{ Snow! }

There has been so much rain here in the last week. Yesterday, the rain stopped, so we headed to the mountains to play in the snow. We went to Idyllwild and had a wonderful day there. The kids went sledding, made a snowman, had a snowball fight and then Paul pulled them back to the car in the sled. We ended at the coffee shop in town for two hot cocoas and two cinnamon bear lattes. Yummy.

{ Hail! }

The kids thought this was insane! I'm not sure my son had ever seen hail before. His class went outside and touched it and played just a bit. My daughter went on an errand for her teacher and got to see the hail too! What a great day in not so sunny southern California!

{ The New Children's Museum }

Have you been to the New Children's Museum in San Diego? If not, you need to go! This is such an amazing place. At first glance, it seems a bit sparse. It's in a big industrial looking building in downtown. There are three levels of museum exhibits which are spread out and simple. But everything here is hands on. The museum provides all kinds of tactile and learning spaces for the kids. Every year, the museum will be completely overhauled, hence the "New" Children's Museum. In August of 2009, the museum underwent it's first transformation after being in business for about 18 months. This year the theme is Animals in Art.Here the kids are riding the kid powered apex chariots.

Animals were everywhere.

This is the Toy An Horse that you see as you enter the museum. The kids loved checking it out from the inside.

The climbing wall is a fun challenge. The kids tried to go along all three sides of the climbing area. The great expanse of the area gives the feeling of being up really high.

Bubbles! How much fun to see bubbles floating around the highrises. Such a magical place.

There are always several art projects throughout the day. The kids made animal post cards. Here's my daughter working on her tiger striped cat sealed with a red heart sticker cut from painter's tape.

Out on the patio, there is a large whale structure made from mesh and lots of buckets of paint set around. The kids love to paint this. Note to self, wear play clothes next time!

And that's the end of a beautiful day in San Diego just in time, too. The rain came right after we left for an early dinner on the bay.

{ Today's Testing }

brought to you by lasix and radioactive injections. Ugh, I'm so nauseous, I think I'm going to vomit. And I have to pee all the time due to the diuretic properties of lasix. The technician said my kidneys appeared to be draining fine, so that's some good news. I thought I was doing so much better today, but not now!

{ Fall has Finally Come }

It's that time of year, folks. Fall has come to our little plot of yard in southern California. In the first few days of each year, the large tree next to our yard drops about half of it's leaves onto our lawn. The kids relish this day. They gleefully grab their rakes, make a very small pile of leaves, and jump in it. Then dad grabs the green bin and his rake and within minutes all evidence of any kind of fall is gone. Now, on this gorgeous 70 degree day, spring appears to be here!

{ Nature in the Kitchen }

My son adores dinosaurs. If it was up to him, they would not be extinct, they would be roaming our streets as we speak and his collection of pets would terrorize me daily. Since he can never have the real thing, he collects little plastic likenesses as if they too were going extinct. I am constantly tripping over and stepping on his precious little plastic dino buddies. Sometimes he groups them all together in one large intermingled dinosaur herd. They graze away on the carpet all day, at least until a meat eater or mom comes along.This is what I found this morning after I took my precious progeny to school. I'm sure it's his way of beautifying the world. Every good gingerbread house needs it's pet!

{ You are What you Eat }

Have you all heard my rantings and ravings about going organic? If not, here's a really good, short video summing up exactly what I've been trying to avoid for the last two years (roughly.) This is why I only buy organic corn and sugar, and I try to avoid soy products if at all possible. Since I can't afford organic canola oil, I choose non-genetically engineered canola oil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHfI9jltIeA

Enjoy and bon appetite! (I've seen the Julia & Julia movie about two dozen times, at least. And it's not my favorite by even a long shot. Go figure.)

{ Learning From Nature }

I just read a very interesting article in the new field of Biomimicry in the San Diego Zoo News. Just wanted to record it here so I can find it again!

{ Happy Birthday to Dad }

Generous man that he is, Dad gave DD a new bike on his birthday. Maybe it's his way of getting more daddy daughter biking dates with her? It was getting painful watching her whacking her ears with her knees when she rode her too small bike. Just kidding, but almost.

And then, to top it off, he spent the afternoon taking down Christmas outside. Goodbye Christmas!

To reward his monumental efforts of the day, we went to BJ's for dinner. It was packed as usual, (so that's why we never go to BJ's!) But the patio was relatively empty and being a nice night and that there were heaters, we sat out there. Two minutes later all the tables were taken. The wait staff was frantically trying to take care of everyone and failing miserably. It was like slapstick out there. We shared a delicious calzone and then Pizookies. Yummy. Happy Birthday to my loving husband!

{ Mission Inn Riverside }

After dinner, my husband suggested going to Riverside to see the Mission Inn in all it's Christmas lighted glory.

After we walked around a bit, we located the Gingerbread House which proclaimed itself the maker of the best hot cocoa in the world. So Grandma was kind enough to buy the kids some yummy hot cocoa and gingerbread man cookies, and my husband a hot apple cider. Somehow we both managed to get to Riverside without our wallets or any money or driver's licenses. Thank goodness we didn't get pulled over!

We sat on a bench and enjoyed our goodies until we realized it was really late and we needed to get home. Plus mom was really sore and didn't want to walk around any more. It was just a gorgeous evening. The kids want to go back and stay at the hotel sometime. An interesting idea, for sure.