Random

This week, Sean's class is learning about the feeling "worry" and what it means to feel worried.  His teacher asked if anyone could remember a time when they were worried. Sean told his class about the time when "we were in the airport and I got lost from my Mommy and Daddy and the police found me and they took me to the police station and they gave me a cookie and they were nice but I was worried that my Mommy and Daddy couldn't find me!" Thankfully Sean's teacher knows that Sean is a great storyteller because this did not happen! In fact, I've told Sean that if we ever get separated from each other, he should look for a police officer/someone in uniform to help him. At least I know he was (kind of) listening to me.

We just sent in an application for Sean to attend full-day kindergarten at our local public school this fall!

Clare started her own Little Kicks class a couple of Saturdays ago. The focus for this age group is on good listening and accomplishing small tasks. Clare really liked the mini-obstacle course her coach set up for the kids last Saturday - she loved weaving in and out of cones as fast as a racecar! 

The kids can't get enough oranges. Clare likes them cut up in slices with the rind on and Sean prefers his slices cut as cleanly as possible - "No white stuff, please Mommy!"

I made some hot chocolate for the kids on our snow day last week and now whenever they feel a chill, they'll say "I'm cold Mommy, maybe some hot chocolate will warm me up? With marshmallows, too?"

The kids love the movie "Frozen." They like to watch video clips on-line, listen to the soundtrack, and read books from the movie.

Clare spent Sunday afternoon in her "Pinkerbell Princess Pea Sparkly Dress!!!!" complete with tiara and wand... Sean was the grumpy dragon every princess needs by her side :-)

 

Snow Day Part II

We got a second snow day today! As of last night the kids had a delayed opening, but this morning I got an email from the principal that school was closed today (of course I read the email right after I'd finished explaining to Sean that we could play in the morning and watch a little Mickey Mouse on TV but we were definitely going to school today!!!).  

So what'd we do with our bright and sunny snow day? After a delicious breakfast of waffles (or wackles as Clare calls them), we did some drawing - Clare really loves to play with dry-erase markers!

We played games...

We did some crafts - we made collages to sharpen our cutting skills:

Clare also loves glue sticks!

And of course, no snow day is complete without playing outside!

We found some animal footprints and tried to track them through the woods, but the clever animal jumped over a bush and we lost the trail - oh well!  Then I pulled the kids around and around on the sled and then they took turns pulling each other.

And of course, we made a snowman - complete with pinecone eyes and carrot nose (much to Clare's dismay, I couldn't find a magical hat):

After we came inside, it was time for lunch. After a few harrowing minutes of a full-blown tantrum, Clare actually asked to go down for a nap BEFORE lunch!  She end up sleeping for about 3-1/2 hours, so I guess the poor birdy was really tired.

The rest of the day was all about games, toys, books, and "Happy Feet."  Hooray for snow days!

Snow Snow Snow

This morning started out clear and cold but the weather quickly clouded up. By 10:00 AM, it had started to snow and it just kept on coming down! The kids' principal called me to say that school was closing at 1:00 - an early dismissal, hooray! When I picked up Sean, he was very excited about the snow - he asked me about 37 times on the short drive home if we can play outside and I said OF COURSE WE CAN!

The kids helped me clear off the driveway and make a big mountain to sled down! And then the kids took turns pulling each other around in the sled which led to some silly times:

Seals!

Now that we're bundled up once again in this gray and cold Northeast weather, I can't stop thinking back to one of my personal favorite times during our San Diego trip - sunset at La Jolla Beach!

We made it to the Children's Pool as the sun started to go down.  This little cove was originally built to be a protected swimming area for children, but harbor seals quickly took over and made it their beach. We walked out on the sea wall to get a closer look at the seals.

The seals were having an evening nap, occasionally moving to scratch an itch...

Sean needed a potty break, so he and Daddy left the sea wall in search of relief. I think Clare could have stayed with the seals all night - she loved watching them and tried to give each one a name. She got very excited when a few of them started to move towards the water (since someone in the crowd was clapping loudly to get the seals to wake up).

Sunset selfie!

Daddy and Sean:

I was able to pry Clare away from watching the seals with the promise of joining up with Seany and Daddy at the tide pools to look for creatures in the water:

And a video of the seals with Clare's commentary:

Hello!

We're back from San Diego!  We had a great trip despite some hiccups with air travel - first, our flight into San Diego was diverted to Los Angeles for a few hours due to fog in San Diego; second, our flight home was all-out cancelled due to bad weather on the East Coast, so we got our flight scheduled for a day later.  The trip went smoothly otherwise and we had a good time in Southern California.  

Some highlights:

Still snoozin' during our LAX detour.

The ZOO!  Don't let Sean's expression here fool you - he had a great time!

 

We explored several vessels at the San Diego Maritime Museum including the Star of India and...

a couple of real submarines!

We took a really neat tour of the USS Midway.

We got some cool new shades!

We strolled around Old Town San Diego.

We went to Sea World!

We played at the San Diego New Children's Museum.

We explored the Southern California coastline...

...and saw seals in La Jolla!

We enjoyed the Zoo's separate safari park, as well.

We spent more time on the beach at Coronado Island.

We visited a Mission, too.

On our last full day in California (or so we thought), we spent the day in Los Angeles since we were flying out of Ontario airport.  We saw a lot of sights, including the Hollywood Sign, the Walk of Fame, and Tar Pits.

We enjoyed one last sunset over the Pacific at Venice Beach...

...and ate a delicious dinner on the Santa Monica Pier.

We were sad to say "good-bye" to the warm temperatures and sunny skies, but actually got a bonus day-and-a-half to spend in Ontario/Rancho Cucamonga :-)