California or Bust, part 1

For Spring break, we decided to take an epic road trip to southern California to visit my father's parents.  They're getting up there in age, and I felt a certain amount of urgency to see them this break.  Not because I think they're going to die soon, but because I don't see another time in the foreseeable future that we could go on such a trip.  And our tax return permitted it, despite the exorbitant gas prices.
So, to make it harder on ourselves more interesting, we decided to go a longer route and see the sites.  We went to see San Francisco, stopping for the night at a hotel on the way, and visited the aquarium there first.  The trip was long, and we broke it up by stopping at various parks and play places along the way.

The trip over the Sierra Nevadas was snowy and scary, and I didn't even think to take out the camera.  Luckily we made it, and to our Hotel in the beautiful hillsides of Auburn.  We got settled in and went on a little walk to explore and stretch our legs.

Our first palm tree sighting. I know, we're such nerds.

The next morning we drove the two hours to Fisherman's Wharf, enthralled with the loveliness of the  lush green landscape, and getting excited over first views of the bay, the San Francisco skyline and the cool bridges we had to cross as we neared our destination.

This is our only picture of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
We thought we were going to get closer, but we  ran out of time.

Alcatraz.  What a cool name.

The Aquarium was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

This was the real main attraction for the boys.  They kept asking for coins the entire time. sigh.

Then we had lunch on the pier, where Gabe had fun chasing pigeons, and I had the lovely experience of breastfeeding a baby while standing up in a stall of a public restroom --not recommended. Just as we finished lunch, it started raining, so we ran back to our car and then drove through town to get back to the highway.

Yum.

This picture doesn't do justice to how steep these streets are, we were actually peeling out just to get up them.
 Of course, that may have been the water on the trolley rails, but still...

After that, we headed down U.S. 101 towards Los Angeles.

It was a pretty scenic route.  Lots of beautiful green rolling hills, a few forests, happy cows, vineyards as far as the eye could see, mountains, grassy fields, tree-dotted fields, oil fields, and finally, our first views of the open ocean.

There's deer there if you look closely.
We actually didn't know they were there until we reviewed the pictures afterwards.

We didn't get to the campsite until well after dark, but we were glad to be there, and excited to see what our surroundings looked like, as well as what new adventures awaited us in the morning.  

To be continued...

(Click here for part 2)

"...but the fruit of the poor lemon..."

Was April Fool's Day created as an excuse for us to get a little harmless mischief out of our systems?  

We all know it lurks there in the back of our minds --perhaps an elaborate hoax, just for a laugh; or more often, merely a mild curiosity, hoping for an entertaining reaction.

 

 

Taste: Acquired.

Surprisingly, that one face was all he made, and then he went at it with a vengeance.

How disappointing. 

Not so "impossible to eat" after all.

Kids Need Zen Gardens Too

I just wish it wasn't on my patio.

Car Activities for Toddlers

So, we planned an epic road trip to Southern California for our Spring Break (pictures to come).  While 30-plus hours in a car over the span of five days with three small children is not ideal, I found that if you plan well enough, you all just might survive.

Here are some of the ideas I came up with:  (The first two I have pictured here are actually completely original. The third was from Family Fun, I think, and some of the others were from friends and neighbors as well as just what we had around.)

So when I think of travel games, I think of magnets. So I bought some tins at the second hand store, some magnetic tape, some dollar store stickers and fun little erasers, and printed out pictures I had drawn on the computer or found on the internet onto cardstock.

I taped a clear page protector onto the tin, and so the cards were interchangeable.  My favorite was the I spy page, which I made two copies of and with one page made magnets out of some of the objects by cutting them out and sticking the magnet strip to the back.   The other tin simply had alphabet and number magnets, although I planned to do shapes -tangram style but didn't get around to it in time. The kids really seemed to enjoy it -until most of the magnets got lost in the car -but it kept them busy for at least an hour, which is all anyone could hope for.

The second idea was quite ingenious I thought, although more complicated than it had to be, and flopped in the end, but not because it wasn't a good idea.  I made a paper dispenser scroll out of a pencil box, two Crystal light containers, some pencils, some tractor wheels from an already broken toy, and some rolls of old-school fax machine paper that I found at the DI.

I melted slits and holes in the Crystal Light containers with my wood burner, and stuck the pencils through for spindles, drilling holes in the pencils and attaching the wheels by the axles with glue to use as knobs.  (Did that make any sense?)  Then I put the paper roll in the first, pulled the paper through and taped it to the pencil/spindle inside the container opposite side, and put the lids on.  Then I glued the canisters to the bottom of the pencil box, and voila!  I also attached a snap-button closure to the lid on the underside to keep things inside while drawing.  I filled the box with pencils, crayons, markers, stickers, and stamps. I also found out that you could draw on the paper with any hard stylus type thing, including your fingernail, because it was pressure sensitive paper, so if the kids lost all the pencils and stuff, it would still work!  Well, the thing lasted for about an hour before the canisters on the sides fell off --note to self, don't use hot melt glue for things that are going to be handled by toddlers!  I also left home without all the things I originally filled it with (pictured above), although luckily I had pencils and crayons in the car. So, it didn't go over as well as hoped, but my four year old got a little use out of it, and I plan to resurrect it before our next car trip.

The third thing I made was some little mazes I saw somewhere, made out of waxen string (Bendaroos work best, but I couldn't actually find those so this off brand had to do -which actually glowed in the dark), and some old CD cases, and some small round balls or beads I had around.

I only got this one bad picture of one of the two mazes after the kids had been playing with them with their grubby little hands, and to be honest, they may have been a bit young for it.  Another note to self, glue them shut next time, because the contents are just too interesting looking to not be touched and dismantled.  Needless to say, they didn't last past this trip, but again, they gave us a good hour or so of peace.

The other tricks I had up my sleeve included:
-Surprise bags, filled with dollar store party favors and treats, given at intervals throughout the trip.
-Pipe cleaners
-Travel size Etch-a-sketch and Magnadoodle
-Books -especially Eye Spy books, and board books with flaps for younger kids.
-Kid computer/Toy that has buttons, lights and sounds --not too annoying though.  (I honestly think my 2 year old knows his alphabet better ever since this trip, and I have a toy that I am going to take the batteries out of for a while.)
-Pom pom puffballs --for throwing at each other.  Good for laughs and relieving stress. Only lasts until they're all lost and out of reach in the car though.
-Bubbles --didn't actually have to pull this one out.  I forgot about it.  But it has worked wonders for keeping really young kids happy and entertained.  (I blow, they pop, otherwise it would be a mess.  AC/heater fans make it more exciting, and I can actually get bubbles all the way to the back of my minivan that way).
-Glow sticks --great for driving in the dark.
-Wooden beads for stringing (-until they all got lost on the floor that is). Fruit loops or cheerios could also be fun if you're not afraid of the mess.
-A Laptop with DVD's or movies on the hard drive (we can't afford a portable DVD player).  We plugged it into our tape deck adapter for surround sound, and turned the music to play in the back of the van.  We were actually able to read our book out loud in the front, while the kids watched a movie in the back without bothering one another!  I am also proud to say that we only watched three full length movies the entire trip --that's better than most weeks at home!
-Snacks snacks and more snacks!  We got the kids some Lunchables, and used the trays over and over to pass other small finger foods back.  We tried to keep the sugar at a minimum, but crackers, cheese sticks, teddy grahams, grapes, apples, raisins, beef sticks, and the occasional gummy worm seemed to do the trick. For the baby, who is just learning to self feed, we got some Baby MumMums (organic rice rusks) that kept him busy, a mesh feeder to put bananas, grapes, pineapple or whatever else we thought he'd like to chew on, and when all else failed we popped those freeze dried yogurt melts into his mouth, which prolonged his time until feedings/naps sometimes half an hour --long enough to get to a good park or play place.

That was another trick.  Stopping every two-three hours for some good kinesthetic-oriented fun (while I fed the baby in the car).

We also bought some new toys for the baby, including those little links to go on his carrier handle to keep him from losing toys, sippies, and the mesh feeder.

He was a messy baby, but a happy one. We just rotated through things at intervals to keep it new and interesting.  Luckily he took naps very well as we drove, and was pretty happy even when awake.  The kids took good naps too.  That was a blessing!

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  All my planning and preparing worked out to be just enough, despite some of the seeming flops, but I don't think we'll do it again for a long long time.  (Unless we have to for a move next Fall, but then I'll be prepared!)

Hope some of this is helpful to any of you!  If you have any other good ideas, feel free to share!

St. Patty's

I love the story of St. Patrick.  When I learned it last year, it brought a whole new meaning to the holiday that before only held memories of green. Green milk in the fridge, green eggs and ham for breakfast, and of course, getting pinched whether I wore green or not.  My husband's family was a bit more festive.  They at least made leprechaun traps and got a chocolatey surprise for almost catching those little gold lovers. In fact, we even made an ingenious contraption ourselves this year, thanks to hanging out with extended family the night before.  Here's our design.

You can't see it, but there's a shiny bauble inside attached to the string as "bait" since we know leprechauns love shiny things, and once they have ahold of it would never let it go-- thus pulling the door closed as he tries to steal it.  The other "opening" is not really an opening, but is meant to fool the leprechaun into a false sense of security as he enters the container, thinking he can always escape, when really it is a Seran Wrap barrier.  Hee hee, aren't we so tricky?  I would have made the container much prettier if I had, say, taken more than 5 minutes to make it.

As it was, the flimsy construction was no match for a feisty little leprechaun, and he got away, with enough time to write us a note and leave a "golden" chocolatey consolation prize.

As for the real story about Saint Patrick, I will summarize it for you:

First of all, Saint Patrick was British born, who at 16 was kidnapped by Irish
raiders and taken back to Ireland as a slave. He was rescued (in fact, he said
that he was told by God to flee captivity and go to the coast where he would
board a ship and be brought back to Britain), and when he returned to England he
joined the church (catholic I assume) and studied to become a priest. Once he
was a Bishop, he felt called to go on a mission to teach and convert the people
of Ireland, or to "save the Irish." He was very successful, and after thirty
years of preaching and spreading Christianity, he died on March 17th 461 A.D.

Just as a FYI, he was known to use the shamrock to explain the holy trinity.
"Wearing green" really meant wearing the shamrock in the beginning, and has
evolved to just wearing the color green.

Anyway, what a story of forgiveness and true conversion! I mean, he went back
to where he had been held captive to preach the Gospel. I think that is
amazing! 


So, maybe St. Patrick's day does have something to offer. I also like
the thought of the shamrock representing what we would call the Godhead.   

Brothers

The shirts are a little obvious I know, but just in case you were confused...