nursery and planting

cypress main post office

the february field trip with our parkday group was to the post office. we got to tour the whole building and see where the trucks come, where the businesses bring mail, where our carrier (aka mailman) sorts our mail and they even had a snack for the kids (in the carrier's lunch room, of course). the kids had fun and even right when we got home our mail was delivered and they were so excited to see it come and say hi to the mailman because they'd just been "to his world".

Bolsa Chica Wetlands

today we visited the wetlands for the first time. (our original plans for today included a playdate with a friend at a park and pictures of all 4 kids at the brea mall, but jojo's face isn't ready for photos and our friends called sick, so...) last night i found this book at the library baby's day out in so cal and it reminded me of the wetlands. this was an impromptu field trip so there was no foreknowledge of what we were getting into.

we started out on the 1 1/2 mile trail with no map or idea of where we were going other than mommy's repeated direction to "stay on the trail". we enjoyed the plants, animals, and surroundings. the kids had fun. i was trying to do something new - being quiet (that's the new part) so that we could see some animals. prompting them to look, smell, listen, and feel everything around them (that was in reach while they "stay on the trail", of course)

this picture shows you a basic idea of the wetlands. we're on a trail then there's water, then there's PCH, then there's bolsa chica state beach.

we saw many flowers that we cannot identify.

here are some grasses that we did quiet ourselves to listen to. they reminded us of the sounds of the grasses written about in little house on the prairie (what we're currently reading)

we saw many birds that we have identified! (i was impressed with myself.) we saw many marbled godwits (pictured) and american coots.

this is a great white egret that was not too far from us on the trail. it did move off and hide as we approached, but we were slow and quiet(!) and got to watch it for a while.

and, of course, we saw bugs! kiki actually took the honey bee photo by himself!

what is next to this lady bug? kiki says it's a red spotted roly poly.
this bug looks huge, but it's really just his shadow!

a passerby offered to let me be in a photo!

jojo's little accident

last night jojo was skateboarding in front of our house and did a face-plant. here's the damage...

the dentist

we love the dentist! we had an appointment for 5! it would be ky's first time, but she "was shy". (this sounds better than "she chickened out" - but she is 2 after all) she did ride up in the chair with mommy, but then freaked out and jumped off the chair (while it was up) to a complete stranger just to get away from that scary chair! :) she would not come back to me as long as i was in the chair! (hmmm... new place for a mommy time out???)

and the score...

s - 0

t - 0

j - 0

k - 1

kiki wins! congratulations! you get 1 filling! yeah!

all the kids had a great time putting chairs up and down, rinsing out the sink, filling the water cup, etc. we love drs. alley!

mommy got to have molds of her teeth made. the boys watched them make the "goo" to put in my mouth but we all know they thought they could do a better job -they are, after all, really good mud and goo mixers! they practice in the backyard daily - who knew this would be a useful skill?

valentine's day cooking class

our homeschool co-op was already planning to meet since it was thursday and i had volunteered to "teach" a class. i think me teaching a cooking class falls into the "those who can't do teach" category! but, i thought, how technical could i need to be? i must know something about food preparation that 2-6 year olds don't know!

it turned out great. every child learned a little about recipe cards, spreading topping on bread, using cookie cutters, mixing ingredients, skewering, etc. they all had fun and enjoyed their creations.

here's jojo with a tomato mozzarella kabob.













and here's a few things we made - i didn't get to cut the bread into a cute shape for the cucumber tomato one, but you get the idea.



it was a fun valentine's day.

grandma's birthday

we didn't get to celebrate together, but the kids had fun making a little gift to celebrate grandma's life because of what she means to us.