Swim Lessons

This last Monday, Emma started swim lessons. She is going once a week with Tammy, the same lady who taught Owen how to swim. The lessons are private, in her home for 20 min a session. The pool is a salt water pool and is heated! Emma is going every Monday at 1:00. Her first lesson was interesting. She was really excited to go, and to wear her new red bathing suit. As we were leaving the house, and running late, she decided she didn’t want the red bathing suit but the green, well we didn’t have time to turn around and change, and I wasn’t about to do it anyways. She was so upset; she didn’t want anyone to see her in her red bathing suit because it was ugly. Emma drives me crazy because she always wants to change her clothes and is constantly telling me how things do not match. Once we got there, things were not any better. She was upset and didn’t want to get near the water. I ended up putting my feet in the water and sitting on the edge of the pool with her, hoping this would help.  I think in the first lesson I was wetter than she was! I hope next Monday is better!

Sink or Float Experiment

Yesterday I did a sink or float experiment in Owens class. We used a large plastic container that we filled half way with water to test our items. We made a large chart with two columns, Sink and Float, the children each had stickers with their numbers on them to place in whatever column they thought was correct. We used about 15 different items such as; diet soda, regular soda, egg, plastic egg, crayon, paper clip, apple, ball, nuts, straw, spoon and raisins. Owen did really well on his predications; he was right on all but two items. The kids seemed to really enjoy it. We actually had a few first and second graders at the beginning. After the science experiment we stayed outside and made name tags with a variety of beans.

Not very fancy, but a quick chart thatwe made

Tyler testing a straw

Celeste making her guess

The kids working on their name tags -

Owen working hard

Emma thinks she is in school too

Art Class

This past Tuesday I took the kids to the Ojai Art Center to try out a weekly art class. They had soooo much fun!! This week Kim taught the kids beginning steps into clay sculpting, how to make some of the basic shapes – cubes and spheres. The kids ended up making dog’s out of clay. They were able to use sculpting tools to bind the clay together so that it would not fall apart on them. Then she brought out water colors and pastels and the kids were able to experiment with color mixing and painting. It was a great class and Owen asked if we could come back again.  The class meets once a week for an hour.

Owen wit hhis clay doggie

Emma's clay doggie

Parker, Emma and Owen's doggies

Emma checking out the water colors

Owen painting a house

Mentos and Soda Geyser

Could not get a great picture but there were a lot of deer today

Today I took the kids over to Lake Casitas where we use 7 mentos candies and a 2 littler of diet Shasta to create a geyser. I found this little tube that you place on the soda and then you pull a string that releases the mentos into the soda creating a geyser. It was pretty neat and the kids enjoyed it. Owen has lots of experiments he wants to try with it. He wants to know if you place more than 7 mentos in the soda will it shoot higher? How about if you use a smaller amount of soda?  Next time he wants to place paper near the soda to estimate where the soda will land. He also wants to time it to see how long it last. I love this, I love that the kids are learning so much through a fun little activity that I happen to see at Smart and Final this morning. Before we went to the lake we read about what geysers are, what is needed in the environment for a geyser to be created and then we watched some video’s on You Tube about geysers. We are going to do this on Thursday in Owens’s class.

We took Dakota to the lake as well and spent a little bit of time on the playground. As we were driving home we were looking for deer’s in the field like we always do. We saw a group of about 4 and then about a minute later, we found a large group, some were sitting some were standing, we counted 16 deer’s!

Kids hiding in the tunnel at the lake

Emma and Owen at the Lake playground

Beautiful March day at the Lake

Love coming here

Aunty Tara and Uncle Loren came to visit

Started the day off naked and inside the water table

Moved to the pool, Owen went in but it was a little cold for him. Emma wanted an adult to go in with her but that wasnt going to happen.

This was much better

Working on some science
Making volcanos

Emma even gave it a try

Emma was not interested in taking pictures

Owen and Aunty Tara

Owen and Uncle Loren

What a beautiful day for Aunt Tara and Uncle Loren to spend the day with us. We were able to visit outside all day today. It was so good to see them and spend some time with them. The kids were very busy today, they played in the water table, went swimming in the Jacuzzi and tried the pool but it was a little cold, played a lot with Owens’s science stuff, mostly vinegar and baking soda and mixing colors. We had pizza and ice cream from the ice cream man. It was a great day! Emma was being her usual self and wouldn’t take pictures but we got two cute pictures of Owen with Aunt Tara and Uncle Loren. Can’t wait to see them again!

Emma at Tiny Tumblers

I signed Emma up for Tiny Tumblers at the Ojai Rec Dept. The class was only 5 weeks long and we were sick for two of them. She seemed to really enjoy it. She is the oldest in the class and it’s more of free time than an actual class. I might sign her up for a real class next time to see how she does. She is crazy!! Jumping off everything!! They have balancing beams, trampolines, balls, bowling, little scooter bikes that you sit on and push with your legs and a few others things. Here are a few pictures from our second day.

In memory of Rick.......

Jennifer's (my sister in law) dad passed away this last week and it’s been a tough few days. Robert called me and told me on Wednesday afternoon and I was home alone with the kids, I was very upset when I got off the phone and began to cry. This really upset the kids, especially Owen. I tried to get away from the kids until I was able to calm down a bit, but they kept following me and Owen was asking why I was crying and he said he had never seen me cry before. I called Tony to tell him and he came home right away and without me saying anything to him could tell that the kids were upset. Owen came out of his room, he made me a note and told me that he was sorry that I was sad and hoped that his note helped. Such a sweet little guy, and yes it helped.

Robert and Jennifer's wedding

Thanksgiving in 2006 or 2007

This was Christmas a few years ago. I remember this like it was yesterday. Jennifer gave Rick a book, I think it was about the hisotry of this area, and he was like, "wow, how cool." And Jennifer is explaining what is in the book to him. He was very excitted about it.

One of the notes Owen made me to help me feel better after hearing about Rick's sudden death

For Owen's first birthday we had a construction theme and Rick was such a sport to wear the hard hat party hat for a huge part of the day

Rick and Robert
I dont know why but I love this picture

Owen and Rick
Owen's second birthday party.

Rick spent many holidays and celebrations with us at our home. He was a great loving guy that will be greatly missed. He always had a special place in his heart for Owen and called him, “big guy.” He wasn’t around as much the last few years but we hope he knew how much he meant to all of us.

Homemade pretzels, yummmmm

I have wanted to make homemade pretzels with the kids and finally we tried it on Tuesday, yes after the field trip to dominos. The recipe was really easy and the dough only had to rise for about 50 minutes. The kids had a little bit of trouble rolling the dough into the long skinny snake like shapes. The kids had a good time trying different shapes, once they were tired of that we made small balls and small pretzel sticks. We also made some that we coated it cinnamon and sugar; of course the kids love these. They turned out to be very yummy and the kids ate all of them. We will defiantly be making these again soon.

Trying to roll out into the long snake like shape.

Owen's first pretzel

Getting ready to cook the first batch

The finished product, and as Emma would say, "super yummy."

Santa Barbara Zoo

Owen and Parker being silly

We have annual passes to the Santa Barbara Zoo and usually go every few months. We love to go to the Boo at the Zoo around Halloween and the Snow Leopard Festival at the beginning of December. Since we go so often I try to have Owen learn something new about one of the animals. His favorite animal fact is why are flamingo’s pink? Of course we know that it’s because they eat shrimp which changes their pigment to pink. We went last Friday, February 24^th and learned that the Newt can cover its entire body in mucus and walk through a forest fire and survive! Pretty impressive! We took Owens’s little buddy Parker with us this time. The kids had a great time and it was a beautiful day!

Owen Feeding  the sheep

Emma feeding the sheep

Silly kids......