience (far better than the normal porta-potty experience here)

We ate multi-colored gecko pancakes from these friendly folks on a daily basis. Sure beats instant oatmeal in the camper.

Paul deciding on the scenic or psycho path:

One of our favorite pieces was the Lighthouse:

This art car that sat outside the Lighthouse must have been made by the same guy. I love this art car, complete with outhouse:

Our camp mate Jacob getting painted for the day:

Burning Man - pictures from last few days

Leo in his cupcake watching some stiltwalkers on the playa. Here's a video of the stilts and cupcake party:





Stairs to nowhere



Burning Man's version of Santa Monica's Muscle Beach has very high hammocks to swing in while watching the trapeze artists


The Da Vinci tank at night. Leo got to run the remote controls. They were very sophisticated- you could control each jet of fire individually or hit the all jets at once button or hit the each jet in a row button.


Leo the Snufflupagus


We loved this Glowscilloscope. Controls of frequency and amplitude on the right. Results from the UV laser trace on the left.





This is Thunderdome! From Mad Max. This particular fight was a father-son fight. They hang in bungees and attack each other with foam-covered bats. Here's the video:






Leo loves his cupcake! Other kids did too! People chased him around the playa wanting to eat him.



The Da Vinci Tank. Leo got to run the remote controls. They were very sophisticated- you could control each jet of fire individually or hit the all jets at once button or hit the each jet in a row button. 



Virus. You spun the cube and the gears all spun as well. We watched this burn.



So it said Phish was playing. I left my job (making French fries) to Paul and Leo and biiked over to see. Of course it was a cover band. And they made me wince a lot. The first weird thing was that there was a packed audience but no dancers. Not sure what the point of that is. The second weird thing was my camp mate who went and swore up and down that she'd seen phish before and that this really was them.



the cupcake gathering



One of the cupcake guys had a birthday so we celebrated by baking a giant cupcake. They had to bake a dozen chocolate sheet cakes and cover in frosting.



Here's the actual birthday party on the playa. Free cupcake for everyone. The cupcake is a little hard to see but it is in the center of the picture.



Have to have a fire hydrant if you're going to burn anything ;-)





This was the candy store. And Leo looked like a kid in it.



Family self-portrait




At camp, we burn our trash in this burn barrel. We get the barrel started with this flamethrower.



Leo right after a shower.



You could ride this teacup art car. They had five teacups pulled by a truck.



The TV art car



the man - the gears never worked




El Pulpo Mecanico. Best flaming art car ever.







Jean and Leo



A fun tightrope



Leo and Paul riding a cool trike. It's made from three unicycles. The middle wheel spins freely and there is a strobe light that syncs up to it.